By the numbers

“There are lies, damn lies and statistics” Mark Twain

One of the biggest obstacles people new to the C-level face is understanding the numbers. Even with your MBA and managerial experience understanding financials can be daunting (unless you came from the CFO position). And using them properly can be the ultimate exercise in frustration.

CFO’s love to create elaborate spreadsheets with thousands of row and columns and dozens of links to other enormous spreadsheets; You just want to know how to answer the questions your investors are going to ask you at the next board meeting.

Finance people can be a lot like programmers in that they want to tell you in excruciating detail where all the numbers came from, how each one links into other pages and each ones importance. In essence they want you to love their spreadsheet as much as they do – just like developers want you to love their code.

What to do? Well, here’s what you don’t do. Don’t fake it hoping you’ll “catch up along the way”.

Here are some options:

• Along with your CFO sit down with a representative of your investor(s) and have them detail to both of you what they want to see and how they want to see it. The sooner the better. If phrases and acronyms that you don’t understand are thrown around suck it up and ask for an explanation. Better now than getting caught later.
  


• Use your network. You didn’t get to this point without establishing friendships along the way. Some of those people are or have been CEOs. Call them, visit them, buy them dinner. Allow them to become your confident. Believe me, you’ll find it useful for more than just financial jargon.
  

I once worked with a guy who had a sign in his office that stated: “When someone tells you it’s not about the money it’s about the principle…it’s about the money”.

If you’re in a C-level position no matter what people may say otherwise…it’s about the numbers.

Forget how to tell time

“Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle” Ken Hakuta

I once worked for this serial entrepreneur who was notorious for never being on time, and not by minutes but hours, days and yes, even weeks. Drove everyone nuts. Those who learned to cope either were already good at or got good at always having work to do so productivity wasn’t totally lost waiting on him to show up for a meeting. You also got agile at carrying on with clients or prospects without him.

Those who didn’t cope well got overly wrought about him “not respecting others”, “being self-centered”, etc.

But the man is a creative genius. He sees things outside of boxes where others (myself included) don’t even see the box.

One day I’m riding back from an important meeting in the neighboring city with a colleague who has known our genius boss since they were kids. We decide to call him to see if we can catch up with him to tell him about our meeting. So my colleague calls, gets him and tells him we’ll meet up with him in 10 minutes. All’s good except we’re still over an hour away. When I mention this small detail to my colleague he shrugs and says “that’s ok, he can’t tell time anyway”. I laugh. He looks at me and says “No, I’m serious, he’s never been able to tell time. Clocks just get in his way”.

I pondered that statement for a long time and started watching this guy with a different eye. You know, clocks really do get in the way, especially when you’re first starting a company. You’re so much better off when traditional rules of time are ignored. Where’s it written that the work day is 9 -5, or conversations have to happen Monday – Friday? Those are factory rules not startup rules.

Now, there’s obviously a flip side to this that I’ll cover in another blog, but for now that’ll just get in the way of a good story.

Celebrate victories

“The next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing” Nick “the Greek” Dandolos

In a startup there is always too much to do, too little resources to do it with and way too little time to get it done. The money is running out – quickly - and everyone’s nerves along with it. Then something good happens – a promising sales call, a technology break through, whatever. And then what happens; A brief sigh of momentary relief and then on to all the other pressing issues.

Now, celebrating every minute thing that ever happens is not the answer. After all, it is a startup and money is running out and there isn’t enough time to get things done so you don’t want to be running off to the pub at every turn. Or….maybe you do. I’ll need to consider this more.

But anyway, balance here is the key. Do celebrate the important happenings. It’ll refresh and refocus everyone – including you.

You can't fix stupid

"Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid" Heinrich Heine

It seems like I've spent a large portion of my so-called career trying to fix stupid. Stupid products, stupid situations, stupid clients, stupid vendors, and yes, stupid people. The comedian Ron White uses the "you can't fix stupid" line in one of his routines when talking about finding the right person to marry with the point being that these days you can fix almost any physical issue with your mate, but "you can't fix stupid".

I've just come out of a situation where I've spent the better part of two years trying to fix stupid and it finally came to me that I was the leader of the pack. The only thing worse than spending more than a minute and a half trying to fix someone who is hell-bent on being stupid is realizing that you've just wasted months of your life trying to do the impossible.

I was talking to a buddy today who's struggling with a non-performer, a sales guy who hasn't sold anything in nearly a year. So, I'm wailing on my buddy about what part of "nothing" and "nearly a year" he's not latching on to. All of a sudden I realize that I do not have the high ground in this conversation because I've just spent twice that time on a more hopeless situation.

So, here's my New Year's resolution and a modification of the "you can't fix stupid" rule. I solemnly resolve to never again make more than a cursory swipe at fixing stupid people. I'll take on stupid situations, stupid circumstances and maybe even stupid products but not stupid people. Life's too short.

The modification: You CAN fix stupid if it's you.