📬 Executive Execution: Good vs. Great C-Suites

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Brad from Kansas City asked:

You stated in a recent newsletter: “The real skill was in the C Suite. They had built the culture across the organization to execute complex things at speed.”

Would love a future post where you share what you believe are the differences between a C-suite that creates an organization that executes at a high level versus those that don’t.

Very glad I stumbled on your Twitter and newsletter. Great stuff!

The difference between a good C-suite and a bad C-suite can be 10X on a business. Having seen examples of both, I truly believe that.

C-suites who execute well know to build teams who focus on details. They understand that the most interesting problems are rarely hiding on the surface. They know how to zoom in and zoom out on different areas of the business.

C-suites who do this well understand how things connect. So they can make decisions quickly that empower teams to close sales, unblock issues, or accelerate launches.

Too many think that C-suite roles are just about sitting back with your feet on the desk, ‘keeping an eye on the troops.’ Plenty do it that way, but they don’t get much done.

Secondly, great C-Suites know their position on the court and the position of those around them. They know when they need to consult their colleagues and when they don’t. And when they do, they do so quickly and give their teams clarity to get to work.

They focus on results over process. Specifically results for customers and the business. They focus on delivering the outcomes the business needs and then use processes/systems to make those outcomes repeatable.

And finally, they don’t talk behind each other’s backs. They disagree openly, resolve issues, and then commit to the solution. There is nothing more exhausting for middle management than when they are being pulled around by politics from above. It’s unsettling and unproductive.

If you want to dive more into managing (and dissolving) C-Suite politics, read this.

Thanks for the question, Brad.

Equity Analyst from NYC asked:

Why do management teams talk about leased Capex like it's free money?

You are EXACTLY right. This is a pet peeve of mine. It is disgustingly common for businesses to take a different view of CapEx spend via leases (an operating lease or finance lease) than if it’s cash-funded.

This creates a much weaker process and lower level of rigor around spend that is lease-funded. Not ok. Leases are debt. It’s not free money. Leases should be thought about as a way of funding a CapEx proposal.

This means the first question should be ‘should we engage in this CapEx project?’, and the secondary question should be ‘is a lease the right way to fund this?’ Sounds obvious. But most companies don’t do this.

And the downstream behavior it drives is shocking. The business starts to prioritize projects based on which they can find leases for. This pushes them into the hands of captive funding, and operating leases on ‘set and forget assets.’

Before you know it, you’ve spent 3x the original value of the asset with some invisible lease company. Only then do you work out the ACTUAL imputed annual finance cost (and throw up in your mouth a bit).

Some public companies even talk about CapEx ‘net’ of lease funding. WTF?

It’s because of nonsense like this that I use Maintainable Free Cashflow. A clear separation in thought between initiatives and their funding source.

Thanks for the question, and a reminder of this important point.

Dage from Colorado, USA asked:

I am a newer FP&A Manager (2 years) and I want to run fast and move on a specific career trajectory I have broadly outlined for myself. I enjoy what I do and I’m good at it, but I’m struggling with being patient vs. wanting to go and take “luck” into my own hands.

I have averaged 2.5 years over 3 places since I got out of school, which makes me lean more towards trying to be patient, but I worry I will stagnate.

I understand many factors make this hard to answer generally, but I would appreciate any thoughts on what you believe is a good path to follow and how you think about patient progression versus going externally to get more.

I appreciate your insight.

Dage - being restless about your own development is a good thing.

At this stage of your development, you should be optimizing for growing your capabilities (rather than salary or titles). And it sounds like you are doing that.

The problem is, it’s not always easy to know what you need to do, versus what you want to do.

One common mistake I see among young pros is that they do something for 18 months or so, and because they’ve learned the technical parts of the job they get itchy feet, and think they are ready for something else.

And maybe they are right.

But here’s the thing… the super valuable transferable skills get developed as you get deeper into a role. And that’s the stuff that gets you promoted.

It’s the mastery of the role itself that allows you to think more about how you improve stakeholder management, put your hand up for projects, or just drive a real legacy in your current role through process and automation.

Only you know whether you’ve been getting some of that meaty ‘back-weighted’ growth in the time you’ve spent in your role, but I’d encourage you to think about it.

I also, definitely wouldn’t hold yourself to some pre-ordained timeline. That is not the way to manage your career.

Without question, the best learnings (and opportunities) within my career came when I let my curiosity get the better of me and strayed off the beaten path.

Once upon a time, I was on a fast-track leadership program at a huge multinational business. The sort of program that you don’t leave once you are on it. But I did… because I wanted to learn to build finance functions in more difficult businesses, not just inherit some well-oiled machine from someone else.

That ended up being my thing. But if I had rigidly stuck to my original plan, I’d never have found it.

Thanks for the question, best of luck for the future.

Every week I’ll share a book I loved or found useful.

A few of the biggest stories that every CFO is paying close attention to. This is the section you probably don’t want to see your name in.

23andMe CFO named interim CEO as genetic data sale looms

Today in “jobs I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but would secretly love to do”… 23andMe’s CFO is taking over for the genetic testing company’s founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki. Not only will Joe Selsalvage have to oversee a sale of the company’s assets, but will also have to deal with thorny privacy issues related to unloading millions of customers’ genetic data. If anyone is up to the task it’s someone with the name ‘selsalvage'.’

Trump picks Fed Governor Michelle Bowman to replace Michael Barr as Fed's supervision head

President Trump officially nominated Bowman to replace outgoing Fed Vice President of Supervision Michael Barr. This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but Bowman will play much more fast and loose with banking regulation.

New report suggests the workday now ends at 4:39 p.m.

No wonder CEOs want everyone back in the office…

ICYMI, some of my favorite finance/business social media posts from this week. In the words of Kendall Roy, “all bangers, all the time”:

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In case you missed it on Saturday, we got into how to make CapEx approval decisions for your business. You can catch up here.

Disclaimer: I am not your accountant, tax advisor, lawyer, CFO, director, or friend. Well, maybe I’m your friend, but I am not any of those other things. Everything I publish represents my opinions only, not advice. Running the finances for a company is serious business, and you should take the proper advice you need.