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    thewallstreetjournal
    09 Apr

    Companies Appointing Fewer Finance Chiefs With Accounting Skills

    By admin In Career, Future of work, Leadership, Talent Development /   No Comments

    At the 1,000 largest U.S. public companies, the portion of CFOs who are certified public accountants fell to about 36% last year, according to organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry. PHOTO: ISTOCK

    Strategic, operations-minded finance chiefs are finding favor, with specialists increasingly taking care of the books

    Directors of Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital Inc. congregated in the boardroom in late 2018. On the agenda: the ideal résumé of their next finance chief.

    They wanted to fill the impending vacancy with someone who had expertise in raising debt and equity—a priority for the Annapolis, Md.-based investment firm.

    The board also decided they could do without one particular qualification. Having appointed a chief accounting officer in 2017, they didn’t care if the new chief financial officer had an accounting background.

    “It was almost counterintuitive, almost backwards,” said Steve Osgood, a board director at Hannon Armstrong and chairman of its audit committee. “But that freed us up to get a capital-markets-focused CFO.”

    CFOs have traditionally emerged from the accounting ranks, with reputations as masters of cost management, corporate finance strategy, accounting standards and reporting requirements. But the role has morphed to the point that accounting expertise is often no longer required.

    At the 1,000 largest U.S. public companies, the portion of CFOs who are certified public accountants fell to about 36% last year, according to data from organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry. That is the lowest figure in the six years Korn Ferry has been collecting the data, down from 46% in 2014.

    Finance chiefs today often oversee more than just the books. They are increasingly in charge of human resources, information technology and elements of enterprise risk management. As a result, companies increasingly want skilled general managers who possess strategic savvy and a firm grasp of operations in the CFO seat.

    “Technical accounting is becoming a smaller percentage of the job,” said Andrej Suskavcevic, chief executive of professional organization Financial Executives International.

    Executives and recruiters trace this evolution to the aftermath of the global financial crisis, when companies increasingly wanted strategy-focused CFOs who would promote transparency and operational changes to spur growth and guard against threats. That was a change from the years after the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, when companies—under pressure to improve their financial reporting—often picked chief accounting officers as their finance chiefs.

    The shift has had a ripple effect on the career trajectories of junior finance executives and others who were traditionally groomed for the CFO role.

    Changing Role, Evolving Expectations
    As the role of the CFO has broadened, some traditional areas of finance—tax, treasury and investor relations, for example—have grown increasingly complex, demanding more focused expertise.

    “There’s no way a CFO can truly be a technician in all areas,” said Chris Stansbury, CFO of Centennial, Colo.-based electronics distributor Arrow Electronics.

    The nuts and bolts of accounting are therefore increasingly being handled by chief accounting officers and controllers, executives say.

    That played a role in Hannon Armstrong’s choice of Jeff Lipson, who has a background in issuing debt and equity securities but isn’t an accountant, as CFO early last year. Mr. Osgood, the audit committee chairman—and a CPA himself—said the board reasoned that chief accounting officer Charles Melko could take care of the books and research the accounting implications of new types of transactions.

    Mr. Lipson, who was previously the chief executive of Congressional Bank and held treasurer roles at CapitalSource and Bank of America Corp., said having a strong accounting chief factored into his decision to take the job.

    “We maintain a very close and constructive working relationship,” Mr. Lipson said. The relationship has enabled him to embrace a capital-markets focus. He helped the company obtain a corporate debt rating from S&P Global Inc. and Fitch Ratings Inc., and he led the issuance of $500 million in green bonds, which fund environmental projects—both firsts for the firm, which invests in energy efficiency and renewable energy companies.

    The progression of the CFO role could also reflect changing expectations from Wall Street.

    Analysts spend more time questioning a company’s business lines, future growth and potential acquisitions than they do scrutinizing its accounting, said Richard Bove, an analyst at Odeon Capital Group LLC. “The Street doesn’t care about accounting functions any longer,” Mr. Bove said. “They don’t get into the nitty-gritty anymore.”

    Whether or not a CFO has an accounting background only tends to rise to the top of investors’ minds when the company faces an accounting problem or has a history of those problems, said Noah Kaye, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

    Advocates of the accounting profession say CFOs who lack accounting credentials could pose a risk to companies and investors.

    Public companies registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are required to have independent certified public accountants review financial statements to regulators. And while there is no regulatory requirement for internal CPAs to review financial statements, having a CPA in the finance chief seat can boost credibility, analysts say.

    CPAs are held to a code of professional conduct. If they breach it, they could be suspended or lose their license. “If you believe that ethics bring value to an organization, the accountant offers something more,” said Michael Bryant, CFO of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, which serves more than 50 U.S. accounting boards that issue licenses and regulate the profession.

    Building Know-How
    To be sure, many CFOs-in-training still desire accounting backgrounds. Many boards still prefer an accounting-focused CFO, even if they don’t require it. And some boards still insist on a CFO with accounting credentials.

    “The person in that position just needs to have an evolving skill set,” regardless of their initial training, said Bob Ryan, an executive adviser at Shields Meneley Partners, a career-transition firm that advises executives.

    Finance chiefs without accounting backgrounds are still often responsible for the books and financial disclosures, so they must develop familiarity with accounting rule changes and reporting requirements. Exposure to the accounting side of the operation also helps them ask more probing questions about an enterprise, executives said.

    “You need an appreciation of accounting,” said Kirkland Andrews, the CFO of NRG Energy Inc. “You want to be closely aware of all of the new provisions.”

    Mr. Andrews spent 15 years leading debt and equity deals at Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG before joining the Houston-based energy company in 2011. He developed a working knowledge of accounting over the years, gleaning expertise from an external audit partner and consulting with an enterprise resource planning expert on issues such as switching accounting systems after a company merger.

    Lloyd Howell Jr. also had to build accounting know-how when he was promoted to finance chief of Booz Allen Hamilton in 2016. Mr. Howell, a veteran of the McLean, Va.-based government consulting firm, started his career at Booz Allen as an engineer and went on to lead business segments at the company. But he’s not a CPA.

    To strengthen his understanding of accounting, he leaned on internal finance personnel as well as a cadre of experienced CFOs outside the company. That, plus the experience from previous roles, he said, has helped him serve as an effective adviser.

    “CEOs seek a business counselor as much as a financial counselor in a CFO,” Mr. Howell said. “That candidate can speak to broader issues facing the company. The board seems more accepting of that.”

    Link(s) to Article:
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-appointing-fewer-finance-chiefs-with-accounting-skills-11580293801

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    thewallstreetjournal
    13 Feb

    Considering a New Job? Beware a Culture Misfit.

    By admin In Career Transition, Future of work, HR, Leadership, Talent Development /   No Comments

    Considering a New Job? Beware a Culture Misfit.

    Not vetting the values of a prospective employer can lead to an early exit, but there are ways to do your homework
    Jan. 15, 2020


    PHOTO: JAMES KACZMAN

    As a new year begins, you may be tempted to switch employers in this red-hot job market.

    Don’t rush. You should decode the culture of your next workplace before accepting what looks like an attractive management role, career experts say. An inadequate assessment can lead to a misfit, they caution, and you are less likely to thrive in an incompatible culture.

    Simply put, corporate culture consists of the prevailing beliefs and behaviors that guide workplace interactions. “About 30% of executives taking new jobs fail to figure out the company’s culture correctly and end up leaving relatively soon,” said Peter Crist, chairman of executive-recruitment firm Crist/Kolder Associates.

    In rarer instances, some who stay are thrust into a change-agent role. Amazon.com Inc. veteran Sebastian J. Gunningham joined WeWork as a vice chairman in 2018 and soon also became its chief automation officer as the then-highflying startup was growing at breakneck speed and sported one of the startup world’s biggest valuations. He said he found it harder than he expected to help WeWork develop a customer-focused culture like Amazon’s.

    The office-sharing startup named Mr. Gunningham co-chief executive in September to succeed its charismatic co-founder Adam Neumann. Investors had blanched at WeWork’s steep losses and Mr. Neumann’s eccentric leadership style, and WeWork’s parent, We Co., had to scrap its public offering.

    “I obviously did not do enough homework on the culture decision,” Mr. Gunningham said of his move to WeWork. His advice: “Make good cultural decisions before you move from company to company.”

    “Posing the right set of questions is your best bet for getting a candid read on whether a company’s culture is open to outsiders,” said David Reimer, chief of the Americas region at Merryck & Co., a leadership-development firm.

    Here are five strategies to uncover both red flags and positive signals about a corporate culture, based on advice from nearly 20 recruiters, career coaches and executives:

    Identify Who and What Count

    To grasp unwritten norms, discern what is acceptable behavior—especially for rainmakers, said Gail Meneley, co-founder of Shields Meneley Partners, a career-transition firm. She recommended inquiring whether sales stars operate under looser standards, such as completing deals without required internal approval.

    “You may feel uncomfortable working for a business where there are different rules for different people,” she cautioned.

    Small but significant gestures can offer hints about what behaviors matter. In 2017, Brad Neuenhaus became chief business officer of MindEdge Learning Inc., a provider of online education. He did so partly based on a company lunch he had attended as a customer. He recalled being impressed when a MindEdge leader exhibited respect for employees by clearing their plates.

    “I wanted to be part of their organization,” Mr. Neuenhaus said. “Culture starts at the top.”

    Grill Recruiters About Suitability

    A recruiter who has handled placements for your target employer should know whether its culture would suit you, Mr. Crist said. He suggested asking him or her “why the five previous people you recruited (there) were successful.”

    In hindsight, Julie Currie wished she had quizzed the search firm differently before joining a company’s human-resources department. “I should have asked why other individuals had left the role, and what was the leadership turnover and why?”

    Ms. Currie left that company after a brief stint and now runs human resources for the biggest unit of Western Digital Corp., a memory-chip maker.

    Make Sure Actions Match Promises

    One media-industry executive who left her last employer after a brief tenure says that, before joining, she should have pressed that company’s board about why management had avoided changes needed for its turnaround. She realized that she and board members had different expectations about how the company could thrive.

    After that experience, she says she conducted deeper cultural dives during her latest job hunt. She has just begun a new executive position in the technology industry.

    Brian Newman agreed to quit PepsiCo Inc. for the top finance job at United Parcel Service Inc. in 2019 after UPS CEO David Abney “did an incredible amount of due diligence on me in a short period of time,” he recalled.

    Getting hired within weeks by a shipping giant that long preferred homegrown management talent convinced Mr. Newman that Mr. Abney “was truly committed to transformation,” he added. The new CFO began in September.

    Request a Temporary Consulting Gig

    Businesses rarely let management candidates attend meetings and gain close looks at how key players operate. Yet tech-industry executive Tissa Richards did so by consulting for Armory, a software startup that she could see herself joining permanently. “It’s kind of like dating someone before you marry,” she said.

    Armory gives staffers unusual freedom to pursue projects and access to sensitive data such as workforce compensation. After attending numerous company meetings during her 2019 projects, Ms. Richards concluded she enjoys Armory’s culture of empowered autonomy and transparency.

    Walk the Halls

    Some managerial applicants ask rank-and-file staffers what it is like working for their prospective employer. A former UPS executive at a logistics company regretted not doing so with administrative assistants before taking his position several years ago.

    He later discovered his boss had gone through 12 assistants in the prior 14 months. The executive stayed less than a year. “I failed the most in assessing the cultural fit,” he said.

    Newsletter Sign-up

    UPS declined to comment.

    While walking around corporate offices, also heed unspoken cues, advised Joelle K. Jay, an executive coach. Notice whether employees smile at you or avoid eye contact.

    “Pay attention to your internal warning systems,” Ms. Jay said. “How would you feel about [working] with these people?”

     

    Link(s) to Article:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/considering-a-new-job-beware-a-culture-misfit-11579084201?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2

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    thewallstreetjournal
    23 Apr

    The Wall Street Journal Turns to Gail Meneley For Insight About CFOs Transitioning to CEOs

    By admin In Career Transition, Leadership /   No Comments

    Shields Meneley Partners’ co-founder and principal Gail Meneley provided her insight into what it takes for chief financial officers to make the leap to the chief executive officer role. Considering the firm’s expertise working with C-Suite executives in career transition, editors from The Wall Street Journal naturally thought to reach out to Gail.

    Link(s) to Article:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/intels-new-ceo-advances-from-cfo-spot-a-second-time-11548984309

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    Gail Meneley
    23 Aug

    Gail Meneley Featured in WSJ Piece About Women Combating Mistreatment from Other Females at Work

    By admin In Leadership /   No Comments

    It is a topic that is somewhat delicate to discuss – female executives treating other women poorly at work – which is exactly why when Joann Lublin from The Wall Street Journal was looking for expert commentary she turned to Gail Meneley from Shields Meneley Partners. Gail shed light on this issue and offered solutions to readers in need of answers.

     

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/undermined-at-the-office-how-women-can-cope-with-mistreatment-from-female-colleagues-1534956915?mod=hp_lead_pos10 (Subscription Required)

    Download PDF: Undermined at the Office – WSJ

     

    Read More
    03 Jan

    Hackers and a Shrinking Talent Pool Top CEO Concerns for 2018

    By admin In Leadership /   No Comments

    Papa John’s founder John Schnatter was among the CEOs who announced they were stepping down from the role. PHOTO: DANNY MOLOSHOK/REUTERS

    When it comes to insider knowledge of and commentary on C-suite trends nobody does it better than the experts at Shields Meneley Partners. That was why Joann Lublin and Vanessa Furhrmans, two highly respected reporters from The Wall Street Journal, turned to our very own Hugh Shields for their article exploring the top concerns are for chief executive officers in 2018.

    Do not have a subscription to The Wall Street Journal? We have you covered with a PDF version that you can download here and the link to the article as shown on Fox Business.

    Read More
    07 Dec

    Dearth of Minority CEOs

    By admin In Career Transition, HR, Leadership /   No Comments

    Picking up on the Ken Chenault retirement coverage and expanding it into what this means for minorities in executive leadership roles, The New York Times not only linked to Shields Meneley Partners’ Nick Cianciola’s article from The Wall Street Journal, but featured the following quote on the popular DealBook platform: “Part of the problem is a lack of good succession planning to groom African-Americans to get to the top. The executives aren’t getting the entire picture they need to see to get to the top.”

     

    Shields Meneley Partners’ managers continue to enhance the firm’s global profile as a thought leader in C-Suite trends.

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    American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault will step down after 16 years. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
    01 Dec

    Ken Chenault’s Retirement

    By admin In Leadership /   No Comments

    American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault will step down after 16 years.
    PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

    When The Wall Street Journal needed expert commentary about the announced retirement of AMEX’s Ken Chenault, John Simons, the Deputy Bureau Chief, Management/Careers, turned to Shields Meneley Partners’ Nick Cianciola.

    Nick, Shields Meneley Partners’ newest principal and partner, pinpointed the current state of affairs at the CEO level for minority leadership, and delivered strategic and thoughtful interview for Simons’ article AmEx Retirement Shines Light on Lack of Diversity in CEO Ranks. A number of other global news outlets agreed and published the syndicated piece on their own platforms, including:

    • FOX Business
    • Morningstar
    • Business Insider
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    23 Jul

    Evaluate the Price-Benefits when Considering an Outplacement Program

    By Dr. Dan DeWitt In Career Transition /  

    In the July 7, 2009, Managing Your Career column, by Joann Lublin
    titled “More Jobless Execs Foot Their Outplace
    ment Bill” she describes
    the characteristics of comprehensive executive outplacement firms and
    believes that “jobless executives need every possible leg up in a
    fiercely co
    mpetitive job market.”

    After interviewing a
    variet
    y of Shields Meneley Partners’ clients she concludes “The firm’s
    strongest selling point? Highly personalized attention. Clients
    initially undergo a lengthy assessment with a staff ps
    ychologist.
    Assigned one of the firm’s three counselors, executives then develop a
    marketing plan, polish their resumes, practice interviewing, update
    wardrobes, enlarge professional net
    works and get “acclimation” coaching
    during their nex
    t job’s early days.”

    Wall Street
    Journal research indicates that “typical executive-level outplacement
    exceeds standard fare such as office space, resume rewrites and
    emotional support:

    • Provider specializes in serving upper management
    • Full-time counselors with small caseloads and broad business experience
    • Extensive psychological assessment
    • Customized research about potential employers
    • Introductions to a wide network of corporate leaders and directors
    • Legal advice about negotiating a new pay package

    (Source: WSJ research)

    If you are a senior
    executive going through a career transition, carefully evaluate what
    resources you will need to secure the best job. At this stage it will be
    important to obtain feedback from a variety of people, those that are
    friends and those that don’t know you well. Interview a few outplacement
    firms and consider the differentiators between the firms. Taking into
    consideration the cost-benefit ratio of the various options should be an
    important consideration. As the WSJ writer concluded, we have found
    that a comprehensive transition firm can be particularly helpful during a
    very difficult market. But, we have also seen that if you don’t know
    what you want to do next, want to change industries, title, or
    functional responsibilities the benefits will outweigh the costs of a
    comprehensive transition firm.

    Read More
    10 Jul

    More Executives Seeking Non-Traditional Jobs

    By Dr. Dan DeWitt In Career Transition, Talent Development /  

    A recent Wall Street Journal Article (More Jobless Execs Foot Their Outplacement Bill, July 7, 2009) by Joann Lublin highlighted our career transition, assessment and coaching firm. In this article, the author describes the variety of services that our clients experience that lead them to
    identify their talents, interests and needs. They develop a customized
    plan utilizing our research expert, alumni, current clients and network
    to target the companies that would be best for them. The article focuses
    a fair amount on one aspect of outplacement programs, the finances, but this is not “the brave new world” as the author writes. In almost thirty years of working with executives in career transition, the issue of who pays for what and how much has been a consideration. What is particularly compelling in the article are the stories of the different executives that are pursuing a variety of career options.

    In one case, a client has evaluated an industry and believes that the business model is wrong for today’s and our future economy. Another client is very interested in the health care model and why health programs tend not to be successful. He recently received a contract to operate on-site health clinics for businesses. What I have seen change over the last few years is the number of executives who are following through with more entrepreneurial or “non-traditional” work. Until recently,
    executives often would say to me that they wanted to do something else; to not continue as a “regular corporate executive.” However, by the time our assessment feedback had been finished and they had a strong dose of reality of what it would take to make the change, along with a better understanding how they had been successful in the past and what their risk tolerance was, they were back considering looking for something similar to what they had done before. But, this has changed and I believe that this is the more interesting trend.

    Why are we seeing more executives consider non-traditional work? We believe that executives are not as confident that those traditional positions are currently available and may not be in the future. The “dwell-time”, the time to get the new job, has lengthened in the last year. The loss of wealth that most executives have experienced has caused them to realize that they are going to work longer than what they had thought. This has pushed up the time frame for doing something that is more relevant, more
    interesting and where they can be in greater control of their future.

    So, if you are like the executives mentioned in the article or many of our recent clients who are evaluating their career, it would be wise to consider the current marketability of your career, along with your skills and interests. If you are working in a stagnant industry with skills that may not be as needed as what once was the case, take some time to think creatively about what you think is needed now and blend this with what you like to do. It is the right time to look at your career in a new light. (by Daniel J. DeWitt, PhD)

    Read More

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    Our Advisors are your peers. All have held top executive roles with significant operational and P&L responsibility.

    Like you, they know the challenges, opportunities, and rewards unique to serving in the C-suite or the Boardroom. Our administrative support staff have considerable experience to help our clients during their career transition, coaching experience or assessment process.

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