The Elephant(s) in the Room

Next week I am scheduled to jet off to the Mile-High City of Denver where I will deliver a couple of presentations on succession planning at a global software vendors massive user’s conference.

I was flattered when they accepted my speaking proposal but harkened back to when we would regularly exhibit at this event complete with a booth and marketing materials and generate little or no interest from attendees. We collectively figured we were simply catering to the wrong audience.

Perhaps this year will be different.

As evidence, I have already received several emails from attendees who claim they are looking forward to my presentation. I was both flattered and puzzled. Just a few short years ago I taught a similar session at this same event some five years ago and the audience more resembled a haunted house in number than a standing room only crowd.

So, what has changed?

I would like to think they many have finally resigned themselves to the fact that they can no longer ignore the elephant – or perhaps closer to the scale of the problem – the wooly mammoth – in the room – succession planning or lack thereof.

Mark Twain once remarked that no amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot. I’ll be somewhat more diplomatic and tell anyone that will listen there is a virtual Mount Everest of statistical and real-life evidence that the profession is dangerously behind on succession planning.

Yet most firm owners prefer kicking the can down the road and putting the inevitable off for yet another year.

Case in point. Last year I was working with a sole practitioner in the Northeast who was approaching the dreaded six-five. His practice generated roughly $1 million in billings and made an easy “tuck-in” for larger firms.

Yet, he decided to spurn any offer and opted for the “P” word – procrastination.

Let me tell you what happened in the course of several months. His IT system went on the fritz – requiring an expensive upgrade. One of his key employees resigned and he suffered the loss of a 50K client that he never saw coming.

Now he’s forced to accept far less profitable terms should he finally make the decision to merge.

I should use that as a marquee case study during the conference on the importance of succession planning and see who salutes or at least pays attention.

I don’t know how much has changed in five years, but that’s the skeptic in me talking.

We’ll see.

Why Dilbert Will Always Remain Relevant

Since its debut in 1989 I have been a faithful and unwavering fan of the parody cartoon Dilbert. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s a cynical and satirical glimpse of a white-collar office with a cast of characters including lazy and problematic co-workers, a pointy haired boss without a clue and even a cat in the role of an evil human resources director.

But for a lot of us who were, and are, mired in the corporate arena, some of the strips hit far too close to home – particularly with regard to undeserved promotions and questionable upward mobility. Many of you can probably cite examples of C-suite incompetence that not only went unpunished, but often rewarded.

Case in point. A publishing company I once worked for was losing money like a leaky dinghy. Since the majority of its revenue was derived from classified and display advertising sales, upper management hired a consultant to ferret out the problem. It was discovered that the company actually counted more vice presidents in their New York office than actual salespeople.

After the problem was “solved” by basically letting go of several overpaid and useless executives, the CEO was incredibly awarded an “Excellence in Business” certificate by a local organization.

Fast forward 10 years or so later, I was unceremoniously saddled with a micromanaging superior who insisted on putting his pipsqueak hands on everything that fell under my purview including artwork and editorial submissions.