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| Re: Corporate CEO to nonprofit Executive Director
Posted by Tony Poderis   on 3/6/2009, 7:56 am, in reply to "Corporate CEO to nonprofit Executive Director"
VIP Poster | Message modified by user Tony Poderis 3/6/2009, 9:46 am
Overall, “certain” corporate CEOs should work well as non-profit Executive Directors. I will explain the “certain” reference following. And, I believe those exceptions are worth a good and hard look.
You asked a good and specific question, but one which must be answered in a general and broad way. Skills, experience, etc., all count, and can in some relevant way be recognized and measured, but the difficult and elusive evaluation of temperament, is perhaps the key challenge in such a hire---in most any hire, actually. Where the corporate CEO once dealt with paying customers who received a product those customers wanted and needed at the best price and quality in the marketplace, the CEO turned Executive Director now has new, much different, relationships, and they are with volunteers of money, time, and effort all given in the sprit of charity to fulfill their own needs and desires and to make a positive difference in their communities. Very different transactions, indeed.
Simply put, will the corporate CEO, one who was once driven by the “bottom-line” to satisfy shareholders with good return on their investment, but who now is working as a non-profit Executive Director, understand that the new bottom-line is based on a goal to provide needed services to increase and better the quality of life for its recipients/shareholders? If so, success has a good chance. If not, a likely pitfall, and a very deep one.
Executive directors will be organization-centered. Development, program and marketing directors, on the other hand, are donor and user centered. This is a basic difference that the effective executive director, former corporate CEO, must recognize and appreciate. Dealing well with her or his staff’s absolute concern with the wishes of the donors, volunteers and users of the service, could be a trait a corporate CEO does not possess. Some then may tend to overstate the needs of the institution and may not support staff working the other way. There must be understanding and balance.
I would as well be wary of an incoming corporate CEO whose reputation and practice espouses such entrepreneurial and quick turn around demands and expectations in a way that she or he simply does not know the meaning of the word “development.”
I would watch for any sign of impatience on the part of the ED for the NP “not making money as I did with my company.” The corporate CEO-to-be-the-new-ED, must understand that the inability to produce enough earned income to cover the cost of doing charitable “business” is why non-profit organizations must be fund-raisers. There are things non-profit organizations simply cannot do which are second nature to businesses seeking to improve their bottom line.
Watch for unreasonable zeal on the part of the ED to have the organization make money or break even at the expense of arbitrarily reducing much needed services. At her or his company, the CEO could speed up the assembly line, drop losing products, add new products, lay off workers, acquire new businesses, etc. A non-profit is not in position to do those things.
Just make sure that the corporate CEO knows that you want the organization to be operated in a “businesslike” fashion, but she or he must accept that it cannot be operated “like a business.” There are many similarities, but the widely diverging missions and bottom lines between a for-profit and a non-profit must be recognized and worked accordingly with understanding and sensitivity.
Tony
Tony Poderis
http://www.raise-funds.com
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