“Catherine, we hired you to run this company, and we want to give you free rein, but you must admit that some of your initiatives don’t translate into profit for this quarter.” Samuel Pierce was chairman of the board. He was not happy, but he was willing to listen.

“Sam, you didn’t hire me to focus on the next three months,” Catherine replied. “This company has some real problems that will take time to repair. In the short term, we will suffer. We will suffer some profit. I am not here to turn a single quarterly number. I am here to create a sustained profitability stream.”

“But, these employee initiatives are going to erode profitability. You want to change the wage structure. Your personnel plan adds in management overhead. These are long term things that will last beyond the next quarter. Are you sure you know what you are doing?”

Catherine took a moment. “On the surface, my role is to operate the business functions, define the metrics, create revenue and hold expenses. We can do that, and, in the short term, we can make a tidy profit. AND, my role is to create a sound and effective managerial system that will sustain those business functions. As CEO, right now, I have to focus on our people system, because it’s broken. As long as the people system is broken, you can kiss off all the rest.”
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The saga of Outbound Air continues. Find out how Catherine got here.