Everything you could ask me during an interview.
1. Tell me about yourself:
In the words of one retired CEO, I make people say, “I have not thought of that before.” I don’t have all the answers, but I can effectively re-frame the problem. For example, uscombatsports.com wanted help with getting private placement money to grow their business, yet the country was in the midst of a financial crunch. The reason they wanted the money was so they could roll out what they were already doing to the rest of the country. My suggestion was to just copy what they were doing with brute force, without money, and solve the management difficulties and integration challenges down the road, when additional revenues make it affordable. In a matter of half an hour we were able to hash out the plan for doing just that. So, after eight months of fruitlessly chasing Angel money and not growing the revenue, in three months the company rolled up their product to a number of other markets and increased their revenue. All this happened because I re-framed the problem of “How do we get private placement funds in this market?” in to a problem of “How do we grow the business?”
Being able to slice a problem eight different ways and to look at it from eight different angles helps me understand the constraints of management, talent, technological, operational, market, capital, legal and mindset nature. Once the constraints are understood, I break down the complex problems in to small enough tasks and set about getting them done.
2. What are your goals?
I want to secure a business analysis and improvement position with a firm that primarily works with manufacturing or service companies of $10-40 million as part of acquisition or turnaround process and continue to grow within this organization.
3. You have a lot going on on your resume. Can you walk me through it?
I started out in IT, but quickly realized that while technology is a great tool, it must be subservient to business needs. So, I started studying business and moved progressively more in to business improving functions. In the process, I discovered that one of the great challenges organizations face today is that of measuring their performance and coordinating their improvement efforts. I also realized that it is impossible to truly understand business dynamics without a thorough understanding of business law. Having been introduced to the private placement and acquisition process, I found that I could combine my diverse areas of expertise to look at the process from many angles and deliver superior marketing, operational, financial and legal analysis precisely because of my diverse background. Being able to provide business improvement input at a point where the organization is going through a transition has also become increasingly attractive to me.
4. Why did you leave your last job?
Unfortunately, I am under a non-disclosure agreement, so I cannot give details, except to say that we parted professionally and might entertain working with each other in the future.
5. Do you consider yourself successful?
I think of success as a journey, not a destination. I am not yet prepared to rest on my past accomplishments, though they are many. My biggest successes are ahead of me.
6. What experience do you have?
Every role that I performed since college, involved some combination of data analysis and business performance measurement, with opportunity identification, project execution and sharing my findings with others. I helped clients identify target markets for their advertising dollars as a manager of direct marketing business; analyzed operations and new product development processes as part of lean initiatives; analyzed financial statements and performed other due diligence for acquisitions. I am particularly interested in studying and improving office processes: new product introduction, research and development, functions supporting sales to revenue cycle. While my experience is diverse, it has always revolved around business measurement and improvement.
7. What do co-workers say about you?
My coworkers see me as a highly intelligent person, who is flexible, always open to learning and helping out. They also often look to my reliability since if I promised something I will either get it done or at least communicate any difficulties early.
8. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
I am always in the process of learning, not stopping with formal training, I view every work assignment as a learning opportunity. If you want specifics, I have learned or refreshed my knowledge of a number of Innovation and collaboration tools and methodologies such as Laws of Innovation, Perception Mapping, Functional Modeling.
9. What kind of salary do you need?
I am sure that any organization that recognizes my qualifications, will compensate me sufficiently. Let’s first consider how much I can help your organization.
10. Are you a team player?
I like to play point-guard and that of necessity makes me a team player. I always view my job as getting the ball, gathering the information needed for action, driving it to a place where my teammates can shine and handing it off to them.
11. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
As long as there is opportunity to gather and analyze data, then turn it in to action.
12. What is your philosophy towards work?
My philosophy has been strongly influenced by Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Laws of Innovation (TRIZ). I always look for the most problematic challenge and figure out how to overcome it, then and only then I work out the details of the plan and get to executing it. In this way, I minimize time spent on performing work that will not matter.
13. Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years I would like to be tightly involved in a support and advisory role for acquisition teams in due diligence research and the subsequent business transition and improvement process.
14. What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about understanding a business: What makes it tick? What are its challenges? What can be done to improve it?
15. Why are you the best person for the job?
I am not the best person for every job, but when it comes to information gathering, analysis, or improvement, I have the breadth of knowledge and ability to focus on getting things done that few others poses.
16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?
Yes and no, I would certainly prioritize my life differently, since I would have access to different resources, but at the same time I like analysis, I like problem-solving and I like presenting what I learned to others, so I see myself doing that even if I had no financial reason to do so.
17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
Yes. Either due to market conditions or because the project would be completed. One time I even had to fire myself, a business I was managing could no longer afford my services.
18. Explain how you would be an asset to our organization.
Let me re-frame the question: “How will I make you money?” In two ways: 1. I will help with information gathering and analysis that will support better decision making. 2. I will do it by identifying what prevents the organization from making more money and then figuring out how to get around that challenge.
19. Why should we hire you?
There is only one reason to contract with anyone for employment. I will make you money while I reducing your operating risks.
20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made
When I was working for a law firm, we were in the process of trying to assign value to a start-up that was seeking private placement funds. They had no revenue, but, like all start-ups, were convinced that theirs was a billion dollar idea. I suggested an experiment where they would try a small sample of a market and do all the work manually, behind the scenes, to prove out the concept. The concept worked so well, that soon they found themselves generating enough revenue by replicating the low-tech approach in a number of markets to become largely self-funded. Three years later, they are a successful growing Internet business that relies on that law firm for all of its legal needs.
21. What irritates you about co-workers?
I have found that irritation is just a gentle reminder that I am not yet perfect, so when I find myself irritated, I start working on things like humility, mercy, understanding. As I do that, my irritations tend to no longer persist.
22. What is your greatest strength?
My ability to focus. I am able to separate what’s important from everything else. I am able to sequence things, so that important task get done first. For example, when working for Ultra Tool and Manufacturing I was faced with the task of improving production inefficiencies, yet the new product introduction process was wrecking havoc with production. By convincing the management to focus on new product introduction process instead and over a period of over a year completely reinventing it, we achieved significant improvements and streamlined a number of production headaches in the process, indirectly.
23. Tell me about your dream job.
A job where I can constantly learn, engage with interesting people, can contribute and be recognized for my contributions. For example, when working on the turnaround of Metal Spinners, I learned and mentored while crossing over in to many areas that were not directly in purview. I enjoyed working with a great team of people who liked each other enough to even hang out socially outside work. I would hope to work in an environment where I can both make this much of a difference and have as good of a time doing it.
24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?
I know and I care. Both my theoretical base and practical experience prepared me to tackle the toughest analysis. But as importantly I care. Having been successful at many organizations, I am confident be successful at your organization as well.
25. If you know your boss is 100% wrong about something how would you handle it?
There is no one size fits all formula, I would adjust my actions depending on the boss and the circumstances. If this is an important question, not something trivial, most likely I would ask for an opportunity to persuade him or her. If that failed, there is nobody to escalate the question to and this decision did not pose danger to life or well-being of people, I would do my best to support the decision even if I disagreed with it.
26. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
A person who is a danger to himself, his coworkers and the organization. For example, anyone who needlessly causes the situation to become dangerous, or engages in a self-destructive behavior like drug consumption.
27. What is more important to you: the money or the work?
Unless work is well done, there is no money. They are two sides of the same coin.
28. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
Loyalty and Initiative. I received multiple commendations on the improvements to the training program that I initiated. He was very grateful when, after we already parted ways, I brought an opportunity to his attention.
29. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor
I must be incredibly lucky, because everyone I ever worked for has taught me something. While I have never had a supervisor with whom I had a major problem, it is the nature of my job to often disagree with the way the company is being run. Often, to improve something, it is necessary to explain why the old approach is less effective. Sometimes, I found that my management would not listen to my recommendations. When this happened, I would try to think through their reasoning and motivations. The net result often was that I either understood their logic or could come up with a different way of presenting my ideas. Occasionally though, I had to accept that the topic was now off-limits and I would have to find alternative approaches of producing desired results.
30. What has disappointed you about a job?
About the only time I get disappointed is when I cannot contribute to alleviating organizational bottlenecks. Usually, when that happens, I start exploring indirect approaches to do so.
31. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
I learned from studying Tai Chi that receiving pressure is just an opportunity to find our grounding and listen for opportunities. In business, it is the same way, if the basics are taken care off, pressure is just opportunity under a different name.
32. If you could relive the last 10 years of your life, what would you do differently?
Professionally, I would seek to surround myself with even better mentors and seek out their advice more diligently. Otherwise, even though I have had both the good and tough times, I would likely not change much, because it all caused me to become the person I am today.
33. What motivates you to do your best on the job?
Challenge and acknowledgment. I need a challenge, but feedback and acknowledgment also helps.
34. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
I am, if there is reciprocity. This means that I will work hard long hours if needed, but only with the understanding that I will get a chance to recharge my batteries and take care of my other priorities when needed, as well.
35. How would you know you were successful on this job?
When we deliver the financial results that we seek. There are other indicators, like coworkers smiling when they run in to me, customers reporting increased satisfaction, spending less time to fight fires, but they all lead to better financial results or reduced business risk.
36. Would you be willing to relocate or travel if required?
Absolutely, I will move or travel anywhere, given adequate accommodations.
37. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?
Yes. Life and limb excluded.
38. Describe your management style.
Like I said earlier, I like to play point-guard, setting up my coworkers for success and giving them the information they need to succeed while protecting them from behind. For example, creating visibility of New Product Introduction flow at Ultra Tool and Manufacturing reduced surprises and increased clean hand offs, resulting in us being able to complete projects more rapidly.
39. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
I have learned to make to move more incrementally, testing assumptions and thus making sure that any mistakes that do happen, get caught early. I also learned to take them with a grain of salt and be open about them, because even our best intentions do not always work out.
40. Do you have any blind spots?
I am pretty self-aware and have peers whose feedback I trust to guard for blind spots. That said, if I become aware of them, they are no longer blind spots, instead they become opportunities for improvement.
41. What are your weaknesses?
Weakness is a relative concept, the same things that make me highly productive in some settings, are weaknesses in another. I am quite flexible and can adjust to fit many roles, but I will not do well in the environment where management allows for unproductive behaviors or support the attitude of doing things just because we have always done them this way.
42. What do people most often criticize about you?
It is not common for the same things to come up during feedback that I solicit because as I find an area that is a problem I either handle it or change my situation in such a way as to keep it from being a show stopper.
43. What are you looking for in your next job? What is important to you?
It is important to me to have a good relationship with my manager and peers. It is also important for me to work for a company that is ready to drive change. I am looking for an opportunity to shine, to really make a difference and to become the best in my field.
44. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Knowledgeable, a sense of humor, willing to listen, provides lots of actionable feedback and insight.
45. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
At one manufacturing company, when two supervisors were arguing I asked them to follow me to a room with whiteboard, where I proceeded to write down, what each of them thought went wrong with the underlying issue, making them take turns. After that I showed them how to use Perception Matrix to map out causes and effects and get to the heart of the conflict. That took emotion out of it. We then created a set of checklists and a hand off form that would stop “He said, she said” arguments. To my knowledge the form is still being used today.
46. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?
I am a utility player, finding that I can fairly quickly learn almost any role and thus move to the area of greatest need, but I can best play to my strengths where I can do analysis and come up with strategies. I am also comfortable helping maintain deadlines and following up with my teammates for that purpose.
47. Describe your work ethic.
I believe in leveraging my efforts, so I will consider how to do it and carry out the work most efficiently.
48. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?
About six years ago, I had an employee who was stealing from the business that I was managing and it was for something that I would have helped her with anyways. I felt terrible that this employee did not trust enough to come to me with her problem.
49. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.
It was when I was on the team that was turning around Metal Spinners. We worked long hours, but were really open with each other, working together. We knew that to become viable as a business we had to improve our quarterly performance by $1.2million in one year, or else the business would be sold off by the bank. We had a great time doing it because every week we would get together and discuss specifically, what got accomplished and how it would impact the financial statements, what the challenges are that remain, walking trough the expenses and identifying opportunities or areas for further investigation. When we were able to produce that performance increase in about seven months, we had something to get excited about.
50. What was your biggest accomplishment?
Accomplishing everything that I did while continuing my education and having a balanced life outside work. The fact that I was able to complete BS, MBA and Juris Doctorate while working full-time and engaging in many community activities speaks to my productivity.
51. What was your biggest failure?
My biggest failure happened about seven years ago, when I assumed that just because I was good at some things I would be good at everything. As a result I learned to recognize my limitations.
52. What do you find are the most difficult decisions to make?
Decisions that involve life and well-being of others.
53. If the people who know you were asked why you should be hired, what would they say?
They would tell you to hire me because I have the knowledge and the caring to make you money and reduce your risks.
54. Do you have any questions for me?
- In which ways is your management team stronger than it was a year ago?
- What are the levels of turnover in your organization?
- How commonly do you implement improvement suggestions made by your employees?
- What is the typical cycle length from first customer contact to getting paid for completed work? How does it compare to the industry average?
- What percentage of your budget do you spend on marketing, research and development? Are you satisfied with the return you are getting out of these areas?
- What have your sales trends looked like? What has been happening to your margins?
- Do you have strong financial reserves and are they increasing or decreasing?
- What is the single biggest threat to your business?
- What is the predominant motivation the management in running this business?