Henry's Web Log

Since 2004, we've practiced something called Open Book Management. Our financials are prepared monthly, and we sit down first at a leaders' meeting, then with the whole company, to pour through the results. It's not unlike an Army AAR (after action review): everyone has an equal say, anyone can ask questions, and it's not a blame-storm event. We honestly look at ways to improve ACI's bottom line. So that's a perfect way to inject our advisory board, plus keep everyone flowing on our regular rhythm. "Battle Rhythm" is a popular Army term now. It's not that I run my company like a military operation-- far from it. But I think the Army runs its military with a great deal of business best-practices. Or maybe business best-practices come from the disciplined look at process improvement brought about by military training.
Anyway... For two hours, we met with the board and went through the description of each division's revenue models, employees, current activity, and the past financials. And some great questions came out, plus some very positive feedback. This was an opportunity for me to help transition the team, while I was still available.
Our next advisory meeting will be in mid-September, after we've got the August results.
Thank goodness for the 8 week notice! John Phillips told me that one of his notifications went along the lines of blunt phone call, "Why aren't you here yet?!" It seems the orders had been lost in the shuffle.
I took an 11-page estate planning document prepared by the good folks at LeClair Ryan, and reduced it to this management diagram. Click to see the full picture.

In a company meeting on Monday, Lisa and I first met with Dale, Laureen and Angela. Dale has been running MatWeb since its inception in 1996. Laureen has managed our commercial operations since we started offering web design and development commercially (besides the military) in 1998. I got an immediate sense that they weren't too afraid to step into more of a leadership role when I opened it up to questions. One of the first questions was, "What will you change your telephone message to?" OK, good question. Easy fix.
So Dale will continue to run MatWeb, Laureen runs commercial, and Angela continues as our CFO but with perhaps a bit more leadership. Lisa will review major expenses, salary, etc. and Chip Warren will visit the monthly advisory committee meeting, probably once a quarter.
We've added two external advisors to our steering committee to make the advisory board: Dr. Dick Daugherty, from the CRC Business Technology Center, and John Phillips, from Premier Transfer. Both have been with me in the VTKW President's Council. Dick has consulted with us on MatWeb before, and John has done both economic development for Va Tech as well as running a services business while deployed. Great people to have on our team, and maybe the deployment was just an excuse to get them involved!

Last weekend, we told the boys about the deployment. Why the wait? Well, school started Wednesday, and we wanted to let them adjust a little. Eric, our new teenager, took the news quietly and thought on it a while. It wasn't until Monday that he started asking me some questions, as I walked him up to his bus stop. That in itself was a big deal: it's not cool to be seen at the bus with your parents. So we talked.
Ethan took the news to heart immediately. He's more emotional than his brother. In fact, they're pretty close to polar opposites. It was a big help to assure him that I'd be in touch with email, phone calls, maybe even a webcam. And especially that this was an important mission for our country. Ethan's a big fan of the Military Channel, so his view of war is certainly dramatic, if not a little too premature for a 9 year old. I recommend an adult be with anyone under 13 who watches the Military Channel.
Lisa has had some trouble sleeping, and her mind is full of gotta-do events. She's a fantastic organizer (yet the military wants me for Logistics!). Lisa can't go to church without a small notebook: she makes great plans in the form of 20 to 30 item to-do lists, and juggles it all with a smile: Cub Scouts, Pool Manager, Red Cross Instructor, Reflections chairperson (fine arts contest), Lego team coach, substitute teacher, recreation center child-fitness instructor, and the lists go on...

The tweaked Dilbert cartoon from Friday's post was inspired by one of my favorite Dilberts: I've had it on my office door forever. PHB walks in and says, "What happened while I was in jail?" So the funny thing was, this was from my old 2005 Dilbert desk calendar, and was dated November 5th. Spooky, that it's approximately the date I'll return from this assignment. Well, that was just too cool to leave alone. A quick photoshop tweak, and PHB is just coming back from a 13 month Iraq deployment, and completely clueless that his office works so much better when he's away.

After writing several military buddies for their best practices and advice, I have filled up my schedule with appointments.
I spoke to John Phillips, a good friend, military reservist, entrepreneur, and Iraqi veteran. He runs Premier Transfer & Storage, a very well run moving company. With John, I firmed up plans for how ACI would run in my absence, and the key points for a year-long deployment.
Today there was a meeting with our attorney to revise our wills, estate plan, advance medical directive, power of attorney and generally discuss how to run the business from afar, as well as key items for Lisa to watch out for. Then a similar meeting with our external business accountant, Chip.
Most Army buddies have told me that the US footprint in Iraq has improved to the point that just about everything you need is there-- you just replace your predecessor and after a week or two train-up, you're full speed ahead.
Next week, I'll announce the deployment and our business continuity plan to ACI's leadership staff, and follow that up with an employee meeting to explain what's going to happen, that everything will continue as usual, and maybe they'll even get things done a little better without me!