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O P I N I O N
When Bill announced the leadership transition, that same day the entire staff worked on coming up with ideas for Hitchcock 2.0 and this new strategic plan (based on the recommendations of an outside consultant).
Ready for change?
Effecting a real-life leadership transition takes years of planning, and the ability to dismiss entrenched perceptions and past assumptions.
G etting ready to transition a firm’s leadership is a pivotal period in any firm’s lifecycle, and how you do it will set the tone for the firm’s culture, and the effectiveness of the new leader’s first year.
Hitchcock Design Group transitioned its leadership on January 1st of 2019, marked by our board and our founding Principal, Rick Hitchcock, asking me to take the reins at the beginning of the firm’s 39th year. As of today, and nearly five months into our transition, it’s clear that our preparation positioned us well for a smooth transition, and equally as important, enabled us to execute timely change, strengthen the best aspects of our brand, and put our people first – moving us toward our best tomorrow. I’m not sure we can claim that we scripted the optimum transition plan, and, candidly, we had to improvise along the way to react to both internal and external factors. Reflecting on our journey, here’s some of the key aspects that have influenced our current success: ❚ ❚ We planned way-ahead. I know, this sounds like a firm grip on the obvious, but what seemed like
misplaced emphasis years ago turned out to be time well spent. To elaborate, our founding principal es- tablished the mechanics of ownership transition ear- ly on, adding two-tiers of ownership over time, and implementing a suite of employment and ownership agreements outlining how the firm’s equity would be transferred. As this plan matured, we set earnings aside for the future, investing in a side-fund to help payout our future retiring shareholders. And now that we’re on the doorstep of buying-out our found- ing principal – and what will likely be the firm’s biggest equity transfer for some time – we’re happy that this framework is in place. Looking ahead, we’ll continue to invest in the side-fund to retire future shareholders, and simultaneously attract new share- holders into the firm. That’s a good place for our firm to be, and it sends a confident message to our team about our future. ❚ ❚ We built consensus. Our board first worked
Bill Inman
See BILL INMAN, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER August 5, 2019, ISSUE 1307
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