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In their mind, it signifies money isn’t the most important issue—which every employer likes to know, and it forces them to the bargaining table. You want them to get you to the table. You’ll learn how to close the deal in Chapter 13.

GUERRILLA INTELLIGENCE

Soft Diligence

Steve Panyko

An essential phase of your job search is that time when you establish a cultural fit or shared values between the organization and yourself. This is the logical next step after “hard diligence” or the process of analyzing financial statements, history, and backgrounds on key players of the company.

As you go through your interview, you will seek to determine how the management team views and relates to their customers, to their employees, and to their shareholders and board of directors. These 3 directions of interaction are critical for you to understand and for you to be culturally aligned with the organization.

To determine the value placed on customers, you should ask questions like:

• Who is your best customer, and why?

• Who is your worst customer, and why?

• How have your customers affected your product development?

• How many times do you visit your customers?

The answers you get should never disparage the customer, should value the customers’ input in determining product requirements, and should generally reflect a desire to meet with the customer more often than the pressures of the job currently allow. Responses outside that envelope are a red flag that the organization does not have good customer relationships and may believe they can be successful despite the customer.

Next explore the value placed on employees. First determine stability by asking average length of service, time since the last downsizing, rate of growth, and turnover rates. Once you have assessed stability, ask questions like:

• How often do you hold all-hands meetings?

• How are service anniversaries, critical accomplishments, and holidays celebrated?

• How do you encourage employees to participate in community projects?

• What emphasis is placed on training and staff development?

• Other than for cause, what reasons have caused employees to leave the company?

It is important that the answers to these questions portray a genuine caring for employees, the community they live in, and their families. A healthy organization has a consistent track record of growth and is obsessed with employee development. The latter should be referenced to company policy and not be a matter of one manager’s attitude.

Finally, you need to assess the value the management team and the organization place on their stakeholders (shareholders and the board of directors). Probe how frequently the board of directors have toured the facility or seen product demos. Determine whether the board or investors have helped develop new business or champion new market opportunities. Look for contentious attitudes toward either investors or the board of directors. Ask questions like:

• In this position, will I have an opportunity to meet the board, and if so, what will they be interested in learning about me as a part of the organization?

• Does your sales and marketing organization view investors as a strategic partner in opening new markets?

• Has there been turnover on the board of directors, and if so, why?

These questions should paint the picture of the management team, staff, and investors all aligned to grow the business and learn from the marketplace. They should proudly discuss strategic relationships or distribution partnerships that have been co-developed with investors or members of the board of directors. If your responses portray isolation from stakeholders, be cautious about both the stability of the management team and their openness to utilize outside resources to help develop and grow the business.

Most people do a good job of assessing the “hard data” associated with the organization where they are seeking employment, and other parts of this book talk about how to use modern