Arthur Andersen – The Trade Off Game

The Trade-Off Game

Completing a compression chart can be an excellent way for a company to determine whether it’s time to look outside the organization for talent to help the business grow. It can’t, however, show the company’s founder what his or her ongoing role should be in the growing company. Rather, it is a useful first step that can prepare the founder to play the Trade-Off Game.

The Trade-Off Game allows the founder to compare what he or she enjoys doing, and is good at, with what the company needs from a CEO. For the process to work, it must be an honest effort, preferably involving the founder and the company’s independent advisors. Another prerequisite is vision (see above).

First, the founder makes a list of ten things he or she loves to do, or the ten business functions about which he or she is most passionate. At the same time, the company’s advisors or consultants evaluate the company’s needs over the next five years, developing a list of the 10 most significant responsibilities of a CEO if the company is to realize its five-year vision.

The results may look something like this:

The next step is for the founder to choose items that he or she is comfortable and capable of doing from the CEO list; items that may not be on his or her love to do list. As a general rule, a founder participating in the Trade-Off Game should cross off two responsibilities from the “Love to Do” list every time he or she selects one from the “CEO Responsibilities” list. Then, upon completing the exercise, the founder should review what’s left of the two column table and decide whether to continue serving as the company’s CEO or recruit an experienced manager to run the company. The items that remain are a job description and the founder needs to consider if he can do or really wants to do the “new” job.

That Little Twitch You Feel, Its Pride; or What to do When Confronted by an Insurmountable Opportunity

An oftentimes insurmountable obstacle to the success of this process is pride. It is hard for the founder of a company to admit that someone else should become the CEO. Many entrepreneurs rightfully think of their companies as if they were children: they’ve given birth to their businesses, and now they want to help them grow.

By completing this exercise, founders can gain a clearer understanding of whether they are the right people to lead their companies to maturity and, equally important whether they want to do so. The Trade-Off game also provides an excellent tool for founders to protect themselves from becoming overextended.

While many who participate in this process decide that they want to continue to run their companies, many others realize that they would rather concentrate on the things they set out to do when they started their companies, such as product development or research. In handing off the “administrative chores” to others, they are able to focus on what they love to do most.

And while the Trade-Off Game was created to help founders make informed decisions about their roles in their companies, it can also be applied to other key positions within the company, such as CFOs and vice presidents.

The most important result of the Trade-Off Game is that it gives a company’s founder the tools to make informed decisions about what roles need to be filled within the company, and insight into who should fill them. Often, the process helps the founder recognize, for the first time, that the company needs to start working to attract experienced talent to build a team. This is a vital issue for companies that are ready to grow. – ###

Provided by Arthur Andersen