Some notes from the CEO roundtable at the Nantucket Conference.

Chris Zannetos, CEO, Courion

• The cuts they made last summer put the company in the bunker and made people lower their expectations. They stopped believing they could go above and beyond.
• Chris put processes in place to to “ruthlessly reward the high performers”.
• Last fall all but one of his exec suggested there should be no President’s Club. Instead, Chris made President’s Club include the top 20% of the company, down to the admin and an HR person who did amazing work.
• It’s working: employees believe again that it’s possible to succeed/exceed.

Aron Ain, CEO, Kronos

• Did 10% cut after 115 (yes, that’s right) quarters of continued Q-over-Q growth
• Made sure the cut was across the board (VPs, directors, managers, employees)
• Upped severance pay by 25% for those who left
• Had “hall monitors” escort people to their desks + help them leave after they were laid off
• Didn’t cut salaries, benefits, 401K matches for those who were still at the company
• Over-communicated along the way