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