As my contract time with The Walt Disney Studios wound down, I came to the conclusion the post Great-Recession economy of 2009 and beyond may not reliably support any full-time TG&A consulting efforts. Hence a search began to find an organization that met the following requirements:chemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
- In a market position to grow (perhaps substantially),
- Can provide a challenging & rewarding opportunity,
- Be sufficiently established, so as not to be considered a start-up, and
- Is located within the greater Los Angeles area.
After two months of searching and discussions - I had narrowed down the list to two candidate opportunities, as an IT Director. One was with Iowa Health Systems, a $2B regional HMO based in Des Moines (and the 7th largest US HMO), and the other was in Chatsworth, California with the NNA.
The NNA is a family-owned, 50+ year-old advocacy, service and training organization. The membership includes several hundred thousand notaries in a market with 4-5 million US notaries, so it seemed like a great opportunity to help the organization reach new heights. As the NNA met the aforementioned criteria - I met with the CEO, CFO and COO and a short time later - accepted their offer letter.
What I found at the organization was a family environment, steeped in tradition and well respected by local, state and federal government agencies. Academics and legislators alike look to the NNA for help solving existing and emerging notorial issues. And large corporations were increasingly embracing the value that NNA membership brought their companies.
Unfortunately their primary customers - individual notaries themselves - were leaving the membership in records numbers, largely due to the mortgage and economic downturns. Along with my new director counterparts in Marketing and Educational Services - indeed all but a few key management types were new employees (<1 year), we were all eager to reverse the declining trend and even take the organization to new heights.
In all it wasn't meant to be. I left the company minutes after my 90-day review meeting with the COO and CFO was completed. Coincidentally the organization let go or lost a large portion of management & senior staff immediately before or after my departure, including the CEO, Interactive Marketing Manager, both Training managers and the Training Supervisor, the Corporate Services Manager, and the former Customer Service Manager. That's about 30-50% of management depending on how you look at it...
Not a problem! Once again I can focus on finding, partner with and growing with an organization that wants a technology leader capable of critically analyzing, championing and implementing solutions to help the organization reach its objectives.
