Claire Chandler With Talent Boost

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program. The no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to be BRXAmbassador.com to learn more. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today we have with us Claire Chandler with Talent Boost. Welcome, Claire.

Claire Chandler: [00:00:42] Thanks, Lee. It’s great to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Talab Boost, how you served, folks.

Claire Chandler: [00:00:49] Sure. So I formed Talent Boost back in 2013 after I had spent the majority of my career in corporate roles. And then I left corporate America in 2011. Kind of dabble a little bit for for two years. I’m sure a lot of entrepreneurs can share that that type of journey of walking the earth little until you figure out your your niche. And so fast forward to today. I work primarily with the private equity and VC community to help it invest in the right businesses that will deliver the returns they’re looking for. So that’s kind of the trouble I get up into lately.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] And so then what’s your role? Are you just helping them vet them or are you helping them identify them or are you kind of once they purchase something, then are you helping fix them? Like, what’s your role with the VCs?

Claire Chandler: [00:01:40] Yeah. So on the front end, when they’re considering which company to invest in next, I work with them to build a valuation profile that helps them make a wiser, wiser decision really on the right company to get behind, because obviously, you know, they want to put their money behind a company that is actually going to deliver for them. And then on the back end, once they’ve made that financial commitment, I help them integrate that company. So it’s a line and it’s equipped to actually deliver the value creation plan that they envisioned.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:10] So you work a lot kind of with the human being, part of the transaction and the culture and the kind of fit.

Claire Chandler: [00:02:19] Yeah, very much so, human capital valuation specifically is is, yeah, my bread and butter.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:28] Now, when you’re working with a leaders like this, are you seeing folks maybe in one environment they’re the perfect leader, but you put them in a different kind of culture, then all of a sudden there’s friction and they’re not able to kind of lead in the same manner. And they’re they have to kind of evolve a little bit.

Claire Chandler: [00:02:46] Yeah, 100 percent. You know, I think that that tends to be the biggest source of underperformance and sometimes downright failure when you put the, you know, the wrong person, you know, in a role, especially at a at a leadership level. I was just having this conversation with with one of my clients the other day. They had acquired a business and wanted to install at the head of that business to small company, but they wanted to install somebody who came from a really big enterprise type of an organization. And I cautioned against that, you know, for for the reason that you just sort of touched upon, which is, you know, big organizational experience does not always and quite often it does not at all translate into success in more of a startup. Getting them to the next level, you know, for for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which is a big company leader, is used to a lot of structure is used to a lot of support is used to. You know, if they make a miscalculation or maybe not the best decision, it can be more easily absorbed in a large organization. So just assuming that somebody who’s got big company leadership experience, that that’s going to translate is really a faulty assumption.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:06] And the skills required to found a company is different than to kind of lead a more mature company.

Claire Chandler: [00:04:14] Very much so, I think the skills and the capabilities to found a company out of whole cloth and then to grow that company and help it mature. And then, of course, you know, getting to the point where you’re trying to lead in very large, very mature organization, three very, very different skill sets, and it’s the rare leader who can evolve along that entire journey.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:39] So now when you’re working with the people who hire you, is that something where you’re like, hey, this person, you know, they were great to get this thing started, but, you know, we might have to have a path to have them kind of exit and then bring in a more manager person rather than a kind of founder person. Is that part of your role?

Claire Chandler: [00:05:03] It is. And it’s it’s a key part of the service that I provide to my clients is really to assess depending on their their hypothesis. Right. Their value creation plan hypothesis, really help them assess the people within that portfolio company, especially at the top leadership level and especially the very top leader. Do they have the capability and the capacity to take that company to the next level? Sometimes the answer is yes. And we can assess and we can measure that. And sometimes, unfortunately, the answer is no, for the very reasons we just talked about, which is, you know, it’s the founder’s mentality. The founders capabilities, the founders mindset often don’t translate over to a more mature, more structured, more quote unquote, professionally run organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:57] Now, having done this for a minute or so, have you learned kind of what are the kind of biggest drivers for value or are there kind of some commonality that you’ve kind of said, OK, these are kind of the qualities that companies that are thriving and healthy and growing possess.

Claire Chandler: [00:06:15] Yeah, so here’s what’s interesting, you know. We used to live in an industrial economy, right, and I think a lot of people sort of falsely believe that we’re still there and an industrial economy. The overwhelming majority of business value, somewhere around 95 percent of the value of any business was driven by what we would call tangible assets. Right. The company’s technology, the products, their operations, of course, their financial capital. But the reality is, we don’t live in an industrial economy anymore. We live in an intellectual one. And it’s a fundamental shift that I think a lot of companies, a lot of business leaders and a lot of investors have not quite fully embraced yet. But our economy today is really dependent primarily on the output of the human mind, not the human hands. Right. So it’s things that I would call intangible assets, your your company brand, the services that you provide, the intellectual property, the knowledge that’s in your organization. And all of that, of course, culminates in human capital. So with this shift in the economy came a shift in what drives business value. So whereas before that value in an industrial economy was almost entirely driven by tangible assets. Today, it’s well over 72 percent of the businesses value is driven by intangible assets. And that’s across any industry. Right. And in some industries. I’m looking at, you know, the tech industries of pharma industries. The intangible assets drive closer to 80 to 95 percent of the value of the business. So it’s really, really critical that businesses do pay attention to that.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:01] And it’s one of those things where, like you said, that not every industry is embracing that thesis, that, you know, if you go to the bank and try to get a loan on that, it’s going to be a lot harder to do in a traditional kind of financing batard to explain to them how 72 percent of our value is, you know, IP, and they want to give you a loan based on your real estate and the building and your stuff.

Claire Chandler: [00:08:30] Sure. Because that’s, you know, the tangible is a lot easier to measure, right. In in most cases. But there are firms out there. There are businesses out there that have not only embraced this shift toward the intangible driving business value, but really have come to understand what it takes to measure that and to assess that. And as we know, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Right. So in that scenario, when we’re going to to banks and we’re going to investors and saying, you know, this is this is what I need to get to the next level. The companies that cannot quantify that intangible part of their business are falling short and are finding it quite difficult to attract the right investors to help them get to that next level.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:16] So now you say you’re saying that it can be measured.

Claire Chandler: [00:09:20] It absolutely can be measured.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:22] So then how does a firm go about measuring kind of intangibles?

Claire Chandler: [00:09:27] Yeah, so, you know, back to your your point about different leaders not necessarily succeeding in any role. It actually starts with the value creation plan hypothesis. Right. So you can measure you can assess the human capital, the capability, the capacity of, you know, the leadership, the depth of talent in any company. But the analysis of that data will change based on the hypothesis of your value creation plan. Right. So when I work with a client, I always start there and I say, let’s get really, really clear on what your end goal is. What is that exit strategy? Where do you want to be after your three to five year holding period? What does that return me to look like for you? And let’s get really clear on that end point. First, that is really valuable information where somebody like me to come in and then when I do, you know, I have some proprietary tools that I use, both assessments and diagnostics that then help me to quantify the capacity and capability within that target company to deliver on that value creation plan, to actually turn that hypothesis into reality. And so it’s you know, there is a lot of science behind that. There’s a little bit of art just in terms of rate, that difference between data and analytics, making sure that you know what you’re collecting and toward what end goal. But that’s really how how I tend to to work, get really clear on what the end goal looks like and then assess with that in mind to really be able to validate, does this existing human capital, especially the top layers of leadership, have what it takes to take their company and this investment to the next level?

Lee Kantor: [00:11:26] Now, in the world of private equity and venture capitalists, aren’t they primarily looking for home runs and grand slams or outs like they’re not looking for singles or doubles? That might be just fine businesses, but they aren’t going to be the ones that return kind of the value that they’re looking for, for the investment that they’re making and the risk that they’re taking.

Claire Chandler: [00:11:50] Yeah, that’s right, and honestly, that’s why the the failure rate can be so high, because a lot of the investors are swinging for the fences. And listen, we all we all want to smash the ball, right? We all want to get, you know, five times a return on the investment 10 times. You know, pick your number. But a lot of these investments do fall short because they’re not the investors and the companies that are supporting them are not necessarily focusing on, again, the majority of what drives the business value. Right. And a lot of them say, well, you’re talking about human capital. You know, you’re talking to human beings. So let’s cut to the chase. They’re unpredictable. They are wild cards in our equation. We already get that. That’s the that’s the part that we’re just sort of taking a gamble on. But they can’t be measured. And the firms that understand that, yes, they can and yes, they must. Before you plunk your money down behind a company, you know, are the ones that are getting the higher returns. They’re the ones that are outpacing the S&P 500. They’re the ones that are building the buy in of the people on the ground that actually have to deliver on their BCP. So, yeah, you know, it starts with that shift in mindset. And I know for a lot of people, that’s a hard one to grasp because it’s not it’s not tangible. But the reality is those firms that measure and assess the intangibles in the companies that they’re about to invest in are are going to, you know, I don’t to say hit for the cycle, but let’s keep using the baseball analogy. Right. They are far more likely to get extra bases out of their swings than just singles or, you know, God forbid, outs.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:33] Now, to continue that metaphor, do you feel that in your work you’re able to maybe stretch that single into a double or that double into a triple and prevent the out from occurring? Whereas if maybe they were left to their own devices, then, you know, maybe something that could be a double or triple might have been an out because they have the wrong kind of human capital on the team.

Claire Chandler: [00:14:04] Yeah, I would say that that is an accurate statement and always, you know, that the earlier you bring in somebody like me, but more specifically, that lens through which you can look at an assassin measure, the human capital side of the business, again, the intangibles that drive that the overwhelming majority, the value, the earlier in your acquisition or investment process, you bring in that lens, the more likely you are going to mitigate your risk and accelerate your success. Right. And so smart companies do this right at the due diligence phase stage. They don’t wait until after they’ve already put money committed funding behind a company, because if they do it right and they do it more thoroughly and they do it in a way that quantifies the intangibles, they are more much more likely to put their money, first of all, behind the right company and to do it with more enthusiasm and confidence that they’re making the right decision if they’re doing this after the fact. So say they’ve already made the commitment to the funding, you know, and maybe it’s it’s as late as six months post close. Invariably, they’re going to start to see some cracks in the foundation and some pain points. If they did not pay sufficient attention to the intangibles, things like, you know, they’re not they’re not able to hire enough of the right people. They’re not able to retain the good people that they have.

Claire Chandler: [00:15:36] You know, the front line supervisors are driving people away or they’re driving underperformance. The top leadership doesn’t fully buy in to the value creation plan and hypothesis. All of those different points along the way can be assessed and measured, starting with the due diligence process, but even post close. And the more clearly you can see what you’re what you’re working with in terms of capacity, in terms of capability, then you can more clearly see the actions that you can take, whether it’s to pay more attention and spend more time and effort on aligning the people that you have with the value creation plan. You know, I’m a big advocate of helping people see a direct connection between their role in their contributions to how it’s going to move the needle forward. Right. And helping a company get to the next level. And it’s it is no less true when you’ve got the backing of a of a of a of an investor, a private equity or, you know, seed funding or what have you. The alignment is critical. I think a lot of companies, especially, you know, both at the startup side, but also on the investor side, make a really critical mistake in thinking that money will solve everything. I have heard startups, you know, say we can get to the next level, if only we had, you know, the right level of financing or financial capital and funding from the right investor.

Claire Chandler: [00:17:06] And I always caution them and say that’s really a faulty assumption. Right, because if they don’t have the capacity and the capability to actually take themselves to the next level, back to that earlier point of, you know, a founder’s mentality of founders skill set of founders vision may not be the same set of skills and capabilities and mindset that you’re going to need to get from where you are to where you want to get to. So just assuming that a blank check or a big check from an investor is going to smooth over any of the other cracks and fissures in your foundation is a really faulty assumption. And it’s also made on the investor side. Some investors see, you know, a great idea or a really good idea, and they want to help take it to the next level or the start of a decent company that’s had some early success. And they want to be part of their their growth and evolution. Just putting money behind it is not going to crush your value creation plan. You have to make sure you’ve got the right people in the right roles, that they’ve got the right mindset in alignment and buy in to where you want to go, and that they’ve got the right capabilities and skills to take you there.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:15] Now, if somebody wanted to learn more about what you got going on, is there a website to get on your calendar and maybe have a discussion about, you know, helping that firm get to the next level?

Claire Chandler: [00:18:29] Yeah, so there’s there’s two things they can go to my website, which is Pellant Boost Dot Net, and there’s two areas I would absolutely encourage anyone to to go to. One is to click the link on the top. It says checklist. So there is a I put together a free checklist. I call it profit letters and risk flags. And whether you’re on the investor side of the startup side, that checklist is going to enable you to quickly calculate the top three areas in your business that are currently competitive advantages for you, that maybe you’re not putting your foot on the gas to to a sufficient of a level as you could. It’s also going to help you calculate the top three areas that are threatening to derail your success. So, you know, an investor can can download that and start to use that immediately as they’re thinking about their next investment. They can even take that and use that as a very critical, valuable lens toward the company they’ve recently acquired. And even on the startup side, those who are thinking about, you know, is now the time, right. Is now the time for us to grow, to scale, to take on an investor. That checklist is going to ask them some really key questions to help them get to some of those answers. So that’s point one and the other area on calaboose. Starnet, to your direct question of if somebody wants to reach out, you want to talk specifically about where you are in your business and how maybe somebody like me can help you get ready for your next level. There’s a button on the top right size book a call. Go there, pick the kind of call you’d like to schedule with me and let’s do it.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:04] And then so you primarily work with private equity and VCs, but you do also work with entrepreneurs.

Claire Chandler: [00:20:12] They do also work with entrepreneurs. You know, a lot of the fundamentals are the same on both sides of that relationship. Right. It’s about really getting as granular and as as tangible as you can with the intangible assets that you have. Right. So whether you’re an investor who’s considering your next investment or an investor who has just recently acquired a new company and wants to integrate it the right way, but also in the startup side, you’re heading up a startup or a growing business that you want to take to the next level. A lot of my framework and my process is very consistent on both sides of that equation. So, yeah, so I encourage, you know, even if you’re just curious, you just have questions. Go download the checklist, make a call with me and let’s have a conversation.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:03] Good stuff. OK, Claire, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Claire Chandler: [00:21:09] Thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure to be here. All right.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:11] This is Lee Kantor Rouselle. Next time on Coach the Coach Radio.