The part people remember

Almost none of them started with the firm. They started with a person. The CFO who sat with them through a change. The controller who found the thing nobody else had found. More than once, the person telling me the story could not remember which of our companies that consultant had come from, and did not particularly care.

Then I read our own materials. They led with expertise, credentials, years in the seat. All of it is true, but none of it is what people remembered. This was not news to Kevin Briscoe, my predecessor. He had started asking the same questions the summer before I arrived.

That gap is what we set out to close. I know an announcement about a new logo is not usually worth anyone’s time, so let me be specific about what changed and what did not.

We are in the business of people

As of today, CFO Selections has a new brand and a new website. Same firm, same name, same people. What changed is what we lead with.

We work in numbers, but we have always been in the business of people. Behind every financial report is someone making a hard decision, and what matters most is who is sitting beside them while they make it.

For three decades my North Star has not moved: build stronger leaders and stronger businesses. And two things have held that up the whole way: be obsessed with the customer, and remember that the world is great when we are serving others.

In practice that starts with curiosity. The questions I ask an owner are the same ones I have been asking for thirty years. What story are you trying to create? What is going to be exciting? What is going to be hard? You have to listen to the answers, and care about them, before you can be useful about anything else.

That is how you get to what an organization actually needs, which is not always what it came in asking for. Then we find the person who is right for the moment and the organization.

A name for the family

The second change is that our family of companies has a new name: Ensemble Partners.

CFO Selections is still the name most people know us by, and that is not changing. Ensemble Partners is the name for what sits behind it.

CFO Selections, ASP, and Valtas Group have shared owners and values for years. Clients have benefited from all three for years too, though most only ever saw the part they came in through. A company that starts with a bookkeeper grows into needing a controller, and then a CFO as the business evolves and becomes more complex. A nonprofit that loses its executive director needs an interim leader, perhaps financial leadership, and a search for the permanent hire. At other companies, these are separate introductions.

Building a sustainable, growing organization takes an ensemble of capabilities, expertise, and leadership. Most leaders have to piece that together across various service providers.

What has not changed

Nothing about how we work. Your agreement is the same, and when you have a question, you will call the person you already call. If you are working with one of our consultants today, you will notice the logo and not much else.

We built Ensemble Partners ourselves, and we named it ourselves. Nobody bought us, and nothing changed hands. It came out of the work we were already doing.

What is different is that you no longer have to work out what to ask for. Whoever you are already working with can help you find the right support, either through our other companies or the advisors we work alongside.

Kevin Briscoe has been doing this here since long before I arrived, and he says it well.

I have clients who first called us when they had a dozen employees. What they needed then is nothing like what they need now. The work kept changing, while our relationship and ability to support never wavered.

None of that changes what you will say when someone asks about us. You will still start with a person. So will everything we put in front of you.

If you have worked with us, I’d love to hear what you remember most about the experience. Please connect with me on LinkedIn.

These conversations are the best part of my job.