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I just saw this on their website.
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From what's been posted lately on the OLF about changes at SM, I think this may not be a good sign.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

It may not be health of company, etc., but instead what every other employer is dealing with right now, which is the single largest mass retirement in human history. All those Boomers are cashing out and going home, so the churn in the C-suite as well as every other management level is ongoing. This is the biggest part of the reason for the blue collar skill worker and continued solid white collar numbers, along with a huge flood of bargain-priced unskilled labor and lots of pressure to lower labor costs in the service sector.

The issue with us Boomers is that we not only vacuumed up all of the available jobs when we entered the market, but we put our spouses to work as well to feed our consumption habits. When the Gen X'ers hit the job market, they ended up accepting jobs well below their skill and training level, creating a generation of perpetual interns and lower level line managers as they were crowded out of mid-level management and C-suite jobs until now. With the Boomer mass retirement, all those Gen X'ers are suddenly getting their revenge with jumps to director and VP seats after too many years laboring in the trenches.

You would think that the big layoffs in the tech sector from large companies like Amazon, Google, Twitter, etc. would signal a slowdown, but that has just generated a feeding frenzy in the small and mid-sized companies to pick up all that walking expertise. At the same time, lots of companies are working through swapping out senior management teams (including CFO, CTO, COO) as either their talent gets stolen by those that can pay the premium or they determine that deglobalization requires a strategic shift away from how they have done business for the last 40 years.

So yes - could be problems on the horizon, but more likely someone retired or got snapped up by another company (or was elevated to a parent company) with an extra couple $100K a year to throw at demonstrated talent.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

I would be surprised if Stew Mac needed anything more than an CPA, rather than a CFO.

My experience in startup biotech companies told me that CFOs are fairly interchangeable. There are other positions in small companies that are more critical to company health and success, IMO.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Bean counters count beans. They should NOT be in charge of making any decisions because all they see is beans. Companies are MORE than beans. Just my opinion, but American businesses have made too many mistakes based on the decisions of people who only think about money.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Let's hope StewMac is healthy and continues to be there for us for the rest of time.

How's that for being diplomatic

PS: Answer the stinkin phone.......

My thinking is that with a company the size of Stew Mac the CEO should also act as the CFO and COO. A bean counter may be needed to provide the relevant numbers, but one person could steer that ship. Having too many people at the top just adds confusion and affects the bottom line.

These days in small biz CFO is just a fancy name for the most senior, or in many cases the only, CPA on the payroll.

I have worked for start ups where there were five staff: the CEO, the CTO, the CFO, me, and the janitor.

Just out of curiosity, anybody know how many employees SM has?

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I agree with Chris, look at the 737 Max. Mac Doug bought Boeing (with Boeings Money) scooted out the engineers then had accountants running the company. Too much focus on share holder value instead of quality.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

SM isn't going to have much use for a CFO unless they get product quality and customer service back on the rails.