Most temporary staffing agencies help businesses fill low-level positions with relatively inexperienced workers, but Northbrook-based ForteCEO has found a niche by providing companies with temps who have accumulated a lifetime of success and knowledge.

Many entrepreneurs sell their businesses before they are 60. While they may have dreamed of leaving the office behind for days of relaxation and luxury, some find that they miss the complicated problem-solving issues and personal interactions that their previous life provided them.

In essence, work is in their blood and they not ready to set out to pasture just yet.

With this in mind, Mark Rittmanic, founder and chief executive officer of ForteCEO, developed a firm that would allow these semi-retired CEOs to work on a temporary basis.

“I have grown three businesses in the past and I always brought in outside help to do it,” said Rittmanic. “I always found that it was best to bring in someone who had been in my position before and had been successful. They always had a more practical approach.”

Rittmanic wanted to put together a group of ex-CEOs with a broad knowledge base across various industries. These men and women could then be contracted out to help current business owners navigate through transitions, issues or problems.

He looked in vain for similar business models elsewhere in the nation. He discovered that firms with this model had existed in Europe for some time, but not here.

In 2000 he opened ForteCEO with seven temporary CEOs on his roster. Since then the firm has grown exponentially through word of mouth.

Now, ForteCEO has 240 former CEOs with a combined knowledge of 150 industries. The average member of the roster is in his late 50s, has owned three businesses and has successfully sold two of them, said Rittmanic.

“I have probably spoken to 3,000 to 4,000 CEOs to boil it down to the number that we have now,” said Rittmanic. “I have found a unique group of people who want to do something interesting, but still want to maintain their own schedule.”

Currently, ForteCEO is providing services to 30 companies ranging from $3 million to $320 million in revenue and spanning dozens of industries, said Rittmanic.

The most difficult part for Rittmanic has been convincing entrepreneurs that the idea is beneficial to them. Most entrepreneurs by nature prefer to tackle problems on their own, or they believe that they would have to hire someone full-time, he said.s.

“My goal is to break through an entrepreneur’s skepticism and introduce them to someone who has experience in their industry, has dealt with the same problems, and has a little bit of grey hair,” he said. “Our CEOs don’t go in to run a company.

“They work with the company owner to see them through a transition or a problem. Hopefully, the owner will see the person he will be in 20 years.”

Rittmanic said that there are three main scenarios where his company is approached for its services. The first involves businesses that have hit a plateau and need to go through a transition to become relevant once again, the second when a company is expanding too quickly and the owners need help managing growth, and the third involves preparing businesses for a sale.

As more baby boomers look to retire, Rittmanic believes that this will be the majority of ForteCEO’s business.

“Right now, 50 percent of our business involves getting companies ready for a sale,” he said. “Our CEOs have been though this process before multiple times and our job is to make sure that a business owner is not leaving potentially millions of dollars on the table.”

ForteCEO operates nationwide with clients from the East Coast to the southwest United States although Rittmanic estimates that 60 percent of its clients come from the Midwest.

Rittmanic currently receives the most business from the manufacturing and distribution industries.

CEOs are contracted in a variety of ways. After initially meeting with a potential client, Rittmanic then determines what the best scenario would be for the company. In some cases only one temporary CEO is needed, but other instances call for a team. After he has identified who he feels would best suit the client in question, the fee is determined.

CEOs can be contracted on a daily, monthly or performance base. When a sale is the goal of the consultation, it is common that ForteCEO will receive a percentage of the overall sale, said Rittmanic.

“We are not like the majority of consulting firms that just come in and tell you how things should be done,” he said. “We eat our own cooking, too.”

by mthomton
The Business Ledger