Business Owner Resources

From Vision to Reality: Building Your C-Suite Dream Team

C-Suite Leadership: Essential for the Next Level

The process of transitioning from shouldering the entire burden of leadership to relying on a more robust team can be one of the most challenging aspects of owning a business. It is a natural roadblock in the pursuit of growth. Georgia Oak brings to the table a team of experienced executives and operating partners who can support the current leadership, foster growth and assist in hiring the right leaders for the future.

The C-Suite: Where to Start

As you move into the process of filling out the leadership team, the answers to a few key questions will guide your search process. As your partner in growth, Georgia Oak can help you assess the answers to these questions objectively and select your new leadership team accordingly.

What position(s) should be the first priority for hiring?

As you consider which positions to fill first, consider honestly your own strengths and challenges as the business owner. What is the highest and best use of your time in terms of providing value to the company? Where are your strengths irreplaceable? Which roles might play less to your strengths and be an opportunity for strong, complementary leadership?

How will the company benefit from this position?

Before searching for the perfect candidate, consider how your company’s growth will benefit from the executive role you are filling. We can help you create a list of needs and goals for the position, with an eye to how those goals fit in with your company’s growth strategy. This not only helps you prioritize which positions to fill first, it can serve as a starting point for creating job descriptions and hiring criteria.

What type of leadership style do you have? What leadership style is needed?

Diversity of leadership style and thought is important when fleshing out the executive team. For example, if you prefer to focus on the big picture and tend toward an “abandoning” (or laissez-faire) style of people management, the company might benefit from another strong leader who is more facilitative and able to pay attention to the details of employees’ day-to-day needs and activities.

How can a new leadership role create balance?

A key benefit of adding to the executive team is to create new perspectives within the company. Every leader has blind spots, and new additions to the team should be vested to challenge and influence the current leadership’s approach and direction, while respecting the company’s creative and philosophical roots. Despite differences in style, leaders should be able to constructively agree on the overall vision for the company and philosophy of management. We can help you assess your needs in depth and hire leaders who will challenge assumptions, while providing collaborative support.

Should you hire or outsource?

Hiring a full-time C-Suite executive is a long-term investment, which can involve substantial compensation packages (sometimes including equity incentives) and even building the organizational structure around key individuals. If your company is not ready for that level of commitment or hasn’t yet found the perfect match, outsourcing may be an option. Many key leadership functions can be performed on a contract or temporary basis by motivated, experienced professional executives. Outsourced leaders can be housed within your company full-time during times of transition or utilized on an as-needed basis.

Diversity breeds innovation and growth

The executive team is an ideal place to build diversity into the culture of your company. According to Ilit Raz, founder of Joonko, in Forbes: “There’s strong evidence that the companies which intentionally invest in diversity are more innovative, yielding elevated business performance. Having a more diverse team makes for more diverse viewpoints in product development, sales and marketing processes, management, and other business situations.”

Creating Sustainable Value

At Georgia Oak, we believe the days of “financial engineering” have come and gone. As with everything we do, our focus is on cultivating stability to foster smart growth to transform your vision into a long-term legacy. We believe companies live and die by the people involved, from the front lines to the C-Suite and everywhere in between.

As you consider the best strategy for filling out your leadership team, let us help fill in the gaps with guidance, resources and people to help your company realize its full potential. Our team of seasoned operational and financial executives are experts in working with management teams in the development and execution in:

• Strategy


• Operations


• Corporate Finance


• Mergers and Acquisitions


• Sales and Marketing Strategy and Execution


• Culture, Recruiting and Retention

Leadership for Your Legacy

As a business owner, you have poured your heart and soul into bringing your ideas to fruition. Bringing on new executives to grow your company can be a daunting exercise in trust, as well as an exciting way to expand your potential. We never lose sight of what that trust means, and how important it is to have the right people leading your company into the future.

More often than not, there is a lone, passionate CEO or owner leading the company he or she founded, wearing many hats (and drinking lots of coffee to keep up). Naturally, this creates gaps in leadership or bandwidth. Our expertise and support help tailor a leadership plan to meet your company’s specific culture and growth needs, allowing you (the business owner) to do what you do best.

Links & Resources

• Leadership Styles: Facilitating, Micromanaging or Abandoning


• Building a Strong Enterprise through Diverse Workforce


• The Future of the Workforce