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Ray

Is a new CEO really that imperative that soon?

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In the grand scheme of things the club will still continue to operate without a CEO, that’s what Departmental Managers are for, the infrastructure exists for it to happen and we already have a financial person in place, so as regards the bigger financial picture and controls (budgeting transfers in and out, etc.) it is covered.

I assert that the football side of the club is the most pressing issue, it just depends how we set up to handle it. Over the last few years the CEO has taken control of the playing side of the club via the Football Executive Board and we’ve all seen what that brought about.

IMO, that should change and could/should be addressed immdiately by either bringing in a manager with bags of experience in dealing with these matters, and dispersing of the Football Executive Board, or by creating a position to be filled by an experienced individual, again dispersing of the Football Executive Board. By doing this we can regain some respect and kudos with players, their agents and other clubs PDQ. That doesn’t necessarily mean AN departs but we just set up differently.

A CEO does not, and very rarely is, steeped in experience and undertanding of the playing side of football and the playing side of things are paramount (and time sensitive) for us right now. So, do we really need to putting all our energies in finding a new CEO, can’t this wait?

Once we have sorted the playing side, then perhaps we can look at the CEO position and ensure we appoint the right individual as CEO, and by that I mean someone with the business acumen to see where we are going as a club and to take the appropriate steps to change course if need be, IMO this is probably more important than appointing someone because they are steeped in football experience, although I fully accept a healthy knowledge of the game would be useful. That person should be a natural leader, a people’s person who can get the best out of his team, by making new appointments if necessary, a person who can set strategy, a visionary who can make it happen, rather than a visionary who doesn’t (we can probably all do that).

How many business leaders are skilled in all the functions of there business, very few I venture to suggest, however they are able to see the bigger picture, join all the dots and get the appropriately skilled individuals around them to make it happen, or to give it a shorter definition, someone who understands what team work is and fosters it.

Would be interested in serious thoughts from others.

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The club is rudderless without a C.E. O. They need to be involved in the important decisions going forward.

My guess is that there will be an appointment very soon, not least because the sponsorship deal needs to be finalised which impacts on the shirt design for next year.

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Felixfan,

Whilst I agree to a certain extent, my point is that there is only so much energy that can be expended and I feel it should be expended on the playing side as the main priority, rather than shirt design. Given our recent efforts on shirt design does it really need the expertise of a highly paid CEO or is it a decision that can be taken elsewhere for now?

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Well Ray, it seems to me that football goes round in circles because nothing works forever. I remember the years after Chase when we regrouped and can remember Delia becoming majority shareholder criticising Big Fat Bob for being the "all singing all dancing" CE. Delia said they''d learned from that and were putting a team in place so that no one person called the shots in how the club is run. But then 10 or so years later this team wasn''t working so David McNally was appointed and by the time he left he''d pretty much become the "all singing all dancing" CE. Now I guess we will go back to the team model again.

 

It''s all a bit like with the football managers playing attacking or containing. You can''t win unless you do win and if you do win it''s working.....

 

 

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But surely the CEO is in charge of budgets, salaries and contracts ?

Not sure how any player can be offered new terms or contracts wIthout the CEO and recruitment cant/wont happen !

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nutty,

Yep funny ol'' game nutty, funny ol'' game.

Seems like Delia and Michael didn''t listen to their own advice!

IMO there is a great deal that needs repairing throughout but it has to start with that which is time constrained, the football side. Admin, for the want of a better word, can wait a few weeks surely.

There needs to be some very strategic and insightful decisions made in the next few days or.....

There exists within the club, not necessarily employed, a great deal of business acumen, will it be called upon, we shall wait and see.

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Baywing,

Yes I agree but we have an interim CEO who is steeped in financial knowledge and experience, so it is covered for now. The point I am making is that before we even get to contract negotiations we need to identify the right management/management support and players and that does not/should not come from a CEO.

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Quality is more important than speed but given our current circumstances we need one asap there is shed loads to sort out and i suspect no one at the club remotely capable of doing it at the moment

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Yorkshire,

I agree 100%, quality over speed and if there is no-one at the club capable of handling it, and I''m not sure I agree that point, then we have many senior business people as fans/season ticket holders, who run their own (large) businesses very well, including Mr Foulger. Surely one of those guys could be called upon, assumimg they would accept the mantle, to oversee the next couple of months or so while due diligence takes place on the full time appointment.

As you say, there is shed loads to sort out and we need to take our time to ensure we employ the right person to do the job. Bevington is available?

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The truth is we do not have time and we cannot afford to tie the hands of anew CEO by making rash decisions. The whole financial,playing and future structure has to be sorted and the new CEO has to be part of that. I am sure possible candidates are being sounded out as we speak.

The manager has already said it is difficult to move forward until an appointment is made.

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Felixfan,

I''m not quite sure I understand your point you make in your first sentence, however if I do, then we could say we cannot tie the hands of the manager by making rash decisions on the CEO. However, I would be delighted if, as you say, candidates are being sounded out as we speak, but if we are saying we can not move on the playing side until that person is in place and spent some time understanding what is needed, we may well get left behind (again), blimey much was made of us being a few weeks behind last season as a result of having to wait for the play-off final.

Sounding someone out, agreeing a contract, potentially paying compensation, potentially working a notice period (although unlikely if already within the football world) and then spending sufficient time to get to understand the ethos of the club and forging the strategy to make the changes needed, will surely take more time than we have available if we want to be on the front foot. If I''m wrong and all this can be achieved within 10 days, then fantastic, if not then my point is we need to put plan B in place so we can get on with it.

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Yes there must be "shed loads" of things to sort out at the club from a business and administration point of view. The main thing though is getting the ins and outs right, that''s going to be set against a financial strategy set by the board. Who will be advising the Board in this respect, maybe Edd will take on the role of financial advisor together with Stone.

The key issue is how we recruit, I am desperately worried that we will repeat thei mistakes of the past. The football board idea failed us, so where do we go from here and who will be advising on strategy from a football perspective. We are in a worrying vacuum atm

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Vanwink,

Indeed a worying vacuum and that is the crux of my initial post, some serious decisions need to be made and quick.

I must admit whilst I was in the ''pleased to see him go'' camp re DM, the fact he had been allowed to control everything has created this vacuum, particularly given the timing and the situation we find ourselves in.

Probably pointless laying blame for that anywhere now, but let''s hope lessons have been learned.

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Steve Stone is currently filling in as CEO, just chaired the monthly staff meeting. Don''t expect there will be a quick appointment, couple of months perhaps.

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Having supported the club for a very long time i am not convinced that we ever learn much by the mistakes made, rather lurching from one strategy to another. Every now and again we get lucky and make some right decisions eg Mc nally in the early days,lambert andNeil. Lets hope we get lucky again and get a decent CEO in as it is a crucial time for the club, make a poor decision now and we could be championship or worse for a long time

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Having just posted the above it occurred to me that the clubs silence on this matter is somewhat annoying. Could we not have a statement of where their intentions lie, all we seem to get is stonewall silence.

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Ed Balls has already intimated that the new CEO will have specialised football experience. This is a crucial area.

Give that we do not have a European delegated model, it would be wise for the new CEO to incorporate elements of a Director of Football (UK sense, overseer) and both Sporting Director (football philosophy, academy) and Technical Director (Contracts, negotiation, values).

The thought that an over-arching Manager could or should be able to combine / achieve all of this in the modern business of football is anathema.

The new Norwich CEO must be able to critique playing philosophy, acquisition value and strategy, youth development and ongoing (football) managerial attainment.

The previous mantra of "the football side and the business side" must remain consigned to history. Successful blending of the two on all levels is the only way forward, both in corporate and sporting terms.

Parma

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I hope that Our Ed will stick to that Parma.

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[quote user="Ron Manager"]I hope that Our Ed will stick to that Parma.[/quote]I doubt our ''Footballing Board'' would even know what Parma''s post means.

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OldRobert wrote the following post at 18/05/2016 12:50 PM:

Ron Manager wrote:

I hope that Our Ed will stick to that Parma.

I doubt our ''Footballing Board'' would even know what Parma''s post means.

😄

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Okay, lets give this some factual background of what is likely to be happening. Take my own history.

I have personal experience of acting as interim CEO of an arts organisation. When the existing CEO announced he had a new job, the Chair immediately asked me to stand in whilst they searched for a replacement, but made it very clear to me that because I had no specific arts management experience before taking up my finance role, I would not be considered for the CEO role. I was there to keep a steady hand on the tiller until a new CEO came in who would implement their own new strategic direction. However what was anticipated as being a couple of months eventually became 6 months because of contractual obligations of the new CEO to his previous organisation.

During the six month period I was able to get sign off on budgets that were largely set in stone prior to the former CEO''s announcement. I was also allowed to implement the strategic changes of MOST of the plans implied in that budget. This included appointing to middle ranking roles and below, but all senior roles that became vacant / were new in the former CEO''s strategic plan were postponed. This led to a vacuum in some areas of the business and this meant I started to manage more issues internally than would necessarily be the direct responsibility of the CEO. This meant I was not able to do the outward facing networking that a CEO is usually expected to undertake. in addition all new major contracts were that might result in a change in the business were also off limits. Thankfully, due to the timing of the changeover there was no great change in the environment we were operating that required any significant input. Finally the board were potentially not as supportive (although keen on keeping a watchful eye on results) than what they could be as they were focussed on the new CEO and influencing what he would bring to the organisation. I enjoyed the opportunity but was frustrated that I was not able to truly impose my own personality and views upon the strategy of the organisation. However I can say the period was in hindsight a relatively calm period for it and my tenure did not have any lasting detriment to the organisation. I was able, because there were no significant other changes or major decisions to make, to keep all staff and the Board moving in the same direction.

So conclusions on this applied to Norwich City. Well if we were mid-season then the OP''s view might well hold some water as the position would be similar to the one I faced.

However I believe this is not the case here, and the club really needs to have a strong leader. The next three months are the busiest period of change traditionally in any club. In our case this includes getting over all the impact and fall-out from relegation. The club faces a huge amount of change, both in the playing staff and the back of house team. I''m sure a budget for next year requires finalising (although the club are famous for quoting that they budget for every scenario so may not have to adjust their financial plan too much).

Without a CEO who can be objective, yet fully conscious of and reflect upon the strategic direction for all major decisions then I fear in my experience that nothing of any value will happen. Unlike in my position this will lead to frustration and could see the early departure of people who might otherwise made a good contribution, across all areas of the club. I found that a Chair seen to be interfering in the running of the club was actually a huge distraction; I had to refrain them from doing so.

My biggest fear in this role however is that it will be nigh on impossible for anybody who is currently employed to take up the role before the end of the season unless a "transfer" fee is paid to their current employees. If they aren''t currently employed, the likelihood is that they aren''t up to much in terms of management anyway. So either way we are probably stuffed for this close season unless the Board put their money where their mouth is. If all the conjecture on here of their past behaviour is true then that is unlikely and we will see a gentlemanly approach.

Steve Stone - is he up for it?

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Thanks, shefcanary,

Very insightful real life experience.

Bootom line appears to be forming, we are up the creek without a paddle, unless soemone can grab hold of this PDQ, which of course they may be doing.

I have a feeling Ed Balls could be the one to make things happen quickly but he will no doubt have other long standing committments that could get in the way.

It goes back to the question of how did we let one man put us in this position, which I''m certain was his game plan, but little point wasting too much energy, if any, worrying about that now, let''s just hope the lessons have been learned to ensure we are never left as vulnerable again.

Also, I suspect the silence is because until there is something positive to say, then say nothing, or, for all sorts of reasons silence may be golden when it comes to ensuring we land the right man?

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The CEO needs

a framework to work within rather than the club needing a CEO to provide one.There''s probably too little time to appoint a new CEO before pre-season preparations begin, and an important appointment is certainly

something that shouldn''t be rushed. So the club needs to go with what its got and start thinking about where it goes from here.After having things go wrong for a protracted period the board can do two things. One, look to identify and copy what presently works at other clubs. Two, look back at its own history to a time when things went right for a significant period.One seems hit and miss in the present era, with many clubs having a rich owner and few comparable clubs breaking into the top division for any significant period. Two obviously involves looking at

factors that changed between the successful and unsuccessful periods. Two can be difficult, as you need to look back many years and examine many

different and potentially confounding variables, especially if the

landscape has changed drastically in the intervening period.Regardless of how Chase''s regime ended, he and his board had a strategy that worked well for several years, ie using the proceeds from selling star players for relatively large amounts to invest back into infrastructure and development. And for this to work he relied on a transfer strategy that bought predominantly younger, cheaper players with a greater profit potential, as well as the integration of youth players (often initially as squad fillers) into the first team.The staff at Colney perhaps had little choice but to use their relatively small budget wisely, predominantly looking to buy for the future and go for the best value. Paradoxical to the belief that you can''t sell your best players and be successful, the team managed to shrug off the effects of losing its best players and developed in a sustainable way whilst playing in the top division.What needs to happen right now is that the executive board needs to sit down with the football board (manager, coaches, chief scout etc) and hammer out a fresh strategy, after having considered the pre-decline era as outlined above and hopefully learned lessons from the past.Questions need to be asked about many strategic issues ie buying/selling strategy, integration of youth, loan policy, scouting, age balance, the balance between aiming at squad building versus going for promotion, etc, etc. As with the Chase years, everyone needs to understand the strategy and be prepared to stick with it, as there aren''t any magic shortcuts to success as things stand.The mood music from Paddy Davitt, as well as Alex Neil''s recent comments, suggest a shift in strategy after two relegations has left us with an older squad that is of questionable quality and harder to maintain via like-for-like replacement.Whatever happens, we shouldn''t be relying on one or two people to set the direction. It

should come from the whole board, with an input from those within the football side of

the club and elsewhere.

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two things.

The "silence" is mainly due to timescales. DM resigned on the 7th May, and it was accepted , according to Ed Balls on the Sunday. That''s 10 days ago. Although people seem to think this was some form of cunning plan on behalf of the club; some form of strategy, it most definitely wasn''t. There was no contingency in place . I don''t think we should be at all surprised by the club not saying anything.

The role of a CEO ranges from a role were all parts of the organisation reports into, to where the CEO plays a very active part in day to day operations. Whilst DM has a large ish team reporting into him, he was the man when it comes to the critical aspects of the club such as player negotiation. This is the vacuum that has been left, and one which currently Steve Stone , and the remaining committee are trying to fill. The whole idea of the football committee from before never worked properly because the then manager ( a complete novice) was expected to defer on many matters , not least to a fully experienced Joe Royle (oh the irony) . We then got Alex Neil, who took back some of the player negotiations and worked with DM on contracts etc. The committee has been largely a group of people without much power , all reporting into McNally. It was all rather silly at the time, and became even sillier when we still get asked to describe Ricky Martin as Technical Director.

I would not be at all surprised to see Neil take on even more of the player negotiations ( he certainly will be at the moment ) and that Steve Stone gets the role , but not with the same responsibilities as DM had. I don''t think you will see a mini-me McNally come in. I think he had made that role his own, especially with the departure of Bowkett.

I would still love to see a "European" technical director - not least to boost the scouting operation , as well as a go to for the coaching staff . But we end up with a guy that played for Wroxham.

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Where is Lapps with one of his "doomed" posts when you need him.

The club still has the same owners who found Mcnally when we needed a CEO so who''s to say they can''t do it again. Ed Balls love him or hate him has plenty of economic nouse to keep things steady for now and with the Euros looming the transfer market will be pretty quiet for a while yet so no need to panic.

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The transfer market will not be quiet, we are in the championship and most championship players or below do not feature as internationals. Newcastle, now Villa and the other near miss promotion clubs will already be looking to trade and if we are not careful we will miss the boat in similar fashion to last season. The whole board now have a feel of being a similar standard to your typical parish council and are desperate to stumble across someone who actually knows what to do in the football world. We are probably as likely to get a Doncaster as opposed to the Mc Nalley of 2009.

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A new Club CEO will not be appointed until our Majority Shareholding Duo have detail checked their family tree, including close friends and social acquaintances.......(with like-minded political views)........ ;-)

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Apparently we have tasked the job of finding a new CEO to an outside headhunter, one who previously has been used by Liverpool in the past. Steve Stone remains in the hunt but it could well take two months to ultimately make a decision. (Staff meeting this week).

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[quote user="Ron Manager"]Apparently we have tasked the job of finding a new CEO to an outside headhunter, one who previously has been used by Liverpool in the past. Steve Stone remains in the hunt but it could well take two months to ultimately make a decision. (Staff meeting this week).[/quote]I wish you hadn''t told me that..................what about the upcoming transfer window, or are we going to give that a miss like last season?

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