Spring Cleaning Reminder: 5 Critical Documents Every CEO Should Review

Birds chirping. Ice melting. Packing away the suede boots and swapping them out for sandals and flip flops. As we wash off the salt gunk from our vehicles (if you’re in the south you may not understand this concept) and retire the heavy coats for another season, we excitedly anticipate longer days and shorter nights. It seems like everyone is ready for a fresh start. And many people are in the midst of spring cleaning – out with the old and in with the new. Organizing, cleaning, sorting, donating, rearranging and purging. As long as we’re in that frame of mind, let’s carry that over to the office. Almost every business has documents and policies that should be reviewed on a regular basis. Here are a few that might need some attention in your organization.

1. Mission Statement

Does your organization have a mission statement? Do you read it regularly? Does your staff know you have one? Do they understand how it correlates to service delivery? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your mission statement might need a little revival. Or maybe a manifestation. A while back, I was working with a credit union to create a mission statement. The CEO wanted to include the word “convenient.” However, at that time, they had no Saturday hours and closed every day at 5pm. When I challenged him about why he thought the credit union was convenient with those limitations, he said, “Because we’re always here for our members.” You can imagine how that conversation progressed. I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that after a spirited discussion, the management team agreed that the word “convenient” didn’t truly reflect where they were at that time. If your mission statement is in a frame hanging on the wall collecting dust, decide if you actually need it. If you do, make sure your current daily practices and service levels are adequately reflecting it. If you need to create one or revise one, consider input from your staff. They have valuable ideas, and they will be living this document daily.

2. Organizational Structure

Most businesses have an organizational structure – either formal or informal. But when is the last time it was updated? Does your team know what it looks like? A change in your organizational structure might be one of the most significant impacts on the efficiency of your business. The results of Covid and companies establishing remote work forces have caused many businesses to drastically change their basic operation. That includes how people conduct business with your company, how your staff performs their jobs either on-site or remotely, and how management oversees their respective departments. Have you reviewed your organization’s structure to analyze if the right people are in the right positions doing the right jobs? Should you reassign job duties, add staff or modify job descriptions to reflect how you currently provide service? Organization alignment allows employees to focus on performing work rather than figuring out who is supposed to do what, who has what authority level, and who needs to be consulted when making certain decisions.

3. Contracts and Service Agreements

What is your process for examining contracts? I’m not referring to those that are about to expire, but every contract you have in place. Contracts come with a variety of terms and requirements. Some include auto renewals. Some include client requirements and obligatory commitments. Make sure you’re familiar with the contracts on file, especially if you “inherited” these business documents. Often times, a predecessor may have signed a contract, but you may be the responsible person now. Review your contracts regularly and create a system for automatic renewals. Consider reviewing all contracts annually. We worked with a credit union years ago, and the CEO signed a contract for a new core processor. What he didn’t realize was that his old core processor had an auto renewal clause. The credit union spent thousands of dollars to get out of the old contract, simply because the CEO hadn’t paid attention to the terms, and it auto renewed. Certain contracts require notification months in advance of the renewal/end dates, and it could prove very costly if important dates are overlooked.

4. CEO and Management Succession Plans

One of the greatest hurdles facing many businesses is the absence of a solid succession plan for their top brass. And I don't mean just the CEO. Many companies have a key employee who possesses a vast amount of knowledge. Knowledge that no one else has. This is a very dangerous position for any business. What are you doing to ensure your company continues to function in the absence of a CEO or a key team member? I've witnessed my fair share of credit union mergers: when the big cheese decides to retire, and there's no one waiting in the wings, often times the result is a merger. Take some time to evaluate your "Plan B" in the absence of a CEO or critical employee.

5. Fees and Pricing

This is one of my standard reminders for review annually. That doesn’t mean all fees and pricing should change every year. But some fees could, and should, change if market conditions warrant. Time flies and if you don’t make a point to review this every year, you could be missing out on additional revenue. I asked a credit union CEO once about their fee schedule. She said they had just updated it “a year or so” earlier. But when she finally looked, fees hadn’t been adjusted for five years. Know your cost of delivery and your overhead expenses and position your fees and pricing schedule accordingly.

Overall, spring is a great time to clean house and review some of those archived documents to ensure they are still pertinent, effective, and realistic. If they’re not, it might be time to dust them off, edit them, and bring them back to life.