Who Runs Your Business If You're Gone 90 Days?

Jeff Parnell asked a longtime owner who would run her company if she spent 90 days in the hospital. She went quiet for three minutes, then asked him to help her sell it.

Jeff Parnell has spent 35 years in the C suite, 20 of them as CEO. Today he steps in as an interim CEO when an owner is ready to hand off, and this year he helped launch the first employee ownership trust in Pennsylvania.

He once asked a longtime owner who would run her company if she spent 90 days in the hospital. She went quiet for three minutes, then asked him to help her sell it. The question comes from his own life. In February 2018 he left Cleveland Clinic with a new heart after five weeks in the hospital, and he kept working from his hospital bed.

His read on owners in the $1 to $20 million range: about eight times out of ten, nothing is written down. When Bob is out for a week, the quote waits, and Bob has seven competitors who will send one in a heartbeat. His answer is what he calls urgency without panic. Start the plan now, so if three years turns into eight months, you still have options.

In this episode

• Building ecommerce inside a catalog company approaching 100 years old, right after the dot com bust
• Why being real matters more than choosing every word perfectly
• The 90 day hospital question, and the owner who asked him to sell her company
• Telling the buyer exactly what still needs fixing
• Why your employees already know you are thinking about selling
• His heart transplant, and what his surgeon told him about going in to win
• Urgency without panic, and the new rules that come with a transition
• What happens when nothing is written down and one person takes a week off
• Busy owners who will not let go
• How he uses AI to do the research before the expensive meetings
• How an employee ownership trust works for companies too small for an ESOP
• The foreman who says an EOT is like a muscle
• Why he is writing The Heart of Transition, and who should not bring in an interim CEO

Timestamps

1. 00:00Intro
2. 01:07Launching ecommerce through the dot com bust
3. 02:30Changing culture as the outsider
4. 03:46Be real before you try to build culture
5. 04:29What if you were in the hospital for 90 days?
6. 06:24Telling the buyer what still needs fixing
7. 08:04Your employees already know
8. 09:12The heart transplant behind the question
9. 13:25Meeting his surgeon
10. 15:20Urgency without panic
11. 17:43New rules for a business in transition
12. 19:18Fast pit stops and keeping owners on task
13. 21:22How he gets a business ready to sell
14. 23:21When nothing is written down
15. 25:27Taking time to sharpen the saw
16. 27:37Busy owners who will not let go
17. 28:22How he uses AI with clients
18. 29:56How an employee ownership trust works
19. 32:26The foreman who chairs the trust
20. 34:57An EOT is like a muscle
21. 35:59Why he is writing The Heart of Transition
22. 37:56Who should not bring in an interim CEO
23. 38:54The hard conversations
24. 40:52What is next for Jeff and the book
25. 42:01Where to find Jeff

About Jeff Parnell

Jeff Parnell is a Transition Executive, an interim and fractional CEO based in Erie, Pennsylvania. He spent 35 years in the C suite, 20 of them as CEO, including building the ecommerce business at Blair Corporation, and moved into advisory work in 2023 to help owners with exit, succession, and employee ownership. He interviewed more than 200 business owners for his book, The Heart of Transition, due in early 2027.

Website and book www.transitionyourbusiness.com

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/jeffparnell

Email: [email protected]