The "forte" or "specialty" of our executives is providing hands-on leadership at your company for a specified period of time.

Each one of our 200-plus executives has at least 20 years of progressive experience leading successful businesses. We carefully match the correct ForteCEO executive(s) for your specific business situation and culture. They bring to your business their industry knowledge, specific operating expertise, grasp of tangible and intangible issues, and dedication to problem solving.

Your ForteCEO executive works alongside you and your team - for as long as is necessary -- to identify problems and opportunities, assess solutions, and implement change. Our executives like to get their hands dirty.

Though our executives all have C-level experience, our assignments are not limited to the "top leadership role" at a business. Many of our most successful assignments have been assisting business owners as COOs, sales managers or with no title at all. We report to business owners while we perform special projects that involve hands-on implementation.

Some examples of when Business owners contact ForteCEO include:

• They want to exit their business and maximize the fruits of years of hard work
• Manage fast growth more effectively
• Overcome challenges depressing earnings
• Escape the Founders Trap and accomplish their personal dreams
• When they're questioning company performance
• When they are facing tough transitions (such as business integration, divestitures, acquisitions, product introductions and rapid growth).

Some signs your business' performance may not be optimal, and you could benefit from a seasoned interim executive, are:

• 2 to 3 years' flat revenues
• Level or declining market share
• Critical projects or opportunities not getting worked on
• A looming crisis could hurt your business if a plan is not quickly developed and aggressively managed
• A key executive is lost - or a key executive isn't performing as needed
• A major shift in your customer base
• Business has been lost to offshore competitors
• The owner wants to exit the business but would like to increase the value first.

ForteCEO executives assist privately owned businesses. Our services are engaged by business owners to renew their companies - and to evaluate and improve their companies' performance.

ForteCEO serves all industries. Our more than 200 executives have broad industry experience in virtually every category, from farming to high tech. We have specialists in growth & renewal strategies, business exits, strategy implementation, due diligence, and many more.

ForteCEO engagements range in duration from a few months to more than a year. When your goals are accomplished and you have achieved a return of many multiples of your investment in the interim executive, our job is done.

There are four key differences:

First, ForteCEO executives are carefully selected and each has over 20 years of experience running his/her own business or having senior executive functional or financial responsibilities. You will not have freshly minted MBAs learning on the job.

Second, ForteCEO handles the executive qualification, selection and matching process so the right executive is matched to your assignment. In most cases, you will have executives who have completed prior assignments for ForteCEO. We save you the time of interviewing and evaluating independent consultants on your own - and the guesswork of wondering if they can do the job.

Third, we don't just give advice, we are implementers. Our executives are entrenched in your company and work as partners with you and your management. They work in your environment, discuss topics with your managers, walk your shop floor, and talk to your customers - for as long as needed to achieve success.

Fourth, because we are the largest firm in the United States specializing in interim executives for private businesses, we have the right executive available for your company who understands your issues and your industry.

We believe in total integrity in our dealings with you and your partners, and this ethical commitment extends to how we use, manage and store your information. We assure you of 100 percent confidentiality. More detail is outlined in our strict code of ethics and confidentiality that we live by.

Definitely! Most of our executives have led multiple business recoveries (or turnarounds). In many cases, these recoveries required a heavy dose of "blocking and tackling" - a return to the basics.

In other cases, our clients are operating based on assumptions (client, pricing, market) that no longer apply. Rapid, sweeping changes are then necessary to get the business back on track.

Business recovery demands an experienced, hands-on leader; it is no place for on-the-job training. ForteCEO executives are there to rapidly figure out what is needed, and work with you to bring your business back to health.

The per diem cost of an interim executive is about the same as the "fully loaded" cost of a permanent seasoned executive - because you do not pay for benefits, vacation, sick days, health insurance, etc., and there are no severance agreements.

In most cases, however, you are getting better value for your money, as you benefit from many more years of experience.

ForteCEO provides you with an executive who will add value to your business far in excess of our fees. We make sure that you are always in control of the cost, and that you have tangible results to show for your money.

Give us a call (866-663-6783) or request a meeting. One of our firm leaders will begin with a no-obligation conversation to be sure that we understand the issues. We then introduce you to one or more of the executives on our team who have relevant experience to your business issues. We then tell you exactly what we will do for you and your business; we may even recommend a solution that does not involve ForteCEO. Our purpose is to provide value that you can measure. If we can't accomplish that, then we will not pursue the engagement.

Finally, we prepare a written agreement that outlines how we would proceed and the cost. For some of our clients, a full-time ForteCEO executive is not necessary, and working a few days a week will be most effective.

Many business owners prefer to start with a high-level assessment of their business, prepared by one of our interim executives and firm leaders. Normally, we perform this initial assessment for a fixed fee. At the end of this phase of the engagement, we present our findings in person along with a full written report.

Our purpose is to bring value to your business; typically, business owners achieve improvements in operating results and/or company valuation many times our fee. We don't ask you to sign any long-term agreements. If you are not certain we are delivering the value you desire, contracts can be cancelled with short notice and without severance or cancellation fees.

Our interim engagements typically last six months to a year. This is the type of work that most of our executives prefer. It affords them the opportunity to work with your organization, implement the necessary changes, and train new or existing individuals to provide ongoing leadership without tying them up in a permanent position. If a situation arises, however, where one of our clients would like to hire one of our executives on a permanent basis, we have made provisions in our agreement to allow for the "direct hire" of a ForteCEO executive.