Professor Elam

Monday Sept 16 2013

 

Time
Well Spent – Sixty Minutes with Susan Hough

 

Susan
Hough had spliced me into her busy schedule on a bright September morning.   The Managing Director of the San
Antonio office of Resources Global Professionals met me in the well-lit
conference room on the sixth floor of One International Centre. Like many San
Antonio financial professionals, the office is located at the juncture of North
Loop 410 and Highway 281.

Resources
Global Professionals RGP originally began as a consulting division of DeLoitte
& Touche CPAs in 1996. It separated in 1999 and went public in December
2000. It trades under the symbol RCEN with 1800 clients in some 70 countries.
As Susan later remarked, what do 87 of the Fortune 100 have in common; they are
clients of resource Global Professionals. Before we explore Resources, let’s
meet Susan.

Over
coffee in the conference room, it was clear her family ties ran deep. A self
–described Air force brat, her Dad joined the military in 1942 serving in WWII,
Korea, and Viet Nam spending thirty years doing what he enjoyed. Born at Wright
Patterson in Ohio, and living in Okinawa, gravitating to San Antonio when her
Dad retired was a natural. She was in the second graduating class of Clark High
School, and then graduated from Southwest Texas State University In December
1984. She received her CPA in  1988
and   worked for Peat Marwick for 2.5 years before joining USAA.
She learned the workings of USAA where she spent 20 years. She joined RGP in
October 2008 as a Client Service Director.

After
five years with the company, Susan still beams the RGP mantra, Do the right thing because it’s the right
thing to do. The company website makes it clear that RGP is not the
traditional outside looking down at the company kind of consultant. Rather, the
firm ‘pioneers an inside out approach, learning the culture of the client
company first.’

The
firm employs individuals with 10-20 years of finance and accounting experience.
As Managing Director of Client Services, Susan emphasized that her focus is on
determining the needs of the client. Then her job is to match the Resources, no
wonder they chose that name, of the firm with her client’s needs.

RGP
has multiple service lines for clients. These include Finance and Accounting,
Human Capital, Information Management, Risk and Compliance, and Supply Chain
Management.  RGP is all about
addressing the chaos, confusion, and uncertainty resulting from increased
regulation such as Sarbanes Oxley SARBOX and Dodd-Frank.

RGP
keeps their consultants abreast of the latest changes via the RGP Academy. The
Academy provides web casts for targeted groups. This serves to keep firm
consultants abreast of change and works as an information portal to potential
and current clients.

One
of Susan’s passions consists of giving back to the community. She earned her
MBA at the University of Texas at San Antonio UTSA while still working at USAA.
UTSA now has some 100,000 alums with 75% of
them living in the Central Texas
area. After five years on the Alumni Board of UTSA, Susan Hough is now serving
as the President of the Board. 
Participating in UTSA alumni events clearly brightens her day. As a side
note, Susan has a son attending A & M College Station and has taken the 12^th
man pledge…..

Good
Managing Directors have great staff. Susan insisted I mention the entire team.
Mike Jenkins serves as Director of Client Services, and Amanda Stewart is
Operations Coordinators and the newest member of the team, Courtney Kuhn is a
Recruiting Manager. . Brian Yeich is Director of Recruiting. The consultants in
at client offices rise and fall in number as business demands dictate. All
however are employees, not 1099 contractors.  Susan specifically mentioned consultants who want work life
balance and feel like valued subject matter experts make the best RGP
consultants.

I
asked about the vetting procedure for a new consultant. Surely Resources does
not just send a new recruit, no matter their experience, out to a client,
hoping things will go well.

Without
consulting the company manual, Susan quickly recited the rubrics that comprise
a successful Resources consultant.

First,
the person must possess talent in their field.

Second,
this must be a person of high integrity.

Third,
the consultant must possess enthusiasm. This is expressed via a desire to help
and a curiosity to learn about the client company.

Fourth,
loyalty to the mantra of RGP (do the right thing) is paramount. For the
sustainable business model, the consultant must want to work here, not
elsewhere.

So
how does one create a culture that drives and supports these four rubrics?  The answer came in Susan’s example of
their annual conference three years ago, held in Detroit, Michigan. The group
was divided into teams. The team project was to assemble a bicycle. This took
about 45 minutes to an hour.  Once
assembled, the group was surprised to meet 100 children from the Boys and girls
club of inner city Detroit. These needy children were delighted to receive
brand new bikes along with a lock and helmet. . And then the team got to field
the question from the kids,

How
do I get to work for a company like this?

Recent
college graduates don’t get to work for a company like this, they have to earn
the experience, background, and character first.  This model of business consulting, doing the right thing, continues
to power RGP earnings and meet clients’ needs around the world.