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. 

 

Thursday Sept 12, 2013

 Paul Petrucci will visit our campus next Thursday Sept 19. He will speak and answer questions in Room 139 from 4 45 to 5 30 PM. This will be an informative program about internal uniting. Please pass the word so we can have a good attendance.

Paul Petrucci

Paul is an Internal Audit Manager with Petco Animal Supplies, Inc. He has over 16 years experience in various operations and audit roles. Paul joined Petco in 2002 and is currently responsible for overseeing the corporate and field operational audit functions. He received a Bachelor of Science in Finance at Bentley University and a Masters in Business Administration at The University of Massachusetts. Paul holds various professional certifications including CIA, CCSA, CRMA & CISA. He is an active member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Information Systems Audit & Control Association (ISACA). Paul currently serves as Vice President of the San Antonio IIA chapter. Info about presentation: Title: Internal Auditing: A Career for Today, A Career for Tomorrow Learning Objectives: · Getting to know Internal Auditing · Life as an Internal Auditor – Is it for me? · Internal Auditor Value Proposition to Stakeholders · Professional Associates – Why Participate?

Thursday Sept 12 2013

Diana Aquire and I attended the monthly meeting of SA internal Auditors yesterday.The program was a panel discussion of the relatonship between the internal auditors and the audit committee. It was a blue ribbon group with Internal Auditors from Nustar, HEB, USAA, and Frost Bank.

Diana took these notes from the panel comments. 

September 11, 2013

The panelists discussed the way their companies prepare for their Audit meetings, here is a brief observation summary:

Ignacio Fortuno, Director Internal Audit, HEB

-Private company

-Board of Directors is the family that owns the company

-Emphasized on the importance of a proper delivery of the Executive Summary

-Says we need research the backgrounds of our boss, in order to “speak the same language” 

 

Jeff Rowland, VP Internal Audit, USAA

-Public company

-Reports to 10 Boards

-Seeks Relevance when items are presented to the board

-Used the following quote by his boss “Audit relevant, audit right”

-Makes sure everything is factual in order to maintain credibility

-Adheres to Federal Regulations

 

Heather Sarra, Executive Director Internal Audit, Nu Star Energy

-Reports to two boards, 1 in town, 1 out of town

-Reports on High Risk issues to the audit committee

-Follows up on previous issues and points on when that issue was first brought to the board

-Allows the managers of their respective department to explain a situation if necessary on a voluntary basis in order to get their own perspective

 

Carol Severyn, SVP Internal Audit, Frost Bank

-Public company

-Uses rating system for items to be presented, Top 2 will go to the audit committee

-This will be the first year the have external QA, because they have so many other ways of control

-When managers of departments are asked to attend the meetings, they are consulted “coached” on the kind of questions they will receive and who will be in those meetings.

-Adheres to Federal Regulations

-Emphasized on the importance of accommodating to the needs of the boss

-Creates a relationship with the various departments in order to build trust & so they can be viewed and used as a resource.

 

 

When asked what characteristics are needed for a candidate to be chosen to work with them, they responded:

-Personality

-Driven

-Brings Value to the company

-Thirsty for knowledge! Asks questions of why or how things are done and seeks efficiency for the company

-IT savvy

 

 

 

Tuesday Sept 10 2013

Here is the official anouncement. But why do this?  This is not UT Austin where parking is in short supply, There are plenty of places to park at both campuses. Receiving a parking ticket is a big negative. And all the information gathered on the car to obtain the sticker remains a mystery to me. After all, anyone can walk in eithe building at either campus with out showing any id whatsoever.

I doubt my car is going to attack anyone.  I would feel a lot safer if people were required to have their student or faculty id displayed, if not they would identify themselves at the door. I seriouly doubt my car is a clear and present danger to anyone, but the police sure have it identified.  so what is the point of parking tickets. Surely there is a better way to raise money.

Your take?

This is to notify you that parking tickets will begin to be issued effective 7:00 AM, Tuesday, September 17, 2013 (warnings are currently being issued).  A parking decal for AY 13/14 is required when parking in any TAMU-SA owned or leased parking lots on Main Campus, Brooks Campus, and/or the Gillette Campus. 

 

If you have questions, please contact Sgt. Tingwald at 784-1900 or at ctingwal@tamusa.tamus.edu or you can visit the PD website at www.tamusa.tamus.edu/upd and click the Parking tab for

related information.

Tuesday Sept 10 2013

Interestingly the school has a site devoted to scholarships

http://www.tamusa.tamus.edu/financialaid/scholarships/aboutscholarships.html

Did you know that?

Have any of you ever accessed this site?

While I am on the subject, do you routinely look at the school website for information.