Perseverance

By Jay Braukman

The second book by Jay Braukman describes his experiences and roles at several public companies after he left a twenty-three-year career at GE. Follow as he applies Lessons Learned from GE to his CFO roles at Rhythms Net Connection and its subsequent bankruptcy. He then moves into the Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) space at BTI Telecommunications and as COO at ITC Delta Com. Jay then has a short tenure as CFO of Chiquita Brands International during the time period of payments to terrorists and European price fixing issues. He then moves back into the CLEC space as CFO of Cleartel Communications, followed by his CFO role at a software company, MTM Technologies Inc. His career as a public CFO covered a decade of remarkable experiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645317043

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Perseverance

Jay Braukman

Copyright © 2019 Jay Braukman

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2019

ISBN 978-1-64531-702-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64531-704-3 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Quetico National Forest

Rhythms Net Connections

Business Telecom Inc.

ITC Delta Com

Chiquita Brands International

The Placement Center

Cleartel Communications

MTM Technologies Inc.

The Final Chapter

Quetico National Forest

One of the activities that I looked forward to every summer when I worked at GE was our annual trip to Quetico Provincial Park, which sat on the border of Minnesota and Ontario just north of Ely, Minnesota. It was a beautiful accumulation of natural forests and lakes comprising 14,500 square miles. Interlaced through this wilderness empire is a labyrinth of connecting lakes. The most famous of these is the boundary chain spreading 200 miles westerly from Lake Superior to International Falls. There are many trails connecting the lakes which are only accessible by canoe while carrying your provisions.

It had started out as a trip involving GE service shop managers and their sons or relatives. Each trip included between ten to twelve people.

We would travel to the Ely, Minnesota, to the outfitters where we spent the night and picked up our provisions and canoes. We were then taken by boat to the Canadian customs and ranger station sitting on Inlet Bay. From there, we would travel by canoes northeast through portages connecting the chain of lakes. The canoes and packs containing supplies, tents, and food were packed and supplied by the outfitters. Each person carried their own personal packs filled with clothes, personal supplies, and, in most cases, alcohol. No bottles or cans were allowed. Everything had to come in environmentally friendly containers or packages. Each lake was connected to another by a portage. Many of these portages were made by North American Indians. They were rough paths which were strewn with large rocks and fallen trees. Some were short, but others were over one-half mile or more. You would take your packs—sometimes it took more than one trip—and put the canoes weighing sixty pounds on top of your head with a pack on your chest and one on your back and begin walking. When you would get to the lake on the other side, you would repack your canoes and travel across another lake to a new portage. These portages were extremely hazardous, and that coupled with carrying canoes and packs, you prayed that someone didn’t fall and break an arm or a leg.

We travelled for a good part of the day getting as far as we could into the chains of lakes. We would have a reserved campsite selected on one of the many lakes. Access for camping was by permit only, and you had to apply early in the year to get a spot. When we arrived, we would set up camp by putting up our tents, rigging the bear bags off the ground, and digging the latrine. Building the best latrine always became a contest. The bear bags consisted of a system of ropes and pulleys, which would suspend your food bags above the ground out of the reach of bears. If a ranger visited your campsite during the day and it was not properly set up and maintained, then you got a citation.

From there, you would spend two to three days fishing some of the best lakes in the country for smallmouth bass, trout, walleyes, and northern pike. When you needed a change of scenery, you would move on to a new lake and set up camp again.

The beauty of it was that there were no phones, no TV, no radio, absolutely nothing to connect you with the outside world. We would take turns each day of maintaining the camp, cooking, and washing dishes. Spreading the duty over the campers meant you usually only had two days of duty. We usually spent seven days in camp.

The first couple of years, we travelled with a group of GE employees and their sons. Both my father and I were employees of GE. He was the regional manager for the GE service shops, and I was a finance manager for various GE businesses.

We met our fellow campers when we got to the outfitters, where we were assigned partners with whom to share a canoe and tent. You had a wide range of individuals both on the type of the jobs they held and experience. The camp leader was the individual who had set up all the arrangements and got the necessary permits.

There were some at GE who thought I was nuts for going on this trip and a person has to be in great physical shape and be ready to take on nature. Anything could happen, and you needed canoes to travel out to a doctor or hospital. One time, one of the individuals cut off the end of his thumb with an ax and had to be taken back to a hospital. There were many cuts and sprained limbs, and we were at the mercy of temperature and rain. A cold front could have come through, leaving you very wet and cold—cold enough that hypothermia could quickly set in.

We cooked breakfast and dinner by fire and usually packed sandwiches for lunch. We would set out with various partners to connecting lakes where there was just you the fish and nature. Bears, moose, loons, beavers, and eagles were common sights. Along with the sheer beauty of being on a lake where you were the only one there. Untouched by human hands.

The fishing was fantastic. Fish were abundant and except on the day of our fish fry, we practiced catch and release. Our family eventually broke off from the GE group and formed our own team. The trips would encompass my dad, brothers, friends, uncle, and grandfather. My dad, who was a type A leader, made all the arrangements and who would share tents.

The trips encompassed many dynamics associated with leadership: the ability to get along with diverse people, communication skills, and strengths of individuals. Everyone had to be capable of pulling their own weight. Other than having a tremendous week away from the problems of GE, I developed a lot of leadership traits. If you couldn’t get along and had thin skin, then you were going to have a bad week. We usually traded off on fishing partners in order to be with someone new each day.

One summer, we decided that my son, John, was old enough to join us. He was about nine or ten years old. We put him in the middle of my canoe as he was too young to paddle. That year, I was paired up with my brother Jim. John would sleep in our tent between the two of us. It was a special trip because, in addition to my son, my uncle and grandfather also came.

In my whole time making this trip, we never encountered a bear in the camp. I had told my wife not to worry as we had never encountered wild animals. John had a great week camping for his first time and enjoying the meals, fishing, sitting by the fire, and sleeping in the tent. The only downside was my brother Phil, who would spend the evening sitting around the campfire, usually having had too much to drink. No matter what the topic, he would take a contrarian position, arguing just to argue. He never knew when to stop. He would become quite nasty and belligerent, which caused many of us to turn in early.

My brother Jim, on the other hand, had a lot of patience and took time to teach John many of the elements of camping. He was also the best fisherman in the group.

One evening, while sitting around the campfire, we heard a commotion down by the canoes. It sounded like someone was tripping over all the canoes and scattering fishing poles and tackles all over the place. It turned out to be a hungry black bear. It was very large and creating havoc with the canoes. The one thing you couldn’t afford was a busted canoe, as it was the only means of transportation.

We attempted to scare off the bear into the woods, only to have it reappear by the latrine fifteen minutes later. We attempted again to scare it away beating on pots and pans. It left but then returned shortly thereafter, looking for food scraps. Again, we manage to scare it off. At first, John thought the bear was exciting, but the constant persistence to come back made him worry.

We had just settled into our tents with John between my brother and me when we heard a commotion outside the tent. The bear was back. We both got a little worried about protecting John because there was nothing between us and the bear but the tent.

We went outside to scare it off, and my brother Phil tried to spray the bear with insect repellent. The bear bit into the can, releasing its contents into its face. It ran off again. We spent the rest of the night halfway awake, listening for the bear to return, but it had enough and stayed away. We had a wonderful week (except for Phil’s antics and picking fights); and John learned a lot being with his great-grandfather, grandfather, uncles and friends.

To this day, it is the only place where I could go out at night sit on a ledge overlooking the lake and see all the stars in the night. Also, there was the special show of the northern lights, which is a thing of sheer beauty.

It was always a demanding vacation (physically), but I always returned, ready to take on the world again. I learned a lot about the dynamics of a diverse group working toward a common goal. I would later learn to use these lessons when working at various companies.

Rhythms Net Connections

Steve Stringer, chief operating officer (COO) of Rhythms Net Connections, had called me to see if I would be interested in a chief financial officer’s (CFO) position at Rhythms. They were looking for an individual that could be an operating CFO as well as develop a world-class finance team, develop metrics to drive the business, and interface with Wall Street, as well as implementing routines and controls necessary for a publicly held company. I had known Steve from my time at GE IT solutions, where he was the president and CEO of the US business.

I had been at GE for twenty-three years and had come up through the development process through the Financial Management Program, followed by the Audit Staff and then progressively more difficult assignments leading to being the CFO of GE Aircraft Engines manufacturing division to the CFO for two of GE Industrial businesses (Transportation and Industrial Motors and Controls) in addition to the CFO of Nuovo Pignone (an Italian business acquired by GE Power Systems) and CFO of IT Solutions (an $8.5 billion GE Capital business). It had been a successful career, but with Jack Welch and Dennis Dammerman planning to retire, I was looking for something outside GE.

Steve was an excellent business leader who understood the markets and could motivate the organization to perform at a high level. One day, when we were with IT solutions in Newport, Kentucky, (across from Cincinnati, Ohio) we were standing out on the terrace of our headquarters; and he was looking at the run-down properties that existed. I quickly pointed out that my uncle owned at least three of them (rentals) and that I was born not far from here in Covington, Kentucky, and had grown up in neighborhoods like these. He asked if me and my family were the slumlords of Newport, to which I quickly replied no, but I wanted him to know of my humble beginnings as I certainly didn’t grow up with a silver spoon. I would just barely call it middle-class.

We understood each other and could talk about where the markets were going, the impact on the business, and what we should be looking for. We were both interested in the same thing, success.

I went out to Denver, Colorado, to discuss the opportunity and what the team was like. He gave me a rundown on the business, the opportunity, the CEO, and the current CFO. He described the CEO, Catherine, as somewhat eccentric but brilliant on the product and markets. Wall Street loved her. However, she was not operationally focused. The CFO, Scott, had taken the company public but, like Catherine, was more market focused and lacked the understanding of operations, metrics, routines, and controls. I interviewed with Catherine at dinner to make sure that I was a good fit to work for her. As Steve had mentioned, she was a bit flighty but very knowledgeable about products and markets. We had a pleasant dinner, and they called about a week later with a job offer that was a little more in salary than what I was making at GE (compensation and bonus) and would give me a comparable package of stock options. I told them that I would think about the offer and get back to them. They put a time line on the offer because they didn’t want me to shop it and use it as a leverage in bargaining with GE. I told them I would talk to Nicky (my wife) and get back to them.

I had met Nicky in Florence, Italy, when I was the directorre generale de generale affari (general manager of general affairs) for Nuovo Pignone a $2 billion gas turbine business that GE had acquired. I was responsible for finance, legal, and IT. She had been my family’s nanny and housekeeper. When my wife left Italy with the children, Nicky stayed on as my housekeeper and personal assistant. She stayed with me for two and a half years after my wife returned to the States. We did everything together—shopping, taking me to the doctors and haircut appointments, and walking around Florence on weekends. We would also run together in the evenings at the city park. Upon my return to the US as the CFO of GE Motors and Industrial Controls, my wife had gone through my briefcase as she was suspicious and found a love letter written by Nicky saying goodbye. When I flew to Florida