Functions of a CEED Company and Its Management

Under the guidelines of the CEED Program, a local CEED company (“CEED”) has two primary functions/goals:

1. Coordinating and promoting the greening of their community, and
2. Creation of multiple green companies in the community as part of the greening effort

This document explores those two mandates in greater depth and is in essence is a job description for the company and its management.

The Overall Promotional Role of the CEED Company and Its Management

Implicit in those mandates is a role that is primarily promotional. The CEO of the CEED company serves as the community’s “champion,” promoting both the greening of the community and the creation of new community-based green companies. (For more on the role of the CEO, see the document, “The CEED Company, its CEO, their Community and the Nation”, and its corresponding webpage here).

However, this is much more than just a one-person campaign; rather it is the campaign of an entire community and an entire nation. The community effort is part of a coordinated nationwide effort, to move our nation towards energy independence and economic prosperity, one community at a time.

It is citizen action at the grass roots level; our collective response to the call to action from President Obama and his administration. Similar to the way in which the nation unified behind the government during World War II, with each citizen and each community doing their part to support the war effort, the CEED Program is about mobilizing citizen participation to help lead our country out of its current economic and environmental crises.

That collective effort is focused and coordinated through the CEED company in each community they serve. Their role is to energize and activate local residents to each play their part in our national goals.  Thus it is imperative that those running the CEED company be effective at promoting concepts to others and engaging their participation. That is the first qualifier for the job of the CEED CEO.

The local CEED company will be supported in that effort by a host of services, resources and information provided by The CEED Development Company (TCDC), developer of the CEED Program in the United States. TCDC is working closely with governmental organizations to bring the vision and objectives of the government down to the local level and to help the local CEED companies be the change agent in fulfilling those goals.

A Description of the Primary goals of the CEED company and its managementon

1. Coordinating and promoting the greening of their community

a. Recruit and work with the CEED Community Group (CCG) to:

i.  Review all the renewable energy and economic development activities currently in place locally, including who the players are, whether private, governmental or non-profit, and what they are doing.

ii.  Develop plans for augmenting with green activities not currently being done/

iii.  Oversee and support the implementation of those plans on an ongoing basis.

iv.  Pass on to the CCG input from TCDC and the other involved institutions, including the federal government, recommendations for plans to promote and implement locally and what resources are available to support those goals. Likewise, pass back up the chain any evaluations and recommendations for things needed by the CCG to better accomplish the local goals.

b. Promote the CEED Program to the general public to solicit and recruit fellow entrepreneurs to run the green businesses, as well as potential employees, financial backers and customers.

c. Connect with other local green groups or businesses to coordinate with them on the overall community plans and determine what the CEED company can do to help them meet their objectives.

d. Work with the various media outlets in the community to promote the CEED company and the community effort.

e. Work with officials and staff of the city, town and county governments to engage their support and participation, including where necessary, their assistance in establishing and/or changing local ordinances to facilitates these goals. Determine whether they can serve as the first customers for the various green services and products produced by the local CEED and its network of green companies.

f. Work with local schools, churches and other community organizations to promote their participation and use them as a source of talent, both volunteer and paid, to fill the various jobs and functions needed. Determine whether they, like the local governments, can also be customers and beneficiaries of the CEED company’s goods and services.

2. Creation of multiple green companies in the community as part of the greening effort

a. First, the CEED company and its management need to establish the CCG boards (governing board, advisory board and oversight board), who collectively will provide oversight, guidance and support to the CEED company and the green companies initiated by the CEED.

b. Then the CEED company, its management and its support groups will establish a combination virtual and real business incubator. We call this a “hybrid incubator” because it does more than the normal incubator, including:

i. For companies physically located at the incubator facility: provide common office space with shared phones and reception, computers, mail services, etc.; common meeting spaces, lunch & break spaces, restrooms, etc.; and a group of advisors who can help oversee and guide the fledgling companies through all aspects of running their new green companies, including accounting, marketing, production, human resources, government compliance, etc.

ii. For companies not located physically at the incubator facility: provide them with the same shared advisory services and as-needed usage of any and all of the other resources available at the incubator location.

iii. Incubators normally also work with companies that have already been established and are looking for support services only. However, the CEED will proactively take steps to get multiple new companies founded and will drive the process to get them up and running, including:

1.   R ecruit the initial management to run the new business, along with their key initial employees.

2.   H elp get the company incorporated or registered as is appropriate for the type of business entity required for the business (corporation, LLC, partnership, etc.) and make sure they comply with all government requirements.

3.   Help it secure funding to launch and run its operations. (This is described in a confidential document entitled "CEED Community Fund", which is available from TCDC).

4.  In the pursuit of these goals, the CEED and its support group (CCG) will determine what types of green businesses need to be established and on a case by case basis, determine if they should be a wholly owned subsidiary of the CEED company, partially owned by the CEED company, established by others with the CEED Community Fund ("CCF"), but not the CEED company itself having ownership, or free standing from both the CEED and the CCF (i.e. the CEED company may cause others to launch a particular business as part of the community’s overall goals and objectives, but which otherwise exist as a stand-alone entity).

5.  Provide them with access to TCDC's online research center and network with its information, knowledge-sharing, peer support, etc. services.

The Ideal CEED company CEO

The CEED CEO is the center of gravity to all the above efforts and is the main person responsible for all those activities. At a minimum, the ideal CEED company CEO will possess the following attributes, skills and knowledge:

1. First and foremost the CEO needs to be an effective promoter, as one of their chief roles is getting a large number of people to buy into the CEED Program and its objectives and motivating them to partake in the process.
2. In conjunction with the above, ideally the CEO should be a likeable personality that the community can embrace and accept as their champion.
3. The CEO needs to be good at juggling many things at once, and therefore is a good multi-tasker.
4. It is not imperative that the CEO initially know much about green concepts, so long as they are a fast learner and can quickly and effectively communicate to others and become an effective advocate for the ideas being presented. At a minimum they need to strongly embrace the concept of green in order to become the chief advocate for it in the community.
5. It is highly desirable that the CEO be very experienced in the new venture creation process, as that is core to everything they do beyond the fundamental promotional aspect of their job. That includes a deep understanding of the legal requirements of setting up and governing a corporation, financing it, providing goods and services to customers, dealing with suppliers, hiring and firing employees, tax issues, dealing with banks and other institutions, and utilizing support professionals such as lawyers and accountants.
   
   The better they understand all these processes, the more effective they will be, as they not only are responsible for launching many businesses as rapidly as possible, but will be required to oversee, teach and guide others to be the leaders of those different businesses, especially if those parties are first-time entrepreneurs.
   
   It is our opinion that given the importance of this function, a candidate CEO lacking that deep business creation experience should only be accepted under extraordinary circumstances and usually only as a last resort. The lack of such experience would be considered sufficient cause by TCDC to reject such a CEO for a candidate CEED community. If the CEO does not have deep experience in starting new companies and TCDC does elect to accept such a party, then it is imperative that they have a partner who does and can fulfill that role who is acceptable to TCDC.
6. Lastly, although it is not required, it is highly desirable that the CEO is local to the community and brings not only the entrepreneurial experience but also local knowledge and solid relationships within the community.