1. The Leadership Search Group
19 Lakeside Lane, Suite 220, North Barrington, IL 60010 847-277-0008
Self Administered Interview Guide
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Mark P. Bidinger
11 Benton Court Algonquin, IL 60102
markpbidinger@aol.com
Education:
(Circle or highlight highest grade completed)
College/Graduate School: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8+ (4 undergrad, 2 MBA)
Gahanna Lincoln High School
~357 in graduating class (class size)
Top quartile (rank)
Extracurricular activities: baseball, wrestling, cross country
Offices/honors/awards:
Part time and summer work: Schaeffer Ornamental Iron, Landscaping.
A. College/Graduate School Name and Location
The University of Toledo: Toledo, Ohio
Grade Point Average: 3.75/4.0
Extracurricular activities, honors, awards:
Dean’s list
What undergraduate course did you like most? Why? Physics The professor was very engaging to a large
class and gave real world examples. He would take time after class for any student.
What undergraduate courses did you like least? Why? I did not enjoy any class when the number of
students was above 700 and the tests were strictly multiple choices.

2. How was your education financed? I paid for my own college tuition. I worked part-time and through the
summers at Cardinal Industries, Alpine drive thru, Agler Davidson, and Schaeffer Ornamental Iron.
Part time and summer work:
see above
Other courses, seminars or studies: political science, history, civil engineering, mechanical engineering.
Activities: Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Intramural sports, Internship at
Membership in professional or job relevant organizations: ASQC, now ASQ
Publications, patents, inventions, professional licenses or additional special honors or awards:
Business Experience:
Please start with your present or most recent position and complete a different section (A, B) for each of your
last two job titles, whether in your current company or with a different employer.
A:
McNichols Company: Metal Distribution of specialty items
Title: General Manager Midwest District.
Staff: Number of direct reports: 10
Indirect reports: 73
Total Staff: 83
1. What do you most enjoy about your job? I enjoy using varying leadership styles and techniques to
help my team achieve goals they did not think they were capable of accomplishing. Watching the
team succeed brings me great satisfaction. One example is landing the Steffes Account which
required not only internal team work, but external teamwork as well.
2. What do you least enjoy? Overall, I've been very satisfied with my job. I've been able to work with
some really interesting people. I have to say that I did have a job where there was an inordinate
amount of paperwork. The time I spent working with my team was diminished due to the
inordinate amount of unnecessary paperwork.
3. Describe the situation when you took the position. What shape was the job in with respect to sales,
talent, resources, systems, etc? Specifically, what major challenges did you face?

3. The major challenges were building bench strength and the leadership talents of each individual
manager. Over the course of my time seven Team Leaders, two Area Operations Managers, Sales
Manager were promoted. A Fabrication Business Manager was appointed, and a trainer was
promoted. These leadership improvements allowed the team to strengthen call presence,
understanding buying signals, up-selling, cross-selling, follow-ups and overall District performance.
On the operations side this allowed us to increase throughput without increasing manpower. New
metrics included picks per man-hour, cuts per man-hour, and other real time feedback. Volume
throughput increased double digit, while labor was reduced through natural attrition.
4. What are your key responsibilities and accountabilities?
Key responsibilities included P&L, gross profit, operating income, gross revenue, leadership
development, account development, and cost management.
5. List your major accomplishments. Please quantify the information (e.g. 20% increase in sales, etc)
• Grew sales 16% and profit 26% via targeted segment approach with specific solutions and sales
processes.
• Developed next generation leadership talent from within.
• Created strategic plan based on value proposition, to achieve double digit growth over the next
decade.
• Used lean initiatives to reduce wasted motion in warehouse by 33%, saving labor expense during
growth.
• Implemented Oracle eOne across four facilities, increasing inventory accuracy to 99%
• Established new shop floor layout for expansion of fabrication capabilities, received capital
approval for project.
6. What mistakes have you made in the position? What would you do differently if you could start
over in the job?
Early on in this assignment I was too trusting of long term employees and their realized acumen
about the business. I learned that just because you have been with a company 25 years does not
mean the same as having 25 years experience. I learned even with long term veterans trust but
verify.
What do you believe your current supervisor sees as your major strengths?
Due to my experiences in other industries, I am able to leverage my background knowledge to grow
the district and increase processes and operational excellence. My strength is leadership and
coaching of my direct staff as well as indirect staff. I am able to build a team unit that will generate
results. I have the ability to make quick assessments and implement change that inspires long term
growth in the organization.
7. What do you believe your current supervisor sees as your areas for improvement?

4. Early on the area of improvement would be the administrative tasks required by the organization,
learning the various reports, processes, etc.
8. What has been your most recent overall performance rating in this job? Please explain the scale,
e.g., 5=exceeds expectations, etc.
My most recent annual review was very positive in terms of both my leadership and results. In this
organization a 5 is not awarded, in a scaling system I would have received a 4.
B:

5. Company name and kind of business: Elkay: A privately held international consumer goods and industrial
building materials company with sales of $1 billion.
Title: Asia General Manager
Staff: Number of direct reports: 7
Indirect reports: 250
Total Staff :257
1. What did you most enjoy about your job? My most enjoyable experience was a startup in a foreign
country. The situation was extremely fast paced and decisions had to be made rapidly throughout
the day/month/quarter. I enjoyed building a staff diverse enough to be able to take on the
challenge and make adjustments rapidly. I enjoyed working with diverse cultures and business
backgrounds. I found great satisfaction in finding common ground to build cohesiveness and trust
in the team. I enjoyed learning about entirely new sales processes and distribution methods.
2. What did you least enjoy?
I cannot think of anything I did not enjoy at Elkay I was in the leadership development program and
constantly challenged with new and exciting assignments. I was there 9 years because there was no
down side.
3. Describe the situation when you took the position. What shape was the job in with respect to sales,
talent, resources, systems, etc? Specifically, what major challenges did you face?
At the time the business was losing cash each and every day. By working with the controller and
reviewing the product cost structure, as well as customer pricing policy, we were able to identify
the issues. Our organization had a major customer which accounted for about 40% of the volume.
We were losing money because the customer was receiving their product below cost. We
immediately met with the customer, explained the situation and provided several potential
solutions. The customer chose to walk away and we were able to replace much of the business in 60
days with profitable customers. We became a cash positive entity. This stabilized the organization
enough to allow the team to focus on talent, systems, recourses, etc. The next major challenge was
the sales force. Upon investigation, many members of the team were operating their own
businesses and not focused on this organization. The first step was to weed these people out,
establish a market confident sales compensation program, and hire new recruits. Next, on the
radar was the product development area. We used market analysis blitzes to determine demand
and rapid prototyping to evaluate solutions. Safety and lean were the primary focuses in the plant.
4. What were your key responsibilities and accountabilities?
My key responsibilities included gross revenue, gross profit, operating income, and team
development.

6. 5. List your major accomplishments. Please quantify the information (e.g. 20% increase in sales, etc)
• Increased bottom line 92%, by process improvement and organizational sizing.
• Improved inventory turns 47% via order staging and pull system implementation.
• Raised China domestic sales volume 48%, through introduction of innovative stainless steel sinks
into retail/distributor channel.
• Made organization cash positive in 60 days by evaluating cost structure of product categories and
eliminating 20% of SKUs that were non-productive.
• Established contracts with top tier wholesalers to secure future revenue. Transformed customer
base from small independent retailers to a top five distributor network in largest 10 cities in China.
• Recruited multi-national top performers to all levels of the organization (including Controller) to
establish financial discipline, cost effective operations and innovative sales / marketing.
6. What mistakes did you make in the position? What would you have done differently if you could
have started over in the job?
My initial evaluation of the current staff from the acquisition was dead on. I should have trusted
myself and acted earlier to make the required adjustments. In reflection, I discovered that the
location of the business really has no bearing, the issue is strictly about business acumen and
passion for the position.
7. What did your supervisor see as your major strengths?
My strengths were the ability to work 8,000 miles from corporate and get things done on time and
under budget while moving the business forward quickly. He was impressed with my
communication skills to corporate. A second strength was my ability to get things done the “Elkay”
way in a country with differing views on business norms. In addition, I was able to handle adversity.
8. What did your supervisor see as your areas for improvement?
I continued to work on building new relationships back home as the Division President, CEO, and
other key functions changed while I was living and working overseas.
9. What was your last overall performance rating in this job? Please explain the scale, e.g., 5=exceeds
expectations, etc.
My score was a 4/5. There were no partial points and my supervisor did not believe anyone was a
5.

7. General Questions:
1. In the leadership roles you have held in general management, explain the environment in which
you worked and how you aligned the various functional areas - sales and marketing, operations,
finance, etc – for the betterment of the business.
I have worked in various environments from turnaround to sustaining success. In each of these the
path can be quite similar. Some key considerations include what is the current culture? Is it in
alignment with what ownership expects? How has the organization performed in the past? How
does the team think the organization has performed? How are goals set? What behaviors were
encouraged / discouraged? What is the history of change management? Once these types of
questions are asked we can determine better gaps in alignment and goals. My methodology with
goals and aligning functional areas has been to take my own goals and then work with each
function to create goals that support the top level goals, and complete up and down the
organization. For example goals for the VP of sales, linked to goals for outside sales, linked to goals
for inside sales, etc. Goals for each area are shared with all areas so each understands how the
other is trying to contribute to the overall success of the organization. Sometimes goals do conflict
and the best approach is to acknowledge the fact and keep the team focused on the win/win.
2. Describe your experience in opening up new markets for your business. Tell us how you set about
to identify these markets, how you analyzed them to see if there were a fit for your business and
then how you infiltrated them, identified the “right” customers for your business model and built
the relationship with them that led to business success.
My main focus has been to understand where we are today and where we might be able to go in
the future From there I determine if our current processes and systems can support the new
business development. One example would be moving from a transactional customer base to a
contractual customer base. What changes, if any, would be required in pricing policies, terms and
conditions, credit policies, and sales training. My methodology was to use the team to do much of
the research and analysis to create buy in for the new direction. One point of growth was that the
transaction cost per customer call was ~$300. As an example a $500 order with 45% GP i.e. $225
is actually a loss of $75. In this example the sweet spot for this business was the midmarket
customer which placed orders from $1000-$10,000 on average. We designed the above policies
and training around this customer base and re-emphasized the need to up sell and cross sell any
customer below the sweet spot. We then attacked these contractual customers by understanding
the true decision maker, obtaining and audience, and selling our value proposition. In this case it
was our ability to hold their inventory for them in strategic locations and provide JIT delivery.
While we were not the cheapest by far, the total cost of ownership for the customer was best
practice.

8. 3. Describe a time when you were able to develop and articulate a growth strategy as well as
implement it. Describe the role you yourself played in both the strategy creation and
implementation phases.
One particularly effective strategy I was involved in related to product portfolio management and
proliferation. In this case creating, repurposing product lines to fit specific market segments.
Examples are big box retail, wholesale, decorative showroom retail, and big construction. During
the initial phase my primary role was facilitator. I found it effective to have each member do a
strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats (SWOT) analysis from their functional perspective
and then bring all the required market research data off site where the team could completely focus
on the task at hand. One important aspect of this is to have all impacted functions at the sessions.
For example, if marketing wants to develop a new product line for the big commercial market,
design engineering, manufacturing engineering, manufacturing, and advertising need a voice at the
table to lay out what is required. Once the analysis is done using SWOT and 5forces, a detailed
action plan must be made and signed off on by all. At this point my leadership role switches from
facilitator to coaching and command to make sure the team stays aligned and the project stays on
track.
4. What analytic approaches and tools do you use?
SWOT, Five Forces, profit center analysis, cost center analysis, cost per transaction, customer
profitability, Statistical Process Control, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, fish-bone diagram,
material purchase price variance, KPI’s for the specific BU, sales per employee, Q/Q financial
performance, Y/Y financial performance, market segmentation, market size, market share, to name
just a few.

9. 5. What seminars and/or formal education have you participated in over the last 10 years?
Kellogg School of Business (Northwestern) New Product Development
The New Strategic Selling
Toyota (Elkay) Production System
University of Toledo MBA
6. Have you significantly “raised the bar” for yourself over the last five years? What about for others?
For each, explain how you did it: your approach, the problems encountered and the outcomes.
For myself, I believe taking an overseas assignment and a sales/distribution company assignment
were significant growth events both of which required me to move out of my comfort zone. An
example from a subordinate was moving from sales manager to fabrication business manager. This
forced the individual to stretch significantly in their understanding of how fabrication is done,
scheduled, how take-offs are done, and how approval drawing are completed. This allowed the
individual to be much more effective when selling the product. Another example is moving a
Supervisor from a very small facility where the individual was purely a working supervisor to the
flagship facility where more hands off and more leadership was required.
In both cases there was a transition from directive leadership to coaching and facilitating
leadership and delegating leadership. The lesson learned is that while an individual may be ready
for delegation in one aspect they may not be ready in another.
7. If you were to arrange confidential reference calls with some of your major customers and
professional relationships, what is your best guess as to what they would generally agree are your
strengths and areas for improvement?
The strengths you would hear about are that my teams do what we say we are going to do. If we
make a service commitment to land a contract we get it done for the customer. You would get the
same feedback from an internal customer or even professional organizations such as Plumbing
Manufacturers International or Metal Service Center Institute. Improvement areas might be public
speaking.
8. What would reference checks disclose to be the common perception among peers regarding how
much of a team player you are?
You win with people, sounds corny but it is true. Whose idea it is matters much less than helping
the team get things done for the customer and the organization.
9. Same question, but this time from your direct reports?

10. Direct reports would describe me as highly supportive of their development and success, and
willing to go to bat for them when they have passion around a new way of thinking. They would say
I was willing to let them try new things and be all they can be.
10. When there is a difference of opinion do you tend to confront people directly, indirectly or let the
situation resolve itself (give specifics)?
With a supervisor if it is a mission critical issue, then open frequent dialog often is the best
approach. Same approach with peers. With subordinates it is sometimes appropriate to see if the
team can self correct on its own before jumping in too early. For medium or minor differences of
opinion that will not significantly impact the business overall it would be best to go along with the
team and support any new directives.
11. When you delegate work, explain the process you use to determine what works gets delegated and
what work you do yourself? When work is in fact delegated, how do you interact with those to
whom you have delegated the work? What is your role in their work, if any?
Work I would do myself would be related to Business Model, P&L, Talent development, process
methods and process discipline, and leadership approach. When work is delegated the instructions
and expectations should be clearly laid out and documented, including due dates and level of
details required. One lesson I have learned over the years when delegating, trust but verify. For
example I may delegate the running of a kaizen event and have the team do the presentation at the
end of the event, but I would reserve the right to check the analysis for accuracy and completeness.
12. In what specific ways have you changed an organization the most (in terms of direction, results,
policies, etc)?
I believe in China the business unit was completely transformed through seeking new channels
and new channel partners and developing products that solved problems in each channel. We
continued the process on through the plant matching our production and distribution structure to
our new sales structure.

11. 13. What was your vision for your most recent job? Once in it was your vision supported by reality? If
not, what did you do? If it were supported by reality, how did you make your vision a legacy?
My vision was to transform a significant percentage of the business from transactional (spot)
purchases to contractual purchases. This allowed for larger more stable order book and backlog.
Over time yes, as we added customer after customer to our contractual business model it became
supported by reality. Twenty-five percent of the current business book is now contractual. The
legacy is in the procedures and processes followed by outside sales, inside sales, and operations to
support the on-going development of contractual business.
Self Appraisal:
Please provide a thorough self appraisal, beginning with what you consider your strengths, assets, things you
like about yourself and things you do well. What are your shortcomings and areas for improvement?
A. Strengths:
Arranger: figuring out the right course of action on limited and or conflicting data. Effective
flexibility if A does not work move on to B
Deliberative: stay focused stay the course on the strategy execution. Weight the risks and act
accordingly.
Relator: able to communicate vision and goals and listen to others vision and goals. Relationships
have value when they are genuine.
Self Assurance: I have faith in my abilities. I have faith in my judgment. Never second guess yourself,
learn from any mistakes and move on quickly.

12. Significance: Want to be known for the strengths I bring to the table and have the organization use
them to the fullest. Keep reaching for the next level.
B. What are your principal developmental needs and what are your plans to deal with them?
We all have strengths and weaknesses. My strategy in this areas has been to determine how my
own strengths and weaknesses impact my current assignment, evaluate my team and their
respective strengths and weaknesses, and align the strengths to overcome the weaknesses, i.e. play
to each other’s strengths.
C. How would you describe your leadership philosophy and style?
Situational leadership, I prefer to choose the appropriate leadership style for the task at hand and
use the techniques that work for each individual. One size fits all leadership will not work for the
diversity of direct reports in today’s business environment. One of my primary objectives is always
team development, so this is a primary consideration when determining what leadership style is
appropriate in the moment.
D. How would you rate yourself – and why – in enthusiasm and charisma?
I have a great passion for business and for manufacturing in particular. I enjoy the business process
from request for quote to invoice. I approach each and every day to instill my passion into my team
and stretch for achievements that will empower and motivate the team
E. Do you consider yourself a better visionary or implementer? Why? Cite examples to prove your
point.
At the GM level both are important. First you must be able to communicate your vision to the team
and get them passionate about achieving the vision. Next you must work alongside them and
encourage them to execute the vision. In the beginning, I am a better visionary. I need to know
where we are going before I can effectively leverage my team for implementation.
One example was due to a new threat from low cost imports. The vision I established was a 25%
cost reduction/cost avoidance goal in order to match this threat. Our kaizen event resulted in an
excess of $3M cost avoidance for a larger annealing furnace. With the vision set, the team went to
work.

13. This very simple solution resulted in 33% more throughput and removed the capacity constraint
and the need for capital expenditure.
F. What do you suppose your subordinates feel are your strengths and shortcomings, from their point
of view?
a. Strengths: feedback I have received includes: empowerment, encouraging, fair judgment,
hearing all views on a subject before jumping to any conclusions.
b. Shortcomings: early on learning all the administrative tasks from RFQ to invoice. I overcame
this by following several types of orders all the way through the process to understand the
strengths and weaknesses of current state.

14. G. How do you work with subordinates? Fair and objective, I attempt to have a relationship to the
point of knowing the person and what motivates them. Get the facts, meaning trust, but verify.
When you began your present (or most recent) position:
How many subordinates do (did) you have total, direct and indirect?
83
How many direct subordinates do (did) you have?
10
Of the direct reports you inherited, how many in each of the following categories did you have?
A player (or A potential)
1
B player (without A potential)
6
C player (without A potential)
3
In the past five years, how many direct reports have you hired or promoted who turned out to be:
A player (or A potential)
10
B player (without A potential)
10
C player (without A potential)
1
I have found it is much better to hire potential A players and develop them than having to expend valuable
time managing C players. It does not work. One must stay very focused on the vision and the execution in
this economy. If I am not sure about a candidate, I prefer to suffer through until I find the right fit. In the
long run it is better for the organization and the team.
Career Needs:
What are your career objectives?

15. To continue my experiences as a General Manager and one day become a COO or CEO.
I certify that the answers given in this Self Administered Interview Guide are true, accurate and complete to
the best of my knowledge. In the event that I am employed by the company which is interviewing me for a
position, I understand that any false or misleading information I knowingly provided in my Self Administered
Interview Guide may result in discharge.
Signature:
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2013