Calculating a creative niche: Susan Richards, CMA, brings art to strategic management--and boardroom walls.

"Creative accountant" could be considered a loaded description for a chief financial officer. Susan Richards, CMA, CFO of bitHeads doesn't mind it, though, as long as you're describing her strategic approach to business growth or her painting--not the company's financials. Richards has forged a successful career over the past 10 years, helping an innovative, Ottawa-based tech company maintain its strong foothold in a turbulent market. Along the way, she found herself a unique artistic hobby that's now paying dividends of its own--selling her paintings of calculators.

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Development on demand

BitHeads was founded a little more than 10 years ago by three former Nortel employees.

"They were three guys who enjoyed building software from the ground up but didn't like the corporate culture," notes Richards. "They had developed a number of contacts in the industry over the years and felt that they could create a company that would suit their personalities better."

The three found that there was a market for an independent company that could develop tech products for others. This is their specialty. Many companies don't have the resources to build leading-edge software products in-house--in many cases they don't have the technical expertise, or they are developing a new product from scratch and don't have a development team that is capable of taking on the project. BitHeads is a one-stop shop for this sort of software development-on-demand.

"There's a different personality among people doing 1.0 type of software development and those hired to do maintenance in-house on products," Richards notes. "Our people are always working on fresh new stuff.

"After a year of being in business, they brought me on board to deal with all of the financial basics that they didn't know how to deal with--basically all of the administrative work," she explains. "I've had about seven titles since then, but I've been the CFO for the past three years."

Innovative perspectives

Richards' financial know-how gradually became an essential driver for the bitHeads business model as the tech landscape changed. Before the bubble burst, a shortage of talent meant that companies were struggling to find talented people to get their ideas to market faster--a perfect environment for the bitHeads braintrust to thrive. But once the bubble burst, tech came to a halt, and steering through that turbulence required finesse.

"In the hard times, we found that many companies only wanted to commit to $25,000-$50,000 projects--basically, a few weeks of work," says Richards. "To discourage this, I created a pricing model that created different billing rates for small and large commitments--the larger the commitment up front, the better the rate for the customer."

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Although this certainly helped the company, there have been other challenges to contend with--competition from offshore, for one. India and its presence in the market has certainly created serious competition, says Richards. But it doesn't faze her or the rest of management.

"We sell on quality and on time-to-market expertise," she notes. "There's a difference in the service and level of work compared to India--the sweetspot for bitHeads wouldn't work in India. And our customers like the fact that we're nearshore--they get the expertise without the extra management costs (as much as 30%) when you go offshore."

But keeping such customers happy demands innovative perspectives on how to do business.

"I'm always looking at where value can be brought to the customers--cash savings as well as time-to-money (the time it takes to start generating money from a new product). For the last five years, I've been developing financial solutions for clients as well as managing the financial development of our own company," says Richards. "For instance, we've introduced royalty-sharing agreements, so that we're paid when the client is actually making money. Most companies can't finance work through normal channels. A key role for me is assessing the needs of clients, and customize solutions for them.

"For instance, the client may need a beta project developed quickly at first to raise money, or they may need a very simple design at first on which more functions can be built upon later."

The company also has a recurring revenue model that Richards introduced, so that bitHeads gets a certain amount of money up front, some mid-way through the project, and recurring revenue at the end.

Thus far, Richards' time as CFO has paid dividends. In 2004, revenues grew by 20%, in 2005 they grew by 10%, in 2006 they grew by 21%, and in 2007 they are forecast to grow by 36%.

ARTiculating a new direction

The three founders of bitHeads were determined that their new company would be a "lifestyle company"--that they'd create a place to which they would want to come to work every day, a socially comfortable environment.

"Everyone works really hard, but with that work comes a sense of fun," says Richards. "Unlike many Ottawa high-tech companies that are located in a cluster in Kanata (Canada's Silicon Valley North) we are instead located in a shopping mall. Our employees have free parking, we have a full service bar and we have a movie theatre. All of this for an organization with less than 100 employees. We are listed on Ottawa's top 15 companies to work for and were shortlisted for Canada's Top 100. Part of our work week is Friendly Fridays. Every second week we get together in the lounge and we all talk about what's going on with the company. I find it really helps focus our teams."

It also has created a sense of fun in the office, which is how Richards developed her hobby.

"For a while, people at the company were having fun by naming every year 'the year of something or other," recalls Richards. "It drove me crazy because they would give the year a title, like the year of architecture, or design, or process, but they would never do anything to celebrate the name. So, a few years ago, I named it the year of the calculator, and to celebrate this I completed a painting of a calculator to hang in my office."

Something that started as a joke became much more when Richards started losing the attention of people in meetings at her office.

"I'd be talking to someone and they'd be looking over my shoulder at the painting," says Richards. "I had a graphic designer and a promotional sales rep telling me 'you should really do something with that.'"

Eventually she did, starting her own company called ARTiculate Designs, marketing commissioned paintings for accountants ... of calculators.

"I have a hard time visualizing a scene and then putting it down on a canvas," she explains. "I can't do sunsets and families and horses, but I like colour and angles and shapes--I can do that. My husband calls me the least competitive person he knows, and maybe there's some truth in that--I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that I'm the only calculator artist out there."

Balancing it out

Richards claims to have been a chronic painter for a long time, but mostly it involved repainting the rooms of her house. "A few years ago, I was looking for a painting for a wall in my house and just couldn't find the right fit for the space," she recalls. "Then one night I had a dream that I could paint something for that space myself. So the next day, I went to an arts supply store and said 'I had a dream that I could paint, but I don't know what to buy to get started.'" She's been working in acrylics since, doing pieces for a surprising variety of clients.

"I've done pieces for people in their homes," she notes. "It's been very interesting to see what people want. But I understand. I'm from Prince Edward Island originally and everyone I visit there has a picture of their fishing boat on the wall. Well ... they're not exactly yachts, but it's a point of pride. That sort of thing is contagious. I just feel it's more interesting and personal than the Successories-type images we've seen in offices since the 1980s."

Earlier this year, she donated a piece called 'The Rookie' to the Ottawa Senators Foundation's 'Ice & Dice' event. It was auctioned off for $475, contributing to the over $300,000 raised for children at the event.

Painting's a nice escape for Richards--from the chaos of work, and the busyness of a growing family. She and her husband have two boys and a third due in May. She and her husband also run half marathons, and she volunteers as a member of the Board of Governors for CMA Ontario. She's currently in her second year on the board, and has been impressed by the experience.

"I'm blown away by how well CMA Ontario is run. It's refreshing, compared to some other experiences I've had with volunteer work."

Family, finances, fitness and fun--those are Richards' four areas of concentration, in order of importance. With the fun her family, her new venture, and bitHeads, provide, she feels she's getting a pretty good balance.

Robert Colman is editor of CMA Management.