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After Chip Zint jumped two levels in NCR Corp.\u2019s retail division finance hierarchy, he couldn\u2019t help but savor the moment while reflecting on the fact that his career years thus far\u2014including nights and weekends studying for an MBA\u2014had all been put to good use.

Still, while altitude matters when it comes to career leaps, where you land in an organization\u2014and when\u2014sometimes matters more. In Zint\u2019s case, his arrival as sales finance head for NCR\u2019s retail division coincided with the completion of one of the largest acquisitions ever undertaken by that group.

\u201cThe moment I raised my hand, I was jumping into the fire,\u201d recalls Zint, who reports that NCR faced multiple challenges when it came to assimilating the newly acquired business, not least of which were the newly merged organization\u2019s revenue expectations.  

Says Zint: \u201cIt was about grinding it out every single day and going to bed at 2:00 a.m., only to wake up and be 50 emails behind.\u201d  

As the problematic transaction took its toll on the division\u2019s finance leadership, Zint says, one day he found himself working alongside NCR\u2019s CFO, who had temporarily stepped in to serve as CFO of the company\u2019s retail division. 

Then came a directive for Zint to run the next \u201corder cadence\u201d call, a weekly conference call of NCR\u2019s top leaders that was regularly attended by the CEO. The call was designed to have leaders from across the company update top management about the closing of orders from the week prior and the week pending.

As it turned out, on this particular week, the CEO was determined to get to the bottom of what was troubling retail.    

\u201cI sat there for over an hour answering his questions with regard to what was going wrong with certain accounts and what was being done to offset some of the negative developments,\u201d comments Zint, who notes that years later the same CEO would recall the exchange and how he had made Zint \u201cdeliver the bad news and stand behind it.\u201d

Having successfully helped the retail team to navigate the ups and downs of the merger\u2019s integration challenges, Zint began seeking finance roles that would complement his FP&A experience, such as stints with the treasury and investor relations functions.  

Ultimately, Zint\u2019s 13-year career at NCR would include a turn as head of corporate FP&A for the company as well as a career chapter as a divisional CFO. Not unlike many senior executives, Zint tells us, he found that the arrival of the pandemic led him to begin reevaluating his professional aspirations.

\u201cI was looking for a smaller public company where I could come in as #2 to the CFO and have a successor opportunity\u2014but not entitlement,\u201d remarks Zint, who adds that he first used an executive recruiter to help him to map out such a position in painstaking detail.

Zint remembers the recruiter\u2019s exact words: \u201cHe said, \u2018Chip, do not answer the phone unless it\u2019s someone bringing a role to you exactly like the one you seek.\u2019\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney