CNL Financial Reviews

Pros

Entrepreneurial, exciting, disciplined management team, growing

Cons

lack of ownership or profit sharing opportunities,

Pros

CNL has a great culture and family-type atmosphere

Cons

Pay is not up to par with other companies, some upper management should be re-evaluated for their poor treatment of employees

Pros

The people and the industries CNL chooses to invest in. Also great leadership from founder Jim Seneff down.

Cons

There can be some bureaucracy because of the size and the employee quality below senior management is not always top notch.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire better quality employees throughout the ranks of the firm - even if you have to pay slightly higher salaries. This will improve company performance and over time attract even great talent as you build momentum.

Pros

good benefits, honest company, good branch employees

Cons

little bank with the big bank feel. Very micromanaged. Does not have a culture of cross selling much to their detriment.

Advice to Senior Management

get out of the ivory tower and see how things really work the numbers don't show the true picture, things that work on paper don't always work in reality.

Pros

great place to obtain real estate private equity investment experience, Jim Seneff (CEO) has great long-term vision and is doing a great job guiding the firm.

Cons

compensation is not competitive in quantitative finance positions, i.e. financial analyst.

hard to get promoted to Director/VP ranks; even so, once promoted, compensation is NOT competitive.

also, upper management is made up of mostly very religious people. This makes its way into the company's culture. I often feel that if I want to move up in the company, then I will have to at least pretend to take the same religious views as upper management. I am not an atheist, I just think that religion should not be mixed with corporate culture unless the company is a faith-based company.

Advice to Senior Management

you have very talented people in the firm that are not adequately paid. You are going to lose quality talent if you dont change your compensation structure.

in terms of industry compensation comparison, at CNL, analysts are paid like exec admin staff, directors are paid like analysts, VP's are paid like directors. Not everyone will stick around for the firm's "good story"!

Concerning the religious nature of the firm, it is okay for individuals to be religious, but this cant be part of the culture, especially when you strive for diversification! Things like praying before firm-wide gatherings could very well be offending people who are of different religious beliefs.