Practicality to Passion: An Interview with Daniel Paul

Daniel Paul is the current Chief Operating Officer for Tom Stringer Design Partners, a design firm based in Chicago. Prior to joining the firm, he jumped among Fortune 500 companies, owing to his bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance. “Because I started my career with much larger organizations, I quickly learned about strong financial controls, strong financial systems, having financial security systems in place,” he said. “Typically, those companies had an accounting department, they had a budgeting department, so they had different groups within the finance organization. So I was able because I worked like one time I worked in financial planning, one time I worked in distribution, one time I worked in general accounting.” In his transfer to smaller organizations like Tom Stringer Design Partners, he brought his knowledge to provide a foundation to the operations aspect of the firm, such as putting a system of budgets in place.

In overseeing the operations aspect of Tom Stringer Design Partners, Paul’s job also entails enhancing the efficiency of the firm. In their firm in particular, one of the key ways they drive success and profitability is by measuring the success of a single project, and with their billing-by-the-hour system, they ask questions like how a team spends their time and operates. “Each client has a design team assigned to them, which is usually a principal, a senior designer, and then a designer. We're trying to operate that team as efficiently and effectively as possible, so we are constantly communicating with them, setting goals for each person, so that people understand what they're responsible to do on a daily and weekly basis,” Paul explains.

Leadership is important to his role as Chief Operating Officer, and Paul explains that his leadership style is all about “rolling up my sleeves and working with my team.” “I see myself as someone who has a lot of great experience, a lot of knowledge. I always hate the idea when someone calls me their boss,” he said. “I think my management style would really be being a partner to employees, versus a manager to them. Although, of course, you still need to be a mentor and you need to learn off, but a lot of times, I think the way that my team learns off of me is seeing me do things and then also explaining why I'm doing things.”

The pivot from his career in Fortune 500 companies to the Tom Stringer Design firm found problems with timing, until post-COVID. Despite the problems with timing, he describes that it was an easy pivot, because while he was an accountant by trade, he loved things like interior design and architecture. As such, for undergraduate students, he advises that people should pursue their passions. “You need to do what's going to make you happy and not what's going to make your parents happy,” he said. “Don't ever feel like the decision that you made when you were 18 or 20 years old is the decision that you have to live with for the next 40 years. Don't be afraid to make a career change if need be.”