My father, a mechanic who opened a few small shops while I was growing up, employed as many as six people at his peak, but always referred to himself as “CEO and Chief Floor Sweeper” because that’s what the business demanded from him on a daily basis. He opened the doors in the morning, put on a pot of coffee for his mechanics, worked all day and took out the garbage before closing up at night.

As much as I love the thought of the Hulman & Co. board trying to copy the org chart from “Pruett’s Olde English Garage,” I’d much rather see IndyCar’s CEO sticking to his lane and using a proper business infrastructure to achieve prosperity for the paddock and its own bottom line.

With the solid foundation Randy Bernard established during his three seasons, including a new car/engine package that will take us to at least 2017, an expanded schedule, a big improvement on the volume of IndyCar content on television, the establishment of the Mazda Road To Indy and an ongoing effort to stem the money loss faced by the Hulman family, IndyCar’s next CEO will walk into an organization that really just needs someone to push the buttons and manage the numerous initiatives that are already in place.

Nothing that interim CEO Jeff Belskus has said since Bernard’s firing has indicated he or the family plan to change IndyCar’s direction in any tangible way, which bodes well for those craving peace and stability for the series.

Bernard, to his credit, inherited a series that needed a complete overhaul and makeover. There are still plenty of improvements to be made going forward, and a pile of problems to be resolved, but at least there’s a new foundation for the next management team to work from.

Our last CEO had ideas for days. Now it’s time to put the staff in place to properly execute those ideas and any of the new ones that come along. Haul IndyCar into the present day with its business structure and affairs, address the costs issues affecting its owners and continue to look for ways to grow the value of sponsorships and television ratings.

In essence, the next administration’s marching orders are to keep working on the key problems the last CEO had sitting in front of him, but do it with the strength of a full team pulling in the same direction.

If Hulman & Co. is serious about improving the long-term health of the series, and as much as it might pain them to spend more of the family’s money to make it happen, they need to hire all of the VPs to fill the aforementioned roles and/or ditch any of the ineffective VPs on the current payroll with hungrier replacements.

Staring down the massive armies and business infrastructures that NASCAR, the NFL, the NBA and MLB have to go into battle, expecting IndyCar to hold its ground, much less capture an inch of real estate with the equivalent of three guys holding pitchforks is nothing more than fantasy.

I'd rather have five Colonels who know how to win a war with a small battalion of well-trained troops than one General with grandiose battle plans and almost no one to fight on his behalf. I'm hoping the Hulman & Co. board feels the same way.

IndyCar obviously has nothing like the cash reserves to build out its org chart to match its major auto racing and stick-and-ball rivals, but if they aren’t willing to spend the money on a small and elite force to give it a try, we may as well raise the white flag and surrender.

Looking ahead, we need a leader that listens to the paddock and uses his or her VPs to administer and govern like we’re in 2012, not 1982. And like most serious businesses, every concern from an owner, driver or sponsor should not be routed directly to the next CEO unless, of course, we want to overload that CEO and cause them to fail.

We need a marketing VP to get the series and its drivers back on the national map. We need a business development VP to find a new title sponsor and, like the windfall the Continental Tire deal would have brought, to keep looking in areas that might even nudge into the paddock's comfort zone. We need the Derrick Walker type to handle competition and paddock affairs, and empowered people to improve our television package, online and mobile presence and to keep our fans engaged.

Yes, we need to replace Randy Bernard, but not nearly as bad as we need to give his successor a deep and talented management team to have a fighting chance to succeed.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED