Fall 2008
Built One Outstanding Person at a Time
When Paul and I sat down in 1997 to write our Identity business plan we knew that the greatest challenge we would face in building an outstanding agency was going to be finding truly spectacular people.
There was a section in our business plan that read “We will hire the most experienced people we can find. We will empower them to build their own businesses within the business. And, we will provide them with all of the tools necessary to help them grow and excel as professionals.” It made sense.
It was certainly easy pickings during those first few years. We didn’t have to look too far to poach the best-of-the-best from our previous lives (including our partner Tom Nixon). But soon, the well ran dry.
Not wanting to deviate from our original plan, we tried hiring experienced corporate PR and marketing people, only to find out that they were more about plans, graphs and conference reports then results.
It was only when we realized that we had to deviate from our business plan by focusing on finding confident, passionate, motivated, selfless and humble people who wanted to be great…not necessarily those who thought that they were already great, that we began experiencing the exceptional growth that has placed us on the Inc. 5,000 list two years in a row.
We have come a long way from our little office in downtown Plymouth and we owe it all to our great people. Last week I was asked by a leader in Michigan government how we have built such a successful small business in such a rough economy in Michigan. I simply answered, “one outstanding person at a time.”