A weekly online radio program featuring news and interviews about Atlanta’s professional services market and the influencers that make it move.
Rich Goidel, Managing Director of Dangerous Kitchen www.dangerouskitchen.com discusses how he created – and named – his new communications agency to spice up the marketing services jambalaya and help his clients leap off the menu of competitive choices. Oooo-weee dats sum spicy interview.
Have you ever had a mentor or been a mentor to someone? It isn’t easy to do right…either as mentor or mentee. It seems that most of the professional services firms we encounter at Creative Growth Group www.creativegrowthgroup.com really want to be good at mentoring but they are usually shockingly bad at it. Helene Lollis is a master of mentoring and President of Pathbuilders. www.pathbuilders.com Her firm works with companies to shape their futures with high-performing women by customizing and delivering external mentoring programs, Her clients include major professional services firms like Deloitte, KPMG and Kilpatrick Stockton as well as major corporations like AT&T, Cisco and Coca-Cola Enterprises. We asked Helene to share suggestions on what professional services firms can do to more effectively mentor and groom high-potential professional women.
“Classic” describes something of enduring value and quality. Remember when the classic American brand, Coca-Cola, saved itself from New Coke by reintroducing “Coca-Cola Classic?” Well, there’s nothing like the real thing…in professional services, too. With a legacy of leadership in Atlanta dating back to the 1800s, the Montag family is a classic Atlanta family. In 1945, Louis A. Montag started Atlanta’s first independent investment advisory firm. In 1982, Louis’ son, Tony, launched A. Montag & Associates with a focus on serving high net worth business leaders and their families with a classic kind of individualized, “hand-made” quality of service. That included original investment research done on-site by the Montag team and personalized, direct contact between Montag’s investors and its portfolio managers. Today, A. Montag & Associates www.amontag.com is led by Tony’s sons: Ned and John Montag. It is rare that a family firm can transition successfully from one generation to the next. Montag has not only accomplished this leadership hand-off but also maintained the same classic service quality and reliable performance that it began with in earlier generations. Because we wanted to understand if this “classic” story was “the real thing” we invited John and Ned Montag to join us for this interview. Our discussion ranged from leading a family enterprise to guiding a wealth management organization through the toughest financial market in 80 years.
Scott Mills is President of William Mills Agency – famous as the leading financial services and financial technology PR firm in the U.S. Scott is also the editor of Bankers as Buyers, an annual guide to technologies and spending trends in the financial services industry. He’s also the catalyst behind the blog www.FinTechMarketing.com William Mills is a family-owned firm. Scott talks with us about serving the financial services marketplace, about managing a professional firm which is also a family firm and about leading creative professionals to deliver consistently great work without burning-out. He’s also been pioneering a new scorecard approach to measuring the value a PR firm provides to its clients. Find out more about Scott and his firm at www.williammills.com 
CFOs as Advisors and Buyers
More than ever, CFOs now hold the professional services purse-strings. At Interlochen Group, CFOs are, themselves, the professional services advisors. Ben Cass is founder and Managing Partner of The Interlochen Group, a CFO services firm which deploys its seasoned CFOs into middle market companies in the midst of transition. Ben talked to Professional Atlanta about how and why executive services firms like Interlochen are in such high demand. He also provides his experiences and advice about marketing professional services to Private Equity Groups and Commercial Lenders (his primary referral sources) and to CFOs. Find out more about Ben and his firm at www.interlochengroup.com
I’ve been on a whirlwind tour recently as we expand Creative Growth Group nationally. Here are lessons learned about building a growth culture, avoiding commoditization and building client relationships from my recent multi-market travels to “Professional Cities” beyond “Professional Atlanta” like Boston, Tucson, Chicago and more. Plus, what I learned from Chinese business executives about relationship development. One word: “Guanxi.” That’s the Chinese art of building long term business relationships and networks of influence.
Stand at attention and listen here. OK, you can sit if you want to but pay attention nonetheless.
Wednesday, November 11 is Veteran’s Day so we thought it would be appropriate to interview two distinguished military veterans about how they’ve translated their military experience into professional services success.
Battlefield to Business: Lieutenant Jason Jones is a Principal at CresaPartners, an international corporate real estate advisory firm that exclusively advocates on behalf of tenants. Jason focuses exclusively on representing companies and professional service firms and helping them reduce real estate costs by creating competition among Landlords to ensure the lowest rental rates possible. Jason applies lessons learned from his military career to his business processes. His naval service included flying A-6 Intruder attack jets off aircraft carriers. He’s the host of the Battlefield to Business podcast , in which Jason interviews veterans who have become notable business leaders, and he’s the co-founder of the not-for-profit, VetLoop, which helps veterans enter the commercial workforce. For more about Jason Jones and his commercial and non-profit work, see www.meetup.com/vetloop/ , www.cresapartners.com , www.jasonjonesnomad.com/ and http://www.linkedin.com/in/teefus
Certain to Win: Colonel Chet Richards is a member of the professional staff at J. Addams and Partners Public Relations – a full-service boutique communications agency and was a colleague of the legendary, late Colonel John Boyd – who was a United States Air Force fighter pilot and military strategist, whose theories have been highly influential in the military and in business. He is also Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Quantitative Methods in the Family Business Exec MBA program at Kennesaw State University and the author of four books including Certain to Win which develops the strategy of the late Colonel John Boyd for the world of business. In his business affairs, Richards specializes in helping organizations use time as a competitive weapon to increase revenue, market share, and profitability. See www.chetrichards.com and www.jaddams.com for more on Colonel Richards work and ideas.
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Cheri Flake is a rocker with one of her songs woven through a Ford ad; she’s a new mom and she’s the spouse of a Partner with a major Atlanta law firm. Cheri is also a highly accomplished therapist and coach and a sparkling light when it comes to helping professionals create successful habits. She says we don’t break bad habits so much as we replace them with better ones. She’ll teach you how to trick your brain so that you’re free to accomplish more before you even know it. http://www.guidinginneraction.com/
Dean Harbry has run marathons, delivered aid in war-torn Bosnia, and served with a leading financial services firm. He now consults to and coaches senior executives at some of the world’s leading companies, professional services firms and non-profits. Dean is a deep expert in Leadership Influence – how professionals can move organizations positively forward through a coaching approach which persuades through engagement rather than brute force. http://www.internalinnovations.com/
If you want to change your mind and change your results for the better, listen to what Cheri and Dean have to say in their Centers of Influence interviews on Professional Atlanta.
Centers of Influence Interviews for October 19, 2009:
Hear what Brian Falony, Marketing Director for Habif Arogeti & Wynne LLP, has to say about what marketing swivel chairs and accountants have in common and on his Firm’s recent acquisition and integration of two competitors and about HA&W’s foray into social media and ongoing community commitments. www.hawcpa.com
Then, listen to what Evil Kneivel, Stephen King, and Naked Dogs have to do with Tom Matte and his firm, Max 2.0 www.max2oadvertising.com and what Max 2.0 has to do with Conversational Branding and the Professional Services Marketplace on this Professional Atlanta Centers of Influence interview.
On this week’s Professional Atlanta centers-of-influence interview, we uncover how professional services are popping up between the hedges and in the cloud(s)
Between the hedges: Academic institutions can be professional services firms too. Dan Stotz, Director of Strategic Partnerships, University of Georgia Terry College of Business Executive Education Center based in ATL, spoke with Professional Atlanta about how his organization delivers customized business knowledge to the most progressive companies. UGA is also pioneering partnerships and alliances with professional services firms and other business schools (like University of Michigan) to provide a new level of value. This ain’t your daddy’s b-school. http://www.terry.uga.edu/atlanta/
In the cloud: Eric Sanders, Client Manager for Appirio shared his firm’s experiences helping professional services organizations to move their entire business to the cloud. That means major law firms, accounting firms and consulting firms are shifting away from software that is loaded on to their organization’s servers and directly on to their professionals’ PCs. Instead, they’re increasingly using software-as-a-services (SaaS) solutions such as Salesforce.com which are require no software on the Firm’s premise or professionals’ computers. What does this mean for the ability to attract and service clients? One thing seems certain: Appirio is going to play a role in ensuring a positive answer. Appirio is Silicon Valley-based and Sequoia Capital funded but one of its founders, Glenn Weinstein, is Atlanta-based so this is a key market for the company. www.appirio.com
Please listen to the interviews and share your views.
Eric Sanders, Appirio (left) with Dan Stotz, UGA (right) on Professional Atlanta Radio Show
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