What was the smartest thing your company did in the past year?
“Increase the amount of time we spend, in person, with our key customers to share their burdens and craft a way forward that meets our shared passion of creating safe environments at their workplaces (such as classrooms, retail stores, hospital wards).”
What’s new at your company?
“Two things – first, a new CEO (me) and second, rolling out a new, technologically enabled method of delivering our training that accelerates adoption and improves the value proposition for our customers.”
Do you plan to hire any additional staff or make any significant capital investments in your company in the next year?
“Oh yes, our current product lines continue to grow and we expect to fold in a handful of acquisitions, which will translate into a 30 percent bump in staff. We take seriously our corporate citizen role to grow jobs in southeastern Wisconsin and are constantly assessing ways to expand our ecosystem.”
What will be your company’s main challenges in the next year?
“We are growing in three areas – internationally, acquisition, and organically. Each provides different organizational stresses so our challenge is to embrace and manage this growth in the context of our core cultural values of respect, service, and promoting safe study, care and workplaces everywhere.”
What’s the hottest trend in your industry?
“Unfortunately, workplace violence is on the increase. For instance, the state of New York just passed a law mandating training on workplace violence for all state workers (of which we’re assisting them in). Our customers see significant decreases in physical episodes when using our preventive verbal and non verbal skills and our goal is to get our message out before an event actually occurs (like the Immigration office shooting in Binghamton). In our human services sector the top of mind issue is workplace bullying between colleagues.”
Do you have a business mantra?
“Everyone (including ADHD child, student, worker or vulnerable senior) deserves a safe, secure and dignified environment.”
From a business standpoint, who do you look up to?
“My father (small business owner) and a series of executives at Kimberly-Clark in the late 1980s (first job out of college). Leading is not about ego, force of will or pushing others to excel. It’s about articulating a shared vision, pulling your teams along the path to that vision, and gaining various perspectives before acting decisively.”
What was the best advice you ever received?
“Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.”
What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you in your career?
“I’ve got hundreds of stories. But one that stands out occurred when I was a partner at E&Y, working in the New Zealand office for a few years. One of my customers was a staid, tall, poker faced Swede who was CEO of Ericsson Telecommunications NZ. The ERP project I was leading at Ericsson came in on time, under budget (as they should). At the close down party, Torbjorn (his name) shocked his employees (and me) by bear hugging me and leading me in a dance – and the bar hadn’t opened yet. Little did I know how much he had riding on that implementation.”
What do you like to do in your free time?
“Any outdoor activity with the kids, golfing with my wife, and spending time at our cabin in northern Minnesota.”
Crisis Prevention Institute, Inc.
3315 N. 124th St., Brookfield, WI
www.crisisprevention.com
Industry: Behavior Management Training
Number of employees: 105
Family: Wife Theresa;
Four children (Clara, Adam, Anna and Samuel)
