When I joined Gibson, the first charge I was given was to rebuild and grow our employee benefits consulting practice. It was a smaller part of the company at the time - a little over 15% of our annual revenues.

This was a movie I had seen before.

In my prior role at one of the national insurance consultants, I was responsible for employee benefits sales and service for a multi-state territory. I was in a "player-coach" role where I personally worked with clients and managed others doing the same. We consistently received recognition for not only our financial results but team work and collaboration.

So based on the same formula, it didn't take long for us to re-tool and grow the benefits practice at Gibson. Today employee benefits makes up about 35% of our company revenue.

Early In My Career
A number of years ago, I worked at a fast-paced, growth-oriented public company, many times larger than the employee-owned organization I’m a part of today. The CEO of that public company himself came from one of the largest companies in the world where he was a key lieutenant for a number of years. While the CEO helped spur on some badly needed discipline and structure, he also ushered in a major change in values and culture.

I’ll never forget one of his early gatherings with key leaders and sales talent where he stated unequivocally that our focus would be on the shareholder. He went on to say that many companies mistakenly focus on their clients or their employees. If you don’t take care of your owner, you won’t stay in business long. What good would you be for your clients and employees then?