Tuesday, May 01, 2012YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Companies looking to expand their business, develop the creative potential of their employees, and inspire leadership within their organizations can always use some help to achieve their goals.
Such is the premise behind Achievers USA, a newly formed organization that’s working to develop strategic alliances among local business leaders that span many disciplines as it cultivates the most important resource any business has – its people.
“This is an opportunity to be around some of the best we have to offer,” says Greg Smith, principal of Achievers USA. “Great leaders think differently, and they’re always around people where they can learn and become better at what they do.”
Achievers USA is built around working sessions that will convene the first Thursday each month from September to June at Avion on the Water Banquet Center in Canfield. The 10-month program features nine half-day seminars and one full-day seminar, each showcasing national speakers who touch on the fundamental principles of becoming a successful professional and successful person, Smith says. “We’re talking about taking leaders to the next level,” he notes.
Smith, a principal with Strength Doctors and an independent certified coach, teacher and speaker with the John Maxwell Team, says that the concept originated with Achievers USA founder George Landis, who was looking for a way to establish an effective local training program.
“We had things he didn’t have, and he had things we didn’t have,” Smith says. “So, it was a good partnership.”
What sets Achievers USA apart from other corporate improvement and training efforts is limiting enrollment to 100 companies, each company representing an exclusive segment of an industry or profession, Landis says.
“We’re giving them something that’s very impactful, very focused,” he says.
For example, say an insurance company wants to participate in the program. Once it signs on, it is assured that no direct competitor can join the program. “We’re trying to make it exclusive and make it a desirable attribute,” Landis explains.
Companies are enrolled on a first-come, first-served basis, Landis says. Cost for the program is $3,000 per company if paid at the time of sign-up, and $3,500 if paid within 90 days of registration.
Each session also features a marketplace, where 10 of the member companies are profiled through floor exhibitions and highlighted in some cases with a virtual tour of the business on a video screen.
Landis, who has spent his professional career in business training, says the objective is to bring together some of the top local executives and business leaders in their fields, and enable them exchange ideas, business cards and products or services.
While he’s been active in business training and executive leadership projects across the country and around the world, Landis says what he really wanted was to establish an organization that would benefit local business development.
“Hopefully, they’ll come out with more business than they came in with,” Landis says. “Secondly, they’re going to be enlightened and enhanced professionally.”
Each seminar covers subjects important to both corporate and personal health, tackling all elements of leadership, management quality and productivity, Landis notes. The first session, scheduled Sept. 6, features a team of professionals from The Disney Institute. The Disney seminar is the only all-day event for the year, and businesses are limited to just one representative per company for this session.
“They have the option of sending more people, but it will be an additional fee,” he says.
The Disney seminar will focus on improving customer satisfaction, employee motivation and company profitability by implementing the “Disney Chain of Excellence,” Landis adds.
Other speakers scheduled throughout the 2012-13 season are Jim Tressel, former head coach of the Ohio State University Buckeyes and Youngstown State University Penguins football teams, Caldwell B. Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic, representatives of Gov. John Kasich’s office and national bodybuilder Karen Miller.
Landis says the cost of attending the program for the full season pales in comparison to what it would cost a company to bring in just one guest speaker. “They’d have to pay at least this much just to get one speaker,” he says. “With this program, you get 10 for that price for the year.”
More important, the program is designed to establish enduring business relationships with all participants, says marketing director Sue Filipovich. “It’s going to form strategic alliances that will go much further than Thursday mornings,” she says.
Often, participants in seminars and conferences part ways at the conclusion of the event, Filipovich says. This program allows more time for these diverse companies and industries to work together and explore some of the synergies they share in depth.
“I see this as a something members can take away and grow on their own,” she says. “This is something that can continue for years on end.”
Editor's Note: This story was first published in the May print edition of The Business Journal. To subscribe, click here.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.