Jan 12, 2019
Brian is the CEO of CI (Columbia Industries) and Jeff
Thompson
is the Director of CI. A funny thing about Brian is that he has
3
candy dishes that he uses to lure people into his office for
discussions. One of the candies always has to be Swedish fish.
Jeff got the fever for derby racing when he was a kid! He raced
in 3 races and is now retired.
Brian was born the youngest of 7 kids in an Irish Catholic
family
on the East Coast. Being the baby, he was very independent. He
went to college, worked on Wall Street with Morgan Stanley,
andwent back to school to get his MBA from Harvard. He went
into the venture capital and the private equity world. What he
learned was that he likes to operate companies. He learned
how to do that the hard way by operating companies that were
failing. In the process he learned how to fix problems,
building
teams and running the companies they bought. The approach
for turning a failing company around, start-ups, and any other
company is the same. He is now giving back by working in the
non-profit world.
Jeff was born and raised right here in the Tri-cities. He feels
that
his time in youth sports and activities gave him a great
foundation as well as working in the restaurant industry for
years. He started in management in the
retail/restaurant/hospitality industry when he was 19 yrs old.
When he started at CI, he was eager to learn and grow. He
surrounds himself with teammates that he can learn from. He
kept on accepting new opportunities, so he could continue to
learn and grow.
We all have limitations on what we can do as individuals. If
you
want to be great, you surround yourself with a team that has
different ideas, talents and strengths. Bringing a team
together
produces better products and results.
Brian would tell his younger self to be humble and don’t be
afraid to ask questions, and to have enough confidence in
yourself to speak up. Jeff says, care about what you do. Take
pride in your product and the people you surround yourself
with. Caring avoids mediocrity. Give yourself a break: you
don’t
have to know it all, and you don’t have to do it all. Lead
don’t
push. Enjoy the ride. There are many different seasons in our
life, enjoy all of them! It’s a marathon not a sprint.
Their strengths are bringing in a leadership team, casting the
vision or direction and gathering input from that team. Also,
they excel in deeper planning into budgets and 5 year
trajectory
planning; by doing this, the employees are taking ownership.
The impact has been immense with their managers and
department heads.
Morning routine is very important to Jeff. It starts out with a
cup of coffee, reading, quiet time, a light workout, and
stretching. Having a morning routine allows him to have time
with his family. He likes to set up his day the day before.
That
way he has some time in between meeting and fighting fires.
He starts the day at work by greeting everyone and then looks
at his calendar.
Brian keeps himself out of ruts by finding new challenges and
creating variety.
Brian’s biggest challenge in the leadership chair is getting
people to share good counsel, to speak up and challenge him as
the CEO in a positive way. You can sit in the ivory tower and
have the best view, but if it isn’t reality, then it’s worthless.
You
need to know the nuts and bolts of what your team can do.
Failure is a tool for learning and being better. Brian went to
a
Jesuit school where the teachers were extremely tough. His
Latin
teacher said that if they had an 89.5% then they didn’t have to
take the final. Brian had 89.5S% and the Jesuit priest made him
take the test. He took the exam, got a 98 on it. He went into
his
teacher’s office and said, “See I told you!”, and the teacher
said, “No, see, I told you!” Never accept near-success when you
can have success. CI Shred started with a handtruck and quickly
learned that in order to compete, they needed to get an
automated truck, which they did and now serve dozens of
businesses with all their shredding needs. You need to start
with the right equipment.
Books they recommend:
Crucial Conversations: Joseph Grenny
Extreme Ownership: Jocko Willink
Essential Wooden: John Wooden
Good Leaders Ask Great Questions: John C. Maxwell
They give back to the community by creating partners in the
community. The team serves at local soup kitchens. Jeff
coaches football and youth programs to personally give back to
the community. When anyone in our community does better,
then we all get better.
Their advice to other leaders in the community is to keep
asking
questions and help others succeed. Find new challenges.
Like them on FB and go the website.