Thank you so much Beth and MSED. It is truly an honor to accept this award tonight and to receive an introduction from such a great business leader and personal friend.
Let’s again acknowledge tonight’s winners of the platinum individual and team awards, Tony Lovell of Grede Holdings and The Priority Health Team as well as the MSED Trailblazer Award winner, Scott Monty from Ford. Congratulations to you all on your many successes.
It’s especially meaningful for me tonight to be recognized by MSED with the Executive Leadership Award and to join the ranks of past honorees; Christopher Ilitch, Paul W. Smith, Matt Cullen, Dick Blouse and Anne Stevens to name just a few.
All of these recipients are impressive leaders and business people who contribute not only to their company’s bottom line but also to the community as a whole. I am honored to be considered among leaders like this. I feel that it’s such an important part of being a good corporate citizen and business leader today.
I also applaud MSED for its commitment to the community. Through your efforts, you have provided more than $150,000 to support Junior Achievement and Focus: HOPE as well as support students pursuing careers in this field. I commend you for all of your efforts!
As marketing and sales executives, we communicate information about companies, brands, products, services and reputations. We serve as the channel for our customers to communicate to our company.
We use Facebook, Twitter, annual reports, manuals, brochures, websites and PowerPoint presentations to reach our audiences and connect with their needs and thoughts.
The impact of marketing and sales executives cannot be overestimated. Your presentations can inspire and drive technology and advancements; you drive the success of the bottom line.
However, tonight I’d like to share some other ideas about what is success and how it can contribute to our communities and companies.
We hear this often — do what you love. People with passion can change the world for the better. This means give yourself time to figure out what you are really passionate about. Once you are passionate, you will accomplish many great things. Passion is everything.
Make Connections – This is what MESD is all about — creating a place to exchange ideas, to be at the forefront of trends and techniques and to keep your skills sharp. Creativity is connecting things. People with a broad set of life experiences can often see things that others miss. Don’t live in a bubble. Connect ideas from different fields.
Say no to 1,000 things – we are all pulled in a million directions personally and professionally. It is not by saying yes to everything that we get to greatness; it is by putting our best into the most important things that we are able to make an impact.
Master the message – you can have the greatest idea or product in the world, but if you can’t communicate your ideas it doesn’t matter. Be the world’s greatest corporate storyteller. Instead of simply delivering a presentation like most people, inform, educate, inspire and entertain all in the same presentation.
Sell dreams, not products – understand your customer and capture his imagination. We’ve all heard of the KISS principle –– keep it simple – it works. Your customers don’t care about your product. They care about themselves, their hopes, their ambitions. If you help your customers reach their dreams, you’ll win them over.
If any of these ideas sound familiar – it’s because they came from one of the greatest marketing and sales executives that existed in our generation. Steve Jobs.
I don’t think the world would have ever been ready for his departure, but the gifts that he left us, his technology and ideas, have touched nearly every aspect of our lives – computers, movies, music and mobile technology.
Whether we are contributing from the board room or the mobile office, each of us has a role to play in strengthening our businesses, our economy and our communities.
Although now the president & CEO of Charter One in Michigan and the Midwest regional executive for Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, I started my career working as a teller at National Bank of Detroit while attending Wayne State University.
After graduating, I remained with NBD and started in Marketing. I studied consumer behavior and helped develop new products and services.
I saw that banking was more than just transactions in a free market – it was about making people’s dreams a reality – helping to grow jobs, buy and keep homes, starting new companies and growing businesses.
As a homegrown Detroiter and a banker with more than 30 years experience in the industry, I was well prepared for the role of president & CEO. But it was my desire to make a greater impact in MY hometown that brought me to Charter One.
Often I’m asked to speak about my commitment to the community – that of Charter One and our parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The bedrock of our beliefs is that Good Banking is Good Citizenship, which means having a foundation of integrity in everyday business and infusing those principles back into the community through contribution and participation.
It is our responsibility to support the community through investing in revitalizing neighborhoods, fighting hunger and empowering our nonprofits to continue to tackle the difficult issues we need to address. At Charter One we do this through many programs.
Our Champions in Action program in partnership with WXYZ Channel 7, provides marketing and volunteerism support as well as an unrestricted grant to nonprofits who are addressing critical issues.
This summer we convened several other corporate citizens in the Hunger Free Summer campaign and successfully raised $500,000 to provide 2 million meals to children who receive free meals during the school year, but would otherwise go hungry during the summer.
In my role, I have the privilege to help drive programs that connect private, public and nonprofit sectors. Working independently, these sectors can improve the economic climate in our region. But by working together, they can have a far more effective and lasting impact on our communities.
And it’s working together that has brought about the change we are feeling in Michigan.
There’s been a lot of debate about the future of our great state. We’ve been criticized, teased and taunted. But the winds are changing. Not just because of our great Lions and Tigers, but also because the Big Three are selling more cars, they are investing, our home prices are headed up. And this is not a secret anymore.
Just a couple of weeks ago, both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today reported on Detroit’s Rising – our ability to turn around from tough times. It’s important that others see how we are progressing. But we still have challenges ahead.
We need to help our students graduate from schools with competitive skills to fuel our economy. Neighborhoods are still in need of services, blight needs to be addressed and our Autos need to continue their success.
We need to feed our hungry neighbors, support struggling families and open doors for youth.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”
The fact is we live here. We have businesses here, family here, careers here. We’ve put down our roots here.
So the responsibility lies on all of us to think strategically and seriously about how we can continue to work together for positive change.
Consider the people, the companies, the causes that each of you in this room influence. Consider the community where you choose to live. The city where your business resides – the future of our state.
I challenge each of you to let your concern drive you to action.
Thank you!