Thankful.  TMG’s theme for 2020 is “Thankful.”   On March 1, 2020, we were coming off our best year, having our best quarter, and booked for 2020 with a strong closed book of business in 2021.  By May 1, 2020, we recognized the reality of losing 57% of our revenue with no forecast for 2021. In Jim Collins’ not so well-known sequel to his Good to Great book, How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In, there is a Chapter describing “Denial of Risk and Peril.”  Collins explains how some very successful companies fail because they ignore the FACTS.  They either “wish them away” or get so immersed in the victim mentality of impending doom that they make bad decisions in volatile times leading to “Grasping for Salvation and ultimately Capitulation.”

We called this significant period, “Opportunity for Excellence 4”.  Since our founding in 2002, TMG has worked through three other periods where our business survival was at serious risk.  All three, the product of bad decisions by me—the Leader.

As we closed 2020, we are all safe, we maintained our incredible team of professionals primarily due to the United States of America’s COVID-19 Relief Bill (CARES), we created no debt, we learned quickly, we developed a recovery plan to survive in 2020, and we went to work using our values every day to guide our efforts.  We operated under new conditions in our 757 DMAIC Certification Program, Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards Value Stream Mapping Project, and KME’s Continuous Process Improvement Support.  One of my mentors and leaders, General Fred Franks, taught me you cannot roll up your sleeves and wring your hands at the same time. What sage advice. That advice, along with the confidence that our business model was sound, our partner base was strong and referenceable, and that we believed in ourselves was what carried us through 2020. If you wake up every morning looking for the bad, you will find it. If you wake up every morning looking for the good, you will find that as well.  We choose to look for the good and found it.

TMG’s success is largely due to what we fondly call “The 98% Rule.” The 98% Rule is we must spend our time, talent, expertise, and effort focused on our partners’ challenges and opportunities to accelerate their journey to consistent perfect performance. Our Mission in Life is to give Leaders who WANT to Lead High Performing Teams the Courage to Lead.

As we look to 2021, we see new starts with old friends and new partners who deserve and will get 98% of our time, talent, expertise, and effort.

One year ago, we were a Good company.  Today, we are a Great company because of our decisions and ability to execute those decisions through our values.  The result is we get the chance to play again in 2021.  TMG is Thankful.