about main street leadership
Main Street Leadership is here to help traditional businesses grow, renew, reinvigorate – to just plain be successful. We’re here to help, both now, and when your business needs to innovate, remake itself, change owners, or process generational transitions in family leadership. We’re here to help you.
We define traditional businesses as mainstay businesses: dry cleaners, auto parts supply stores, gas stations, HVAC companies, plumbers, and electricians. Even some manufacturing facilities fall into the traditional business category.
You know these companies. They live where you live. It’s the plumber two streets over who hung out his shingle in 1978; the dry cleaner down the block that now has second generation ownership; the manufacturer near the highway exit that has had a steady work force of fifty-five employees for three decades.
Traditional businesses have stood the test of time, been bastions of the community, and are—in most cases—doing business in the same way they always have. You see, for most traditional businesses, each year is pretty much a repeat of the previous year. With so much sameness, you can see how it’s easy to get lulled into a comforting routine.
jamie gerdsen
Jamie Gerdsen has become the spokesman for that mainstay of the U.S. economy–the traditional business.
As CEO of Apollo Home, Jamie completely changed the culture of his company, resulting in growth in customers served, and employees hired.
A noted speaker, Jamie is active in leadership positions within the Young Presidents’ Organization, is in demand on service boards, and has been part of Forty Under 40, and Leadership Cincinnati.
books
The thing about zombies is you don’t know them when you see them.
They’re invisible; but don’t be fooled. As they walk unnoticed through the halls of your small business, they’re doing a number—a negative number—on your bottom line. They slow productivity, treat your customers rudely, and infect other employees with their poor morale and shoddy work ethic. In a small business, one zombie—one employee not pulling his or her share of the workload—can make all the difference. So dive in and learn more on how to handle them
Leading change is hard. Leading change in a traditional industry can seem impossible.
Jamie Gerdsen presents hard-learned lessons for inspiring innovation in traditional industries, such as manufacturing or his own heating, cooling, and plumbing company. Through personal stories of trial and error and eventual triumph over the roadblocks to change, you’ll discover how to embrace and foster innovation in your own organization. Discussions include hiring, employee motivation, professional focus, coaching, the business cycle, and work-life balance.
staff
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Peter Winick Chief Operating OfficerPeter Winick makes everything at Main Street Leadership work. He is a maestro of results driven by practical strategy and focused execution. He expertly leverages over twenty years’ experience with such clients as IBM, Kraft, Microsoft, Avon, Hyatt and more. Peter works tirelessly to understand our clients’ precise needs, then creates a blended solution that fits like a glove.
Having built and managed several consulting and professional development organizations, Peter uses his seasoned perspective to deliver perfectly selected solutions in a perfectly selected format, to our clients every time. He believes that taking great services and creating a platform to best support it takes a combination of art, science, logic, focus, passion and creativity. Skills he combines and leverages for our clients.
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Bill Sherman VP, Product Development
Bill Sherman leads Main Street Leadership’s consulting, training and organizational change practice areas. He helps organizations understand their current leadership practices, then produces lasting impact through strategically-targeted interventions. Bill has guided many of the world’s most recognizable brands through complex organizational change.
Over the past fifteen years, Bill has bridged the critical gap between the business thinkers who create insights and the senior business leaders who need to produce results. His past challenges for global brands have included strategic reengineering of people and processes, organizational culture and performance management and system realignment.
In order to achieve results for our clients, Bill leads a highly-skilled team of designers, developers, organizational consultants, and operations specialists. Together, they shepherd ideas from the abstract world of ideas into scalable business solutions that produce measurable results.
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Lonnie Harmon Operations Director
Lonnie Harmon, as Main Street Leadership’s Operations Director, has a depth and breadth of experience in training and organizational change at organizations of all sizes and cultures. Following a notable career at a Fortune 100 company, he went on to oversee the growth of a niche ERP training company. He then founded his own company providing innovative training to companies as diverse as DHL, Merck, Wells Fargo, and Harley-Davidson.
At Main Street, Lonnie uses his project management skills to keep our client projects running on or ahead of schedule. Regardless of your industry, your culture, or your challenges, Lonnie has seen it and provided both tactical and strategic improvements. Whatever you’re goals for an engagement are, Lonnie will be behind the scenes writing, conducting outreach, planning schedules and just generally keeping your project on track.
