Author Archives: Kip Wright

Hispanic Heritage Month – An Interview w/ Nina Vaca

“[My family] had faith that if they worked toward their goals, they could achieve them. So, I grew up believing that if I wanted to do something, I needed to work to achieve it… and I would” – Nina Vaca

For this edition of Leading Wright, I’m going to shake it up a bit. As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, I thought it appropriate to recognize and feature a successful Latino leader – providing insight to a leadership approach and perspective different than my own. That’s the beauty of diversity isn’t it? Different backgrounds, different experiences, and different perspectives provide the fundamental building blocks for new ideas and approaches to solving the challenges we all face in leadership.

With that, I asked a fellow business leader, successful entrepreneur, and good friend of mine – Nina Vaca – to join me in writing this message by sharing some of her thoughts and insights on the secrets of her success, the importance of diversity in the business community, and what advice she can offer to those aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs to help them achieve similar success.

Nina is both an accomplished leader and a fierce advocate for the Hispanic community. Born in Quito, Ecuador, she and her family immigrated to California early in her youth before eventually taking permanent residence in Texas. Her academic career includes an undergraduate degree at Texas State University, and a number of executive education programs at several prestigious schools – Harvard Business School, Tuck School of Business, and Kellogg School of Management. She also holds honorary degrees from Northwood University, Mary Mount University, and Berkeley College.

Nina is the founder and Chair/CEO of Pinnacle Group (a direct competitor of my own Genuent). She and her leadership team have led Pinnacle on a tremendous growth curve, including recognition as one of the fastest growing Women Owned Businesses in 2015 and again in 2018. She also serves as one of the few Latinas on the boards of publicly traded companies, & has dedicated much of her time to empowering women and minorities and expanding their opportunities.

Her background not only includes success in business, but also an active role in the promotion of women and Hispanics in business and leadership. In 2014, Vaca was appointed by the White House as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship to help inspire entrepreneurs worldwide. Last year, she was also elected as a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

A passionate advocate for higher education, Vaca supports many organizations helping grow the next generation of global leaders, including through programs like Pinnacle Group Academic WorldQuest and Dallas ISD/Dallas Community College District’s P-TECH program. She has also spent two decades raising scholarship funds for minority students through the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Law School Yes We Can, and the Nina Vaca Foundation, among many others.

Vaca was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year and has been called one of the country’s 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs. She has also been named one of the top 101 Most Influential Latinos in America by Latino Leaders Magazine for over a decade.
Impressed enough yet? Good. Now let’s hear directly from Nina.

Kip:
So Nina, tell us a little about yourself – your background and your journey.

Nina:
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, and my dream was always to grow a business that no one would want to leave while supporting my family.

Pinnacle’s evolution and astronomical growth is the result of fearless approach to overcoming challenges and intense focus on two core values: delivering impeccable service to clients and putting people at the heart of everything Pinnacle does.

Some of the important early lessons are the same lessons that still apply today – you must be able to adapt to changing circumstances – the current pandemic is a perfect example, but another early example was 9/11 which happened after we were in business for less than 5 years, and then again the Great Recession in 2008-2009 – each time we’ve had to reinvent the business based on what customers need now.

Kip:
You have achieved amazing success – entrepreneur, public company board member, philanthropic leader – What has been the secret of your success?

Nina:
When I started my own business, I wish I had known that I was not alone and in fact belonged to something much larger than myself or my company. I had become a part of the American economic engine. I didn’t yet understand everything that I was capable of achieving until I started working on the business, not just in the business.

Being an entrepreneur is extremely hard work. It’s time consuming, risky, frustrating, and, sometimes, downright terrifying. But it’s also the most rewarding work you can do. So, to put yourself through all of the tough things that come along with entrepreneurship, you better have a really solid reason why.

Kip:
As a female Latino entrepreneur, you can appreciate the importance of diversity. Can you give us your thoughts on the importance of diversity for corporate America?

Nina:
As a Latina entrepreneur, I am living proof of the ways that immigrants can make positive contributions to this country. I’ve been blessed many times to be the first Latina at the table, but I don’t want to be the only Latina.

For me, true success is opening doors for others and expanding opportunities for women and minorities in business. I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to invest in people and what motivates me is helping the next generation to reach even greater heights than we ever dreamed.

As a business leader, I have seen firsthand how diversity and inclusion fosters a more creative and innovative workforce. These benefits translate into improved bottom line performance for companies, which has been studied and reported on by McKinsey and others for several years.

Kip:
For aspiring future leaders, what advice would you give them?

Nina:
Surround yourself with people who truly want to be successful. After all, no one accomplishes anything alone, in business or in life. Look for groups, like councils and chambers, who can share experiences and wisdom with you.

Mentorship is another invaluable tool on the journey to success. Find someone to guide and push you to achieve greater.

Understand the realities of your situation and what you’re facing, both in terms of business impacts and the significant personal impacts this is having on your team.

And finally, leaders must respond, not react. This means taking the time necessary to gain perspective and be thoughtful in setting a course before taking action.

Amazing insight from a Latino leader who has not only achieved professional success in business but has a clear and impactful history of giving back to the community and helping others in their own personal path to success. I’m grateful she was willing to share her thoughts here on Leading Wright.

It’s Time to Embrace Change?

“Its not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change”  – Charles Darwin

“Adjusting to the new norm”. Are you as tired of hearing this new phrase as I am? If you are, I have good news for you. There is no new norm. And I certainly wouldn’t spend time adjusting to THIS new norm, because if this year has taught us anything, it’s that the “norm” can and will change in an instant.

Maybe the better term to use is “Adjusting to constant change”. That certainly seems more appropriate for this year, and if my intuition is right, this won’t be limited to 2020. I suspect the only constant we will have for the foreseeable future IS change. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Continue reading →

Relationships Matter

“If you believe business is built on relationships, make building them your business”  –  Scott Stratten

It seems lately that my leadership blog has overwhelmingly been impacted by the impact of COVID. My last four posts have started with a paragraph referencing the impact this pandemic has had on both my own approach to leadership and my guidance to others. On the one hand, it’s a shame this has become the norm for us. On the other hand, the experiences we have gained are so profound I find myself compelled to write about them. Stay with me again as I share continued insights gained as a result of this new norm.

Many of you know I manage a company called Genuent. At Genuent, we are in the people business. We provide our clients technical talent across a broad spectrum – including newly experienced as well as those with years of expertise. Our product is our people, both the consultants we place on assignment and the Genuent team that works closely with our clients and consultants to ensure the right technical and cultural fit. In other words, we have no inventory, no production lines, and our assets walk out the door every evening (well, in this new norm, they walk from their home office downstairs to their families).

When I first joined the company, I met with members of the leadership team to ask the question – what makes us “Genuent”. Overwhelmingly I received the same answer – “we care about the people we serve and the people we place”. Time and time again I got this answer, followed by a simple phrase – “our relationships matter to us”. So it wasn’t hard to make the stretch to shift our branding from “Innovative Workforce Solutions” to “Relationships Matter”. If that is what made us who we are, we should declare it to the world, right?

Now let me tie this back to COVID. Along with so many other businesses forced to work under a new paradigm, shifting to a remote work environment where we were isolated from meeting our clients and consultants in person proved to be a challenge we had yet to face. And for a business built on relationships, we had long held the belief that those local, in person meetings were integral to our success. Now that we were completely unable to meet with our clients in person, critical to our focus on relationship building, we wondered what impact it might have on our company.

The answer surprised us all. In fact, we found that it was the quality of those relationships that mattered. If we had built them over time based on trust, respect, and a willingness to do the right thing, distance would not prevent them from holding strong. In fact, we found that it was those very relationships that truly mattered when it came to operating in this new paradigm. Video, audio, and even email communications sufficed so long as the relationships were foundationally strong.

We’ve recently launched a new initiative across the entirety of the company. We call it “Your Relationships Matter”, and its targeted to operational support staff that support our business development and recruiting/consultant management team members. The premise is simple – why not leverage their relationships to help improve our business. And two weeks in to the effort, we have already generated 9 new leads that were otherwise overlooked before. If we are going to live our purpose as a company, it was important for everyone to be invested in this effort…everyone working for a common goal.

If you want to build a business on relationships, be in the business of building relationships. A simple yet profound statement that is the basis of our business, and has proven to be the key attribute that is allowing us to navigate these difficult times.

Are you simply building a business, or are you building relationships that will ultimately build the business for you?

Trust me when I say – Relationships Matter.

Trust Matters

“When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities of which they were previously unaware.” – David Armistead

This past week I had the opportunity to set aside a few days’ time to spend with my executive leadership team. It has been months since the COVID virus forced us all in to operating under a new paradigm, and we had spent the majority of that time in crisis mode working through the numerous issues we were facing as a result. We all felt it was time to step back from the daily battles we have faced and reflect on our efforts throughout the crisis. I thought I would share some of those reflections and our biggest take away – Trust matters.

As a staffing company, this crisis presented one of the worst scenarios we could imagine. That is largely because in economic downturns, our clients will often cut temporary workers first before cutting their own staff. We are able to navigate these downturns largely through diversification of the industries we service. But in a crisis like this, all industries uniformly suffer. So it hit us hard and fast, and it was painful. Continue reading →

Focus on what’s important

“Life is like a camera – just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don’t work out, take another shot” – Ziad K. Abdelnour

One of my fellow Genuent team members, Casey Landers, shared this quote with the company recently as part of our new Daily Inspirations messaging. We implemented this process to help our fellow team members as they navigated through the current COVID crisis. Our thinking was simple – sharing our favorite quotes and inspirations might produce just the right message, at the right time, for at least one member of the team. And that alone would make it worth the effort.

Little did I know the right message at the right time for at least one member of the team would be me! I have to say, when I saw this message, I was struck by how profound it was. While it is an amazing message to carry for a lifetime, it is, for many of us, the right message at JUST the right time. It puts the entirety of this COVID crisis and the challenges we all face navigating it in JUST the right perspective. And in my traditional way, I would love to share with you what I took from it. Continue reading →

What You Learn in a Low Tide

“Just because the Tide is low doesn’t mean there is less water in the ocean” – Seth Godin

In my most recent leadership blog, I shared a message about surviving the storm. That post was shared on March 5th, before all of this COVID madness hit us. Little did I know the lesson would be so relevant today as we find ourselves in unchartered waters navigating one of the worst social, economic, and medical crises of our time. Truly a surreal moment for all of us.

In that article, I shared how relieved I felt to have reached the safety of the harbor. Most times the harbor is a safe place. But, in the crisis we now face, the harbor doesn’t feel so safe. Metaphorically speaking, it seems the tide is out, and we find ourselves in a much different predicament than the storm we’ve been navigating.

With no water in the harbor, the dangers that lurk below the surface are all around us. Sunken ships once 20 feet below now tower above the water. Pilings, rocks, and other debris are now clear obstacles we previously never concerned ourselves with – obstacles that prove increasingly difficult to navigate. Continue reading →

Surviving The Storm

boat in a storm

And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. – Haruki Murakami

I remember the day clearly. I was still in high school at the time, and my stepfather and I had taken our 25’ boat 32 miles off the coast of Galveston, TX, to a place called the Buccaneer rigs for some deep sea fishing. It was summer then, and the weather often unpredictable. But the forecast was clear and the water flat – a perfect day to venture offshore.

It’s a good 3 hour trip to the Buccaneer rigs, so when you go, you plan for the day. And at 32 miles out, you are far enough from the shore to make for difficult times if something were to go wrong. You always plan for the worst – plenty of fuel, food, water, extra batteries, life vests, satellite radio – all the things you might need if you ended up stranded or with engine problems. But that day things were going well. The engine was running as it should, the waves offshore at 3-4’ chop, and the sun was shining.

We made it to the rigs shortly after 9 am, and took in some trolling for amberjack and kingfish before the day got too hot. We had a few strikes early on, but only one Jack Crevalle made it to the boat. They are great fish to fight, but not so good to eat, so we let it go and motored up to the rig for some mid day snapper fishing. As my father edged us close to the structure, I took our 10’ stainless steel rig hook and latched us on. Then, we let the tide drag us until the rope was taught and we began dropping our lines.

For the first hour or so it was fantastic. We were getting several good hits and we found ourselves consumed with the task at hand. So consumed, in fact, that we hadn’t noticed the dark wall of clouds approaching from the West. We first noticed it when we felt the cold breeze that typically precedes one of these summer thunderstorms. Then, the sky turned black and the rain started. And in a matter of minutes, the wind had picked up with such an intensity we were scrambling to put away our gear and batten down the hatches.

And that’s when it happened. I looked up to see the rig we had been so closely tethered to nearly half a mile away. I scrambled to the front of the boat to pull up the dangling rig hook, only to discover it had been nearly straightened by the force of the wind. That’s when we knew we were in trouble. The waves were now swelling with ever greater intensity, and the boat was quickly being thrown about as the wind whipped into a frenzy. We weren’t going to ride this out – our only choice was to turn the boat into the storm and head as quickly as we could for shore.

By now the waves were 10-15’ in height, and the wind was screaming. The rain came down so hard it felt like rocks pelting our faces. The boat was moving as quickly as it could, but with every wave we hit it was with such force I thought I could hear the fiberglass cracking. Lightning struck on each side of the boat – not once, but in constant flashes. I was scared to death, and so was my stepfather.

We went on like this for what felt like days, although I suspect it was only hours. Slam, crack, pop. Waves overcoming the front of the boat and rolling over the back. I shook. I dreaded. I panicked. I prayed. I knew for sure this was the end, and there was no way I would make it out of this. But the only way to survive was to face the storm head on and muscle through it. And so we did.

Somewhere, somehow, and at some point the rain started to subside. It wasn’t all at once, but you could feel things were improving. You couldn’t quite see the shore or even the horizon, but you could tell the clouds were starting to ebb. We pushed forward until we found ourselves back in the safety of the bay with the harbor in sight.

The funny thing about life is it follows this same pattern. For the most part, its enjoyable. Things happen, yes, but the good often outweighs the bad, and the bad isn’t enough to set you back. Most days…

And then come the storms. They often come out of nowhere. Life seems to throw them at you when you are least expecting them. And I’m not talking about the little storms, I’m talking about the big ones. The ones that take the wind out of you. The storms that hit you to your core. The ones that you can’t overcome in a day, or a week, or sometimes in a month.

For whatever reason, I’ve seen friends hit by these personal storms lately, and I’ve even had to endure a few of my own. They aren’t fun, and at times it seems like the storm will never pass. But in fact it will. Not without pain and struggle, but if you push forward with determination, point towards the safety of the shore, and power through it, you will find your way to the safety of the harbor.

I Miss My Friend

NOTE:  For this month’s post I am hijacking my blog to share a tribute to a great man – Jamiel Saliba.  On January 9th, 2020, Jamiel was called home to be with the Lord and serve as one of his angels.  And on Saturday, January 18th, family & friends gathered in Birmingham, AL to send him off on this new journey.  Today I share my thoughts and reflections on this great man in hopes it is a small tribute to an unbelievable life, and to the impact he made on so many of us.  www.leadingwright.com is here in part because of that impact, so its only fitting that I post this. 

I MISS MY FRIEND

I remember the first time I met Jamiel.  It was sometime in 2004, and we had just completed the merger of COMSYS and Venturi Partners.  Jamiel was the head of their MSP program, vWorx, and I was running ours (COMSYS VMS).  We met at Don Shula’s Steakhouse in Birmingham, AL, but the initial meeting wasn’t instant friendship.  In fact, both of us approached it trying to show the other who was the “bigger man”.  I was on my phone, as was he, and we both gave each other the “wait a minute” finger to let the other know who was more important.  As we sat down for dinner, the topic of drinking came up immediately.  “You able to hold your liquor?”, he asked.  “I got a PhD in drinking from LSU”, I responded.  And then it was on.  Cocktails, bottles of wine, after dinner drinks – and somewhere around 1:30 am I called uncle and admitted defeat.  Score one for Jamiel.

I miss my friend.

Our work relationship was built from that point forward.  While I was given the nod to lead the new combined group, it was clear this wouldn’t be a one man show.  Our business debates and arguments were epic.  I was the dreamer, Jamiel the realist.  And it seemed every single idea I had would be countered with all the reasons why we couldn’t.  Thank God, as more often than not he was right.  But even when we didn’t, once it was decided he would step forward and make it happen as if it were his own.

I miss my friend.

In business, Jamiel was simply the best operator I have ever worked with.  He never missed a budget.  Let me say that again, he never missed a budget – EVER.  If you worked for him, you knew you had to perform.  Compassionate, yes, but he had expectations and you never wanted to let him down.  As I look across this audience, I see dozens and dozens of people who all worked for him and know this fact well.  He was the best.

I miss my friend.

His leadership meetings were unconventional but effective.  He would assemble the team in either Orlando or Destin (generally at his time share), and you would be asked to bunk up with your fellow co-worker as part of it.  The meetings themselves would be held at vacation resorts in their on-site activity centers, if they weren’t held in one of the rooms.  Dinners were routine – we would generally cook in.  One night was always spaghetti, and the other steak.  Cooking and cleaning were a group effort, and everyone was expected to do their part.  No fancy hotel conference rooms, no group dinners at The Palm.  That wasn’t how Jamiel wanted it.  No, this was about building culture, building a team, and creating trust.   Oh, and saving money to make budget.  And it worked.

I miss my friend.

When we were acquired by ManpowerGroup, Jamiel and I were charged with driving the TAPFIN program globally.  “The World Tour”, he used to call it.  Oh the fun we had.  Well, if you can call that fun.  From London to Paris, from Brussels to Frankfurt, we pushed forward to spread the TAPFIN way.  The Belgians were the first to come on board, the Germans followed shortly thereafter.  The French fought us for a good year before finally giving in.  And I’m not sure the Brits ever really complied.  But ever the soldier, Jamiel pushed forward.  “Attack in Force”, he used to say.  In the end, he helped build TAPFIN in to the world leader in MSP, with a geographic reach that is the envy of the industry.  The World Tour became World Dominance.

I miss my friend.

A creature of habit, he was ever the loyal patron.  If you flew overseas with him, you flew Delta.  Period.  The man must have achieved some godlike status on that airline.  Hotels?  You got it – Marriott or bust.  There was never a discussion – if you traveled with him, you stayed at his hotels.  And dinners?  Epic!  They were always the same – Bone’s in Atlanta (and it had to be Peter serving us); Amarone’s in New York; Orjawon in London (Fatima always ordered for us); Tuscany in Destin.  I’m sure many of you have a similar list specific to each city.  That’s just the way it was.

I miss my friend.

Our relationship was based on business, but it quickly became something more.  The man has a personality that was infectious, and I was infected from the first time I met him.  We had so much in common, and yet so little.  And in the end, that’s what made our friendship special.  Ever the Alabama fan, I had to endure the full force of his passion.  That’s not easy for an LSU fan, I assure you.  “27 SEC Championships, 17 National Championships, and the Greatest Tradition in College Football – This is Alabama Football” he used to say to me.  And to make matters worse, I had to listen to that every year as the count increased.  It would piss me off – and yet I’d look forward to his beaming face every time they won another championship.

I miss my friend.

Jamiel had many passions, but there were four that stood out above all else.  God, Country, Family, and Friends.  He was clear and steadfast in his religious beliefs.  He didn’t need to be a man of the cloth to do so.  Christ was his man, and he made no apologies for his beliefs.  No doubt he is sitting in heaven right now singing “Sweet Home Alabama” to the angelic masses attracted by that magnetic personality.  Heaven is better today because he is there.

To say he served his country would be an understatement.  Tours in Germany, Italy, and Bosnia capped a 23 year career in the US Army, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.  I could never do justice in speaking to his career as a soldier – I’ll leave that to his good friends such as Tommy Fricks and Al Lumpkin.  What I can say is that this country is safer today because he was there, and there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of soldiers whose lives were forever enriched after serving under his command.

What can I say about his love for his family?  In a short moment you will hear directly from them.  What I can tell you is that nothing was more important to him.  He adored his wife, Ellen (who doesn’t?).  His daughter, Jeannie, meant the world to him – and her passing tore him apart.  His two sons – Jamiel III and Jonathan – were his pride and legacy, and sharing his passion for BAMA football with them his greatest joy.  His life’s commitment was to raise his granddaughter, Shauna, in honor of Jeannie.  And his grandchildren meant the world to him.  I’m honored to be considered a small part of this family, and I have Jamiel to thank for getting to know them as such.

And last but not least were his friends.  I look around this room today and I see so many of those faces – so many people who’s lives he touched in profound ways.  Just to be in the same room with Jamiel was an experience.  Its like his energy drew you in.  And if you let him get to know you, you became one of those friends.  Dave McGonegal said it best to me recently – “I’ve never met a man who would wake up, walk down the hall, and meet three new people who would be friends for life.”  That was Jamiel.

I miss my friend.

But for all of that, I want to be selfish for a minute.  To me, he was more than a friend.  He was my brother.  My father.  My idol.  What defined him was his authenticity.  He was real.  He was present.  He was caring, compassionate, empathetic.  He was tough on the outside, and a big soft teddy bear on the inside.  I’ve learned so much about life, family, friends, business, and being a leader from him.  My life is SO MUCH BETTER having met him.

His departure from this world has left me shattered.  I am completely broken.  I am lost.  I ache.  I yearn to hear his voice again, and grieve that while I am in this world, I will never spend another minute with him.  Maybe one day in the future I will find a way to fill the hole he left in my soul.  But today….

God, I miss my friend.