Meet Ron Ausmus, ethics educator, consultant and inspirational speaker.
A vital freeway bridge collapses, and suddenly we re-focus on those deep-rooted pylons that quietly absorb incredible weight and stress.
Integrity Associates has the mission of helping maintain another kind of infrastructure. That's a company's ethical culture--the ideals, vision, principles and values that play out day after day on the job. This is the soul of the firm: the passionate purposes of product excellence and service on which the business was founded.
These pylons get their strength from the convictions and actions of people. Strength and resilience are enhanced by the vital conversations and behaviors of leaders at all levels, who continually stretch themselves to both talk the talk and walk the walk.
We can help this process at many levels:
Corporate ethics and culture work involves rather sensitive internal information. These anonymous examples illustrate some Integrity Associates "down-in-the-trenches" applications and treatments:
A start-up IT provider in the pharmaceutical benefits field needed to achieve strategic alignment of all its operational components. Integrity Associates led the strategic planning and development initiative that clarified the company's value proposition and message, and initialized a seamless process for the company's integrated business development, fulfillment and CRM functions.
A global telecomm company needed to motivate its international correspondent partners to implement customer-centered market planning for promotion of higher-level network services. Integrity Associates' consulting produced a global marketing learning package for key executives that included strategic planning aligned with ethics-based marketing principles and transition process planning. Ron facilitated the first two planning cycles before hand-off to host-company executives. Within one year all correspondent partners had successfully launched new marketing initiatives and reported significant growth in service demand.
A call center needed their floor management system to move away from hierarchy, rules and penalties toward an internal leadership and teamwork model. Integrity Associates created a program of intensive small-group learning and coaching. Mid-way through the program, core participants designed and implemented their own floor management plan which significantly improved associate morale and netted the company a first-year cost savings of over $100,000.
A large technical services content provider was mounting an IPO and needed to initiate SEC-approved ethics, compliance and whistle-blower systems. The firm had grown exponentially with multiple recent acquisitions, and was operating from a patch-work of competing and conflicting vision and values-propositions. Integrity Associates made presentations to top management, outlining the opportunities and recommending joint facilitation of an employee-centered effort to solidify a uniform company culture and value proposition. Integrity Associates was subsequently fired from the project, and instead the company patched together the minimums for SEC approval. A year later the CEO was replaced, and new leadership is implementing all Integrity Associates recommendations. We always seek to create long-term value, even when companies aren't ready for our wisdom and expertise!
A major real estate company needed a new learning reinforcement effort to extend and crystallize the institution's value proposition and key quality objectives for its 60 branch managers throughout the US. Integrity Associates designed and implemented a continuous learning process that equipped managers to quickly prepare and facilitate regular follow-on learning that integrated skills and values-reinforcement with timely success stories from the field.
A major international pharmaceutical content provider needed to diminish the "silos" between their multiple sales and customer care departments to provide seamless support for field sales and dealerships. Integrity Associates created and led phased training in cross-functional teamwork and communication for smooth hand-offs with new product roll-outs, multiple-mode product delivery and end-user education. New product sales and dealer/customer satisfaction increased significantly the following cycle.
A regional bank operating in transitional communities needed to extend on their diversity value proposition and increase intercultural sensitivities among front-line personnel. Integrity Associates initiated a customer needs assessment and led the development of a new cultural awareness program, integrated with higher-level customer service and cross-selling skills. This new thrust successfully prevented serious penetration of the bank's customer base by ethnically-owned start-up banking establishments.
Under threat of litigation, a manufacturing company needed to address tensions among supervisors and workers of diverse generations, gender and ethnic backgrounds. Integrity Associates led a values-renewal focus followed by a cross-cultural communication and harassment awareness learning program. This significantly increased team cohesion and eliminated most of the conflicts and the litigation threat.
