“GrowthPort Partners, Inc: It’s the Knowledge, Experience…and Fishbowls!”
By Wilson Beach, Chairman, Abbott Resource Group, Inc.

When I accepted the opportunity to give an interview about GrowthPort Partners, Inc., an employment counsel and senior human resource outsource company, I expected the typical business interview questions. Instead, I found myself telling the interviewer about my grandfather. He was my role model, and the core values which shaped my career were, in large part, due to a profound lesson I learned from him.

I highly regarded Leslie D. Gray, chief executive officer and Tony Burnham, Esq., president and employment counsel of GrowthPort. We had been business partners and worked on community projects together. However, the interviewer assured me that readers would more easily appreciate the uniqueness of GrowthPort if I framed that uniqueness within the context of experiences which carved and honed my values, and if I could show how my values were congruent with the values of GrowthPort.

I certainly had plenty of experiences and lessons, becoming chief executive officer of my first corporation at twenty-nine years of age. Over the years, I had the privilege to run a dozen private and public companies, six of which were turnarounds and on the verge of collapse. My values were similar to those of Tony and Leslie, which, of course, attracted me to them and their ways of doing business, and conversely, I am sure, attracted them to me. However, it was my grandfather who helped me to embrace the importance of valuing and helping people, core values that Tony, Leslie and I share.

When I was nine, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my grandfather. One day as we left the cinema, a man, talking to himself, passed by us. I pointed at him and laughed; it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Grandfather was quiet for a while. When he spoke, his words were not judgmental or harsh, just stunningly visual. “Son, everyone has a fishbowl around their heads, and it’s opaque,” he said.

The grin slid off my face: I imagined a fishbowl on the man’s head and on mine.

“Will, there is a movie screen in everyone’s fishbowl,” Grandfather said. “Unless you can see the movie playing in that man’s fishbowl, you can’t understand his behavior, and therefore…” Grandfather paused a moment as if trying to find the right words, then continued. “You won’t be able to talk to him or help him. Others’ actions might not seem so strange if you take the time to see things the way they see them and learn their language; at least then you can start to talk,” he concluded.

Until that time, to me people were two-dimensional. After Grandfather shared his perspective, people had depth and mystery. From that day onward, I watched his interactions with people, his positive concern, then listening and questioning, all of which supported the willingness of people to talk to him. I noticed that he shared his own “movies” as well. I “spied” on him and learned that for one to be willing to view the “movie” playing in someone’s “fishbowl,” one had to care enough to take the time to see it.

When I first met Tony Burnham in 1993, I sensed that he, too, valued people in a similar way, and valued helping them to achieve results. He had volunteered to support a project to promote business in Orange County. He pitched me for my company’s support, and in the presentation, showed how the welfare of my company and the community interlocked. Over time, Tony and I had several conversations. Each time, his “movie” had some version of “getting results for people” playing. Later, when I had a need for labor counsel, we worked together. In that relationship, too, and when I came to know Leslie, I saw that valuing people and caring about the outcomes produced to serve them were not “window dressings;” they have a long history of success in getting results.

Tony’s vast legal experience spans over thirty-five years. He has served as both legal counsel and as the first corporate vice president of human resources for Nestle/Carnation worldwide. In Leslie’s twenty-five years of human resource experience, she has become a master of creating systems and processes that safeguard her clients through changing workplace regulations. She served as director of human resources for two major Southern California law firms, guiding their successful expansion. However, all of their knowledge and experience would be ineffective if Tony and Leslie did not know how to identify the needs and fears of their clients and to implement client-centered, seamless solutions that help employees at all levels of a company work together.

Often presidents and chief executive officers see human resource managers as “people running around with clipboards” telling operations and production managers what they cannot do. Line employees see human resources managers as enforcers of the rules. Supervisors believe human resource managers are on the wrong side, putting employee rights in the way of getting work done. GrowthPort uses employment practices, supportive of employees and managers, that get results. Through these practices, managers and employees see common ground and benefit; all can claim increased profits and savings.

As the interview ended, I recognized that I had enjoyed discussing GrowthPort within the framework of the values that had sustained my career. It was no wonder that my meeting Tony for the first time around a community cause would create a curiosity about him. It is no wonder that recalling that meeting would remind me of another “skillful fishbowl practitioner” Louise Pomeroy, the now deceased founder of Abbot.

Louise became a regional business icon. She cared about the business, her employees and the community, and she contributed to many causes. After her successful career and through her generosity, we became employee-owned. By continuing her legacy of caring and focusing on results, we increased revenue from $16 million to $100 million, a 525 percent increase in just three years.

Abbott Resource Group grew and continues to grow, by caring for employees, clients and the community and increasing our results. It’s the same “movie” playing today at GrowthPort and the one I saw in Tony’s “fishbowl” back in 1993.

“GrowthPort Partners, Inc: It’s the Knowledge, Experience and…Fishbowls” By Wilson Beach, Chairman, Abbott Resource Group, Inc. Line…of Site Publishing: Your Business Results-Straight from the Heart and Mind of Those Who Know Copyright 2009 By Sheffra A. Williams Used By Permission Only. All Rights Reserved.

“GrowthPort! By Unanimous Decision: The Spreadsheets Told the Story”
By Paul Goden, Human Resources Manager West Coast Sand and Gravel, Buena Park, CA

“Our challenges demanded a new approach, and I got a new way of thinking about human resources in the process,” I told the Line…of Site correspondent in the phone interview. We had discussed the benefits my company received from GrowthPort Partners, Inc., our senior outsourced human resource and employment counsel provider. Headed by Tony Burnham, president and employment counsel and Leslie D. Gray, chief executive officer, GrowthPort had made an enormous impact on me and on our entire organization.

“I like numbers,” I told the correspondent. “Still, I have always valued people and relationships, though academically trained, with much of my professional experience steeped in business finance and accounting.” Administration, finance and safety, etc., were business costs, placed on the expense side of the books. The concrete number part of me hungered for measures in human resources that could track efficiencies and bottom line contributions to the profit margins of a company. Certainly, by 2005, the times demanded it.

As the global marketplace made prices cheaper and increased the number of competitors, laws that governed the workplace, such as anti-harassment, increased the financial costs of not complying. Employees had to work faster, cheaper and better, be nice to each other as they did it, and do it safely. The company had to be responsible and accountable for our employees’ relationships.

West Coast Sand and Gravel, a family-owned and operated business since 1968, has always valued our relationships with our customers, vendors and employees. Our relationships built our business, which is building materials supply, retail and wholesale, and the transportation of aggregate materials. In addition, we have a separate division, which represents us as a supplier to the golf course industry and supplier of sand products. By 2005, just as I had come on board, our company experienced a growth surge. Issues demanded our attention, such as compliance with new regulations and locating credible resources to provide the infrastructure for compliance; we needed to support the massive growth we had experienced. I began to think about resources.

I knew Leslie was a perspicacious and skilled human resource practitioner; years before we had worked together at another company. I was thrilled with the perspective Tony captured in his book “Employed for Life” (2004); it gave me a framework and a solution from his global perspective. For example, he was the first corporate vice president of human resources management for Carnation/Nestle U.S.A., overseeing its transformation from a giant with 22,000 employees worldwide, to a compact and more profitable one with 8,500 employees domestically. Tony surmised that the global competition would not lessen, but grow! Articulating the shifts in the world marketplace, his book set forth the new requirements for staying competitive, which hinged on employees documenting their added asset value and constantly communicating it to obtain and retain gainful employment. Then he showed how to do it with his simple “Value” formula!

Faced with our growth surge, changing workplace regulations, and our need to stay competitive, I suggested to the owners of West Coast Sand the idea of outsourcing some of our human resource infrastructure. This made sense to them, and we began to look for a good fit. We invited Tony and Leslie, along with many giants in the field, to compete for our business. Each company made a presentation to a committee, which made its recommendation to the board of directors. The spreadsheets told the story!

Spreadsheet Results for GrowthPort, Partners, Inc.

Factors	Results
1. Presentation	Best thought out, detailed; easy to view their actions, results and benefits
2. Cost Benefit	Saved the most money while providing the most service.
3. Interface of Human Resources and Benefits	Most demonstrative commitment to the interface
4. Training	Most comprehensive; most effective in reducing exposure to lawsuits, most effective in overall development of managers.
5. Support Services	Most effective, user-friendly and sustainable with referral questions and human resource updates

Beyond the fact that the committee was impressed that Leslie and Tony had done the most homework, the board of directors unanimously chose GrowthPort Partners based on factors which were important to the Board. GrowthPort truly would become our growth port, and unlike with the giants, we would not be one client in a pool of thousands. The services would be personable, proactive and pragmatic.

In 2005, Tony apprised me of a new law, AB 1825, which mandated anti-harassment training in California every two years. The focus was not merely on compliance, however, but on fostering clear and formal communication and safe, harmonious relationships among our employees. GrowthPort helped us to develop and engage formal procedures and processes to manage our employee relationships and to test the learning from our training. We could discover knowledge and comprehension gaps and fill those gaps; we embraced the spirit of the training as well as the training itself.

A pragmatic way in which GrowthPort worked with us was evident in our first antiharassment training, which we combined with a highly anticipated, company-wide dinner function. Although the law requires the training every two years, we have quarterly training to promote behaviors and ways of thinking as routine practices. In addition to our own formal investigations, GrowthPort provides formal investigations of harassment when requested by our company. As a result, we have not had any harassment claims of substance and no investigations that ended in lawsuits. We deal proactively with the present and the past, but we also look to the future.

We are planning to offer GrowthPort’s “Employed for Life” training to our employees. The result of this project will be an increase in our employees’ ability to document their added asset value to the company, expand their value and increase their marketability, regardless of the economic climate. We care about our employees and we can document that caring as an added asset value to our bottom line, thanks to GrowthPort Partners!

“GrowthPort! By Unanimous Decision: The Spreadsheets Told the Story”
By Paul Goden, Human Resources Manager West Coast Sand and Gravel, Buena Park, CA Line…of Site Stories: Business Results- Straight from the Hearts and Minds of Those Who Know Copyright 2009 By Sheffra A. Williams Used By Permission Only. All Rights Reserved

“No One Wants to Hear Their Baby is Ugly!”
By Judy Delgadillo, Vice President, Human Resources, Shelly Automotive

My work schedule was very tight. Still, I was pleased to give an interview to discuss GrowthPort Partners, Inc. As vice president of human resources at Shelly Automotive, I witnessed significant, positive results from the work of GrowthPort Partners, our outsourced senior human resources and employment counsel provider. The results we achieved, including savings in legal fees and from reduced exposures to law suits occurred, in part, because Anthony Burnham, president and employment counsel, and Leslie Gray, chief executive officer, valued from the beginning, what we already had; yet they wanted to learn more, not about an automotive company, but about Shelly Automotive.

When I met Tony and Leslie in 2006, their desire to get to know us was refreshing. After being with the company for fifteen years, starting in customer service, then with stints in every department, I valued that motivation. In fact, I could recall over the years, Damon Shelly’s words to vendors wanting to “help” his company with whatever improvement program they were pitching: “Try mine out first!” he’d say. This, Shelly Automotive philosophy of “get to know us” fortunately is echoed by GrowthPort Partners; it helps us achieve our goals for our human resources department, and success for our company as a whole.

GrowthPort Partners uses a preventative legal approach. This began with valuing our uniqueness by documenting our existing systems and procedures. They help us deal with the immediacy of any concomitant internal and external changes. We are able to be proactive with changes in the laws such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which significantly increases the exposure to lawsuits for employers.

As information regarding the requirements of these laws comes down the pipeline, we know how we will, or will not, be affected; we do not lose our focus or waste energy worrying about what to do. Leslie already conducted specific training on the Family and Medical Leave Act modifications, even though she does not work directly with our benefits plans. They keep abreast of the trends; we do not have to ask. The sound advice of this team, Leslie (who I like to call, our “HR Guru”) and Tony, our employment counsel, which gives communications between us protection under the attorney/client privilege, is as good as it gets.

Our employees receive support from this preventative legal approach as well. Through quarterly training, where we document participation and test the learning, GrowthPort Partners supports our employees in the practice of routine behaviors and thinking that creates a positive and safe environment. As a result, employees embrace our values and commit to the results we all want to achieve.

In addition to training, GrowthPort Partners helped us create an employee handbook which is continually updated and incredibly comprehensive, yet unique to Shelly Automotive. We did not lose our individuality in working with GrowthPort in the creation of the handbook. It has become one of the important ways that we remind existing employees who we are, how we operate, and how new employees get to know us. It is how we welcome them, and we want them to feel welcomed. Of course, it is vital that they use our handbook, which means it must grab their interest and be helpful. It has a user-friendly flow, the way we want our company to feel to customers. Because the image of buying a car can feel like going to a dentist, employees who are welcoming because they, too, feel welcomed here, is important.

Further, GrowthPort Partners helps us improve our communication with our employees and reduce our workload, a cost saving as well. For example, prior to using their services, we had 30 acknowledgements for employees to sign; now we only have the ones that matter! They analyze the language in our agreements, placing the highest value on clear communication, which is vital to the work of our employees.

The 45 minutes spent with the interviewer passed quickly. Then, the final question: “When was the defining moment in Tony and Leslie’s presentation of their services, that you knew you wanted a relationship with them?” As I paused to consider the question, I remembered while I weighed their proposal, thinking how approachable they were: Tony and Leslie were the kind of people with whom we would want to do business. Still, no one wants to hear their baby is ugly.

I recognized that although our company had a void, it was evident that Tony and Leslie’s focus on how we operated would support a seamless integration of their work with what we already had in place. I also recognized that even though changing felt like giving up control, Tony and Leslie did not try to scare us into submission. We could see the need for change to take us where we wanted to go. Our best interest would be at the heart of GrowthPort’s effort, and we could save money. Both values won out.

In retrospect, the preventative legal approach by GrowthPort Partners and its focus on our uniqueness resulted in not only reduced lawsuits and legal fees, but smarter hires, better performance management, more effective communication and terminations. Altogether, we saved thousands of dollars! GrowthPort valued what we had and also helped us get what we needed.

“No One Wants to Hear Their Baby is Ugly”
By Judy Delgadillo, Vice President, Human Resources, Shelly Automotive Line… of Site Stories: Business Results-Straight from the Heart and Mind of Those Who Know Copyright 2009 by Sheffra A. Williams Used By Permission Only. All Rights Reserved.

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