Edmundson Northstar Institute Provides Biz Tools to Mid Market

As reported in The Memphis Daily News

Business news headlines tend to be dominated by Fortune 500 companies or the masses of mom-and-pop shops on Main Street, but Ken Edmundson found his business niche by offering tools for those in the middle.

“The mid-market companies are almost entirely run by men and women who were trained in something other than running a business – finance, sales, engineering or marketing,” said Edmundson, founder and CEO of the Edmundson Northstar Institute (ENI).

“I also knew that with the majority of people who start companies, less than 1 percent of them ever get the company over $25 million of revenue in their lifetime.”

Edmundson wears multiple hats in the Memphis business arena. He founded and later sold the real estate company LEDIC Management Group, but in 2007 bought back into the company and became chairman of the board of directors.

After selling LEDIC, he founded ENI, which offers sales training, employee assessments and hiring services, and leadership development.

“I’m fascinated by what makes people do what they do,” said Edmundson. “I had this interest in building my own company and I thought other people would be interested in it as well.”

Last year, he partnered with two business contacts, Jim Sagar of Phoenix and Nick Setchell of Adelaide, Australia, to form yet another company called ShortTrack CEO, which officially launched in August with the publication of an online “field manual” for mid-market businesses.

“I said there’s something that middle-market and small-market CEOs don’t know how to do and they all need to know how to do that,” said Edmundson. “Over a period of five years I began writing and developing with (Sagar and Setchell) what we were calling a master class of tools.”

The book, titled “ShortTrack CEO: How Mid-Market CEOs Apply Four Critical Concepts to Achieve Their Personal Goals,” covers four sets of principles specifically designed for privately-held companies under $100 million in revenue with fewer than 500 employees.

Edmundson said there is currently a gap in the business literature available to mid-sized companies at a time when more of them exist than small businesses or large corporations.

Namely, the book covers how to structure the purpose, value, principles and culture of a company; how to build a competitive position and a true brand; how to assess and hire employees; and how to evaluate the company by more than just the bottom line.

The book is available at www.shorttrackceo.com. Included are exercises and explanations of basic concepts like the first one, “Your CFO is not giving you all the numbers you need to confirm your everyday decisions.”

“I think there are CEOs who are always interested in learning how to enhance their leadership team’s skills set, but in the tougher economic times, more of them are out searching,” said Sagar.

“These concepts should carry companies through any type of short-term economic condition. There’s no doubting that the terrible state of the economy has affected a lot of businesses, but these principles should be adhered to whether we’re in the boom of the early 2000s or the bust of today’s economy.”

The book further develops some of the basic concepts taught by ENI, though that company focuses on sales training, management and hiring.

ENI’s training center has a full television and recording studio offering more than 600 hours of classes. Services are designed to be relevant for any industry and are customized for every client. ENI employs eight.

Edmundson said the number of hiring or promotion assessments done by ENI annually is several hundred. Clients typically work with ENI for 18 months to five years.

“This type of work is routinely outsourced for companies that aren’t Fortune 1000,” said Edmundson. “In fact, even Fortune 1000 companies outsource it a lot. But the mid-market companies have to because it’s so expensive.”

Jeff Arnold, president and CEO of Fisher & Arnold Inc., sought out Edmundson’s services after his company re-evaluated its strategic plan.

“I felt like (Edmundson) understood what a business owner had to go through in order to advance and grow,” said Arnold. “He spoke with experience and knowledge so we connected right off. He can speak with authority because he’s been there.”

Through ENI, Arnold learned the concept of the one-page strategic plan, which breaks down long-term strategies into 13-week quarters.

“That was something that he introduced to our executive staff and we implemented it and found it to be a great tool,” said Arnold.