A Time to Lead A Presentation to the 2012 TCN Worldwide Spring Conference for Principals, Toronto April 18, 2012 Dr. Lowell “Duke” Kuehn duke@pnwconsult.com

Good to be back. October 25, 2008

My favorite planning exercise: If you could blow it up and make it right, what would it look like?

My comments today are guided by a single principle. I have something important to tell you that could make the difference between your firm doing alright over the next five years or achieving unprecedented levels of performance.

How do I know you will survive? Because you have, you're here today.

greatest brokers I've ever met!" "As a CEO you're one of the greatest brokers I've ever met!" After what you've been through since 2008 I have to concede you've gotten to be pretty good managers.

Three different ways of saying money. You've become good at dealing with your three biggest worries: Brokers, Clients and Deals. Three different ways of saying money. I call that "Yugo Management."

It's time to step up your game. Your choice. You can continue as you are and, while you will not fail, you will not ever reach your full potential. Or you can lead your brokerage to unbelievable levels of performance.

It is the question of whether you are satisfied to be a winning team.

Or a championship team.

I am not a futurist. I am a strategist. I look at the future and try to determine what would be to your advantage.

The Essential Strategic Decision Are you a managing a brokerage operating as a business or are you leading a business operating as a brokerage?

I'm challenging you to take the next step from being a good manager to becoming a great leader. You are not just managing a team to survive today's challenges, you are leading a business to long term success and prosperity. You are not just managing to increase revenues you are leading the company's owners to real wealth. From the collection of Swiss Re

And you are starting with a significant disadvantage. WARNING! And you are starting with a significant disadvantage.

FACT The structure and culture that shape your firm's current operations are hopelessly outdated and woefully inadequate to handle the tasks and challenges of managing a business in the 21st Century, much less a brokerage. Hardly surprising given that practically every firm is modeled on the ones where the founders first worked.

When you should be on that. Turns out you're riding on this. When you should be on that.

Better yet, this...

The basis for my claims? All organizations are simply decision making machines. Some very big, but thousands of little ones every day. Starting right here.

What's required in the 21st Century to make a good decision? Unrestricted input from many sources. Lots of data. Speed Real time feedback. No boundaries to line of sight. Clear and direct lines of communication.

Not this. That!

The Answer XIII XI XII Duke's 13 Commandments of Leadership

Strategic Commandment 1 Know what business you're in and don't ever forget it.

Strategic Commandment 2 Set the increase of long term shareholder value as the North Star of your business. p.s. Set a course and stick to it. You need a plan. 9812 Island View Lane, University Place, WA 98466 360.791.8450 duke@pnwconsult.com www.pnwconsult.com

Strategic Commandment 3 Create and maintain an uncompromising culture of excellence in everything you do.

Strategic Commandment 4 Achieve and hold at all costs an unassailable market position.

Strategic Commandment 5 Build an organization where everyone works to cause everyone else's success.

Strategic Commandment 6 Make sure you have data to make the right decisions.

Strategic Commandment 7 Make right decisions the right way.

Strategic Commandment 8 Accountability rules.

Strategic Commandment 9 Integrate your business seamlessly with families and to the community.

Strategic Commandment 10 Combat complacency, ego and ignorance, the three deadly sins of any enterprise.

Strategic Commandment 11 Action without vision is simply passing time, vision without action is dreaming.

Strategic Commandment 12 Keep focused on your mission, exercise discipline in your decisions and be open to taking risk.

Strategic Commandment 13 Always have an exit strategy.

A final comment on leadership

Golden Corral Corporation Ted Fowler President & CEO Golden Corral Corporation "Those two little kids are going to have a great time here today."

If we want a firm that generates wealth for its shareholders then the test of what we accomplish is not measured in quarters or even years… it is determined, in the greatest of firms, over decades, even generations.

Just be sure to attribute it to me. GOOD LUCK! For a copy of this presentation, send an e-mail to Duke Kuehn, duke@pnwconsult.com Note: this material is copyrighted (c) Pacific Northwest Consulting Services, Inc., 2012. You are invited to copy and share it with whomever might find it of interest. Just be sure to attribute it to me. There's more of this kind if stuff available on my website www.pnwconsult.com at my blog www.dukeonline.blogspot.com or on Facebook (Duke Kuehn) or Twitter @dukepncs