Huffington Post's Jason Schmitt visited downtown's Quicken Loans, where founder Dan Gilbert and CEO Bill Emerson are hard at work, he says, creating a brain trust of 4,000 thought leaders. A nice thought, you might say: but taking Quicken's 94% referral rating and ever-increasing profits into account, it's clear Gilbert's version for a different kind of company seems to be working.
Excerpt:
These two executives aren't penny pinching. Together, these leaders
spoke for ten hours straight and utilized a staff of over 20 to keep
things streamlined -- showing the priority and high expectations that
are bestowed upon these new recruits. What other company has top
executives that are willing to wipe a day off their calendar for the
newbies--and also, what other companies have top executives who have
that type of energy to command an audience on the edge of their chairs
for that length of time? This isn't normal--but neither is having net
revenue exceed net expenditures in 2011. The difference is working.
We at Buzz also thank the author for his introduction, which includes the hypothesis that Dan Gilbert proves Detroiters can actually be successful. That Henry Ford always was kind of a deadbeat.
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