About ROI³ Partnership and Why It Was Founded

Why did you shift from the financial arena, then marketing & sales, to pursue a PhD in organizational development and start your own company?

Every time I moved to another executive position I kept thinking, “Is this all there is?” I knew something was missing in how companies focused just on their financials, or ROI—return on investment. I did some deep soul-searching and realized the missing component was the focus on people and how they ultimately influenced that ROI. I also could see that the laser focus on financials was depleting organizations of any semblance of innovation, imagination or creativity. Getting my MBA and working in marketing and sales reinforced this void. Most CEOs are very numbers-oriented, it’s the place they feel most comfortable. I decided to combine my financial background with the human development side. I like to call it the ROI³ factor:

Return on Investment + Return on Imagination = Impact

How does your background make it easier for you to see corporate culture from both sides?

It’s easier because I speak both languages. Finance has its own language and I’m very comfortable with it. This gives me a great foundation in dealing with CEOs who have mastered the financial aspects of their organizations. At the same time, I’m always the first to imagine new possibilities and solutions that others just haven’t seen or considered.

Organizations become an insignia of their processes and policies. An insignia is a badge, a mark which is positive because people need to be able to identify with their organization. On the other hand, it’s negative because it is static – and in these turbulent times, organizations need to continually invent new patterns that serve them better as the environment changes. They need to imagine and improvise – retrospectively – to create a new future, a new script.

How does ROI3 solve the “inertia issue” of organizations?

Let’s face it: The “inertia issue” occurs not only in the organization but also in the leadership. The outlook of both must be integrated for maximum impact. For the organization, we have developed a series called Imaginative Inquiry™ to achieve powerful insights for impact. The Inquiry is customized for each organization. For leaders, we have developed the Improvisational Leader Assessment and then customize a toolkit for impacting the bottom line – which ultimately is the goal of our programs.