Wonderful Me
Why I’m like no other
One of the better questions I’ve asked job applicants over the years is: What makes your work especially valuable to clients? What do you add to the equation that nobody else does?
One reason this is a great question is that it gets immediately to two key topics. First, is the person self-aware enough and attentive enough to the job to know where his or her strengths are greatest? Has the person ever thought about how he or she can make the biggest contribution to the company and its clients? Second, do these strengths translate to my business? Assuming the applicant has identified the relevant skill set, is that contribution relevant here, now, in this job?
Serving clients is like a job interview that goes on forever, or so we hope. Invariably, we want the customer to benefit from the Me Factor and to recognize that factor as relevant to their needs. It’s not enough to have the skills. Those skills must drive both corporate profitability and customer loyalty.
In the competitive marketplace, as in the job market, adequacy is nothing more than table stakes. It gets us in the game, but it doesn’t make us winners. Every successful company, like every successful person, needs to identify and promote the Me Factor. Without knowing and promoting that unique strength, we are commodities…and priced accordingly.
About Michael Rosenbaum
Quadrant Five founder Michael Rosenbaum has walked the walk when it comes to building a business, so he can be a confidant and compatriot—not just an advisor—for clients. Rosenbaum worked his way up to president of a $35 million company with 300 people and 600 clients. Along the way, he managed operations, HR, IT, and marketing, and advised CEOS and CFOs at more than 200 companies.
Beginning as a newspaper reporter, he developed a specialization in business journalism and earned an MBA on his way to a 30-year consulting career. Representing both angel-backed startups and Fortune 100 giants, Rosenbaum identified the patterns and processes that drive success across a wide range of industries and business cycles.
He is well regarded for designing each performance-improvement process around specific client needs, capabilities, and culture, rather than pushing a pre-fab set of rules for clients to follow. He brings a unique set of skills to each engagement, including experiences as a company president, financial journalist, marketer, IR advisor, non-profit founder, author, and public speaker. Items of note include:
• Received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 2015 for non-profit work
• Honored for the Best Business Biography of 2012 for his fifth book, Six Tires, No Plan
• Frequent speaker on customer relationship value
• Sales instructor for Certified Value Growth Advisor certification program.
• Regional Communications Chair, YPO Gold
• Marketing Chair, AMAA’s Mid-Market Alliance
• Former Chicago Chapter Chair, National Association of Corporate Directors
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