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Book reveals techniques to grow businesses
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Updated: August 13, 2012 6:35AM
Oak Park resident Bruce Hodes’ favorite place in the world is on top of a mountain where he has a view of 1,500 feet in every direction.
Hodes has climbed many mountains, literally and figuratively. His business, CMI (Crusading, Marauding Interveners), is a corporate team-building and executive business planning company at 711 South Blvd. He recently released his first book, a lively, fun and interesting read, “Front Line Heroes; Battling the Business Tsunami with Performance Oriented Cultures.”
“The book is for people who are starting or have small to mid-size businesses,” said Hodes, who was born in Camden, N.J., and lived in Latin America, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Colombia while his father worked for Mobil Chemical. “It will teach them how to grow their business and have high performance work cultures. Having a high performance culture will help people weather and grow in this business tsunami.”
“Front Line Heroes,” is geared towards Main Street, every day companies, Hodes said. Readers will walk away with real techniques on how to grow and improve the performance of their organization in an easy to read, funny, common sense way.
“If you are ready to stop playing victim to the times, ‘Front Line Heroes’ will arm you with the tools you need to achieve sustainable business growth,” said Hodes, who lives in Oak Park with his wife, Leslie, and stepdaughter, Lauren.
Hodes said he believes it’s possible to develop and grow powerful organizations in challenging times—it just takes courage, determination and actionable techniques that work. He said the customer is king, and that the phones are not dead anymore and people are ready to do business.
“There’s growth out there for companies being creative and innovative, and bringing out products people want,” said Hodes, who has an MBA from Northwestern University. “Customers do have a choice...we’re not in an environment where a rising tide floats all boats. That’s not true anymore.
“The customer has become very demanding; you (must) watch your prices and have good service delivery in the environment we’re in,” advises Hodes, who also enjoys exercising, traveling and playing the drums. “The customer is king because there aren’t that many customers. You (need to) find, create and generate demand.
Hodes said he “likes writing better with a glass of wine,” and is also a Mexican food critic. He said he hopes people read his “tried and true” ideas on how to grow and focus an organization. In his 30-plus years coaching privately-held companies ranging from $5 million to $100 million in size, he has climbed many mountains.
“Yeah and there’s more to go,” he said with a laugh.
“Front Line Heroes” is available locally at The Magic Tree and the Book Table, and on Amazon.com.
