How is trouble solved? Always through people who are called to grow.

Indiana Global Economic Summit 2022 

Our global economy will grow through the next several years and decades. While limited at times due to global troubles, we always solve to grow. The world population was 2 billion people in 1900, is around 7.9B today, and will be 9B+ in 2050. Our world and its industries have often seen great trouble, yet growth persists. We are called to grow, always. 

This week, Medallion Partners is attending the Indiana Global Economic Summit, hosted in Indianapolis around the largest single-day sporting event in the world – the Indianapolis 500. This event has seen trouble since its first running on May 30, 1911. The “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” spawned out of an idea by a business leader to build a testing site for a breakthrough new technology that would change the world – automobiles. In those days, they worried little about losing what they had; they only saw growth. We have seen the worst of troubles since that first race and still grown like no other time in history.  

Leaders from around the globe in industry, governments, and academia will attend to discuss major global issues and opportunities, including: 

• Feeding the World 
• Advanced Manufacturing 
• Sustainable Energy 
• Geopolitical Consequences 
• Digital Health Solutions 
• The Evolution of Talent

When participating in these events, you notice a few major themes.   

THERE IS ALWAYS TROUBLE.

THERE ARE ALWAYS SOLUTIONS.

HUMANS ALWAYS SOLVE PROBLEMS.  

In our work at Medallion Partners, we lead projects to secure the elite talent for our clients through executive search. We start with landscaping strategies resulting in structural changes to meet unique needs. We work in every growth area in serving global businesses across life sciences, medical devices, advanced manufacturing, consumer products, financial services, SaaS, nonprofits, NGOs, and more. All solutions stem from the recognition of what is possible by humans.  

Medallion starts with the need for growth and solves the trouble. Whether you’re based in Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong, Turkey, California, or Indiana, the best businesses have three practices to solve with their people first: 

1 – DOING NOTHING IS DEATH 

• Many organizations and communities struggle and cannot recover because they hold onto a method or model for too long. I am sure the candle makers and carriage drivers were the first in line to complain about the new bright glass and those four-wheeled machines that raced in 1911.     
• We currently serve a multi-billion dollar medical device company that loves its history and culture. We also recognized the need to become more technology-forward in their approach, which would change their culture substantially. The leadership adopted a genuinely innovative mindset to change that allowed their prior success not to limit their better potential. They have continued to hire dozens of amazingly unique leaders from all types of geographies and moved many to their HQ in the US Midwest. It has been enriching (for them and us) to serve these clients by challenging them to embrace the trouble and take the risk to augment their culture.   

2 – ALLOW FOR THE OUTSIDE TO COME IN 

• So many companies forget to participate in the broader market. Medallion Partners helps companies meet non-traditional participants in their future economy. People from Google meet people from a Life Science company. People from Visa meet people from an Animal Health company. People from Pepsi meet people from a Financial Services company. Sharing ideas for diverse thinking on core business topics unveils future trouble or solution not seen looking through the existing lens. 

Medallion leads introductions to CEOs and boards who are unsure how to move through substantial troubles where they are committed to a strategy that seems like handcuffs to the required change. Medallion recently guided a CEO who made significant acquisitions to reinvigorate innovation on a lean budget, accelerating returns to lower debt. This activity set is standard for the last few years of cheap money. Legacy industries can learn a new way to accelerate innovation and take more specific risks from companies in the global digital marketplace. 

3 – STOP FIGHTING AGAINST PEOPLE’S UNIQUENESS 

• Each person has a multi-faceted career “arc” that evolves; leaders need to appreciate the whole human to create a multiplier effect for the company. No matter the geography, companies often try to conform the person to the job they need. The best companies we serve globally want to provide people fantastic opportunities to solve the trouble and take risks.   
• In developing or hiring elite talent, the best results come from companies that set employees up for early success and collaborate with the talent to solve more critical challenges and growth needs. The alignment to mission, values, and ability to enhance the culture is more important than taking safe bets on someone with the same resume features and titles. At Medallion Partners, we use our proprietary Medallion Matrix to evaluate talent quantitatively for their execution, cultural, and leadership potential within that specific organization. Utilizing the Medallion Matrix allows the company to hire diversity at a much higher rate because it is about the individual, not a limited legacy view for safety.  

In good times and in bad, we must maintain our growth mindset. Can you imagine if those early Hoosiers had been deterred from pursuing innovation at the Indy 500 in 1911 because of the risks of war, disease, or economic slowdown? They solved those risks by knowing their team could persist through the trouble to the growth.  

At Medallion, we love to solve for the trouble with our clients. We love to solve with Humans. 

We’re here to serve.