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Growth Coach Ingar Grev Interviews General Motors CEO to Share Leadership Knowledge with Other Business Owners, Managers

By: The Growth Coach |  1,014 Shares     358 Reads

Ingar Grev turned a 90-minute interview with General Motors CEO Dan Akerson into a four-part series about how business owners and leaders everywhere can make improvements for themselves and their businesses.

Washington D.C. (PRWEB) June 20, 2013 - Washington D.C. Growth Coach franchise owner Ingar Grev knows the world holds few great leaders – people who know how to turn around a company, save thousands of jobs and push a staff to the next level while creating a team focused on the future who can communicate with each other.

That’s why, when Grev found himself sitting next General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson at a Naval Academy awards dinner and the two hit it off over football and a discussion on leadership and business strategy, Grev saw an opportunity.

“At the end of the evening, I asked the Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk to snap our picture and, before we said our good-byes, I said, ‘Dan, I'm a volunteer blogger for the Washington Business Journal, a business coach, and I write on leadership and strategy topics. May I please interview you?’ He said sure … and he gave me 90 minutes over the phone – more than he gave any journalist,” Grev said.

The plethora of knowledge shared during that 90-minute interview was turned into a four- day article series recently published in the Washington Business Journal. The articles received some of the most reads for the website during that second week of June.

Grev said writing articles and blogs for the Journal are part of his mission to help business leaders improve and to also help promote his Growth Coach business to so many readers.

“I started my Growth Coach business in 2007 after a long journey of being frustrated with business leadership and strategic execution in American business,” he said. “The Growth Coach’s no-nonsense approach is remarkably effective at solving that problem, but in order for us to help business owners and leaders, they need to first recognize that they need our help.”

“Writing for the a large audience in the Washington Business Journal is one of the ways I can help business owners, managers and leaders transform, and one of the ways I get my material is by interviewing CEOs. Dan Akerson's incredible success (so far) shows us what effective leaders can do, and I wanted to share as much information as I could about how ‘great leaders do it,’” Grev said.

The articles touch on everything from the struggles at General Motors and how Akerson turned things around to the basics of great business – not sitting in your office all day, creating teams within your company, providing strategic direction, managing change, mastering communication and more.

“Dan said the most important thing in business is leadership. Period. Everything else stems from it. Dan is also a very inspirational man, not through his charisma, per se, but through his passion. He really cares about transforming GM,” Grev said.

In addition to his training as a Growth Coach franchise owner, Grev has over 20 years of leadership experience, running from being a nuclear submarine officer in the US Navy to most recently a Director of Operations at Raytheon. He holds a BS in Systems Engineering from the US Naval Academy as well as an MS in Systems Engineering and an MBA from the University of Maryland. Ingar is the President of his Naval Academy class and also recently served on the US Naval Academy Alumni Association’s Board of Trustees.

Here’s a selection from the first article, published on June 10th:

(Dan) was certain in 2009 that GM would be doomed to an existence of mediocrity as a result of the government’s stake. Easy money never produces great results. So, how did Dan transform GM with the cards stacked against the company?

I remember reading in the Wall Street Journal a while ago that Dan earned a reputation for asking hard-hitting questions while he served as the U.S. Department of Treasury representative on GM’s board of directors. He told me that “serving on the board for a year before taking over as CEO was a big advantage for me.” It helped him learn a great deal about the business and helped inspire him to accept the job of CEO.

That might prompt you to ask: “Accept the job? Who wouldn’t accept the job as CEO of GM?” Well, Dan for one. At the time, he was the fourth-largest equity holder at The Carlyle Group and didn’t need the job. Moreover, GM was saddled with a tremendous amount of political baggage, as well as some structural issues, that drove GM into the mess they were in. Dan could have just as easily said no and kept his board seat.

You can read the articles in their entirety by visiting Grev’s website: http://www.ingargrev.com.

For more information about Ingar Grev’s business and executive coaching, business development consulting, and strategic advisory services, visit http://www.ingargrev.com or contact him directly at either ingar@ingargrev.com or (202)640-1908.

About The Growth Coach

The Growth Coach was founded in Cincinnati in 2002 and is the only pure business and sales coaching franchise aimed at driving success while balancing the lives of business owners, managers, sales people, self-employed professionals and executives across a wide spectrum of businesses and industries. The Growth Coach specializes in group workshops as well as individual coaching with the goal of helping clients gain greater focus and leverage to work less, earn more and enjoy more fulfilling lives. The Growth Coach is active in more than 140 markets in the United States and abroad and is always looking to expand. For more information about the company or the process of opening a business coaching franchise as your encore career, visit http://www.TheGrowthCoach.com.

Contact:

Angie Shafer
The Growth Coach
http://www.TheGrowthCoach.com
513-563-0570 119

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