Interview: Travis Greenwood, The Greentree Group

Today marks the first of what I hope will be regular interviews with business professionals. Our inaugural victim is Travis Greenwood, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Greentree Group in Dayton, Ohio and a friend of mine from back in the day.

btw²: Travis, can you tell our readers a little bit about your college and business experience?

TG: I earned my Bachelor degree in Communications from Wright State in 1984. I also earned a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University in 1991. Waiting a bit between the two degrees was beneficial in two ways; it allowed me time to enjoy a new life outside of school and, subsequently, I was able to take some actual career experience into the classroom during my master’s courses.

During my last two [undergraduate] years of college, I worked full-time as a Public Affairs Specialist at Wright-Patterson AFB. I was a writer creating hundreds of articles for a few dozen newspapers around the country. Upon graduating in 1984, I took my prior experience to San Antonio, Texas. A large corporation specializing in jet engine repairs for the military and commercial markets hired me as a marketing assistant and project manager for a few military engine programs.

A few years later, I found myself in Albuquerque, New Mexico working for an Information Technology (IT) firm who designed and built lights-out repair facilities for commercial and military needs. The company eventually transferred me back to Dayton, Ohio. During the next several years, I held a few project management positions with Lockheed Martin and Battelle Memorial Institute.

In 1993, I started a consulting business with my father called The Greentree Group. We’re a strategic and technology consulting firm headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.

btw²: What role has writing played in your career? Do you think your ability to write has helped you in your career journey?

TG: The ability to write well has played a huge role in my career. I learned a lot about the basics during my two years of writing newspaper articles. My boss always told me the goal was to write articles with the proper amount of detail (less is more) and ensure they were easy to understand. We used the AP Style Guide because it’s the bible for print journalism. It’s widely used and contains a lot of “stuff” to help [keep] writers from making errors of fact, grammar and punctuation.

Now think about what I just said. I learned to write to the proper detail, make things easy to understand and produce documents that followed established writing guidelines. During the past 25 years of my career, I have found that those three things are key attributes of communicating with people in the business world.

btw²: It sounds like writing skills are very important in business, at least in your career.

TG: If you can’t write well and communicate your message effectively, your chances of growing in a business are very limited. That’s because writing is a huge part of a normal business day. People in my company (as well as most others) will send dozens of emails and prepare two or three papers of some sort every day.

Of course writing an email doesn’t necessarily require precise writing skills – people expect blurbs of information and even grammar errors when reading an office email. However, people still want to read a message having the proper detail of information. They also expect it to be easy to understand. Possessing the key attributes is even more critical when writing formal documents such as proposals or position papers.

Building skills that produce those three attributes is a continuous process – you never stop learning to better communicate your message. Your writing style might change or mature. You’ll become more comfortable with your writing as time goes by. But if you can’t develop and continuously improve upon the three attributes, then I would suggest becoming a rock star or a doctor who writes cryptic notes.

btw²: I’ve always believed that the skills I use as a writer serve me in other areas of my career. For example, the kind of preparation I undertake for a piece of writing is very similar to what I do when I plan a project. What skills or aspects of the writing process do you see as transferable to other business or professional activities you might perform on a regular basis?

TG: I would agree with the similarities of writing and project planning. Building an outline for a paper is just like building a work breakdown structure (tasks) for a project. I’d go even further to say that those skills feed upon each other – one skill grows as the other skill grows.

I believe my ability to speak or communicate an oral message has improved because of my increased writing skills. I find myself organizing my message before I open my mouth (although my wife would disagree with that). I have also found that my writing skills have helped with my thought process – and my thought process has improved my writing skills.

btw²: You and I had lunch awhile back and I began talking about critical thinking. You surprised me by starting to talk about creative thinking. What is the value of creative thinking to a business and do you see a connection between critical thinking and creative thinking?

TG: Critical thinking is very important. A business must have people who know how to analyze problems, organize their thoughts and make good judgments. Every university in America teaches it. A business cannot succeed without critical thinkers.

However, creative thinking is just as important. Being able to take a critical thought and do something with it is vital to a business. Producing solutions or developing a new product requires fresh thinking, flexibility, and people who aren’t afraid to try new ideas. Bill Gates and Microsoft is a perfect example.

In 1975, Bill Gates was a 19 year-old sophomore at Harvard writing revolutionary computer code. His ability to organize his technical thoughts, write lines of code and make them do something was extraordinary – that was critical thinking at its best. However, what he did in the early 1980s was one of the most brilliant pieces of creative thinking I’ve seen in the business world.

During those days, a transition of huge proportions – from mainframe to personal computers – was underway. Gates approached IBM about using MS-DOS on their forthcoming personal computers. Executives at IBM offered Gates, who was now at the helm of Microsoft, a sizeable amount of money thinking that the code could be purchased. They were floored when Bill told them that all he wanted was to sell them the rights (for a small sum of money) to distribute the code each time the computer giant sold a personal computer. The executives bought the creative approach thinking they could take advantage of him.

Bill Gates’ creative thinking was the key to making his critical thoughts (the MS-DOS code) successful. And, as I write to you today on my personal computer, Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world.

btw²: You've been pretty successful, too. Tell us a little bit about your company, the Greentree Group. What does your company do and why would our readers want to work there?

TG: Greentree provides a broad range of professional and technical support services to federal, state, and local governments and to clients in the private sector. Our core competencies include business-focused strategies and solutions in three key areas: information technology, financial management and program management.

That’s the official, convoluted answer about Greentree. What we really do is solve our clients’ problems by helping them simplify or enhance their business processes through the use of computers and better management.

We’re a small, family-owned business with yearly revenues between $15-20 million. We treat our employees like members of our own family. Our people work hard and produce results because they know the company will reward them appropriately. It’s a simple theory based on a mutual partnership; as our people help the company grow, Greentree gives back to them. The minute that stops is the day we fail as a business. We also keep our priorities in line through a strong value system which fuels the belief that “we work to live, we don’t live to work.”

btw²: What qualities do you look for in a person when you’re making a hiring decision?

TG: Ethics, integrity are first and foremost. Critical thinkers are a dime a dozen. I am partial to the creative thinker because they’re always in short supply and it’s a talent that makes our company successful. Our people must be able to communicate effectively whether it is in writing or orally. And, finally, our people must enjoy coming to work everyday. If they don’t enjoy what they’re doing then they are no value to me or themselves.

btw²: I'm wondering how critical thinking can be important if "critical thinkers are a dime a dozen."

TG: I guess what I mean by the "dime a dozen" comment is that every university in America is teaching it through engineering, science, mathematics, and computer degrees. However, I don't think we see enough emphasis on the creative part. Fortunately, we live in America -- without a doubt the greatest country in the world. A country blessed by God with freedoms to allow all of us to create, express ourselves, and become successful. So, when I say "critical thinkers are a dime a dozen," many of those talented people can't or don't allow themselves to be creative thinkers. It's not something that is necessarily taught in schools but comes [from] a willingness to "think out of the box" and present ideas. Unfortunately, many businesses don't encourage that.

btw²: I see. So critical thinking is important – as you said before – but it’s kind of a given, something that is necessary just to get into the game. Whereas, creative thinking is more like the winning edge.

TG: Exactly.

btw²: Travis, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me and our readers.

TG: My pleasure.