What book are you currently reading?
I always have several books on the go, a couple for business and at least one for pleasure.  Right now I’m reading Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff; I’m re-reading The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell, which made an impression when I first read it but now means a lot more to me; for pleasure I’m reading one of my favorite mystery novelists, David Baldacci, whose new book First Family has just come out; and I’m also reading Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America. Fantastic!

What was the last movie you saw, and would you recommend it?
The last movie I saw was Revolutionary Road.  A very sad movie, but well done and well acted.

What is your favorite sport or hobby?
I love the game of golf because it is a low impact exercise yet takes you to the most beautiful locations.

Who is your favorite historical figure?
I have to say I particularly admire women like Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher.  They paved the way for opportunities for women. These were women a girl could look up to and say: “I can be somebody one day.”

Who is your favorite living person?
That would be my mother.  She has had an enormous influence on my life, and still has today.

If you could choose another profession, what would it be?
Probably a publicist or promoter.  I love marketing and sometimes feel I would love to brand people rather than products—to make people larger than life.

What do you think is the worst bad habit to have at work?
Procrastination: it breeds negative energy and affects teamwork and productivity. Waiting for a late report, for example, means a creative team can’t move on to the next thing.

What quality or qualities do you most value in your business associates?
Creativity: thinking about things that are not linear or outside the box. I also admire an entrepreneurial spirit that can look at the bigger picture and accomplish something better. People should also believe passionately in what they are doing.  Some new ideas can be controversial, but the response should be: I guess we should let her try!

Is there anything you'd like to improve about your own work practices?
I expect way too much from people, which can sometimes de-motivate them.  I need to learn how to motivate people into having better ideas, or doing something they’ve never done before.  At the same time, I don’t expect anything from people that I don’t expect from myself.

As someone at the top of your profession, what keeps you inspired or makes you hit the ground running in the morning?
I love the challenge of trying to figure out today’s consumer. It used to be that if we advertised, they would come.  Today, though, people zip through TV ads, only responding to what they want to look at.  We are having to learn how to market to savvy consumers.

What do you consider has been your greatest achievement in business?
Although this may sound sycophantic, winning a Stevie Award in 2008 for our marketing team.  They worked on a global re-branding that was implemented in just two months.  It was a real team achievement, and highly satisfying to have their efforts recognized by The American Business Awards.

What advice or useful tip would you give to someone who is just starting out in business?
One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever received was: Don’t confuse effort with results. Just looking busy is not enough.  At the end of each day you will be judged by what you have done to move the needle for the company.  Focus, and make sure that at day’s end you have results to show for your effort.

My father also gave me some great advice:  You’re only as good as the network of people you’ve put in place.

About Mimi San Pedro:
As vice president of global marketing for Acxiom, Mimi S. San Pedro heads the global branding, product marketing, and communications divisions.   Under her leadership, Acxiom implemented the most comprehensive global branding and marketing strategy in the company’s history, including developing the company’s next generation web and digital marketing platform. She oversees a staff of over 100 marketing and advertising professionals worldwide.
 
Before joining Acxiom in 2006, Mimi served as President and CEO of ContourMed, an Arkansas-based biotechnology company that manufactures and markets patented custom breast prosthetics for post-mastectomy patients. During her tenure, Mimi transformed the company from an Arkansas-based startup to a nationwide leader in the industry with over 300 distributors in 43 states.  Before her promotion to president of ContourMed in 2004, Mimi was Vice President of Sales and Marketing and was responsible for the national launch of the company’s product lines, and the formation of a national sales force. 
 
Prior to joining ContourMed in 2001, Mimi was an advertising industry executive for 18 years. She served as senior vice president and director of account services for Stone Ward, a Little Rock, Arkansas-based advertising and public relations firm with more than $42 million in annual capitalized billing. She led a staff of account service professionals in serving the advertising and marketing needs of several regional and national accounts in a wide range of categories including healthcare, government health initiatives, tourism, real estate, and business-to-business marketing communications. 

A graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in computer science, Mimi has published numerous articles and white papers on her innovative work in the field of product launch, branding, marketing, and communications that have received national and international coverage. Active in the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Mimi is a graduate of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Leadership Class XI.  She is a member of the National Marketing Leadership Council and was a member of the National Consortium of Breast Centers.  She remains active in breast cancer fundraising activities for several organizations.

About Acxiom Corporation:
A global leader in interactive marketing services, Acxiom connects clients with their customers through deep consumer insight, powering effective and profitable marketing initiatives and business decisions. The company’s consultative approach spans multiple industries and incorporates decades of experience in consumer data and analytics, information technology, data integration, and consulting solutions for effective marketing across digital, Internet, email, mobile, and direct mail channels. Founded in 1969, Acxiom is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas and serves clients around the world from locations in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific. For more information about Acxiom, visit www.acxiom.com.

Credit Solutions of Dallas, Texas won the Stevie Award for Sales Department of the Year in the financial services industry in the 3rd annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Over the past six years Credit Solutions of Dallas, Texas has helped set more than 200,000 customers on their path to debt freedom. More importantly, the number of satisfied clients has risen significantly during the same period, and this is due in large part to a concerted effort the company has made to enhance proactive customer engagement and to more clearly define customer expectations about its program.

Credit Solutions does more than just eliminate debt; it also prepares its clients on how to remain debt-free moving forward by empowering them to make sound financial decisions—and to make a habit of saving. That takes a 12- to 36-month commitment by the client.

Tools for Success
Many members of management have contributed to the company’s success, and have been responsible for ensuring that their departments have all the tools and resources at their disposal, and to be, in their words, “a raging success” at enrolling new clients. Lauren Harris, VP of Sales, defines the Credit Solutions sales mission as providing world-class customer service and focusing on results.  Joey Clapier, VP of Customer Service, attributes his department’s passion to “making it 100% about the customer, 100% of the time.”  

Recently, Credit Solutions has:

•           implemented a new leads system designed to reach customers within seconds of their completing an online inquiry;
•           installed state-of-the-art call-monitoring software and data-storage solutions designed to improve reps' response time;
•           instituted a new verification team to follow up and confirm the accuracy of all client data;
•           established a formal ethics policy to ensure that each rep is acting in the best interest of clients—all 90,000 of them; and
•           launched a new series of “Genius Videos” designed to foster best-practices among call center reps, who can play short video clips on their desktops and immediately implement showcased techniques while talking on the phone with potential clients.

Commented Harris on her job: “It's an awesome opportunity to wake up and be excited to have the day unfold.”

The Customer Approves
Each Credit Solutions department focuses on the success of their clients.  In essence, they have helped set the debt management industry standard of excellence. A Q2/08 Customer Relations Metrics Benchmark Report showed Credit Solutions consistently outranked other financial services, government agencies, utilities, insurance companies, manufacturers, and healthcare providers in a customer-service comparison during April, May, and June of that year.   In addition:

•           97.85% of Credit Solutions clients strongly felt they were treated as a valued customer;
•           97.22% were satisfied with their service representative's level of expertise;
•           96.38% said representatives took ownership for resolving their debt.

The Customer Relations Metrics Q2/09 Benchmark Report shows Credit Solutions has continued to consistently score above average in categories surveyed in a telephone customer-service comparison.

“Our representatives settled approximately $30 million in consumer debt every month during the second quarter of this year—and still earned higher-than-average marks for customer service,” said Credit Solutions CEO Doug Van Arsdale.

Settling Debts
In June 2009, Credit Solutions settled $29,544,297.81 of debt, saving $14,291,563.27 on 4,885 client accounts—a 51% average settlement offer percentage rate.

“The offer percentage rate is the difference between the actual amount owed and the amount of savings we obtained for clients,” said Van Arsdale. “That is, Credit Solutions customers resolved their debts by paying an average 51% of what they owed.”

“Of $29.5 million in unsecured client debt, our settlement advisors obtained $15 million in settlement offers from creditors this month alone, which is testimony to their strong negotiating skills as well as our company’s leverage with creditors [which does not include the value for any term settlements],” Van Arsdale said.

About Lauren Harris:
Lauren Harris is Executive Vice President of Sales at Credit Solutions, the nation's largest debt settlement company, with $2.25 billion of unsecured debt under management. Prior to signing on with Credit Solutions, Harris spent five years at a Florida mortgage company. The top seller over the phone, she was promoted to sales trainer, then sales manager. A die-hard Seminoles fan, Harris attended Florida State University. Harris and her husband are now proud home owners in Dallas, and she is currently out of the office on maternity leave.

About Joey Clapier:
Joey Clapier is VP of Customer Service at Credit Solutions. Clapier has had the opportunity to engage with clients in positions ranging from debt consultant to team lead and director. Joey’s secret: He is 110% committed to providing world-class customer service to every client, every time. It is this consistent focus on engaging people that enables him to motivate, coach, and lead his team to the next level by producing maximum results. He positions his team for success by setting challenging goals and providing the tools necessary to attain them.

About Doug Van Arsdale:
Doug Van Arsdale founded Credit Solutions in 2003 with his own funds. Establishing his start-up business in a newly formed and fragmented industry, Van Arsdale dove into uncharted waters, mapping his own path to success. His business approach has recently been profiled in the best-selling book Results Rule! by business consultant Randy Pennington. Van Arsdale provides employees with the resources they need, such as industry-specific training, state-of-the-art technology, and specialized mentorship. This innovative approach gives employees the freedom to develop individual skills and the accountability to apply them—and produce results.

About Credit Solutions:
The nation's foremost debt-settlement industry innovator, Credit Solutions was recently recognized by The Stevie Awards for the "Best Customer Services Department in Financial Services" and won a 2009 Red Herring 100 North America Award for its custom online technology. ISO 9001:2008 certified for standardized business practices, Credit Solutions is a charter policy partner of the United States Organization for Bankruptcy Alternatives (USOBA) and certified by BSI Management Systems for USOBA best-practice compliance. For more information about Credit Solutions' award-winning settlement program, please visit www.creditsolutions.com.

Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs and web sites that we think might be of interest to you.

Apology Matters: Blog by John Kador, author of Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Buidling Bridges, and Restoring Trust.
Gadgetwise: This New York Times technology blog recently provided some cautionary advice on the security of Twitter.
Aubrey's Blog: Tips on leading and managing from Aubrey Daniels of ADI.
Leadership Is a Verb: A community sharing ideas on leadership, mentoring, careers, and diversity.