Create a well-lighted path for your organization that leads to profitable growth.
“A leader articulates a clear vision and set of principles, which become a well-lighted path that well-intentioned people can follow.”
– Frank Bruni
For over 35 years, and particularly in his final decade as a chief executive, Tom Ealy built successful businesses and turned around underperforming ones using an integrated approach to profitable growth he calls the S2P2TM model, one that shines a light on the four pillars of organizational success: strategy, structure, process, and people.
On Strategy
“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”
– Peter Drucker
What is S2P2?
Peter Drucker said the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer. The purpose of a leader is to get results. Where these two imperatives intersect reside the four pillars of organizational success.
The Four Pillars of Organizational Success
On Structure
“Building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment.”
– Jim Collins
S2P2 Basics
Strategy
Structure
Process
The speed and agility with which an organization learns then translates that knowledge into effective action is the key determinant of modern competitive success or failure. The key to that is bottom-up problem solving and company wide cross-functional collaboration.
People
The purpose of a leader is to get results. The only way that happens is through people. Capital stock and financial, reputational, and even political capital are important to an organization's success. But human capital is the defining renewable resource. Seeding, nurturing, and growing an organization’s talent demands highly engaged leadership that delivers constant, transparent communication.
The S2P2 model is the culmination of Tom’s 35+ years helping companies achieve superior results through management science and leadership art. At its core, S2P2 is a blueprint for simultaneously increasing revenues and profits.
On Process
“All competition today is based on the ability to compress time.”
– Tom Ealy
More About S2P2
The order matters. It all begins with strategy, which has a singular meaning – the choice of which customer you’re going to pursue, and with what value proposition you’re going to attract and retain them. Everything else is a tactic.
Form follows function. So naturally structure comes next. Structure is both tangible and intangible, with the ultimate aim of creating organizational linkage and tight alignment to the strategy from the chief executive to the front line. The tangible manifestation of structure, of course, is organizational design. But it’s the intangible component that’s most important – culture. There is no more powerful alignment tool than a deeply shared culture. People who are inspired by a collective sense of purpose don’t require layers of formal structure.
Next comes how things get done – process – that drive both effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness is a customer question: Are we doing the right things? Whereas efficiency is an operational one: Are we doing things right? Both are important, but the customer-driven effectiveness question is by far the more important of the two. When it comes to efficiency, the speed with which an organization learns then translates that knowledge into smart action is the key determinant of modern competitive success or failure. It requires bottom-up problem solving and cross-functional collaboration across the entire organization.
By design, I’ve left the most important pillar for last – people. Strategy is the engine, structure the chassis, and process the transmission, but the vehicle is useless without drivers of requisite training and skill. Even still, those drivers need a map to show them the way. That’s what leaders do – create a well-lighted path that gives each employee a direct line of sight from their everyday job to how the customer is satisfied and the company succeeds. That kind of high employee engagement and tight alignment to the organization’s strategy can only happen if leadership delivers constant, transparent communication that provides context – the essential ‘why’ behind the organization’s ‘what’.
That’s the work of S2P2 Consulting. It’s also Tom’s life’s work and passion. Let him help you and your organization succeed.
On People
“The only enduring form of capital is human capital.”
– Tom Ealy
The Work of S2P2 Consulting
How Tom Can Help You
These are just some of the ways – supported by proven concepts, frameworks, methods, and tools that he has created or adapted – that Tom can help you and your organization achieve profitable growth. In all economic environments.
Meet Tom Ealy
Tom Ealy
Founder and CEO
S2P2 Consulting
Tom Ealy is an accomplished leader and operating executive with uncommon business acumen gained over 35 years leading large risk-bearing and market-making insurance organizations. He has deep experience in strategy formulation, culture and team building, organizational design, operational effectiveness, technology transformation, mergers & acquisitions, and most of all driving organic growth while simultaneously improving profit margins.
His capstone as a chief executive was the turnaround and 2019 sale of Ameriprise Auto & Home, a billion dollar direct-to-consumer personal lines insurer, to American Family Insurance. Tom strategically repositioned the company, recruited a new senior leadership team, transformed the culture, pivoted the company to profitability through data science and operational excellence, and mobilized it for core system replacement. It was his second consecutive $1B+ insurer turnaround as chief executive.
Tom’s life work has marked him as an energetic and humane change agent, a proven builder, and a serial turnaround expert.
Words and Inspiration
TOM’S PRESENTATIONS & WORKSHOPS ACROSS INDUSTRIES
The Alchemy of Getting Results: Leadership Art and Management Science
You’re In a Turnaround Whether You Know It or Not
Leading Organizational Change
Culture Change Isn’t As Hard As You Think
Looking Through a Straw: Execution-Focused Leadership
Delivering Service Excellence
Creating A Compelling Customer Value Proposition
The Evolution of Selling
Making Compelling Presentations
Essentials of Managerial Communication
Everything I Know in Business I Learned From The Godfather Movies
Books Tom Recommends
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
Learned Optimism, Martin E. P. Seligman
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman
Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will, Noel M. Tichy and Sherman Stratford
Switch, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Good To Great, James C. Collins
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni
Getting To Yes, Fisher Ury
The Service Profit Chain, James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger
The Challenger Sale, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
Humor, Seriously, Jennifer Aaker & Naomi Bagdonas
Watch Tom’s 2019 talk at St. Norbert College called “You’re In a Turnaround Whether You Know it or Not”.
B-SCHOOLS WHERE TOM HAS LECTURED
University of Rochester Simon School of Business
University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business
St. Norbert College Donald J. Schneider School of Business and Economics
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management
tom’s Published Articles
Changes Ahead, Best’s Review, February 2015
Bringing Risk Management Into the Boardroom: Integrating Risk Management Strategy With Corporate Strategy, Risk Management Magazine, April 1993