The origin story,
in Marie's own words.

When working at Six Flags years ago, I was responsible for a class on motivation. I had prepared a review of numerous theories on motivation. I spoke of Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland, BF Skinner. I would finally reach McGregor. He described two contrastin

There are two management styles everyone knows. Hands-on. Hands-off. Hands-on managers are present in every decision, every conversation, every deliverable. The intention is usually good. The result is often suffocation. When a manager's hands are always on, t

Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons I learned in my ten years at Six Flags, occurred the day I was promoted to Supervisor. To provide a little context, the role was the most senior seasonal position you could achieve. With it carried a great deal of r

I spent one day in a room with Lou Tice.

How the principles of human change should shape every decision in building a company

My focus on customer service began long before Vantive.   My prior experience was quite varied.  My first job was at Six Flags Over Georgia – sweeping up trash.  The initial intent was just a source of income to fund my education - a degree in Music Therapy.  My goal in life was

After reading several articles about the advent of customer success recently, I find it time to share more about our actual experience and vision.  At the time, none of us had any indication of how this would evolve.  We were just on a mission to change the world of service and s

So much is written about alignment.  I fear it is an overused term and woke today attempting to find a suitable replacement.  The epiphany has evaded me.  What you call it in the end does not matter – it is one of those things that when you have it you know it, it is palpable.  Y

Early in my career, I recall sitting with the CEO of our company somewhat complaining about something someone else was doing.   At my diplomatic best, I shared my concern and the impact to the company.  I sincerely had the best of intentions.  Nonetheless, our CEO leaned back in

I have always so admired Heidi Roizen at Threshold Ventures. Throughout my career she has so kindly offered advice and support. In this podcast she outlines one of the greatest disappointments option holders experience.

The typical approach to entrepreneurism is to focus on diligently designing and developing your product or service: build it, start selling it, and grow.  I propose that it is time to rethink this. There is a fundamental step missing.  Why don’t we spend as much time and energy d

Having built companies for a few decades now, I have come to believe that there are three distinct phases to development.

I never really understood why companies go off site once a year to plan and then put the plan away. It seems that everyone comes together to define the top line goals and then each departmental executive interprets those goals and decides what their department needs to do to supp

Over my career, I would often cringe when executives or investors announced we were going to be working with a consultant.  A therapist at heart, I felt the need to explore why and what provoked such a negative energy.

I recall one day my VP of Marketing proudly announcing to me that she had created 1000 qualified leads.  After thirty minutes working to convince me they were qualified and not just inquiries, I informed her that I was going to cut her budget by 80%.   Shocked- she was so success