ATSI Owners Forum

By Charlene Glorieux
Photos by Steve Michaels
March 2007

This January the Association of TeleServices International (ATSI) held the first of a planned series of Owners’ Forums in Florida.  The forum brought professional educators from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business to a capacity audience of sixty owners in the teleservices industry for an intensive day-and-a-half program focused exclusively on their businesses.

“Bringing Service Ideas to Market” was taught by Professor Gregory Carpenter, chair of the marketing department at Kellogg.  His entertaining and informative session focused on understanding what customers want and what motivates them when purchasing.  He demonstrated how to identify services that customers really want and that will deepen our business relationships with them as well as expand our customer bases.

“Finance for the Entrepreneur” was taught by Professor Steven Rogers.  Professor Rogers teaches Entrepreneurial Finance at Kellogg and did an exceptional and enlightening job with his subject.  He helped attendees understand the meaning of the numbers on their financial statements and provided a framework to compare the industry with others.

Finally, Leigh Thompson, J. Jay Gerber Distinguished Professor of Dispute Resolution and Organizations, focused on “Creating Your Senior Management Team.”  She showed how personality and emotion can be as important as intelligence in managing and developing your team.  An enlightening teamwork exercise provided some real insight and surprises into group dynamics.

Reaction to the Owners Forum has been overwhelmingly positive; many felt this was the best industry meeting they had ever attended and have pledged to support any such future events.  ATSI will be building on this forum with new programs in the coming year, as well as offer a chance for those who could not come in January to attend a repeat session. 

Contact ATSI at 866-896-ATSI for more information.