Business Leader Turns To TAB Because “It Felt Like My House Was On Fire!”
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Business Leader Turns to TAB BECAUSE “IT FELT LIKE MY HOUSE WAS ON FIRE!” SINCE 2007, MAIRA RIBEIRO HAS SERVED AS OPERATIONS MANAGER at MT Solution, based in Clarkston, Georgia. MT Solution is a wholesale business specializing in the distribution of medical and surgical supplies…
Business Leader Turns to TAB BECAUSE “IT FELT LIKE MY HOUSE WAS ON FIRE!”
SINCE 2007, MAIRA RIBEIRO HAS SERVED AS OPERATIONS MANAGER at MT Solution, based in Clarkston, Georgia. MT Solution is a wholesale business specializing in the distribution of medical and surgical supplies to foreign markets. The company negotiates and coordinates with suppliers, and navigates international bureaucracies so clients receive the products and services they need and can focus on their own core business. ORIGINALLY FROM “It was clear to me I needed the benefit of some outside perspectives,” Maira recalls. “Since joining TAB, we have completely revamped our HR SÃO PAULO structure, created a comprehensive employee hand- book, instituted regular lunch meetings with staff and Maira practiced law for five years in Brazil before designed other key policies to make the workplace she became a legal consultant for MT Solution. At the environment more attractive and productive. Before time, the company was in a transition stage, becoming joining TAB, I’d never considered these actions part of a multi-country consortium. before.” In 2006, Maira and her husband came to the U.S. to A VISION FOR THE FUTURE build a business for sourcing and exporting orthopedic components and devices to Brazil. Within seven years, For MT Solution, things are still very much in flux. The she and her husband built the company to annual Brazilian partnership is dissolving, with a new part- revenues of $35 million. After the decline of the nership recently formed to expand operations in Brazilian economy in 2014, the couple purchased a Portugal and Germany (with other potential interna- company in Chile. Her husband assumed leadership tional locations being considered as well). of the Chile project and Maira stayed in the U.S. to oversee continued operations here. “Right now we’re busy formulating a vision for the future that includes expanding our client base and That’s when she realized she might be in over her head. providing additional services in these international locations,” Maira says. “TAB Members have proved to “THINGS WERE FALLING APART!” be very helpful in reviewing my various growth strate- gy options. It’s been very eye-opening in the sense Maira faced numerous challenges on her own— that I get a variety of operational perspectives on how everything from the best way to capitalize the to do things differently than I have in the past.” business to hiring people to fill key executive vacancies. Personnel issues dominated her time, In addition to planning for the future, TAB has helped a challenge that required grasping the cultural Maira hone her executive skills in numerous other nuances involved in hiring U.S.-based warehouse ways. “I’ve learned how to better manage employees, call center agents, operations my time and delegate more efficiently. Slowly but managers and other staff that could support a surely, I’ve also learned how to hire people I know complex international operation. I can trust and avoid micromanaging them once they’re on board. This has been a tremendous help!” “One month into my husband being off in Chile, several key employees These days, Maira is very excited about future growth opportunities. But she still vividly recalls the time resigned and I was faced with changing several years ago when she was in crisis mode. our employment payment structure, in order to ensure our salaries were “Beyond addressing all the day-to-day competitive within the industry,” she issues and not having someone else to recalls. “I needed help because it felt help with key decision-making, I had no like things were falling apart!” time to work on things that were most Around this time, she crossed paths with TAB important to the organization,” she Facilitator/Coach Buddy Hull. Maira was aware of says. “It felt like my house was on fire! TAB and had, in her typically efficient manner, Joining TAB helped me put out that fire.” thoroughly researched the organization before- hand. But attending a Business Owner Advisory Best of all, Maira’s fellow TAB Members are helping Board Meeting convinced her this might be the her explore opportunities for personal growth, so she answer to her challenging executive-level and her husband can create a new life for themselves challenges. in the years to come.
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Source: The Alternative Board