Testimonials

"Heidi was a breath of fresh air. She was able to wrap her arms around the business very quickly and identify the human capital needs required to affect change. Her approachable style, level of communication and transparency enabled rapid progress and cross departmental buy-in."

Managing Director, Confidential Private Equity Firm

"Heidi was easy to work with, persistent and debunked myths. She identified and provided us with a clear roadmap to accomplishing savings objectives during a time of integration. This roadmap was incredibly helpful to me in making an impact on the performance of the organization quickly."

Wayne Graham, Chief Operating Officer, Vigor

"Heidi was quickly able to understand our business and key drivers. As a result, she identified emerging trends in the business that will allow us to proactively manage our costs. She developed a framework that allows us to set expectations with our external partners to manage a segment of our assets. This will increase our earnings and reduce volatility in our business. She was easy to work with and made complex topics easy to understand."

Steve Shaver, President, Shaver Transportation Company

"Fishpeople engaged Heidi to provide diligence support for an acquisition. Knowing information would be incomplete, we needed someone who could assemble bits and pieces of data to pull together a wholistic picture of the business. Heidi was able to quickly pivot, use what was available, and provide valuable insights about business performance, customers and products. Her work was critical in helping evaluate the acquisition opportunity and she was a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend Heidi."

Kipp Baratoff, CEO, Fishpeople

"Heidi provides key leadership as we work to improve our support for children facing risks. She's helped me clarify our business focus, organize and streamline resources and improve all-around performance. Heidi has made a profound and lasting impact."

Andy Nelson, CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest

"Heidi has worked with Arnerich Massena on a number of initiatives and has become a trusted advisor to me and the rest of our management team.  As an experienced finance officer, we called on Heidi to help us address structural, staffing and technical issues in our finance function. More importantly, her counsel on strategic and business planning has been invaluable.  Heidi worked with us to not only help define our strategy but also to implement a framework where the strategy was tied to organizational, departmental, and even individual goals and metrics.

And more than once we've picked up the phone for a quick chat and then come away from the conversation with insights that have fundamentally impacted our approach in a positive way.   A number of her insights have become standard parlance in how we do business.  I consider Heidi to be a key partner in our firm's success."

Scott Dunbar, Senior Managing Director, Arnerich Massena, Inc.

"I considered hiring Heidi based on a strong referral from my accounting firm.  In our first meeting, I paid special attention to her comments that she could possibly offset her consulting fees through identifying “leakage” in our company.  For context, we were not an immensely profitable firm, running profits (or losses, in certain areas she was able to demonstrate) and barely able to afford the “luxury” of a consultant.  True to promise, we continue to realize the benefit of her found leakage in excess of the investment in her.

I strongly recommend Heidi."

Josiah Whitman, Managing Partner, Whitman Partners

"In today’s business environment, having a strong thriving culture where people anticipate customer needs and have a passion for what they do is critical to long term success. Recognizing this, we embarked on evolving our culture. We brought Heidi in to help us with this evolution. With her guidance and input, we outlined the steps necessary to successfully evolve our culture. Any change can be overwhelming, but Heidi helped us outline something that is achievable and gave us the tools we need to succeed."

Dianne Bullas, President, Journal Graphics

Speaking

"Heidi delivered an engaging and practical talk about high-performance leadership at our annual meeting. Her personable style and stories demonstrated her points and  gave our members specific actions that could be immediately implemented in their businesses. I highly recommend Heidi!"

"Heidi was invited to be a speaker for the Portland Human Resource Management Association. She was not only extremely engaging, but she was able to provide actionable items to our group for immediate efficiencies in workflow! Highly recommend!"

“Heidi hit the spot as a speaker for the Women In Leadership Club! She was able to not only engage, but relate the women in the room who came to hear her speak. Her insightful experience and honest advice were a unique combination that was highly beneficial. We were so lucky to have Heidi in as a speaker and we are all the better for it. She supported our members, leaving them with actionable advice to help empower and support them in their careers. We can’t thank her enough.”

Lillian Beck, Women in Leadership President, Oregon State University

“It was a pleasure to learn about the value of sponsorship and how it differs from mentorship.  Great job connecting with this group with your accessibility, credibility and gracious speaking style.”

Carol Cate, Adjunct Professor Concordia University

Book

Leading the High-Performing Company is an essential guide for leaders who want their company to achieve new heights and grow as a leader. Leading captures the symbiotic nature of leaders and the businesses they lead, providing practical tools for both to be at their best.

Marshall Goldsmith is the Thinkers 50 World’s #1 Executive Coach, #6 Most Influential Business Thinker 2017

I found Leading the High Performing Company to be an insightful and useful guide for both current and aspiring leaders. It provides essential and practical advice for effectively establishing and communicating a vision, engaging all stakeholders and measuring success. Whether launching a new venture or leading a Fortune 500 company, Leading the High Performing Company provides the reader with essential tools that will show them how to take the organization to the next level.

Tom Christie, retired partner EY

Leading the High-Performing Company will challenge you to focus on the execution of and accountability to your business strategy, and constant innovative thought in good times and bad. Heidi Pozzo’s performance accelerators, including examples from her experiences and philosophies as well as other acclaimed leaders, will help you reflect on the impact your leadership style has on more than success in business alone.  Her insights will reveal the impact you have on the many lives influenced by your daily actions, from employees to clients to your community, and is a must read to find your purpose and shape the legacy you hope to leave in the wake of your leadership.

Steve Fein, Regional Managing Partner, Oregon, Moss Adams

Heidi’s passion for leadership is evident from page one. Her book is a comprehensive guide, taking you through a logical progression of fundamentals that are spot on, from leadership and team development to defining your competitive edge.  For those in a new leadership position, this will be a valuable tool.  For seasoned leaders, you will be reminded to address those key areas that are sometimes ignored but so important to future success. Thanks for those reminders Heidi!

Erick Frack, CEO, Enoch Precision Machining

I liked what I read! Heidi crafted a simple, easy to understand guide to leading a high-performing business. And it is not just for leaders—if you are an operator it all makes sense. In business, the name of the game is People and Communication. Heidi provides practical tips for how to communicate and bring the best out in your people. And she outlines how to focus on what matters. I love FOCUS—it is what drives results.

Tony Arnerich, CEO, Arnerich Massena

Whether you are a front-line employee or a C-Level Executive, Leading the High Performance Company should be on your list of must reads! This book simplifies the sometimes overly academic approach to building a high-performance organization. The author strategically places insights from effective leaders and calls-to-action throughout the book to force the reader to be both honest and introspective when analyzing themselves and their organization. Well done Heidi!

Corey McCort, Chief Operating Officer, Carson

I am truly impressed with Leading the High-Performing Company. It is the book every MBA program should require.  Leadership is multi-faceted and this book helps to identify the dimensions of top leaders while providing examples that reinforce the concepts and a roadmap to lead the reader towards developing their own leadership talents.  Recognizing that leadership is about the relationships you develop with people inside and outside your organization is a concept that is lost on many.  Many can imitate your product or service.  But by creating a unique set of high quality relationships with employees, customers, vendors and the community surrounding the company, the leader creates a set of resources than cannot be imitated.  This book elevates this fundamental precept.  Leaders who follow the guidance here will find not only a stronger organization but many ancillary benefits they could not have anticipated.

Jane Cote, Academic Director – Carson College of Business, Washington State University Vancouver

Leadership has a profound impact on the performance of a business. Heidi highlights the critical decision points leaders encounter while building and leading teams. Filled with insights and practical tools, Leadingprovides a roadmap for leaders to become high-performing. Whether new to leading or a seasoned leader, everyone will find something to put into practice today.

Geoff Telfer, Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Fluor

Successful leadership is a broad term with confusing multitude of requirements. Heidi Pozzo has been able to artfully organize a core set of concepts under the heading of Leading The High-Performing Company. The unique value of this book is the clarity it provides for new leaders while simultaneously offering new insights for seasoned CEOs. The book is very well structured uncluttering important leadership considerations into 11 chapters. In each area, Heidi provides illustrative examples, clear guidelines, and an actionable list under "Pozzo Accelerators" heading. Throughout the book, Heidi manages to balance the short-term business performance with long-term people investments while avoiding the tired cliches so common in business publications. This book is an easy read and belongs in the reference library for all who aspire to lead their organizations to outperform their competition.

Ron Khormaei, PhD, VP of Engineering, SawStop LLC; Adjunct Professor, Portland State University; CoFounder/CEO, FINEX Cast Iron Cookware Co.

As Heidi highlights, most successful leaders share many positive traits.  The really good ones are those that realize that there are always new things to learn and are always trying to grow personally.  They almost always surround themselves with bright people with varying skill sets that can deliver the desired change and culture.  High performance is not just about the profits.  If the culture is right, the talent is developed and the strategy is managed well, the profits will follow. Working in those environments can be magic.

—Ron Oakley, retired Engineering and Construction CEO