A conversation with Brad Lindemann

Brad Lindemann is Founder and CEO of Ambassador Solutions, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based Microsoft consultancy. The company specializes in three areas: Custom Application Development, Information Worker, which is the company's Sharepoint Practice, and Business Intelligence.

What's your background, and how did you get started?

I started out with IBM in sales. After five years with IBM, I joined a regional computer leasing and brokerage company in Tennessee. This company was acquired, circa 1987, by a company that expanded into a number of computer-related businesses, including IT consulting, which became my responsibility. Unfortunately, the company folded, and I headed back to Indiana. In 1989, I hooked up with some guys running a small leasing business. I put them in the IT consulting business, and that is how we got started. One of the common pieces of ground I shared with these partners was a commitment to Christian values and how to work these values into the marketplace. I split off from the company 12 years ago to form Ambassador Solutions.

What makes Ambassador Solutions unique?

If we have a "secret sauce," it's our culture. I believe our culture has been most important to our long-term success in terms of business model and focus. I'm confident this culture will get us through these current tough times as it did in 2001, when the whole industry was essentially cut in half. At the end of the day, adversity not only builds, but it reveals character. I believe that corporately we have a very strong character here that starts with our core values.

How would you describe the culture of your company and how did it come about?

"Uniquely inspiring" is a phrase that I think fits us very well. At the core of this culture are some deeply-held Christian beliefs shared between me and my partner, Max Frodge. The anchor of our culture is clearly our namesake, which is Ambassador, and which is taken from 2nd Corinthians 5:20, "We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us." What this verse says is that those claiming to follow Jesus Christ are also called to represent Him (as ambassadors) in whatever walk of life they find themselves, including the marketplace.

Now, this specifically applies to Max and me. We can't go ascribing that label to anybody other than us. That's who we are, and there's decades now, of real experience and heartfelt meaning in what that really means on a day-to-day basis to both of us. We believe that we truly do represent the King of Kings here on earth, and that he does live, speak and act through us. We take that responsibility rather seriously, but we don't go around wearing it on our sleeves.

Ambassador Solutions is simply owned by Christians, but employs people of all faiths. We wouldn't want it any other way. We want to have a widely diverse workforce: A place in which, anyone, provided they're honest, ethical and moral people, would feel comfortable working. We believe it's really all about people, so we adopted what became known as our Basic Beliefs. These beliefs are woven into every fiber of our business, and they are: We believe that people are created in the image of God, we think they have immeasurable worth, and that they last forever.

That's what we believe as people.

While our namesake and Basic Beliefs are deeply-held personal convictions of the owners, we needed to develop a set of core values, coming out of this Christian belief, that our employees could embrace, which led to our three Core Values.

• Dignity—Nurture the dignity of all people
• Integrity—Pursue uncompromised integrity
• Excellence—Deliver excellence

We like to say these are values to "D.I.E." for. We believe them so fervently, they are carved in Indiana limestone in our corporate lobby. Because these are rather lofty, 50,000-foot or higher kinds of values, it still left a lot to the imagination in terms of how to live those values come Monday morning. So we created twelve Values in Action, essentially four guiding principles for each of the three Core Values.

How does this culture manifest itself in your company?

All our leadership team embraces our Core Values and our Values in Action. They are our marching orders. We use them constantly as a management tool, and they are woven directly into our appraisal and recognition process. If you catch somebody doing something right, it is pretty easily tied back to one of these values in action. And we do that all the time. That is our primary means of recognition. It's recognizing someone for having consistently demonstrated a given value in action or multiple ones.

I think one of the most profound things I've ever learned about human nature is the value of recognizing weaknesses as strengths taken to the extreme. It's a tremendous resource when you're trying to do coaching or conflict resolution, because you can always start from a positive point of view. You can start with the biggest, most glaring and most annoying weakness imaginable and coach an employee into better behavior. I mean, you can start at just a miserable point, and if you back up far enough, I've never seen a case yet where the genesis of that weakness wasn't in fact a strength.

How has this culture help you drive your business?

I say this in all humility; we are not a rocket ship business success story. We've built a solid company here. We've been Clydesdales, not thoroughbreds, as far as getting around the racetrack. I will tell you that everything we've talked about, from our namesake, Basic Beliefs, Core Values, and Values in Action, is all real and it is lived out every day. Our clients, prospects, employees and candidates know it. We have a reputation for that being the case. There is a magic place in any new kind of relationship called trust. We're faster to that point than anybody out there, and this didn't happen overnight.

What advice would you offer other executives with respect to corporate culture?

There have to be certain things that are inviolable and do not change in any organization. I think there have to be core values that stand the test of time no matter what. These values serve as a touch stone that you always go back to. In our case, that which will never change is our core values of dignity, integrity and excellence. Our culture is the single most important element of our business plan, and I would advise all CEOs everywhere to actively embrace and manage a vibrant culture for their companies.

You may contact Brad at brad@ambassadorsolutions.com or visit Ambassador Solutions at www.ambassadorsolutions.com.