Who Cut the Cheese? : A Business Unit De-Funmigator

The son of an army officer & educator, Allen Brinkman was born in Opelousas, Louisiana but spent most of his childhood traveling the world. After college, Allen was recruited to work with one of the largest hospitality management companies in the world. Allen started his career in corporate finance and quickly worked his way through the ranks to become the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, making him the youngest senior leader in the company's history. His consistency in leadership and development enabled Allen to be awarded manager of the year for 4 years in a row. After five years in the hospitality industry, Allen engaged in a career with a large commercial bank, in which he took on a senior leadership role at the age of 26. He continues today in various leadership roles with the same institution. In his pursuit to change and streamline leadership practices, he often makes traditionalists a bit uncomfortable. His philosophy is embodied in a quote from Ike Eisenhower: "Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all" His management ideas and leadership skills boil down to this he says "In a large company I often see fear in employees eyes, they act as if I know something about leadership and business that is classified. I take my orders like anyone else. My job is to build a team. In a big company, you go looking for a small idea to believe in. When you find one you hang on to it, the way a solider hangs on to a bible in a fox hole. The world's workforce is changing. There is very little loyalty to a company as a whole, you have to personalize what employees do, why they are here and what their contribution means. Therefore, you have to build a system of identity, purpose, execution and organizational health. A system teams believe in."Brinkman, Allen, II is the author of 'Who Cut the Cheese? : A Business Unit De-Funmigator', published 2005 under ISBN 9781933570815 and ISBN 1933570814.