CMI Business Consulting: Because Businesses 'Really Can Impact Lives'

Editor's note: Business Spotlight is a regular column featuring information provided by local businesses. If you're a local business, share your information in this form. We also write features about local businesses. To send your ideas, email editor Michael Sewall at michael.sewall@patch.com. Businesses can also blog on Patch or share events in our calendar.

Business: CMI, 711 South Blvd. in Oak Park

Owner: Bruce Hodes

Founded: 1984 

Write a review of CMI in our business directory. 

How did the business come to be?

As a child I grew up in a family business. My dad then went on to be an executive for a multinational company. My mom was a psychotherapist. In the early 1980s after I got my MSW in Clinical Social Work and I worked on the Children’s and Families Clinical Team at St. Mary’s of Nazareth Hospital on the west side of Chicago. I also had a thriving psychotherapy practice in downtown Chicago. All along I was fascinated with business and wanted to somehow be involved with it. Maybe I was working out my parental issues.

During my time as a social worker, I began to work with small to mid-sized companies and just loved it because I saw that I was helping to make a difference. However, I felt that I did not adequately understand business. In order to combat this I completed my MBA in the executive program at Northwestern University. During that time I partnered with a marketing firm and CMI was born. For a while I had both a business practice (CMI) and my downtown therapy practice. At some time CMI took over and became the primary focus. That was about the time we moved to Oak Park.  

Why did you choose the area of work that you did? 

Business and organizations really can impact lives. I passionately work with companies so that employees love them, customers love them and the owner love them. I find this endeavor to be very challenging, worthwhile and rewarding. That is why I do it. 

What does your business offer?

•Strategic Business Planning and Implementation
•Keynelink – Execution Management and Organizational Alignment with the Strategic Plan
•Executive Team Building
•CEO coaching group
•CEO one on one coaching
•Keynote speaking

What's something interesting about your business your customers might not know?

I am also the author of Front Line Heroes: Battling the Business Tsunami with Performance Oriented Cultures. I would be happy to give you a free copy of my book if you set up a time to meet with me and learn more about CMI’s services.

What's your most popular product? 

CMI's Breakthrough Strategic Business Planning, our most popular service, helps business teams focus and companies grow. A fast paced and demanding marketplace requires focus. More than ever, companies demand focused leadership and planning. The process is centered around researching and assessing critical issues. 

This process also includes assembling a key leadership team and coaching them to commit to the company's strategic direction. The strategic planning program consists of 3-1/2 day sessions (plus an additional half-day for orientation) with the corporate leadership group. The sessions are one to four weeks apart from each other (not back-to-back); depending on the amount of research done in between. 

CMI’s Breakthrough Strategic Business Planning results in strategies, goals, objectives and action plans that lead to implementation and execution of your strategic business plan. CMI's Breakthrough Strategic Business Planning can be enhanced with CMI's other services: Strategic Plan Execution Huddles and/or KeyneLink.