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P R O F I L E
Above and beyond: Gordon Greene Co-founder and executive vice president of Patel, Greene and Assoc. (Temple Terrace, FL), a firm with a mission to elevate their families, communities, and profession.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
I n 2011, Patel, Greene and Assoc. was co-founded by Hiren Patel, president, and Gordon Greene, executive vice president, as a three-person firm. Since then, it’s grown to a staff of more than 70 people. Greene says he attributes the growth to creating and maintaining a culture where people want to work. A CONVERSATION WITH GORDON GREENE. The Zweig Letter: How has COVID-19 impacted your firm’s policy on telecommuting/working remotely? Gordon Greene: We were already considering and planning for a broader teleworking policy, so COVID-19 simply accelerated that plan. We have always embraced technology, so many of the pieces were already in place, including laptop computers for all staff, high-speed VPN connections and a dedicated director of technology to help oversee the transition. We have recently adopted a three-phase plan for re-opening, similar to what many states are doing, including our home state of Florida. Our Phases 1 and 2 aren’t really different, but Phase 3 will be
full reopening. However, our full reopening will include a broader teleworking policy, now that we have proven its effectiveness for us. TZL: PGA was founded in 2011 and has grown significantly since then. What’s been the greatest challenge you’ve had to deal with as a direct result of growth? How did you handle it? GG: Staying ahead of recruiting to enable the growth and maintaining our culture of openness, teamwork, and appreciation. As a leadership group, in 2018 we identified culture as a main focus in our five-year strategic plan. Our objectives are to build the company out in a way that enables us to maintain the culture in a scalable way. TZL: How far into the future are you able to reliably predict your workload and cashflow? GG: Not as far as we would like. We can project cashflow a month out “very” reliably, based on historical payment patterns from our clients and regular budgeted expenses. We strive to improve this area of our business significantly.
THE ZWEIG LETTER JUL
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