Keynote speaker Michael Treacy emphasized that a company's value proposition is "the foundation of your growth." Good example of a succinct and wonderful value proposition: FedEx's "Absolutely Positively."  Two powerful words that say it all.

And who is that value proposition for? Never forget, said Treacy, that only person "writes the check" - your customer. Everybody else is just on the take.

Bill Hart is a "breakaway RIA" - and he's happy to share with you why he left his broker-dealer: too much control and too little value. Bill and his practice partners simply couldn't get past certain "speed bumps" that were disruptive to his internal business practices and relationships with clients. If those speed bumps had come with a lower price, things might be different - Hart says he was giving 25% of his fee revenue to his b-d and felt like he didn't receive that much value for it. What would "bring him back?" Said Hart: "the entire back office taken away - advisors/RIA firms can be 'thin' in staff and resources."  As for the move to the more "up market" clientele, Hart did acknowledge that his firm is now part of the problem of smaller, "main street America" clients left out because they can't afford a firm like his and he can't afford a big block of clients like them.

Hart was joined on the "Breakaway RIA" panel by Tom Selman, a senior staff member at the NASD, who offered some interesting observations: the NASD probably needs to completely revisit the C-share issue..."the rest of the world" - specifically, Europe, where Selman once worked, as general counsel for the European Union - finds it unbelievable that the U.S. has 2 regulatory systems . . . for those who think life under the SEC-only would be better, Selman pointed out that the SEC has almost no comment period for its rules and very little "engagement" by outsiders.

Selman said he believed the 2 significant risks a solo RIA faces are failure to grow and, paradoxically, growth itself. 

When Michael Treacy, consultant, former MIT professor, and author of "Double Digit Growth," studied successful growth-oriented companies, he found that less than 8 percent of companies in the S&P 500 achieved double digit growth for 5 consecutive years. After studying both these companies and many more, Treacy realized that achieving consistent, successful growth wasn't necessarily about strategy, as he originally thought. It was more about management talent. And often about how management thinks - too many companies, said Treacy, see only barriers to growth: 1. market opportunity - "demand just isn't there", 2. competitor resistance - "we'd start World War 3", 3. operational capacity - "we couldn't add that much capacity", and 4. financial capacity - "we can't afford the expense." Unfortunately, said Treacy, most companies are quite comfortable with NOT getting double digit growth.

Successfully and consistently growing companies share four common characteristics, according to Treacy:

1. Commitment to a superior customer value proposition - it's "why customers do business with you"

2. A focus on five, and only five sources of revenue growth: base retention, share gain,  marketing positioning, adjacent markets, new lines of business

3. Managing a portfolio of growth opportunities

4. Depth of and commitment to management discipline to grow.

Key question: do you have the best and brightest deployed on the right growth ideas from your portfolio?  The best management team will beat the best strategy every time. Unfortunately, a B management team can't always execute an A strategy - the strategy will fail and you'll be left with the B management team.

We'll be posting more from Treacy's keynote speech, along with reports from educational sessions, on Tuesday. In addition, look for a special report on the conference in the next edition of FSIVoice, the newsletter of FSI, at the end of February.

550 people are here at OneVoice 2007, the annual broker-dealer conference. This year, we're in Orlando where it's .  . . well, cold! But the temps inside the Contemporary Resort's convention center are warm and welcoming as members network, attend sessions, and visit in the exhibit hall. Michael Treacy opened OneVoice with a bold thesis: Strategy isn't king, it's your management team that needs to be. See the post on Treacy's keynote address. FSI chairman John Simmers got members focused on FSI's 2006 accomplishments - a highly successful Public Policy Day in Washington in September, a strengthened relationship with the SEC, NASD, NASAA, growth in membership (5,000+ individual advisor members, 12 new broker-dealers), and new FSI member representation on NASD district committees - while reminding of the continuing challenge of "vigilance" about regulation in 2007.

In the latest WSJ special report, "Boss Talk," Leo  Hindery, CEO of InterMedia Partners, a private equity firm, says that if you don't recognize certain CEO-necessary traits in yourself - ability to take smart risks, courage in times of uncertainty - you probably should seek employment OTHER than being in the corner office. Hindery recommends a selection of biographies and autobiographies of great leaders for those plotting a career path upward: "Andrew Carnegie," by David Nasaw, "The Road Ahead," by Bill Gates, "The House of Morgan," by Ron Chernow, "The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940," by William Manchester, and "Caesar: Life of a Colossus," by Adrian Goldsworthy. We might also suggest that you listen carefully to Michael Treacy, OneVoice keynote speaker, on "Double Digit Growth," and read his book by the same name.