Geeta McCormack, Forum Solutions LLC co-founder, on what she has learned as a leader
Geeta McCormack co-founded Forum Solutions 6 years ago and we asked her 6 questions on what she has learned and what she sees in Forum’s future.
1. Reflecting on Forum’s last six years and especially what you learned since the pandemic started, what are your main learnings?
Great question! I learn something every day from working with our clients and my colleagues, so it is hard to pick, but I would say what is top of mind for me right now is that when we started Forum, we chose to build long-term relationships with both our clients and our associates. For clients, what that meant was that we would proactively do the right thing for them in every situation. For associates it meant that we would pay full salaries and not use contract hires or utilization-based pay. We fully believed those choices would make us stronger over the long term. So, when the pandemic started, we proactively (temporarily) adjusted our client billing rates and we committed to our employees that we would not reduce salaries or layoff anyone unless there was no other option. A year later, I look back on that decision and am very proud that we were able to keep our commitment to our employees and not lose our focus on exceptional service for our clients.
2. What about diversity, equity, and inclusion?
We have learned a lot about racial equity and justice over the last year. We strive to do better now that we know better. These learnings have given us a lot of inspiration and focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are very excited to continue to build a diverse and inclusive firm. Currently, we do quite well on some diversity measures, for example, we employ over 50% women and are a women-owned business, but we do not yet reflect the diversity of our market. We are working to change that.
3. What do you see for the next 3 years in terms of building Forum’s workforce?
We have some bold goals for growth over the next 3 years. For example, we expect to more than double the size of our firm. If we are going to achieve our goals to reflect our community’s diversity, we need to build strong relationships with organizations that can help us grow and maintain diversity. I expect to be personally involved in building these relationships and am excited to see these develop!
4. What makes Forum unique as an employer?
Forum was founded around the idea that the solutions to complex problems can be best achieved with a diversity of ideas coming together around a common goal. We have built an incredibly collaborative culture and regularly invest in our team’s ability to both deliver the detailed outcomes that our client’s need, but to also understand the big picture problems that impact our community and economy. We think this holistic training, this ongoing “forum”, helps develop our team’s ability to solve problems.
5. As a woman of color can you reflect on your path to leadership in a predominantly white male profession?
While I did not often think about it, throughout my career I was frequently the only woman and/or person of color in the room. I was fortunate to have worked with great leaders who helped me develop my capabilities and leadership skills along the way. But clearly, we need to do more to develop the talent that can be unleashed with a diverse workforce. It is not enough just to have an inclusive workplace; we need to actively seek out the raw talent that exists in the community and do more to develop that talent. Our entire organization has a passion for creating those opportunities for people of color and we know if we put our minds towards this, we will be successful.
6. What would you say to prospective recruits about why they should work at Forum?
If they want to be empowered to be themselves within our community and they want to be able to excel in their own professional development and have an opportunity to work with an amazing team of people, creating exceptional outcomes for clients, Forum is the place to be.