Draft:Tom McMakin

Tom McMakin (b. 1961) is an American business executive, author, and public speaker. McMakin writes and consults on business development, corporate learning communities and culture building. Best known for his tenure at Great Harvest Bread Company, an American franchise success story, McMakin is currently Chief Executive Officer at Profitable Ideas Exchange, a consulting firm based in Bozeman, Montana.

Education
From 1980-1984, McMakin attended Oberlin College in Ohio where he studied Government. In his final year at Oberlin, McMakin served as President of the Student Cooperative Association (OSCA). The Oberlin Alumni Magazine published a profile on McMakin in 2021.

After graduating in 1984 with a bachelor's degree, McMakin served in the Peace Corps, spending his first year in the Baltic region and the next two in Cameroon as a small enterprise development volunteer working with women's groups; then as Country Lead for a year in Estonia. Upon returning home, McMakin worked in Boston as an airline cargo loader, a teacher in Vermont, and a legislative aide in Virginia. McMakin completed a non-degree business program at Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Goldman Sachs Scholar.

Career
In June 1993, McMakin joined Great Harvest Bread Company in Montana, starting as a newsletter editor and becoming Chief Operating Officer in 1997. By the end of 1998, Fast Company praised the organization for its rocket growth and localized innovative approach to franchising, characterizing the strategy as “produc[ing] a big competitive advantage for the whole company.” McMakin was with the company through 2001.

McMakin served as Operating Affiliate for private equity brands McCown DeLeeuw/TSG Consumer in San Francisco from 2001 to 2003. In 2003, McMakin co-founded Orchard Holdings Group, a private equity firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio where he served as managing director through 2010. McMakin joined the Montana-based consulting company Profitable Ideas Exchange in 2010 where he currently serves as CEO.

Business Development
As Chief Operating Officer at Great Harvest Bread, McMakin “was largely responsible for ushering in a period of significant growth for the company in the 1990s.” He promoted a philosophy that eschewed standardized procedures in favor of a structure that “promotes localized innovation and encourages fast learning.” The company garnered national recognition for its focus on granting franchisees autonomy to run their businesses, but also requiring participation in a shared learning community where ideas, innovations and best practices could be exchanged across the company. The result was exponential growth, and as reported by the Christian Science Monitor in 2001, the company grew to “138 franchises in 35 states” and was considered “the nation's leading fresh-bread store chain.” The notoriety even led to a nation-wide marketing campaign by Microsoft touting the success of the company tied to its use of technology.

McMakin has advised federal and state policymakers on economic initiatives and workplace culture. After advocating for paternity leave in Newsweek, U.S. House Representative Patricia Schroeder of Colorado read McMakin’s article into the Congressional Record.

In 2004, McMakin spoke about venture equity at the Montana State Capitol as part of the Economic Development Interim Committee of 2003-04, during Montana’s 58th legislative session. He argued for the importance of Montana-based investors to growing innovative companies in Montana. His ideas are included in the committee’s final report as presented by Representative Joe McKenney and Senator Glenn Roush.

In 2010, McMakin was a keynote speaker at Senator Jon Tester’s Kalispell workshop for small business featuring internet giant Google. McMakin argued that Montana is a state with a lot of competitive advantages, and is an ideal place for investment. Speaking to an audience of local business owners, McMakin shared resources for those “seeking to grow or launch a business” and “learn more about specific programs and network with each other.”

McMakin has lectured about ways entrepreneurs can access capital, and as Bloomberg reported, he “circulated a list of ten questions every entrepreneur should ask a potential VC investor.” He also urged businesses to be creative to attract equity funding to a state that is not typically considered for investment.

Business Philosophies
McMakin’s success as a business development advisor stems largely from his strong positions on the importance of human capital, including creating learning communities and work-life balance as pillars of business culture. In 2001, the Christian Science Monitor reported on McMakin’s philosophy: "'We've lost in our culture this sense that business and work in general should be in service to our lives," explained McMakin. "You can't balance 70-hour workweeks with a good home life.'"

In the same year, Inc. Magazine reported on a Great Harvest training session, led by McMakin, describing the company as a blueprint for a new way to think about franchising, including the principles of freedom franchises and learning communities: “And therein is Great Harvest’s fundamental philosophical principle: The conviction that command-and-control is wrong, that the company’s real product is its offer of freedom to run a bakery as the owner sees fit – but with ‘handrails,’ as McMakin calls the help that’s available if wanted. Further, in Great Harvest’s view it’s only by putting freedom first – including the freedom to fail – that an organization can fully tap the magic of human creativity.” Such philosophies have led to the attraction of top talent.

Bread and Butter: What a Bunch of Bakers Taught Me About Business and Happiness (2001, St. Martin’s Press)
Bread and Butter is a book about personal and business success. It’s a narrative tale of the success story of Great Harvest Bread Company; and it’s a description of an innovative business model known as a "freedom franchise", documenting the company’s growth from a single bakery to a multimillion dollar enterprise with, at the time of publication, 140 stores across 40 states. It is both an accounting of McMakin’s discovery of a job but also a transformative lifestyle within the Great Harvest organization and how his immersion story serves as a blueprint for contemporary entrepreneurship, offering inspiration for young professionals.

Drawing lessons from the Great Harvest experience, McMakin provides actionable advice for a diverse audience, including aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners, and individuals seeking to define their career paths. The book covers various strategies such as fostering a learning community, relying on profits instead of debt, and implementing per-week hour caps to promote work-life balance. Bread and Butter illuminates how to create a business that enriches your life rather than one where life is merely in service to the business.

How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services (2018, Wiley)
How Clients Buy, published in 2018, is a book written by Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher, and delves into the dynamics of the client-advisor relationship in the professional services industry, offering insights into the psychology of clients and how they make decisions. McMakin and Fletcher explore the key factors that influence clients' buying behaviors, emphasizing the importance of trust, credibility, and the establishment of a strong client-advisor rapport.

Drawing from their combined years of professional experience, the authors provide practical strategies and techniques for professionals to build meaningful relationships with clients and ultimately win their business. How Clients Buy serves as a guide for professionals seeking to understand and navigate the intricate process of attracting and retaining clients in a competitive market.

Never Say Sell: How the World's Best Consulting and Professional Services Firms Expand Client Relationships (2020, Wiley)
Never Say Sell is a book that examines strategies employed by top-tier firms like BCG, KPMG, EY, Accenture, and IBM to create recurring revenue streams. Co-authored by Tom McMakin and Jacob Parks, it serves as a comprehensive guide for professionals in fields such as consulting, accounting, and law, whether they are independent practitioners or part of teams responsible for growing key client accounts. The book emphasizes that delivering quality work alone is insufficient for retaining clients and outlines proven techniques and approaches that leading service providers use to deliver added value, cross-sell services, and cultivate ongoing revenue from existing client engagements. Never Say Sell is a resource for professionals seeking to transform one-time clients into long-lasting and lucrative relationships and reap the rewards of repeat business in the professional services sector.