Gross Reality's Jan 27 Show w/ Sid Kirschner & Robin Hensley: Life in the Finances of a Hospital & What’s Next at Raising The Bar

On the January 27th broadcast (below) of "Gross Reality," Steve Gross discussed healthcare and the insights gleaned from running the financial side of a hospital with Sid Kirschner, former CEO of Northside Hospital and now Managing Director for Raising The Bar. Steve also reconnected with former guest Robin Hensley, President of Raising The Bar and author of the eponymous book and DVD, Raising The Bar: Legendary Rainmakers Share Their Business Development Secrets to discuss what is next at Raising the Bar.

Steve Gross is the executive director of Business Builders Team and a founding partner of HLB Gross Collins, an accounting, auditing, and consulting firm in Atlanta, Georgia. His radio show is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals survive and prosper in good & bad economic times.

Listen live to "Gross Reality" every Wednesday at 5 pm ET on America's Web Radio!

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Podcasts of Gross Reality are available for download at iTunes...listen to Gross Reality on your iPhone, iPod, or desktop!

Sidney Kirschner is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Northside Hospital. Before joining Northside Hospital, Sid was the chairman, president, and CEO of National Service Industries (NSI), a Fortune 500 company. Prior to NSI, he was the president of the Electric Motor Division of General Dynamics Corporation.

A graduate of the New Mexico School of Mines, Sid spent the early part of his career in engineering roles with Aerojet, Aerospace Corporation and Curtiss-Wright Corporation where he quickly rose through the management ranks. He is currently the Head of School at the Alfred and Adele Davis Academy in Atlanta. Governor Sonny Perdue recently appointed Sid to the Georgia Board of the Department of Community Health, the lead agency in Georgia for health care planning and purchasing with an annual budget of $11 billion.

Sid serves on the board of directors of Crown Crafts, Inc., Cleveland Group, Inc., GetProof, Inc., Superior Uniform Co. Inc., Zyvax Corporation, Inc., Atlanta Jewish Federation, William Breman Jewish Home, Jewish Family & Career Services, and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. He is Executive in Residence at the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. He was a long-time member of the board of directors of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce -- SE Region, (AICC) and chaired AICC's Medical Committee, which organized the acclaimed Southeast-Israel Medical Technology Business Exchange in 2002. In 2005, Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Kirschner to the 5-person Commission for the City of Sandy Springs.

Past affiliations include service on the board of directors for the American Red Cross, VHA of Georgia, Georgia First, Principle Healthcare of Georgia, the Metro Atlanta Chapter of the American Cancer Society, Atlanta Jewish Federation, Sandy Springs Revitalization, Inc., and United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.
 

On Today's Gross Reality: Life in the Finances of a Hospital w/ Sid Kirschner & What’s Next at Raising the Bar w/ Robin Hensley & Sid Kirschner

Be sure to listen to Steve Gross' Gross Reality radio show on America's Web Radio today at 5 ET!

Today's guests are Sid Kirschner, former CEO of Northside Hospital and now Managing Director for Raising the Bar and Robin Hensley, President of Raising The Bar and author of the eponymous book and DVD, Raising The Bar: Legendary Rainmakers Share Their Business Development Secrets. On today's show, Steve will talk with Sid and Robin about what's next at Raising The Bar, and with Sid about his experiences and insights gleaned from running the financial side of a hospital.

Click here to find show notes and more information on Gross Reality. Podcasts of Gross Reality are available for download at iTunes...listen to Gross Reality on your iPhone, iPod, or desktop!
 

Gross Reality's Jan 20 Show w/ Jim Blair: Economic Development in Georgia – Establishing or Developing a Business Presence

On the January 20th broadcast (below) of "Gross Reality," Steve Gross discussed opportunities and incentives for doing business in Georgia with Jim Blair, International Project Manager in the Global Commerce Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the state agency that assists companies in establishing or expanding a business presence in Georgia.

Steve Gross is the executive director of Business Builders Team and a founding partner of HLB Gross Collins. His radio show is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals survive and prosper in good & bad economic times.

Listen live to "Gross Reality" every Wednesday at 5 pm ET on America's Web Radio!

Click here to listen to Gross Reality:

Podcasts of Gross Reality are available for download at iTunes...listen to Gross Reality on your iPhone, iPod, or desktop!

James Blair is the International Project Manager in the Global Commerce Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the state agency that assists companies in establishing or expanding a business presence in Georgia. Mr. Blair works with Canadian and European executives whose companies require a business presence in the Southeastern USA. In this role, Mr. Blair coordinates the full range of business location services (facility or site selection study, community recommendations, introduction to professional service providers, introduction to local authorities, business incentives, etc.) in collaboration with other Georgia economic development partners.

Mr. Blair was Director of Georgia’s European Office in Brussels before returning to Georgia in 2005. For 18 years, Mr. Blair led Georgia’s economic development efforts in attracting European corporate investment to Georgia, as well as supporting existing European investors in their Georgia expansion plans. Mr. Blair has represented Georgia as a guest speaker at a number of prestigious US investment conferences organized by “Capital” magazine in Germany, KBC Bank in Belgium, the German Chamber of Commerce in Germany, The Flemish Trade and Investment Office in Belgium, the Paris Chamber of Commerce in France and the Longueil Development agency in Canada.

In 20 years of working in the field of economic development, Mr. Blair has helped locate approximately 120 European projects in Georgia whose subsidiaries today employ some 6,000 persons. These include large companies like JCB, Porsche, UCB, Randstad and Saint Gobain, as well as smaller companies like Balta Carpets, Hansgrohe, Knapp Logistics, Perkins Engines and WIKA Instruments.

The son of a US Army officer teaching at Kansas State University, Mr. Blair was born in Kansas, lived in Alaska, Washington and Kentucky and Blair attended public schools in South Carolina starting at the age of 13. Mr. Blair has an international MBA from the University of South Carolina.

Mr. Blair taught public high school in Anderson, South Carolina, and then worked for Citizens & Southern National Bank (now Bank of America) in Atlanta where he was responsible for European corporate relationships. Functional responsibilities included lending, business development and customer relations. Mr. Blair joined Georgia Economic Development in 1988.

Mr. Blair serves on the Boards of the French-American and Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce; he serves on the Advisory Board of the “Transatlantic Studies Program” of the Georgia university system and is a member of the Georgia Economic Development Association.

Mr. Blair has an international MBA from the University of South Carolina and speaks German, Dutch and French.

Gross Reality's Jan 13 Show w/ Rob Stewart: How to Train Staff More Effectively, In Less Time & At Lower Cost

On the January 13th broadcast (below) of "Gross Reality," Steve Gross discussed how to cut training costs, while increasing effectiveness and efficiency in this changing business landscape via e-learning with Rob Stewart, President & CEO of The Quality Group.

Steve Gross is the executive director of Business Builders Team and a founding partner of HLB Gross Collins. His radio show is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals survive and prosper in good & bad economic times.

Listen live to "Gross Reality" every Wednesday at 5 pm ET on America's Web Radio!

Click here to listen to Gross Reality:

Podcasts of Gross Reality are available for download at iTunes...listen to Gross Reality on your iPhone, iPod, or desktop!

In 1992, Rob Stewart co-founded The Quality Group (TQG) to bring IBM’s internally-developed Quality Improvement curriculum to the general market. Today, TQG is the blended learning industry leader for corporate deployments of Lean Six Sigma/Continuous

Process Improvement.

TQG’s e-Learning solutions help organizations exploit the internet for improved and more cost-effective learning. Our Lean Six Sigma related e-Learning content has been used to train over 100,000 workers in AT&T, Bank of America, Black & Decker, CSX, Hertz, Raytheon, Seagate, U.S. Department of Defense etc. Powering both our e-Learning and e-Courses created by our customers and partners is our OpusWorks® e-Portal Platform – a 100% web-based, group authoring, delivery, administration, and reporting tool. OpusWorks® is ideal for any organization that wants to implement a compelling alternative to traditional training methods.

As the driving force behind the TQG vision for delivering innovative e-Learning, Rob comments, “Over the past 25 years, I’ve seen technology’s ability to improve learning and communications grow from vision to reality. Just when you think you are sharing knowledge better than ever, you realize that there is still room for improvement …OpusWorks® is the solution that many people have been waiting for.”

Mission

To enable elegant, technology-powered learning experiences, on a global scale, with an ever present focus on process improvement.

Vision

To be known as the driving force for innovative e-Learning solutions that improve lives, organizations, and communities.

Purpose

If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain.
If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees.
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.
--- Chinese Proverb

Specialties

E-Learning, Blended Learning, Lean Six Sigma, Statistics, WinAt-Work® Employability Soft-Skills, Problem Solving, Root Cause Analysis, ISO, SPC, Virtual Work, Facilitation ... www.thequalitygroup.net/library.asp.

Gross Reality's Jan. 6 Show w/ Richard Taylor: The Scorned Investor – Understanding Today's Market

On the January 6th broadcast (below) of "Gross Reality," Steve Gross discussed understanding today’s market from the perspective of the "scorned investor" with Richard Taylor, an engagement partner with HLB Gross Collins, P.C., Director of HLB Advisory, a financial advisory firm managing asset allocations for clients, and a partner in HLB Gross Goldberg, a public company-auditing firm also based in Atlanta.

Click here to listen to Gross Reality:


Steve Gross is the executive director of Business Builders Team and a founding partner of HLB Gross Collins. His radio show is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals survive and prosper in good and bad economic times.

Listen live to "Gross Reality" every Wednesday at 5 pm ET on America's Web Radio!

You can also download podcasts of "Gross Reality" from iTunes by searching for "Gross Reality" and clicking on the specific podcast you want to listen to. You can also subscribe on iTunes to automatically download "Gross Reality" every week to listen on your iPod, iPhone, or computer.

Richard Taylor is a client services principal who joined HLB Gross Collins, P.C. in 1973. He serves as the firm’s liaison with a worldwide organization of accounting firms, HLB International. A cum laude graduate of Andrew College, Richard received his BBA from the University of Georgia.

Richard specialized in providing business consulting, financial planning and tax services to privately owned businesses. He focuses on planning to help companies address issues and business challenges to enhance profitability and maximize financial success. He also provided auditing, financial reporting and tax services to his clients.

Richard works in a broad range of industries with concentrations of clients in the construction, manufacturing, wholesale distribution and service industries. He works closely with clients to formulate tax planning strategies that will maximize profits and defer tax liabilities. He has extensive experience in business acquisitions, business sales and related financing, planning and tax strategies for these transactions.

In addition to his involvement with HLB International, Richard works with clients in international markets. He represents many international companies operating in the United States – primarily in the manufacturing and distribution industries.

Richard is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Georgia Society of CPAs. He is certified in Georgia and Florida.

Richard is a former president and director of Pinetree Country Club and a former director of the North Cobb Christian School. He is also a director of the French-American Chamber of Commerce and HLB-USA.
 

Gross Reality's Dec. 30 Show w/ Art Harris: A Unique Perspective on Worldwide Events, Economy, & Washington

On the December 30th broadcast (below) of "Gross Reality," Steve Gross discussed worldwide events, the economy, & Washington with Art Harris, a two-time Emmy Award-winning veteran investigative correspondent who was also an embedded reporter in Iraq. Art is also a producer, television personality, and entertainment reporter. His career in broadcasting, international news, and entertainment gives him a unique perspective on the times we are living through now.

Click here to listen to Gross Reality:


Steve Gross is the executive director of Business Builders Team and a founding partner of HLB Gross Collins. His radio show is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals survive and prosper in good and bad economic times.

Listen live to "Gross Reality" every Wednesday at 5 pm ET on America's Web Radio!

You can also download podcasts of "Gross Reality" from iTunes by searching for "Gross Reality" and clicking on the specific podcast you want to listen to. You can also subscribe on iTunes to automatically download "Gross Reality" every week to listen on your iPod, iPhone, or computer.

Art Harris has gone from Nasirya to Neverland and beyond…from 13 years with CNN as a two-time Emmy Award-winning investigative correspondent and embedded reporter in Iraq, to breaking Hollywood scoops and scandals like Michael Jackson as a special correspondent and investigative producer for Entertainment Tonight and The Insider…CBS Early Show contributor, TV personality AND a regular on HLN’s Nancy Grace, JVM, Showbiz, and (formerly) Court TV.

As a TV producer, he created and exec produced the new E! series pilot, “Bonded for Life,” about an aspiring 35-year-old Donald Trump-like character, of Las Vegas Bail Bonds and his gorgeous wife, whose family biz makes $2 million a year betting on losers. Art has several other shows and multi platform projects in development.

A veteran journalist, he created The Bald Truth (www.artharris.com), a popular news blog with attitude that goes behind big stories to break exclusives and video that airs on CNN, HLN, ET and elsewhere. The site counts an estimated 200,000 visits and 1.2 million page views/mo., recently focusing on in depth coverage of MJ’s death and missing Florida six year old Haleigh Cummings.

Art draws on three decades covering politics, the military, true crime, celebrity and pop culture. A Pulitzer nominee at The Washington Post, as Atlanta bureau chief and Style section writer…You’ve seen his war reporting, celeb exclusives and profiles on CNN.com, ETonline, New York Post's Page Six, CelebTV.com, HuffingtonPost.com, The Los Angeles Times, The International Herald Tribune, People, Rolling Stone, Readers Digest, Esquire, MORE, Penthouse…and now The Bald Truth, aka www.artharris.com.

A story for People in 2007 about a paralyzed Iraqi baby named Karm sparked a humanitarian effort by the U.S. Army to whisk the child to Texas for free surgery, and the parents, both doctors, to safety after the good deed sparked death threats – and international acclaim.

For ET, Art covered the 2004 and 2008 Presidential campaigns, landed a rare White House tour with First Lady Laura Bush that drew 30 million viewers, sit-downs with John and Cindy McCain in Sedona, Gov. Sarah Palin and “First Dude” in Alaska, and Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention; he broke numerous high profile scoops on the death and aftermath of Anna Nicole Smith.

As a ratings rainmaker, he obtained exclusive police videotape of the mother of Michael Jackson’s accuser for ET and its sister show, The Insider—for a knockout launch of The Insider in 2004, instant headlines and personal kudos from CBS President Les Moonves.

Covering MJ for CNN, he scored an apology from then DA Tom Sneddon for "unprofessional behavior" in dissing “whacko Jacko." LARRY KING, who broke Art’s story on his show, hailed the journalist as “one of the best in the business.”

Recruited by ET and CBS, Art went on to break even bigger Jackson scoops, including the state AG’s report exonerating sheriff’s deputies of Jackson abuse claims, and a sit-down with the late pop star’s cellmate. He also packs a Sony HD camcorder, to shoot for the site, news clients and his own TV pilots.

Riveting Iraq footage he shot under fire during one of the bloodiest battles of the war in Nasirya -- and among the worst friendly fire incidents to date -- broke on CNN and drew applause from generals and embedded journalists when Art was invited to speak at The Army War College in Carlyle, Pa., a former Navy officer right at home in the dirt with the Marines.

A frequent guest on The Nancy Grace Show, and Jane Velez Mitchell, Art has had stories featured on ABC's Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, FOX News, Geraldo Rivera, and elsewhere.

Former Atlanta bureau chief for The Washington Post, he was nominated by its Style section for a Pulitzer-Prize in feature writing and counts 11 National Headliner Awards for a variety of stories in print and television.

Art also wrote the successful treatment for - and helped produce - a pilot on missing kids for Original Productions, that aired on A & E in 2008, and created the reality doc pilot about O.J. Simpson’s bail bondsman and his colorful family, that Comcast and E! Entertainment commissioned as a full-blown series pilot.

Popular on the college circuit, he's taught broadcast news and magazine writing as a guest lecturer at Oglethorpe University, appeared on panels at Duke University Law School about the media's role in reporting the Iraq war and worked with students at UGA’s respected Grady School of Journalism on how to cover major criminal cases and trials.

As a CNN correspondent embedded with the 2nd Marines during the war in Iraq, he filed dozens of exclusive reports under fire with a light armored recon unit there, from the hunt for Chemical Ali, WMD and German gas masks and chemical gear in Iraqi army bunkers.

Art Harris is a compelling storyteller who has covered sensational trials, big crimes, Presidential campaigns…even busted con men hawking sugar water as a bogus miracle cure for dying AIDs patients. In a dramatic on camera debunking, Art accepted the huckster’s dare to drink the elixir “because it just might grow you some hair,” and chugged a glass alongside the man who was later arrested.

At The Washington Post, he worked briefly as a film critic, then as an investigative reporter for legendary Bob Woodward…covered the South and exposed everything from voter fraud in Mississippi to environmental horrors like Times Beach to sex scandals of televangelists Jim Bakker and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart; he broke the first story on once-secret-Delta Force commandos and draws on vast law enforcement and military ties to take viewers behind the headlines with scoops and insider commentary.

Author Dominick Dunne featured Harris and his OJ Simpson scoops in Vanity Fair, and in his novel, “A City Not My Own.” The late best-selling author William Diehl named reporters in two his novels, "Art Harris." And the late "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson fondly called him “an evil chrome dome scorpion” for his tenacious reporting.

Digging for CBS 48 Hours, Art scored an exclusive with new Jackson attorney Tom Mesereau when he took the case and has contributed to The CBS Early Show, which also mentioned www.artharris.com exclusives.

In 2002, he was on the CNN investigative team that won a National Headliner Award for coverage of 9-11, and tracked the hijackers to their Atlanta training. An acclaimed hour special Harris conceived on The Hunt for Eric Rudolph, Atlanta’s Olympic Park bomber, won a Cine Gold Eagle, one of three.

Harris also broke exclusive stories in the sensational “Gold Club” federal racketeering trial of a Gambino organized crime figure convicted of extortion, prostitution and credit card fraud stemming from an Atlanta strip club that offered superstar athletes free sex with strippers – to lure fans who were fleeced with impunity.

He broke exclusives in the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, receiving nominations for Emmy and Peabody awards by CNN, covered the death of Princess Diana, filing reports from Paris and London, using his fluent French to investigate mysterious circumstances surrounding the crash.

During the first 18 months of the O.J. Simpson case, Harris broke hundreds of exclusives for CNN; the LosAngeles Times wrote that fellow reporters "applauded Art Harris of CNN for getting a number of stories before anyone else."

Harris was also part of CNN's Emmy Award-winning coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. He won an American Women Award in Radio & Television and a WorldFest Gold Award in 1996 for his story about a Georgia prosecutor who coped with her fiancé’s murder by crusading for crime victims in court.

“Art discovered me,” says CNN’s Nancy Grace, a close personal friend who was an Atlanta prosecutor with Art’s late sister. Art broke Nancy’s moving personal story on CNN. He also counts a 1999 Golden Triangle Award for his profile of a bald beauty queen with alopecia areata, an auto-immune disorder that causes baldness. Harris is among 4 million Americans who have alopecia, and mentors children who lose their hair through the Alopecia Parents Foundation.

Rev. Jimmy Swaggart once blasted Harris for obtaining – and airing - exclusive photos of him with a prostitute he interviewed for a CNN special, Godfathers of the Gospel, then called a press conference to announce God had advised him to forgive Art—good legal advice. Art has written extensively for magazines as well, scoring shocking and exclusive interviews with everyone from Jimmy Swaggart’s hooker to Jennifer Flowers, the former Clinton mistress for Penthouse.

Harris has also developed stories into books and movies; he created and packaged “Confessions of a Carb Queen,” (Rodale, Jan. 2008). Optioned by Sony Television, which signed Harris as co-executive producer.

Way ahead of the TV crime curve, in the early 90s, he developed the "Crime Stories" hour magazine concept for CNN, scoring ratings for segments like the dangers of illegal street racing and a bully murder. He found torture victims of the Ethiopian holocaust working in Atlanta hotels for a CNN special called Seeking Justice that won awards; DreamWorks Studio optioned a Harris project about the first white baseball player in the “Negro Leagues” down South for Adam Sandler.

Harris earned a bachelor's degree in political science and French literature from Duke University. A former Navy officer, he attended the Harvard Business School. He is married to Carol Martin, and has two sons, Josh, and Adam, both college students and avid musicians, and a Jack Russell named Zipper.