Michael T. Robinson

Michael T. Robinson created Career Planner.com to give people the tools to achieve more satisfying and rewarding careers. Since 1997, his web sites have grown beyond expectation.  Career Planner alone is now serving more than 3 million visitors per year.

While working as the Vice President of Marketing and Product Development--and later as a CEO-- in the fast growing high-tech sector, Michael had the rare opportunity to hire, coach and observe hundreds of talented people in numerous positions including: operations, IT, marketing, sales, design, engineering, accounting, human resources, and even boards of directors.  This sharpened Michael's innate ability to see who was successful, who was not… and why.

Michael was there to lead, observe and coach individuals from when they first submitted their resumes, through the interview process, and then on the job.  He could see people's strengths and weaknesses as if they were written on a neon sign over their heads.

Having bottom line responsibility for the success of these people and these organizations forced Michael to take action whenever an individual was not performing well.  Many times this required coaching.  Sometimes it required firing.   

Through all of this it was clear that the people who were not performing and who were not successful were not doing the type of work they were cut out to do.  They were like a fish out of water trying to do a job and fill a role that they were not well suited to.

The successful people, on the other hand, looked like they fit in.

The successful people looked like they were doing work that they loved. They looked like they were doing what they were born to do.

So here was a key to why certain people and certain teams were more successful than others.  It boiled down to whether the individuals themselves were doing the type of work they were well suited to do.  It was a matter of being a good fit.  Better yet, it was a function of achieving "Perfect Alignment" between the individual and the needs of the organization.

In the world of marketing and product development, success is also based on achieving Perfect Alignment between a company, its customers, and its human resources. All it takes to bring down a company or a department is one bad link in the chain of command that is not well aligned. 

All to often, "out of touch management" will install a manager who is not well aligned. The result is a gradual degradation of financial performance and diminished shareholder returns.  Top performing employees get frustrated and leave.  To prevent this all management needs to do is to be able to "see" these alignment problems and take action before they cause to much destruction. But that rarely happens.

One of the more unique talents that Michael Robinson has repeatedly demonstrated is the uncanny ability to "see" what's wrong with something and then to clearly articulate a plan for fixing it.  Whether it's fixing a business, a factory, a product, a customer relationship, someone's career or an organizations efficiency, Michael has the ability to quickly spot what's wrong and to lead people to fix the problem.  That's why, early in his career he was knows as a turn around expert.  His reputation can be summed up by what one Vice President of HR once said, "Give it to Mikey, he'll fix anything."

Beyond being a master troubleshooter and in addition to all the interviewing, recruiting and coaching needed to build these successful teams, Michael specialized in creating new products and growing businesses around the world.  This included working with all levels of people in the USA, China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, England, Germany, Italy and Mexico.  This gave Michael a true appreciation for working with a wide variety of different cultures.