We recently spoke with one of the longest tenured employees at Shapiro Negotiations Institute, Sharon Sudduth. She shared with us some of the changes SNI has undergone over the years as well as a new initiative she has been involved with.
How long have you been at SNI and how is the company different now than when you first arrived?
I have been at SNI since 1999 so 13 years. I don’t think our goals or mission is different, but we’re a lot more organized.
We have a greater focus which allows us to give more attention to the clients. Some of this is because we have a lot more processes in place than when I first came on board. Technology has also become huge. We use emails, servers, and clouds on a regular basis. It’s really streamlined our day-to-day operations.
You take on a lot of different responsibilities around the office. Can you explain what roles you have?
I manage the administrative duties, the finances, H&R, and IT. I wear a lot of hats but it’s a small office so that’s to be expected.
What is the best part of your job and what’s the most frustrating?
The best part is that I have my fingers in everything. Since I’m involved in so many parts of the company, I know what’s going on at all times. At the same time, the most frustrating part is that I know what’s going on at all times. Sometimes I see people doing things differently than I would do them, but I have to let them do it their way because I have so many other tasks to take care of.
SNI’s been able to get new business from a number of their service providers. How has this happened and how have you been involved?
This was something we started last year. We decided that we want to engage our service providers in mutually beneficial partnerships. I had a bank approach me to ask for our business. I explained the concept we were trying to implement and as a result we were able to engage in a partnership. That led us to do about 20 programs with them last year and a few more this year. This year we are budgeting to get new copiers. We want to get them from a company that we can partner with. We have been in talks with one company and so far it has gone well.
