Problem Solving: A Daily Routine

Miller Welborn

Chairman, SmartFinancial, Inc.
How do you build a company that is not only profitable, but healthy? How do you drive the bottom line in a sustainable way? I believe the answer lies in building a positive corporate culture – an environment where associates can grow, develop, and flourish. Building a great brand involves recruiting passionate, talented teammates who are open to new experiences, lead with positivity, and truly value the contributions of every member of the team. A healthy culture supports inquiry and innovation, where everyone feels empowered to ask questions and seek a better way. When associates are thriving and happy, clients can feel it and profits will follow.

Cordell Carter

CEO, TechTown Foundation

The biggest challenges facing TechTown are talent management, resource development, and scaling our education solutions to more schools. We’re looking for people who love instruction and technology while maintaining a high level of curiosity and sense of adventure. That mix of knowledge, skills, and abilities makes for staffing challenges. Given our desire to get more people into our unique innovation space downtown, we are focusing on our two big education products, learning partnerships with schools and STEAM field trips, which are great solutions for under-resourced schools. Scaling those solutions to reach more students in the region will always be a challenge.

Larry Schumacher

CEO, CHI Memorial

Growing and providing access to primary care physicians is a challenge health systems across the country face. Although primary care is what people under 40 often need, they are looking for newer, more retail-based choices. We must adapt our models of care to provide options for how and when people seek care. This includes offering multiple access points – whether that’s increasing the number of physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, lengthening our hours of operation, or offering virtual visits online or on a handheld device. It’s our job to connect with people in a meaningful and cost-effective way that meets their needs—all without sacrificing the quality they’ve come to expect from CHI Memorial.

Valoria Armstrong

President, Tennessee American water

Tennessee American Water’s primary goal is the safety, reliability, and quality of the water that touches the lives of everyone in the communities we serve. Our customers expect nothing less. To achieve that goal, adequate infrastructure is required to deliver water each and every day. Aging infrastructure keeps us up at night. Last year alone, Tennessee American Water invested over $18 million in infrastructure upgrades throughout our system. We are committed to maintaining a reliable system.

Hiren Desai

CEO, 3H Group Hotels

“We have challenges each day in our business, and our mindset is to approach them as opportunities. We have to learn from them and get better each and every day.”

Dr. Flora Tydings

President, Chattanooga State Community College

Our No. 1 priority is student success. That’s what we’re here to do, and it’s why we come to work every day. We try to be very intentional and strategic in meeting that challenge and making sure we have the data in our hands when making decisions in regard to students. We have just been accepted into the national initiative called Achieving the Dream, which includes focused strategic initiatives to help students be successful. We also received a $2.25 million Strengthening Institutions grant from the Department of Education that will help us with student success initiatives.

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