In business, the term fixer, is the person that comes up with the solution to a problem. In corporate America from Goldman Sachs, Ford Motor Company to a local investment groups, there are always issues that arise and unforeseen problems that come up. When these problems come up, the people in charge are looking for someone to figure out how to resolve it.

Henry Ford the second (The Deuce) once took his whole executive team to the assembly line and told the foreman to stop all production. He stood up and told all his employees (without the colorful language) that his granddaddy didn’t create Ford to be beaten by a Chevy Impala. He told them to walk home that day and think about a way to fix Ford and for every person that came to him with an idea, he would be sure they kept their job. Ha

The ‘Deuce’ was head strong leader that many disliked, but he led Ford through a very difficult earnings period and launched the Mustang in 1965 that turned the company around.

Whatever job you have, the greatest thing a person can do is not think like an employee but think like an owner and offer ideas and solutions to a problem. It makes you stand out and become very valuable. Most employees just want to huddle around the water cooler and gossip about what is wrong but never give a thought to how to fix it. I heard an attorney one time refer to himself as a garbage man because his role was to clean up the trash and fix the problems. Think like a fixer and ask yourself, if I was in charge, what would I do?

Alan Turing once said, “sometimes, it is the very people no one can imagine anything of, who do the very thing no one can imagine.” KT