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It was 1990, and Lane Kramer’s goals were more earthbound in nature. The new executive coaching group he had just started, The CEO Institute, had bottom lines in mind when counseling business leaders in professional development. “We focused our discussions on ‘how do we help you make more money?’” Kramer said with a laugh.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Kramer must have felt that his personal balance sheet was a little off-kilter, because in 2001 he experienced a spiritual awakening that transformed both his soul and The CEO Institute’s mission statement. The revelation helped him decide to turn his organization into a Christian CEO peer group that works to help senior executives with a unique take on business coaching – combining sound management training with Biblical values.

“The main reason the members come to the table is they want help in growing their companies and being more successful,” Kramer said. “But the secondary purpose of The CEO Institute is to help them infuse Biblical principles in the way they lead and manage their companies and in so doing, enhance the ministry that’s going on within their own business.”

The executive coaching takes the form of monthly “Faith and Business Forums” with guest speakers from a variety of industries; regular peer review sessions of member’s business issues and problems; individual meetings between Kramer and member executives; and resources derived from networking within the Institute’s membership that could result in a company landing a new management team member, funding or a business partner.

Kramer is no stranger to sudden twists in business plans. He worked in corporate banking and credit training in the 1980s in Dallas and witnessed firsthand the damage caused by the savings-and-loans collapse. That triggered his own entrepreneurial spirit; he started a successful publishing company before venturing into executive coaching with The CEO Institute.

A chance encounter with a book – Chip Ingram’s “Holy Ambition: What It Takes to Make a Difference For God” – changed everything. “The book was all about understanding your calling. When I read that book, I literally held up my car keys in my study one day and said, ‘God, I don’t think I understand my calling. Please show me what it is. I’m going to let you drive the car. Just show me where we’re going.’”

Shortly after that, Kramer scribbled on index cards and came up with the model for The CEO Institute, version 2:0 - executive mentoring with Christian faith integration. He would set an example by instilling Biblical values in his own company, but Kramer lost some customers and initial Institute members with this new direction. “My very nice business got cut down to a smaller business,” he said. But he quickly added that God “keeps building it back up, but with different people.”

One of those is Ray Pekowski, president and founder of The Expo Group, a company that builds, stores and ships exhibition materials used at major trade shows and conventions throughout the United States. Pekowski, who’s known Kramer for more than 15 years, finds value in the executive coaching and comfort being in the presence of other Christian business leaders.

“The implementation of ideas that you gather at those meetings gives you the strength both from a business sense and from a faith sense,” Pekowski said. “You come to those meetings and you’re talking about those issues you’re going through at your company, maybe even personally, and you can share that very openly. It’s great to get together, sit down together, pray together. It’s the fellowship. The fellowship that you have in meeting with people with like-minded beliefs.”

“I really felt like my business needed to incorporate those values. I wasn’t sure really how to do it, what I could legally do, what I couldn’t do,” said Jon Loshinsky, president of Standard Controls, a maker of technology hardware for automated systems solutions. Loshinsky praised the networking aspects of The CEO Institute and Kramer’s ability to find peers to help members with business challenges and opportunities. He also reflected on how the instillation of Biblical values in a company – called “kingdom building in a business” – can trickle down in a positive way to his employees.

“I figure that God is in the people business, so I should be in the people business too,” Loshinsky said. “It’s more than just making a product or selling something or making a profit. It’s about the people. It’s really added great value to what we do here.”

Kramer is quick to point out that his Christian executive coaching group offers no guarantees that implementing Biblical values will miraculously result in blockbuster profits. He also emphasizes what The CEO Institute is not: “It’s not a business card exchange. The reason people come to The CEO Institute is not to swap cards for business leads. Number two, it’s not a Bible study, even though it has a Christian underpinning to it. And number three, it’s not the good-old-boy (network) where people come together to sit around the table to tell jokes and make each other feel good about each other.

“The members get fantastic counsel from each other – counsel that allows them to deal with very practical, big problems that they’re facing back in their business, and get it from like-minded people.”

For more information on The CEO Institute, go to www.ceoinst.com

Show Transcript

Renay: In Dallas Texas there’s a group of business leaders who concern themselves with a very special balance sheet. On one side, company profits. On the other ...spiritual investment. At the CEO Institute, there’s no proselytizing. No promises of tripling profits over say 40 days and 40 nights. It’s more about networking, mentoring, counseling. All applied with prayers for devine results. For its first 11 years, the CEO Institutes’ mission was more earth bound. Helping boost bottoms lines through executive coaching. Then founder Lane Kramer had a change of heart and soul. His spiritual awakening transformed the institutes’ mission. It now blends business coaching with Christian faith integration for companies. That includes companies like the Expo Group which makes, stores, and ships materials for conventions and trade shows. Ray: I’ve known Lane for over 15 years and I started the company in 1991. Whenever you’re an entrepreneur just starting out you’re looking to network with other folks maybe in your industry and maybe not. Jon: Working with Lane Kramer and the CEO Institute has been great. He does a great job of connecting you with other people that have the same kind of beliefs from a networking stand point. Renay: Standard controls, a maker of automated systems solutions, has also benefited from the Institutes’ desire to merge Biblical principals into business plans through executive coaching. The Institute does this with monthly faith and business forums featuring guest speakers, regular peer review of members issues and problems. Providing resources that could lead to management team members, investors, partners. Ray: The implementation of ideas that you gather at those meetings give you the strength both from a business sense and from a faith sense. Jon: I really felt like my business needed to incorporate those values. I wasn’t sure how to do it - what I could legally do, what I couldn’t do. Ray: You come to those meetings and you’re talking about issues that you’re going through at your company. Maybe even personal. And you can share that very openly. It’s great to get together, sit down. Pray together. It’s the fellowship. The fellowship that you have in meeting with people with like kind beliefs. Jon: I figure that God is in the people business. So I should be in the people business too. It’s more than just a product or selling something or making a profit. It’s really added great value to what we do here. Ray: It’s just something that you can’t get anywhere else. Renay: Lane Kramer is the President and founder of The CEO Institute and he joins us now in our Spark360 studio. Thanks so much for coming in today. Lane: Great to be here Renay. Renay: It might be better to start off by asking you what The CEO Institute is not. If there’s any preconceived notions or just wrong information out there. Tell me what it’s not. Lane: Three things it’s not Renay. One: It’s not a business card exchange. The reason people come to the The CEO Institute is not to swap cards for business leads. Number two: It’s not a Bible study even though it has a Christian underpinning to it. And number three: It’s not the good ole boy where people come together to sit around a table and tell jokes and make each other feel good about each other. Renay: There’s some useful information and advice being passed along. And it’s not: Follow these guidelines as laid down in the Bible and your business will double in 60 days. It’s not that at all. Lane: Absolutely not. Renay: Let me ask you about the resource aspect of it because from what we’re hearing, many of the members are getting good information about a business issue they’ve run into, how to deal with either an economic stand point or a staffing stand point...something that’s keeping the company from growing. That sounds to me like some really valuable information that you’re providing them. Lane: Well there’s no doubt about it. The members get fantastic counsel from each other. Counsel that allows them to deal with very practical big problems they’re facing back in their business. And get it from like minded people. Also we’ve found as they grow their companies they have a need for additional outside resources to be brought into the company such as the need for a general manager or vice president of sales. Perhaps some additional capital or introduction to a strategic partner. So all those resources are made available to them as they need them both within the group meeting as well as the individual sessions that I hold with the members. Renay: And one of the things that members have also said is that it’s all delivered in a non judgemental way. There’s Christian principles involved with that that keep the dialog going if you will. Lane: Well CEO’s are human beings first. So we give people permission to be human in the meetings and by allowing them to candidly talk about what’s happening in their life professionally and personally and get you might say...compassionate counsel, practical business counsel and personal counsel in a non judgemental way and it allows them to open up to each other and get the help they really need. Renay: So accesses to resource on advice with business issues, a rolodex of people who might know somebody, who would make a good management team member. And all of it done in perfect balance here. The idea of balancing the ministry side of it with the market place side of it. Lane: Well the main reason the members come to the table is they want help in growing their companies and being more successful but the secondary purpose of The CEO Institute is to help them infuse Biblical principles in the way they lead and manage their company and in so doing basically enhance the ministry that is going on within their own business. Renay: Lane Kramer is the President and Founder of the CEO Institute. Thanks so much for your time and good luck with the Institute. Lane: Good to be here. Renay: For Spark360, I’m Renay San Miquel.