Afterburner featured in the Birmingham Business Journal

Hey Birmingham, check out our recent feature in the Birmingham Business Journal. In the article, Jim Murphy discusses the Afterburner Method, background of the business and explains how Afterburner is looking to develop new franchise systems in the Birmingham area. He talks about why Afterburner is specifically looking to reach out to the elite military members in the Birmingham area, in order to give them the opportunity to continue their life of service after they leave their bases and come home. Jim also explains how new team members will apply their skills and learned military methods to help local businesses in Birmingham thrive using the Afterburner methodology. Read the article brief below to find out about the amazing franchising opportunity Afterburner is bringing to Birmingham and click here to read the entire article.

Consulting firm with military focus to open in Birmingham

Jim Murphy's consulting firm
uses military procedures and strategies
to help businesses.
The company, Afterburner Inc.,
is launching in Birmingham this year.

By Yann Ranaivo

An Atlanta-based management and consulting firm that employs veteran fighter pilots and special forces soldiers wants to open a network in Birmingham.

Jim Murphy, founder and CEO of Afterburner Inc., said the networks will allow businesses in each city to have access to consultants who use military training and procedures to improve business operations.

He said he hopes to launch a Birmingham network during the first half of this year.

Murphy, a former Air Force pilot, said his firm, with staff of more than 50, employs entirely former fighter pilots, U.S. Navy Seals and anyone who has served in special operations groups such as the U.S. Army Special Forces. He said his firm employs what he calls the “flawless execution model,” a method that he said pushes businesses to make as few errors as possible to improve productivity, increase sales and save costs.

“Our model can be applied to almost any business," he said. "It accelerates individual team and organizational performance."

Click here to read the entire article.

Focus on Leadership and Improve Your Safety Levels

Here's a great excerpt from one of our fantastic expert articles. In the article the importance of organizational leadership in safety-focused organizations is discussed. Definitely a must read for anyone in a leadership position, or looking to improve their leadership abilities. Click here to read the entire article.

Focus on Leadership and Improve Your Safety Levels

In the quest to improve safety records, organizations often rely on motivational posters, classes or training programs to help teams minimize risk and improve safety performance. However, great safety records are not achieved through these efforts alone. Improving safety requires leadership – organizational leadership at the front lines that is equipped to develop a process-oriented and disciplined safety-in-execution culture. The secret is training those front-line leaders in a simple, scalable process. The pursuit of operational excellence through such leadership training is the key to improving safety records.

I have always believed that the most operationally-capable organizations are also the safest. Great leadership at the operational level makes organizations excellent. And it is that same great organizational leadership that enables these organizations to improve safety.

In 2007, I was the commanding officer of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. That year, our ship won numerous awards, including an award for being the most battle-ready aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Fleet, winning prestigious safety awards and being selected Ship of the Year. We also won three environmental awards and had high retention numbers. We were forward deployed in a time of war; yet we achieved the highest safety ratings.

Operational excellence and safety are not contradictory pursuits. They are both the product of an obsession for continuous improvement, not in the C-suite or boardroom, but where the work is being performed. In the Navy, we call this “deck plate leadership.” The senior leaders onboard our ship were able to improve safety by utilizing organizational leadership and the Flawless ExecutionSM methodology – which includes developing leaders, improving day-to-day operations and closing execution gaps.

Organizational Leadership: Leveraging Flawless Execution℠ to Improve Safety
Effective organizational leadership relies on creating an environment and modeling behavior that is conducive to achieving mission objectives. In order to improve safety, leaders must focus on day-to-day operations and closing execution gaps by aligning their teams and building trust on a daily basis. If you focus on improving the day-to-day basic operations of your organization, you will find that your safety records will improve as a result.

There are two principle reasons for this two-fold improvement. First, one must plan well before every task, project or undertaking. Planning does not have to take a lot of time, but it does have to incorporate all of the right elements and be performed in the same disciplined manner every time. Second, teams must assess how well they performed once their plan is executed. Did the team succeed, fail, encounter new challenges, or suffer a near miss? We call such an assessment debriefing. Debriefing is how we learn from doing and how we improve every day. Organizational leadership relies on these basic principles to maintain operational excellence and improve safety. Without these principles, your operations may appear as if they are safe; however, in the long run, you are putting your team at risk.

To improve safety, leaders should follow the Flawless Execution℠ process of Plan, Brief, Execute, and Debrief on a daily basis. Leaders must implement an organization-wide planning process that is simple and scalable at all levels – whether planning at the highest organizational level or for the simplest daily tasks.

Click here to read the entire article.

Afterburner featured in The Franchise Times

Afterburner was recently featured in The Franchise Times in a piece titled "New Franchise". The article discusses how founder Jim Murphy recently decided to franchise the Afterburner. Featured in the piece are details on the company’s development plans, past successes and history. Click here to read to the entire segment.

New Franchise

By: JEFFREY MCKINNEY

Replicating the founder’s success as a consultant will be a challenge for this new franchise, observers say. But Jim Murphy counts tough customers in his corner, including the New York Giants in their 2012 Super Bowl run.

When a pilot engages a fighter jet’s afterburner, it accelerates the jet’s performance and dramatically increases its speed. So when the 12-year veteran U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter pilot and instructor Jim “Murph” Murphy needed a name for his consulting company, Afterburner Inc. was a natural. The Atlanta-based management training, consulting and placement firm offers military tactics to help individuals, businesses and organizations execute their strategies more effectively.

Now, he’s entering new territory as he begins to franchise the concept and offer incentives to military personnel who sign on as franchisees.

‘It gave everyone a voice’
Murphy launched the company in 1996 when he developed a program he calls The Flawless Execution model. The continuous improvement process helps clients develop a strategy through planning, briefing, executing and debriefing.

Murphy and a team of more than 50 elite military personnel, including Navy SEALs and fighter pilots, teach via seminars, workshops and other means. “Our model increases individual team and organizational performance,” Murphy says.

Murphy’s concept has struck a chord with several Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Bausch & Lomb and Cisco Systems. He’s especially proud that his program helped the New York Giants football team on their way to win the 2012 Super Bowl. The Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17.

Getting to the Super Bowl, much less winning it, was not in their sights halfway through the season when the Giants were struggling. In October 2011, the NFL team’s management hired Afterburner and applied some of its tools and techniques to improve the team’s performance, Murphy says.

Charles Way, the Giants’ director of player development, said Afterburner’s biggest contribution to the team was its concept of debriefing without referring to name or rank. This practice “conveyed to our players that no matter who you are, you have a voice and a right to hold your teammates accountable for what they do on and off the field,” Way wrote in an email. “This caught on with our guys, because it gave everyone a voice. From our veterans to the undrafted rookies, everyone now felt empowered to hold each other accountable.”

Murphy, 48, says the Giants turnaround illustrates Afterburner’s methods. Now, Murphy plans to introduce that same model, as well as other Afterburner products and services, to small and medium-sized businesses.The franchise, Afterburner Network Inc., is being offered to current or retired elite military men and women. His plan calls for 50 franchisees in the system by 2017.

Click here to read the entire article.