The
Aurelius Principle
A Multidisciplinary Approach
Works Wonders
“Let it be your constant method to look into the design
of people’s actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is
practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first
upon yourself.”
– Marcus Aurelius
On Tuesday evening, September 17, 2013 Mayor Deke Copenhaver in an Augusta City Commission meeting challenged me to supply my “credentials.” He cut me off and would not let me respond. Since he asked for it – here goes.
Fact of the matter is I don’t really have any credentials. I have something much more effective and powerful that I call the Aurelius Principle. What the principle stands for is looking at major transactions globally or taking a multidisciplinary approach. Clients get a whole lot of angles on a problem in one pass that just an accountant, lawyer, administrator, engineer, planner, procurement agent, or other professional cannot provide.
The Aurelius Principle works this way: it uses an opponent’s own power, authority, records, and documents against him. If you think about that, it is something that the very best attorneys use. If one does it really well, he might find himself with a new lucrative line of work. For example, the in depth study of the Augusta convention might lead to marketing the same strategies that the management company there used to secure $3 million a year taxpayer subsidy.
The Principle is time-tested and simply does not fail, because it works on all sides of valuable transactions. The technique has been leveraged up to ever higher planes. It worked well enough for me to hardly hit a lick at a snake and retire early. I don’t have a lot of references, but I do have the Mayor’s records. He will find those a lot more convincing than “Credentials”.
Let’s try to weave an aspect of the principle into the question that Deke Copenhaver asked. Marketing personally to Fortune Magazine listed company executives was nearly impossible but then I sent a letter to them, with a great white shark eating their precious logos in a window envelopes! It worked! CFO’s whom I needed to spent $50,000 on to contact contacted me!
The renegade marketing added to an enquiry list from potential and eventual clients of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., its predecessors, and mine that included these names, which just might be impressive even to the Mayor.
|
Tenneco
|
Fort Sterling
|
Maryland Cup
|
|
Procter and Gamble
|
USG
|
Hanes Brands
|
|
Sara Lee
|
Con Agra
|
National Gypsum
|
|
Georgia Pacific
|
Lilly Tulip
|
3M
|
|
Sunbeam
|
McDermott
|
Johnson and Johnson
|
|
Fulghum Industries
|
Lowes
|
Medimmune
|
|
Home Depot
|
Corning
|
Bass Pro
|
|
CarMike
|
W.R. Grace
|
Eli Lilly
|
|
Bristol Myers Squibb
|
Intel
|
St Joseph Foods
|
|
Georgia Iron Works
|
Boise Cascade
|
Stone Container
|
|
Fort Howard
|
Weyerhauser
|
Willamette
|
|
Packaging Company of America
|
Temple Inland
|
Fluor
|
|
Lenzing Fibers
|
Kahn’s
|
General Electric
|
|
Hillshire Farms
|
Fort James
|
Unilin
|
|
Jacobs
|
Fulghum Fibres
|
Donahue
|
| Duke Energy |
Sweetheart Products |
Hoku Corporation |
| BCE Outdoor |
Control Plus |
Arale Woods LLC |
I performed work for 29 of those companies over the years as an employee, contractor, or subcontractor.
Leveraging up the Aurelius Principle in Augusta and Georgia has made for amazing findings and real results, especially during the Augusta Project since 2011.
To sum up, I knew I might be rusty and used Augusta like my very own laboratory to sharpen my skills. Not many rats escaped.
– AG
The author was President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., a provider of multidisciplinary contract cost avoidance, cost recovery, and public policy services to industry and government. Cost Recovery works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.
