By Thomas A. Parmalee
John D. Smith, the new CEO of Foundation Partners Group, is accustomed to competing … and he doesn’t like to lose.
“I’ve been an athlete and competing all my life,” he told FuneralVision.com. “I played baseball, basketball and football, and did track. From humble beginnings, I had to compete for everything, which engrained in me a desire to be the best at whatever I did.”
It was that intrinsic desire that earned him an invitation to play for the Philadelphia Little Quakers football team, which led to a scholarship to William Penn Charter School, one of the oldest independent schools in the country founded by William Penn in 1689. “That led to several college scholarship offers and to playing Division 1 football at Temple University,” he said.
Foundation Partners, the second largest provider of funeral services in the United States, clearly saw a winner in Smith, who most recently served as chairman and CEO of New York City-based Icon Parking, where he garnered the National Parking Association’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2023.
The feeling was mutual.
“I am honored to join Foundation Partners and work alongside a talented team dedicated to transforming the end-of-life experience in funeral and cremation services,” Smith said in a news release announcing his hiring. “Together, we will build on the company’s strong foundation, innovate, embrace change and create positive meaningful experiences for the families we serve.”
So, what is Smith’s business philosophy and how will he lead FPG into the future? FuneralVision.com interviewed him to learn more.
You were a gifted athlete growing up. How did excelling in sports lead to opportunities off the playing field?
I’ve been an athlete and competing all my life. I played baseball, basketball and football, and did track. From humble beginnings, I had to compete for everything, which engrained in me a desire to be the best at whatever I did. That desire earned me an invitation to play for the Philadelphia Little Quakers football team, which led to a scholarship to William Penn Charter School, one of the oldest independent schools in the country founded by William Penn in 1689. That led to several college scholarship offers and to playing Division 1 football at Temple University.
What lessons from sports have you been able to apply to business life?
Football taught me that you have to show up, compete and play the game to win across all four quarters. You are never out of the fight. A shared vision, role clarity, peer accountability and winning together is how you build a high performing team – on the playing field and in business. We have to make sure that every team member is in the right role and that we have a shared sense of purpose. Everyone needs to know why we are working so hard and their role in making the team successful.
As the chairman and CEO of Icon Parking in New York City, you won the National Parking Association’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2023. What achievements prompted the prestigious recognition?
Working with my Icon colleagues, we leveraged digital technology to go from 99% paper tickets to 99% digital transactions under Icon’s ParkSafe program, protecting both our team and Icon customers during the pandemic. In addition to safer interactions, the system significantly improved the customer experience and produced major efficiencies and cost savings for Icon. Our proprietary digital platform gave us better insights than our competitors and enabled us to make smarter, better decisions.
How did the opportunity to lead FPG materialize?
Last year, I was approached by a top-tier executive search firm that had placed me in several other transformation situations. Because I planned to retire after the sale of Icon Parking, I initially withdrew my name from consideration. However, after several months of travel and relaxation, I decided I still had more to give and reached back out to Access Holdings. Foundation Partners is very much aligned with what I’m good at and what I’m passionate about — leadership and disruption. I’m excited to work in a leadership intensive environment where I can energize the workforce with a vision of what’s possible, and drive behavior changes to accelerate performance and pivot to a new business model.
Has funeral service impressed you over the years as you have navigated loss as an individual … or have you walked away thinking that everything could have gone better?
After a bad experience during the passing of my mother, I felt there must be a better way. The customer experience in funeral service really hasn’t changed much in the past 100 years. The question we’re facing today is, how can we embrace innovation and what’s possible, while honoring the traditions of each family? Our Foundation Partners’ mission is to bring ease and comfort to families; and we’re committed to bringing our local funeral homes, cemeteries and direct-to-consumer cremation providers together with modern tools and resources to make the end-of-life experience as easy as possible.
What excites you most about working with FPG?
I am most excited about working with the compassionate and innovative people of Foundation Partners Group. We have an amazing opportunity to create a better experience for families that aligns with our mission of providing them with ease and comfort during some of the darkest days of their lives.
How will you approach your job as you settle in over the next few months?
My top priority is to get to know the people and the reason why things are the way they are. Specifically, what’s preventing the organization from performing at an even higher level? And how does the health of the organization and the culture support or impede that process? I’m asking team members at all levels of the organization a simple question: “If you were me, what would you do?”
What’s a book you’ve read that you would recommend other business leaders read?
I highly recommend “Great CEOs are Lazy” by Jim Schleckser. He outlines the ways in which exceptional CEOs do more in less time than anyone else. They only work on things that constrain the growth of their businesses, taking a lot of time to diagnose the constraints before taking action to fix the problems. A high-performing team does not need the CEO to do their work; they need a CEO that looks far down the road and thinks about the culture of the organization – not the day-to- day operations.
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