Paying Attention

Every morning at 9am I have a check-in with my direct reports to get a quick status of non-routine items. Yet, the non-routine has become the routine these days. This meeting should last 10 minutes max but many days goes 30-45 and multiple meetings spring up from this meeting to discuss at length a new change. It has been difficult to be responsive and not reactive.

I know communication from Alethes has been inadequate, so the next few weeks, I will attempt to communicate to you better, even over-communicate. No doubt, I'll step on some toes as I do because I have no trouble with the desire to communicate, yet after 25 years of personal history in this industry, I hope I have an idea of what will take us cause problems. Yet, it is a daily struggle to grasp what is real and what is fantasy lately.

That history tells me that it is the basics that causes the problems. As an example, a recent article in in Originator Times that reported incidents of mortgage fraud in the U.S. increased by 42 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from a year ago, according to a new report released by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute.

The top fraud incident type, in all states, was in “General Application Misrepresentation” followed closely by misrepresentations related to “Income” and “Employment.”

At Alethes Wholesale, files get stalled due to questions about income and employment more than all other factors combined. Obtaining a proper verbal VOE prior to closing is extremely difficult on a regular basis.

Some reports are saying that it will be two more years before the mortgage industry begins to settle down to a routine. So far the melt-down has hit sub-prime, FNMA, and FHLMC while skirting the FHA scene. These reports indicate the next wave of collapses will hit medium to large banks nationwide. Part of the problem at these banks is the large number of agency, including FHA, servicing portfolios that are in trouble due to defaults.

How does all this work into our business, at our level?

That is what I'll be rambling about in these postings, LO/Branch Manager Round Tables, and conference calls.

Some of the subjects will be;

• Errors and Omissions Insurance and Fidelity Bonds; how this is maybe the number 1 change agent effecting how we all do business
• Life after Seller-Funded DPA
• Wholesale Lender agreements; what they no longer cover
• Neighborhood Watch numbers
• Fraud problems that plague each and every one of us
• Best practices; all around Alethes

This is not a time for the light-hearted and I'll apologize now for those that think I'm too blunt. Good-to-Great author Jim Collins says "great companies confront the brutal facts and believe they'll always survive." Another book I've come to use as a guide for running a good-to-great business is Stephen M.R. Covey's Speed of Trust. If you haven't picked up a copy of Speed of Trust, I'll be glad to send you one.

We need to build trust back in to Alethes and our business and right now many of us aren't sure what to trust, even ourselves.

I'm committing to you that I'll work and pray hard about fulfilling our Mission and Value Statements. I'm committing to you, as a foundation for doing so, that I'll practice the Four Cores of Credibility Mr. Covey indicates are paramount in establishing a high trust company.

Danny Smith

CEO/President

Alethes

Heads-Up, Heads-Down, Blame, Behavior, Fangs, and Fodder

Authors Miller and Blanchard, in their management/leadership book, “The Secret”, talk extensively about Heads-Up and Heads-Down work. Well, July was a whole lot about heads-down for your's truly.

There's an couple of old sayings about "remembering the trip and remembering which horse brung you to the dance" that keeps me reflecting on the past and it's doubtfull that I'll forget the past 12 months any time soon. A year ago, I would have never thought the sub-prime collapse would have such far reaching fangs.

A deep inside view of what has caused much of what you are experiencing can be found in Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla’s "The Chain of Blame.” Whether it was John Glenn's knowledge of how I like looking over the past, or the fact it is just good fodder, his book recommendation has fulfilled both.

Overall, I'm extremely thankful for our behavior this past year. One thing we’ve consistently done right during these reorganizational times has been how we've behaved. With the reverberations of the collapses have come auditors looking in every nook and cranny of every mortgage company of any good size.

How has Alethes done through all of this? Well, we’ve been poked and prodded very well thank you, and to-date, we've been blessed with good audit after good audit. One of the audits verified a modest increase in profits over the previous year. Thank you Lord.

My focus in the coming months will continue to be about building trust, truth, and best business practices; in essence, good behavior.

Along those lines, I’d like to point out something about the truth; when truth is a person’s guiding value it helps a person internalize wisdom and build good character. What we think about affects what we do; therefore, we practice the truth by regularly testing our thoughts, actions and words against it. What we regularly do builds habits and further shapes our character. Our character is displayed in our behavior.

Let’s practice good behavior.


Have a good weekend,

Danny