Enterprise ENCORE
Helping businesses succeed
Born from setback, HRM Innovations is thriving Tiffany Fitzgerald
Carol Paris
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ometimes new business endeavors don’t start in the midst of great success but amid a setback. That’s what happened to Kevin Brozovich, owner and operator of HRM Innovations, a human-resource and management company based in Kalamazoo. Brozovich had worked in human resources for about 20 years when he had a “What now?” moment in 2008. He’d been working at Toyota Group for 11 years and knew that although he was working in multiple capacities, he wanted to continue to grow and become a more dynamic human-resource professional. That’s when an opportunity arose for Brozovich to help start the new Kaiser Aluminum plant in Kalamazoo. “I always wanted to start from scratch,” he explains. “That’s what pulled me toward 14 | Encore FEBRUARY 2014
Kaiser. Part of it is that I like a challenge, but part of me thought that if I wanted to start from the beginning and do things my way, this would be an ideal opportunity.” But it wasn’t quite the opportunity Brozovich was hoping for. The recession hit hard right after the plant began operating, and Brozovich watched his fresh start turn into a dead end. “I tend to be a little too optimistic at times,” he says. “The regional HR director I reported to was let go, two of my peers were let go and HR managers in other plants as well, and I kept thinking I would be fine. Long story short — I wasn’t fine. I found myself unemployed during the recession.” After Brozovich was laid off from Kaiser in the summer of 2009, his former HR team
Being laid off gave Kevin Brozovich the motivation to start his own human resource and management firm, HRM Innovations.
in Battle Creek took him out to lunch and encouraged him to start his own HR business. They seemed to know that Brozovich didn’t need the perfect position at another manufacturing or supply company but an opportunity to create his own organization. Brozovich decided to take the plunge. That was August 2009, and even though some advisors he consulted didn’t think there was a market for the services he was proposing to provide, it turned out there was a healthy demand. Although Brozovich didn’t have any customers in the first six weeks, by the fourth quarter of 2009 his earnings matched what he made before being laid off.