Our Team & Approach

AirTight Management has developed a proprietary framework to help companies scale faster and more smoothly. We help companies identify and eliminate all barriers to growth in any area of the business.  AirTight combines thousands of proven best practices, principles and ideas from business gurus and thought leaders of the past seventy-five years.  We also have developed a network of proven experts in every area of business.

Our process includes a combination of services and intellectual property that allows a company and its managers to achieve 25% to 100%+ compound annual growth rates without stress, turnover and infighting.  This will grow market share, revenue and competitive position over time. Without spending years figuring out their own custom systems for management.

Our hybrid approach using both proprietary intellectual property (IP) and services makes this process highly cost effective. It uses a mix of consulting, training and coaching, custom designed for each company to guarantee success.  AirTight Management addresses the issue Jim Collins discusses in the classic book Good to Great explaining that typically even a “Great” company requires eight to ten years to figure out its internal systems.  Some companies never figure this out and go sideways for decades, never achieving their full potential.  We can get you there much faster.

All our certified consultants all have a minimum of twenty years’ experience including line management positions, executive positions, and many years consulting.  No green Consultants billed at ridiculous hourly rates for the profit of Partners you never meet here, as in large management consulting firms.  We are Entrepreneurs who have built many companies to $100 million plus in sales and sold them.

Robert Norton

Bob Norton

Founder, CEO and Chief Consultant

Summary of Some Key Achievements:

  • Speaker and author of The Startup Manual and Co-Author with Warren Bennis, The Father of Leadership on Leadership.
  • Creator of The CEO Boot Camp and other advanced management and leadership training programs for CEOs, Entrepreneurs and senior executives.
  • Experience developing market leading products and services since 1981 and in management since 1984. These include startups, turnarounds and working in two multi-billion-dollar enterprises (International Thomson Organization, now Thomson-Reuters, and Grumman, now Northrop Grumman). Consulted for many Fortune 100 companies.
  • As a serial entrepreneur, Founder and CEO since 1989 Mr. Norton launched four startups. Two other startups in senior positions as Vice President and CTO and also had two positions as a Senior Engineer for eight total years as a technologist.
  • Expertise and proven success in all major disciplines including finance, P&L management, operations, sales, marketing, strategy, product development and business development.
  • Founder HomeView (multimedia Realty Search Services), the world’s first high-definition, virtual touring company for residential real estate (founded 1989). Achieved $156 million annualized sales within 1 year of a new product launch with a 6-fold increase in sales productivity over industry averages. Penetrated 72% of the market in only 18 months.
  • Generated over $1+ billion in total shareholder value, just while at these companies. Over $20 billion in sales from his products to date.
  • Drove sales from $0 to $100 million with 26% pretax profit in 5 years; added $35 million to revenue in a single year.
  • Co-founder FIRST CALL Corporation, the world-wide monopoly at the time on distribution of real-time investment research recommendations from dozens of Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley and others. Developed the FIRST CALL global research distribution network, FIRST CALL Earnings Estimate product, VideoMunifacts and Portia portfolio management system.
  • Launched more than 60 products and services that generate over $1 billion in annual sales today.

Other Background

Mr. Robert Norton, President and CEO of AirTight Management, has been a full-time President and CEO of numerous successful companies since 1989. Two grew to over $100 million in annual sales while Mr. Norton was there, and one grew from $0 to over $1 billion in revenue today. He has helped launch eight startup companies and advised over 200 companies to date on their strategy and products. Unlike most Consultants, his experience spans all key disciplines needed to start, grow and exit businesses in several industries. He can provide a wide of experience and perspective across all disciplines that only experienced CEOs can.

Mr. Norton’s broad experience allows for complete validation and/or improvement of entire business models for maximum growth and profit. He is also a specialist at designing long-term competitive advantages so profit margins can be maintained and exit values are increased.

Mr. Norton brings a diverse set of experiences and skills to client companies. He has over 30 years of success at building technology products and services, and profitable companies in both the high- and low-tech sectors and over 25 different industries.

With over 25 years as a Chief Executive Officer at four different start-up companies, Mr. Norton is seasoned at taking companies from their early development stage through their high growth phase. Companies and products he has been responsible for generate well over $1 billion in annual revenues today.

Mr. Norton speaks and has been a panel member at various Boston area universities including MIT, Boston University, Babson and Northeastern and others. Topics include business model development and optimization, entrepreneurship, financing, and startup company management. He has been a member of The CEO Group, IdeaSphere, WPI Enterprise Forum, The Association for Corporate Growth, The MIT Enterprise Forum, The National Association of Corporate Directors, The Seaplane Pilots Association and former member and Chair of the SBANE CEO Dialog program.

Mr. Norton enjoys sailing, flying, racquetball/squash, reading and helping philanthropic causes like family court reform, as these courts, and the sole custody they profit from, have been proven to be the cause of over 50% of all social problems and mental health issues today. Mr. Norton participates on non-profit boards and donates time to various local and national causes regularly.

Gordon McWilliam
Gordon McWilliam

Business Consultant and Coach

Gordon has spent most of his career either as an entrepreneur or working for/with them. Learning from experience at Apple and Dell Computer as well as the school of hard knocks with several of his own businesses, he’s had many successes and a few “learning opportunities”.  Along the way Gordon acquired a great deal of knowledge about what works and what doesn’t, and it has become a passion to share that knowledge and experience with others.

While consulting with companies around the world, Gordon is always looking for ways to help his clients work smartly and avoid the mistakes that so often cause businesses to grow slowly or in many cases fade away. Consulting, coaching and working with organizations who are looking to take advantage of all opportunities to succeed provides his greatest satisfaction.

Gordon’s background in sales, operations and day-to-day management has provided the wide breadth of experience to add substantial value to organizations of all categories and sizes.  A willingness to listen and understand a problem before thinking about a solution is key to working with others and is a significant strength. As a lifelong learner, Gordon has always been able to stay ahead of the curve by bringing fresh ideas and new ways to solve old problems.

Gordon resides in Aliso Viejo, California with his wife Janell and is also passionate about his family, music, and golf.

Mohammed Tajvir Chowdhury is responsible for Product Management, Website Administration, Data Analysis, Digital Marketing, and Design works. He also has expertise in Project Management. He has completed his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from East Delta University, Bangladesh.

Furthermore, he is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the Information Technology (IT) and customer focused service industry.

Besides this, he is an Instructor of Microsoft products at Udemy Inc.  He also has certification in Agile, Kanban, SCRUM, Business Data Analytics, Business Communication and Leadership.

As a Shopify site administrator, Tajvir helped launch our 40 new training products at www.EntrepreneurshipU.com in 2021 for pre-startups, startups and early-stage companies with six professional certifications.

Zeeshan Naveed – Online marketing strategy and PPC management.

A passionate and dynamic digital marketing professional with proven success in digital marketing management, online advertising, e-commerce management, search engine optimization, and online customer acquisition.

Creating measurable strategies that drive revenue growth, enhance brand awareness, and improve brand reputation across all online channels.

Lulu Lijing – Website stack development WordPress, Kajabi, Shopify, HTML, Liquid, etc.

Lijing is a graduate of Missouri State University in Information Technology. She is responsible for web management, including content management, data analysis, website health, performance and security, product management, and technical support for the marketing team.

 We also have a stable of many highly experienced contractors and consultants that do project work for us and clients as needed. We are truely a virtual, on-demand and global team so we can provide very cost-effective solutions without the overhead of a larger firm.