John will optimize the performance of the brand to drive long term growth and enhance shareholder value.
Today, CEOs must lead and learn simultaneously. Over the past thirty years, my extensive education, key CEO exposures, diverse experiences and progressive roles have been accretive to an array of expertise zones. I have been proficient at the transfer of my skills from one function to another, and from one industry to the next. What’s essential in my background is the far-reaching variety I've achieved over a thirty-plus year career. Without it, I would not have been able to assume a C-suite position that relies heavily on such broad and vast experience.
Experience, Exposure, and Education
Select Executive Experiences
Start-up to IPO
Sliver Spring Networks, as c-level strategist and advisor, worked with key execs to enable the organization to ready itself for scale, transparency and growth by redesigning the organization, planning a new software division and establishing high performing criteria to focus the performance in the executive and management suite.
Fix-its/Turnarounds
Front Desk, Inc, as CEO, cut expenses and talent in half, rebalanced critical skills, redesigned the financial/operational model, led the design of a product strategy and enabled greater customer retention, without disrupting growth trajectory.
Corporate/Field
IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Cisco Systems and U.S. Department of Labor, led various internal global functions and worked directly with C-suite executives to enhance company productivity, efficiency, effectiveness and growth.
Customer Contact
Front Desk, Inc as CEO led the plan, design and implementation of a customer success program that involved restricting account management, hiring a chief customer officer, and enabling the executive customer partnership program which served as a feed to product development, account management, sales. Increased NPS and decreased churn.
Product Development
TruEffect, as c-level strategist and advisor, worked with the board, CEO and key execs to plan, design and implement an integrated product management functionality as the nexus for product planning, roadmap and cross-group collaboration and execution.
Financial
Front Desk, Inc.as CEO, working with the CFO to redesign the financial plan, incentives, benefits and budget. Established the path to profitability and enabled an additional round of Series A funding from key investors.
Executive Team
IBM, Cisco, Domtar, Trueffect, Front Desk, LexisNexis, Distant Lands Coffee, NBBJ and Front Desk, as CEO or key advisor, established methods and execution for hiring, retaining, developing, governing and performing executive teams to their highest impact within the company operating model. Increased alignment, accelerated decision making, grew capability and reducing conflict while positively effecting overall company performance.
Key Executive Exposures
Lou Gerstner, then CEO IBM
As a key executive executing Gerstner’s organization development initiative I learned the importance of passion, the brevity of a plan and the systemic execution of a plan over time.
Steve Mills, then Group Executive, Software, IBM
As a key executive co- planning and supporting Mills’ organization and executive development initiatives I learned how to bring focus, discipline, mental toughness to work everyday in every situation, and that the road to success is a combination of many small steps and persistence.
John Chambers, then CEO, Cisco Systems
As a consultant working with several of his key executives (Pond, Powell, Calderoni, Proctor, Jacoby, Ahuja) routinely observed his executive interactions, synthesis of critical information and re-positioning that information into solutions to better enable their customer.
Rod Adkins, then General Manager, Pervasive Software, IBM
As a client responsible for leadership team development I learned the importance of having an inspiring vision, driving that vision into execution and balancing the long and short game of operations along with valuing, diversity and team building.
C-Suite Executive Teams
Having worked directly with over forty-five CEO and executive teams across industries, company size and global footprint has afforded me the opportunity to know what great looks and acts like and has put me in position to help the good become better, and the better become great.
Relevant Education
BA Psychology - Virginia Wesleyan College
MA Industrial Psychology - impact and effect of people at work - Fairleigh Dickinson University
PhD Psychometrics - advanced analytical models for the purpose of predicting human behavior - Fordham University
Executive Education - Harvard Business School, The Wharton School, Columbia University
I believe learning, working, living, failing fast and learning is a regenerative loop and dynamic for any successful CEO. The second you feel that “you’ve made it” and are not open to learning and expansion, remaining narrow and not increasing your breadth, is the second you become irrelevant and obsolete.
Companies
Here's a list of the companies and industries I have significant experience in and following are highlights of demonstrated expertise through my work with certain companies.
Expertise Applied to Companies
Leadership
Front Desk, as the CEO after the death of the founder, created a positive and performance-based company culture; fixed an infrastructure that contributed to inordinate cost; created a short and longer-term strategy, termed and hired new executive team and key staff; designed integrated product processes for roadmap and governance; and, enabled company to continue to grow revenue and minimize customer churn.
Inspiring Vision
Domtar, working as the primary advisor to the CEO whose plan to transform the company from a global pulp and paper manufacturer to a consumer products business. The vision needed to be embedded in internal, external and personal communications, supported by a business plan and management structure, with a reprioritization around resource allocation, divestment and decision making.
Disrupting Status Quo
Cisco, working directly with the COO and CFO, individually and together to create an internal joint venture that creates a more effective decision support model for the company, predicated on leadership, collaboration, effective business unit/functional/board/council governance.
Strategic Management
NBBJ, working with the managing partner, board and leadership team to help transform global company governance ensuring greater competitiveness by accommodating seventeen owner/partners and dividing strategic, operational, technical and customer focus into key leadership roles and responsibilities amongst the group.
Organization Architecture
The Weitz Company, working with the CEO to create a five-year strategy and redesign the organization from a regional satellite deployment to accommodate an integratedglobal expansion plan that reorganized the company, its product offerings and how it went to market.
Collaboration
TruEffect, working with the CEO and the executive team to replace a functionally organized company with an integrated, team-based structure based on joint decision making, integrated core business processes and centers of excellence.
Forecasting and Analysis
Huawei, working with the head of talent management strategy to build infrastructure to make predictive human capital decisions for its global talent initiative.
Drive for Results
IBM, working with the group executive to architect and implement a plan to reduce software marketing cost 70% within six months, involving changes in talent, structure, processes within the context of a group-wide (seven divisions) change management plan.
Business Outcomes
I have been responsible for outcomes across many specific projects and initiatives, including founding, building and growing my own company. Feedback I have consistently received is that I am as adroit tactically in getting stuff done as I am in visioning strategically by connecting the dots and enabling the system to work effectively.
This being said, doing strategic, c-level work whether as the CEO, the senior executive or primary advisor has many direct and indirect, and even unplanned outcomes. Operating in a world where everything is connected, where the objective is leverage and scale, and where the whole is greater than to sum of its parts I will not waste your time on discussing small, out of context and overly specific outcomes — while critical, in your assessment of my capability, I am happy to dive deep with you on companies and context over a conversation. Please ask me for examples of my impact and their associated outcomes.
Here’s a few I’ve been hired to produce and have successfully achieved:
Investor confidence
Integrating operations; cost management; increased customer retention and satisfaction; efficient use of resources, revenue growth; new customer acquisition; effective performance management; target expense burn to revenue ratios; improved shareholder value.
Reduced bad churn and increased good churn
High net promotor scores; customer account expansion; improved customer issue resolution time.
Consistent and improved levels of necessary collaboration
Better and faster decision making; increased alignment and reduced conflict; effective talent management; improved process and people alignment.
Improved role clarity
Increased productivity; improved employee satisfaction; improved employee retention; effective turnover via performance management; improved organization climate.
Increased executive team effectiveness
Improved person-role matching; improved overall company talent levels; coherent and meaningful employee value proposition, greater effectiveness of human assets.
If you are curious, please see my list of forty-five plus companies worked, along with the outline of experience and expertise above. I’m happy to share more examples along with the outcomes generated.
Thanks for your interest and taking the time to get to know me better.