- W - ============================================================================ Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 11:34:18 -0400 From: Mwalt1234@aol.com Subject: Mary Walter - Introduction Hi, my name is Mary Walter. My consulting company is called NewLeaf Services. I have not introduced myself properly on this list because I have been kept busy by those clients - not a bad situation. BC (Before Consulting) I was spent 15 or so years in corporate positions mostly within the high technology software industry. My experiences were driven by the needs of this fast changing market and prepared me well for consulting. In the corporate life I participated as - customer support, technical support, sales, product management, technical support manager, sales support and training manager, marketing services manager, product training manager, and finally - internal education consultant. What a mixed bag - but wonderful experiences that I call upon daily in my practice. I left the corporate world as a full time employee in Sept. of 1994 and have been doing a "snoopy dance" ever since. NewLeaf Services concentrates on two customer types: the individual interested in exploring their current employment situation and how to improve it (everything from finding a new job to becoming active in the volunteer ranks in preparation for a career move). I act as a career coach for these people. My other clients are of the corporate variety. I essentially manage projects, frequently dealing with education issues but it is a real mixed bag. To give you some examples of the diversity - create and present a one day workshop called Terrific Transitions for a medical center, design and implement the consolidation of four independent group orientations into one corporate orientation program, create the process and write an assessment tool for placement of students into a curriculum designed by my client (another group of consultants) for their client, 2 hour workshop for an association in the healthcare industry on delivery unwelcome messages, developing and implementing a retailer's leadership initiative and serving as an ad hoc training manager. And that's just since Sept. of 1994. I love so many of the aspects of consulting - the variety of projects and the people I find to contribute to my projects or me to theirs. I am still a little uncomfortable about the unsteady income but not so uncomfortable that I want to ever go back to corporate as anything but a consultant. I struggle with the question about quoting for a project with a lump sum or by the hour. I have been burned by the lump sum when the client changed horses midstream, but I probably should have met with them to discuss the change and how it would impact the project. They did not change the deliverable just how it was delivered. How do you handle this type of situation? I have been enjoying this list and look forward to new topics and their discussion. *************************************************************************** Date: Fri, 28 Apr 95 16:27:00 EST From: "Wurtzel, Marvin" Subject: Introduction Marvin Wurtzel Quality Manager Semiconductor Equipment Division Eaton Corporation mwurtzel@bev.etn.com I have been lurk on this list for some time and just getting around to introducing myself. I am the quality manager for a division of Eaton Corp. (Fortune 500), my role is primarily as an internal consultant on quality to this business unit. We are actively applying Total Quality Management techniques to our operation and having reasonable success. Also part of my responsibility is to work with the corporate quality organization and help them with their efforts to improve quality in all of the business units. I also moonlight as a TQM consultant. Most of my contacts/clients have been through teaching TQM and related subjects for Northeastern University's State of the Art Program. I have been a quality professional for over 20 years and a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner for the third time in 1995. I have given consideration to starting a consulting practice on numerous occassions, but I like a steady paycheck. =========================================================================== Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 12:26:08 -0500 From: Mwalt1234@aol.com Subject: Biography I am pleased to know about this list. The bios already show a wide variety of experience and expertise - synergy just waiting to happen! My background is over 15 years in the high tech industry. I have experience ranging from programming, tech support, sales, marketing support, management, training management and I started out as a fifth grade teacher! I guess you could say that I filled the function of an internal consultant for those years in corporate. My consulting has several markets: 1. I work with corporations in developing educational strategies that support their corporate goals. I develop the strategies and then work with the company to implement as defined by a contractual agreement. I end up identifying other consultants, developing materials myself or locating vendors of generic educational products. 2. I also write materials to address client needs for specific topics within my areas of expertise: Career Coaching, Change in the Corporate Environment, Creativity, Customer Service, Leadership in the Nineties, New Manager Development, Myers - Briggs Type Indicator Delivery and Debriefing, Outplacement, Leading the Sales Team, Training the Trainer and Performance Management. 3. I work with individuals in creating and implementing a career development plan. Sort of individual outplacement, though some of my clients have jobs that are not satisfying so they are exploring other fields and I work with them to leverage off of previous experience in the area of new career interest. Most of my clients are in the Atlanta area and range from fairly small companies that do not need a full time training manager or director, other consultants who need my understanding of corporate educational processes, and large corporate headquarters that are overwhelmed and need specific project management. I left corporate in August of 94. I had been doing some consulting on the side for several years. I had been waiting and planning to leave for a while. I must say that I love it and am interested in learning how to use better AOL as a resource. Mary Walter NewLeaf Consulting Mwalt1234@aol.com =========================================================================== Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 07:25:07 -0800 (PST) From: "joyce@thinksmart.com" Subject: Introduction I am primarily a writer who does some consulting in the area of organizational innovation and creativity. I am fascinated by the process of organizational change and improvement ... especially the barriers to organizational improvement processes. I have a new book coming out in May (Transformation Thinking> the writing of which gave me a lot of time to think about the gut-level basics of organizational change. Why is it, after all, that absolutely brilliant processes such as tqm, continuous improvement, reengineering, etc. have such high failure rates? And, even more interesting, when so many people know the answer to that first question, why is it so hard to do something about it? Most of my time these days is spent with the Innovative Thinking Network ... a membership group of folks interested in innovation, creativity, problem solving and team thinking skills in organizations. We do a bi-monthly newsletter and would be happy to consider articles from anyone with something to say ... especially stories of organizational change and improvement. We're also doing our first annual conference April 9-12 which has been a tremendous challenge and an incredible amount of fun. I look forward to the discussings this group will generate. joyce ** For additional information send this request: TO: info@thinksmart.com SUBJECT: Information Request Joyce Wycoff E-mail: joyce@thinksmart.com 1324 State St., G-153, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone: 805-964-5363; FAX: 805-964-6383 ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 20 Mar 95 15:18:55 EST From: steve wilcox Subject: Introduction Allow me to introduce myself. I am Steven Wilcox, Ph.D., a senior analyst in the Information Systems Division of General Research Corporation. My field of specialization, operations research (OR), is very closely related to consulting, and the information/decision support systems I shape stimulate issues related to organizational change. When I create a decision support system, I am both acting in the role of a consultant as well as influencing how our clients do business or think about their business. Unfortunately, operations research is very mathematical, so I am interested in building bridges to nonmathematical clients. Any perspectives on building such bridges as part of the practice of OR would be very helpful to me. Steven Wilcox, Ph.D. General Research Corporation swilcox@grci.com (703) 506-5235 ==============================================================================