Background - Introduction
Dan's brand of advice & counsel has been forged through his own leadership experience, his research & writings, and his in-depth advice & counsel over several career phases. But, four major themes have remained consistent:
- CEO & senior leadership transition
- Continuous operations improvement
- Organization culture change
- Leaders facing the challenge of sustained improvement
He has been the senior adviser to the leaders of some of the world's leading organizations in virtually every industry.
Background - Summary 1960's
- Trained in organization development philosophy and the management development programs that formed the core of culture change as it has been practiced over the last 40 years.
- Applied them in poverty & economic development programs as social worker, community organizer, and advisor to government & non-governmental organizations.
- Participated in and applied research on leadership during times of change in new business startups, community action agencies, and the military.
Background - Summary 1970's
- Trained in manufacturing (in particular, manufacturing engineering, production technology, quality & reliability engineering, distribution, and product development) at the leading operations research/software/consulting firm that had invented many of the commonly-used traditional operations approaches.
- Created first successful merger of organization culture change and operations improvement, as the firm pioneered continuous process improvement.
- Created firm's leadership & manufacturing strategy practices.
- Learned Japanese manufacturing techniques and became a leader in converting American industry to become more flexible, lean, innovative, customer focused, and consistently high quality.
- Created one of the first Total Quality models followed by one of the first Just-in-Time services in America (the precursors to today's versions of Six Sigma & Lean Enterprise programs).
- His first book published on implementing new manufacturing strategies.
Background - Summary 1980's
- Became Chairman & CEO, changed strategy & directed company growth into new markets. Changed culture to increase innovation and focus on consistently superior implementation of improvement efforts.
- Led pioneering programs in automation, systems integration, and open systems strategies.
- Oversaw creation of early supply-chain management programs.
- Research on capabilities of leaders during times of dramatic change.
- Created a unifying framework for company-wide excellence ... combining best approaches from organization & culture change, company strategy, operations improvement, and leadership.
- Wrote one of the first books on leading company-wide operational & organization improvement.
Background - Summary 1990's
- Began pioneering work on impact of leadership transition on innovation, operational effectiveness, and culture change.
- After 25 years, 12 as Chairman & CEO, managed own transition by hiring successor and working with him for 18 months before turning over his company to him.
- Became senior adviser to leaders managing organizations through times of significant change...served as a director on seven boards.
- Introduced first model for CEO transition in third book.
Background - Summary Since 2000
- Adviser to the senior leaders of only several organizations at a time...Advice & Counsel to those preparing for or in new positions with a change mandate, and to in-place leaders of high-performing organizations who have decided fundamental changes are necessary to extend financial success.
- Codified first framework for leaders to effectively take advice in fourth book.
The two pages that follow describe what makes Dan's approach so unique...then, a sample of the organizations he has advised.
Click here for more detail on how Dan's Brand of Advice & Counsel took shape over his career.