Commercial Music program at Capilano University, North Vancouver.

Key point(s):
1) Gained perspective of the balance of innovation and structure that I carry into all my work. Like Classical music, I have a deep appreciation of understanding the rules and roles of the performers but like Jazz, I look for ways to express a better and more interesting way forward.

Internet Marketing, University of British Columbia/ Sauder School of Business.

Key point(s):
1) One take-away from this program was understanding messaging, not just for marketing purposes. The importance of crafting a clear message and consistent voice is especially important for change management during transformations.

Selected as class Valedictorian.

President and co-founder of internet start-up company, Electronics Made Easy.

Key point(s):
1) Along with two co-founders, we designed a cutting edge solutions for comparing consumer electronics. The greatest learning was the importance of timing and resource management.

Business Process Improvement Manager for a large Western Canadian retailer.

Key points:
1) This was the beginning of my operational excellence career and provided the opportunity to develop my skills. While I didn't have official training, I was keen to develop my skills in any way I could.
2) Successes included an Inventory Management/ Store Ordering project and a Supply Chain/Stock Reservation project

Store Ordering Project: Designed and implemented a retail store process and system that lead to increased inventory turns and improved stock levels. The business problem was that employees who ordered daily stock from the warehouse had different levels of experience. Order too much and you would have excess inventory for many weeks. Order too little and disappoint customers. The key to this solution was to build an estimation formula in the background that would take inventory on hand and product sales history to provide weeks of inventory for every item in the store.

Key points:
1) The business problem was significant and had real financial impacts as inventory is one of the biggest changes in retail
2) There was a need to provide to every employee a simple method to overcome any inexperience in ordering inventory
3) Expectations for a real solution were low and a senior leader said solving would be too difficult
4) After investigating the issue and devising a plan, the solution was designed in less than 6 weeks
5) Every store was provided with a new skin over the inventory management system
6) Employees would see every item along with a calculated weeks of inventory (based on their sell-through) and a red/green light prompt

Stock Reservation Project: Designed and implemented a process and reservation system that led to better sales. For background, every year (especially during the Christmas Season) the buyers purchase large amounts of products that will be promoted sometime in the future. The problem however is the company needs to protect some inventory to ensure they are available for the promotion across the stores. The solution was to build a method for portions of the products to be reserved then allow for the store to draw from their allocation. This ensured each store would have promotional products guaranteed for their customers.

Key points:
1) Every fall, the organization struggled with reserving promotional inventory, often dedicated for the critical Christmas/ Boxing Day promotions
2) Historically, all allocated inventory was shipped to the stores but overloaded storage space and some of these items were sold prematurely
3) Leveraging a similar approach to the Stock Ordering project, a skin was designed over the Inventory Management System
4) All allocated inventory was then virtually isolated within the distribution center so each store could draw off their reserved stock
5) This drastically improved the ability for each store to access their allocation as needed

Joined the Finance Controller business unit at one the largest telecommunications in Canada. My role was to bring process improvement skills into Finance operations.

Key points:
1) Joining Finance added a new perspective to my new process excellence career
2) Working with Accountants, and by extension the business areas they supported, developed my abilities to communicate with various roles
3) Successes included a major Service Procurement optimization program

Business System Analysis, University of British Columbia/ Sauder School of Business.

Key point(s):
1) Understanding process and people is critical but aligning to systems and tools was something I felt was needed

Procurement Optimization Project: Driven by a long-time Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) gap, the company needed to mitigate a service procurement problem. Often services were purchased in 14 different ways… but only sometimes using a Purchase Order, sometimes with a company credit card and sometimes on a promise to pay later. It was the uncommitted nature of purchasing without a PO that created the issue. However, following a strict procurement process with complex and customized services was very difficult and time consuming. by creating a Procurement business unit, designing a contingent workforce process and aligning procurement methods, the organization was able to be classified with a lower risk level.

Key points:
1) Public companies that have an identified procurement issue must work to mitigate the problem
2) This project was created a year earlier but was struggling to gain traction
3) After I joined, it was obvious there needed to be a better understanding of the current state
4) The project outcome

Joined the newly formed Process Improvement Center of Excellence as Senior Business Consultant. This team was comprised of 46 process improvement trained professionals across Canada.

Key points:
1) This is where I finally received formal process improvement training in Lean Six Sigma and WorkOut. Along with my developed skills in re-engineering processes, I finally was able to apply the right effort and skills to solve major problems
2) Successes included a Service Procurement projects and designing a Supply Chain re-engineering program

Service Procurement Project: Supported the selection and design of a Vendor Management System and process for a major telecommunications company.

Key points:
1) Part of the Procurement Optimization that started when I was in Finance, the organization had a need to standardize hiring contingent workers.
2) By implementing VMS, the company was able to estimate, approve and procure using preferred partners, standardized approval workflows and rate cards.
3) The benefit included a drastic reduction of onboarding cycle time, decreased costs and greater transparency.

Supply Chain Project: After the Telecommunication company decided to outsource the entire supply chain to a third party logistics (3PL) firm and then downsized most of the warehouse workers, a serious problem soon surfaced.

Key points:
1) Of the previous three major manned warehouses and twenty-two regional hubs, only the new main 3PL warehouse would be managed directly by the 3PL. All other sites would be unmanned and have unmanaged inventory.
2) The organization had not fully understood that the field engineering workers and technicians who regularly accessed equipment for their daily needs.
3) The solution was to implement a scan in/scan out model similar to self check-out in grocery stores. The couriers would then deliver materials and log in each item and as the employees arrived daily to pick-up equipment, they would scan them out, triggering replenishment.

Promoted to Manager, Process Improvement with a team of 6-8 employees plus 6-8 MBA interns.

Key point(s):
1) In addition to leading my own programs, I also supported a team of project managers with their process improvement work across multiple business areas.

Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Key point(s):
1) I completed my Lean Six Sigma training and became certified by a Master Black Belt.

Customer Experience Project: After years of trying to improve the customer experience across the Telecommunication's Consumer Division (contact centers and retail), they wanted something new.

Key points:
1) By assessing the end-to-end customer journey, I determined it was the silos that existed across the company that prevented an effortless customer experience.
2) Instead of separating agents and their skills, I saw the need for designing a new operating system where skills were combined and customers were managed as a journey instead of a transaction.
3) Using a vision of Customer Journey Ownership, Proactive Communication and Ease of Escalation, the contact center was forever changed.
4) Starting at a pilot project, the new model quickly expanded across all teams. This solution drastically decreased cost-to-serve, improved customer satisfaction, increased employee engagement and decreased repeat customer contacts.
5) This project was submitted to Process Excellence (PEX) as a candidate for the global project of the year

The Customer Experience project was selected as PEX 2012 Project of the Year in Orlando, Florida.

Key point(s):
1) After a few rounds of judging, the service design project was selected as the winner.

Facilitated multiple Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training classes for employees.

Key point(s):
1) I also became an in-house trainer for Lean Six Sigma

Promoted to Director, Quality and Process Improvement Center of Excellence. Responsible for 46 employees and all process improvement activities across a major telecommunications company.

Key point(s):
1) Reported to the SVP Consumer
2) Directly supported four manager-led teams and a handful of single contributors

Part of Workstyle project to pilot working from home, booking desk space and impacts to culture.

Key point(s):
1) A great experience that prepared me for the workplace changes during the pandemic.
2) Outcome proved increase employee engagement, improved productivity and better workspace utilization.

Recruited to join Australian-based consulting company, as Vice President, Process and Business Transformation. This firm had 80+ global consultants and specialized in safety culture transformations and Human Performance.

Key point(s):
1) My role was to develop a new Operational Excellence service line
2) Successes included building internal capabilities in banking and government but then leveraging my award-winning case study to pilot a similar approach in a Top 3 Hotel chain plus a program to Lean out a banking company contact center.

Process Excellence Training Project: A government client wanted to embed continuous improvement skills.

Key point(s):
1) After developing a version of WorkOut, a client wanted to add this approach to internal process improvement capabilities.
2) I trained four waves of 15 employees (60 total).
3) After training, I coached and mentored the trainees while they managed their own projects.

Process Excellence Training Project: A credit union client wanted to embed continuous improvement skills. I trained one waves of 8 employees.

Key point(s):
1) After successfully rolling out a version of WorkOut, a second client wanted to add this approach to internal process improvement capabilities.
2) I trained a group of 8 employees.
3) After training, I coached and mentored the trainees while they managed their own projects.

Contact Center Operations Optimization Project: A large credit union wanted to improve the customer experience within their 100+ person contact center that was divided into three main areas, Wealth and Investments, Banking, and Lending,

Key point(s):
1) My team assessed the current state and provided recommendations.
2) The outcome was an overall improvement of call flow, decreased error and increased customer satisfaction.

Customer Experience Project: One of the largest hospitality companies wanted to improve their customer experience through the contact center prior to a major acquisition.

Key points:
1) Leveraging my award-winning customer experience design work with the telecommunications company, my team redesigned the end-to-end customer journey in a hotel's contact center.
2) This included changes to skilling, operational structure, usage of Salesforce, call flow and agent culture. The outcome was a major improvement to the customer journey.

Supply Chain Project: A large chemical production facility was experiencing customer complaints about late shipments however.

Key point(s):
1) It was found that while the factory was following First In, First Out and good Lean operations, the real gap was in their measurement system.
2) During a productive workshop, we designed an improved system to track the customer order to their business site.
3) The outcome was a drastically improved measurement system that captured the customer's expectations and provided a roadmap for increased fulfillment.

Lost Baggage Improvement Project: After a major airline realized their customer's journey wasn't acceptable, they looked to our approach.

Key point(s):
1) After analyzing the end-to-end customer experience, a number of improvements were implemented.

Wealth and Investments Optimization Project: A large credit union wanted an assessment of their Wealth and Investment operations.

Key point(s):
1) After following the customer journey a detailed Lean focused series of improvements were provided.
2) These recommendations improved employee capacity and reduced errors.

Customer Experience Project: One of the largest hospitality companies re-engaged to expand the successful customer journey both throughout the rest of the contact center but also in the newly acquired former competitor.

Key point(s):
1) My team started by assessing the contact center for the acquired company and looked for differences.
2) As we shifted the processes, activities included change management, system changes, and rolling out Salesforce for case management.
3) As the model expanded, customer experience improved for millions of travellers.
4) This company is now the largest hospitality chain in the world.

After the global consulting firm broke apart, the North American business unit became an independent consulting firm under new ownership. I was promoted to Chief Operating Officer.

Key point(s):
1) Managed the daily operations.
2) Rebuilt the sales processes and developed a robust sales pipeline.
3) The consulting firm added Fortune 100 clients.
4) Revenue tripled and the number of employees doubled in a few years.

Construction Application and Process Optimization Project: A giant social media company based in Palo Alto was experiencing challenges in their global construction of a fiber optical network.

Key points:
1) Along with the physical construction, the company also decided to build all their own apps to manage the design, equipment and procurement instead of using commonly used systems.
2) My team supported the process alignment so the programmers could properly code the apps and support an efficient network effort.
3) Outcome was a streamlined and aligned end-to-end process that contributed to improved efficiency and lower costs.

Member of TEC Canada Key Group United in 2020

Lending Operations Optimization Project: A large credit union was experiencing lengthy wait times and errors in their back-office lending department. This was causing lost business as brokers were completing loans with rival financial institutions instead.

Key point(s):
1) After reviewing the end-to-end process, my team found a number of operational improvements that would increase productivity and customer experience

Contact Center Improvement Project: A large retailer was finding their contact center was experiencing high traffic and challenges with agent capacity.

Key point(s):
1) My team found there were gaps in technology, process and team skills.
2) Bringing in a case management process plus changing the customer call flow drastically improved operations and customer journey.
3) The outcome was an improvement of call flow, case ownership and customer need resolution.

Enterprise Project: A regional not-for-profit, health insurance provider needed to build internal operational excellence capabilities and a Center of Excellence (CoE).

Key point(s):
1) I provided process improvement training and tools to increase skills.
2) The outcome was a functioning CoE with capabilities to manage Lean Six Sigma, WorkOut and other methodologies.

Joined a leading HR tech rewards and recognition SaaS start-up.

Key points:
1) As the company scaled up, multiple challenges were impacting the customer journey.
2) I re-organized the team and introduced a Customer Promise framework.
3) All processes were assessed and improvements made.
4) Outcomes include NPS scores above 80, CSAT scores between 90-100%, Customer Effort scores at 100% in top 2 box and NRR around 109%

Joined a best-in-class B2B Telecom provider.

We specialize in the design, deployment, and management of complex enterprise networks, leveraging a robust network of 100+ carriers from coast-to-coast. We provide end-to-end services with a single bill for all your connectivity needs, one comprehensive SLA, and one contact support number, ensuring seamless, reliable, and efficient network solutions for your business.