The Sawyer Partnership: Consulting Services





Consulting, training, and coaching to help you solve messy problems that disrupt your operations or cause customers to take their business elsewhere.

Consulting takes many shapes and forms, always dependent on what you need. I can lead your project, or I can coach you or a team member through it. The best way to find out if I can help you with a particular project is to call (408-929-3622) or email me and tell me what you've got in mind. If I can help you, I'll suggest how. If I can't, I'll tell you.

I undertake projects in the following, usually related, areas. The questions identify the situation many of my clients are in when they call me. Want to see specific examples? Click here

Problem-Solving Consulting and Coaching

Do you have an identified problem, but need an experienced leader to organize and conduct the root cause analysis effort to understand and solve it? Maybe you or a member of your team can lead the project, but you want an experienced coach to guide you?

Maybe you know the impact of problem, but need someone to find out the truth of what is happening?

Business Process Design/Improvement Consulting and Coaching

Do you have key business processes that don't product the desired results—every time?

Do you need to take best advantage of the new computer systems you're installing?

Are you merging with another company and need to consolidate operations to use the same, efficient process?

Partnerships—Making Them Work
Consulting and Coaching

Have you agreed to partner with someone, but need help getting the relationship organized and working properly on a daily basis?

Do you want to change a relationship from adversarial to collaborative?

Do you want to develop a systematic approach to managing collaborative relationships that your sales force, field engineers, etc. can use consistently?

Training

Do you or your people need better methods and tools for solving problems?

Do you or your people need new ideas and tools for making partnerships work?

Click here for more information on the workshops and seminars I regularly teach. Custom training is available: call or email me to discuss your requirements.

Presentations

The following topics are available for presentations and short tutorials (1-2 hours) at conferences, in-house (e.g., brown-bag lunches), etc. Presentations are always customized to meet the needs of the particular audience, and the time requirements of the program.

Other topics can be added (if, of course, it's a topic I know about)—let me know what you need.

Solving Problems Permanently^SM. An introduction to systematic problem solving.

Problem-Solving Success Tips. Suggestions and reminders to help ensure successful problem solving.

Solving Problems Permanently^SM Using the Truth to Prevent Unwanted Incidents and Speed Recovery. Uses a case study to explain how to use TØ Root Cause Analysis, a method that is particularly effective for understanding an undesirable event such as a system outage.

Leveraging a Crisis: Creating a Strategic Partnership with Your Vendor. Uses a case study to show how you can use a crisis (i.e., situation with a very angry customer) to convert the relationship to a successful partnership.

Creating a Strategic Partnership With Your Vendor: Making It Work. Practical suggestions on how to get what you both need while keeping you both happy.

Organizing for Effective Meetings. Nobody can afford to waste time in poorly organized or unnecessary meetings. This presentation provides some tools and techniques to keep meetings focused and effective. Useful for problem-solvers—and just about everybody else.

Setting Priorities Without Pain: A Helpful Tool. Learn to use an easy but effective tool to help decide where to start when there are too many possibilities or to choose among mutually exclusive options.

Examples

Business Process Analysis and Design

Analyzed how customers interacted with a software company as part of an effort to make it easier for customers to do business with them.
Identified short and long-term improvement opportunities in the Order—>Build—>Ship—>Install process for a telecommunications company.
Identified short and long-term improvement opportunities in the Accounts Payable Process for a non-profit organization managing >80 affordable housing properties in the Bay area.
Mapped “as is” and designed “should be” key business processes in preparation for implementing a new customer relationship management system for a software company. Advised the company on implementation and configuration issues to assure the new system and processes matched.
Developed an effective lead management process for a telecommunications company.

Problem-Solving and Root Cause Analysis

Saved a major account ($10M/year) for a computer company by determining that lack of operations procedures, not equipment failures, were causing system outages. Transformed the relationship from adversarial to effective working partnership.
Saved a strategic account for a telecommunications company by demonstrating that Automated Teller Machines were failing because the initial installations were incorrectly wired. The process involved ten separate companies.
Identified key causes of system outages included software robustness, a faulty operations process, and an inadequate problem management process for a document-imaging software company and a key customer.
"Crisis avoidance project" identified inadequate change management procedures and inadequate installation procedures as the root causes for ongoing system instability for a telephone company, software company and computer manufacturer. Success meant the software company and computer manufacturer gained an excellent reference account for a new product while the telephone company avoided being national front-page news, removed a significant barrier to getting a rate hike approved, and the executives involved in choosing the new system got to keep their jobs.

Building and Managing Strategic Partnerships

Led a computer company to transform its relationships with key customers from adversarial to effective working partnerships. Standardized the approach as corporate best practice. Bottom line effect: $37M cost savings and increased revenue in the first 1.5 years.
Standardized an account management process for a telecommunications company to build effective strategic partnerships with key accounts.
Guided a telecommunications company to build a working partnership with a telemarketing company and an event management company. The purpose of the partnership was to identify qualified leads for the telecommunications company by sponsoring special seminars.

Solving Problems Permanently^{^SM}

JSawyer@SawyerPartnership.com
tel. 408-929-3622