1. Led new product planning and implementation team for a not-for-profit that records audiobooks for learning-disabled students and distributes its products over the Internet.
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D is a not-for-profit based in Princeton, N.J.
Volunteers read, and RFB&D records, classroom textbooks for blind and learning disabled students. The recordings are marked via technology so that chapter and page can be “found” by the playback device. Otherwise, blind and learning disabled students would not be able to navigate through a textbook.
The IT department figured out how to make the recordings available (with navigation features intact) on MP3 players. Instead of mailing CDs and tapes, the students could download the book.
RFB&D had not introduced a new product in 10 years and needed to know how to mobilize the entire organization to offer this new service.
We started with the two-day workshop. We determined that in-house staff could do most of the work with the exception of the market research. I then took on the work associated with managing the activities associated with qualitative and quantitative market research. This involved:
o Preparing the RFP for three market research firms, reviewing the proposals and recommending a firm to conduct focus groups.
o Working with RFB&D and the market research firm to prepare the focus group questions, develop the demonstration for the attendees,
o Presenting the demonstration and the project to various chapters (board members and staff) around the country to get their input.
After the focus groups were completed, worked with a different market research firm:
o Reviewing questions for a statistically valid survey of students and faculty
o Reviewing raw data results
o Making sure the project was on time and on target.
Throughout the course of the project, I ran the monthly meetings. to ensure that the project was going smoothly, and helped the not-for-profit organize production, customer service, and Internet connectivity issues.
(Testimonials)
2. Served as Director of Operations for MBA program that experienced an unexpected 80% turnover in staff in one month. Organized business plan and day-to-day activities, trained staff.
The University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP) had been offering an MBA program for about four years when the founding Director quit in the middle of a semester. The Associate Director also left. The former Director then hired away the Program Coordinator.
The only person left was the Assistant Director who was promoted to Director and a clerk, who was soon injured in a car accident and out for months.
I had one week of overlap with the departing Program Coordinator, who taught me how to pay the bills and access the budget and introduced me around.
Three programs were in progress: An evening program, a weekend executive program and an online program.
I fielded phone calls from students. The department chair, the new director and I put together packages of materials concerning future courses and met with concerned students. I introduced myself to university officials, figured out who does what, and how the MBA program should integrate with the other organizations.
As a part of the project I:
o Managed a temp, ordered filing cabinets and built files for students, faculty, and courses.
o Prepared a methods and procedures manual - step by step instructions on how to admit and register students, how to hire faculty, how to get grades into the system, etc.
o Trained the newly hired Program Coordinator
o Re-trained the clerk returning from sick leave since everything had changed in her absence.
o Put together a program business plan
o Prepared the budget
o Worked with the Finance Department to get all student accounts current (20% were in arrears).
o Requested faculty bios and photos for the Web site
o Organized educational/social events so the part-time faculty could meet each other
o Created a program newsletter
o Prepared a series of FAQs to explain how faculty get into the system for compensation, get schedules and contracts, make sure students received their grades.
Working with the university’s IT department, all students were required to use their university email addresses. This meant getting the university to change its policy so we could forward university email to other addresses, a six-month process involving faculty committee reviews and involvement of various deans.
Within a few months, the program was running smoothly.
3. Validated Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) cost estimates and prepared business case for municipal ISP deployment. Plan used to support receipt of $2.2M in bank financing.
A municipally owned electric utility in Lebanon, Ind., a town of 13,000 people about 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis, wanted to offer broadband services to its over 8,000 residential and commercial customers.
The IT Manager had figured out how to do this using Broadband over PowerLine technology and had some thoughts as to how much the project would cost and how long it would take. But his estimates were just that. They had to be put into a formal financial model and business plan that could be reviewed by the Board and submitted to the local bank for financing.
I worked with the IT Manager to organize his data, validate his market and financial estimates, and prepare a business plan narrative. I worked with the utility’s Finance Manager to make sure the data and the assumptions were consistent with the utility’s practices.
Then I prepared the financial model so that the utility could test impact of various financing options. I presented the plan to the Board members and eventually to the Board. The document was forwarded to the bank and financing was received.
(Testimonials)
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4. Acted as COO for a cable TV overbuild for a city in California
The
U.S. Navy had closed down the Alameda Point Naval Base and sold it to
the city for $1. There was already a telecommunications plant on the
base and the city also wanted to offer high-speed Internet and cable TV
service to the entire community for economic development because the
base closing had decimated the local economy.
Neither service
was being offered by Pac Bell or AT&T at the time, but when they
learned of the city’s intent they immediately moved to do so. It took
the city 18 months to free up the money and join the competition.
My client was a consulting firm working with the city of Alameda. I did
the financial model for the cost of ownership of the existing
telecommunications plant, then did the financial model for a telecom
services overlay on a coaxial cable/cable TV plant for city, estimating
how much more it would cost to add telephone services.
I
served as interim COO of the entire operation, running the monthly
meetings with the utility and consulting firm employees in Alameda,
visiting the consulting firm’s headquarters in Indiana, and managing
weekly teleconferences from Philadelphia with a team that team was
distributed in CA, PA, NY, IN.
(Testimonials)
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5. Led a floundering new product development group to build an
energy management service prototype. Developed “order from chaos”
methodology in the process.
Young electrical engineers at Union
Electric, an electric utility in St. Louis, had figured out how large
commercial electric customers clients could use less energy, and save
money, by using a telecommunications data system and computer software
to monitor energy usage.
This would allow factory and large
plant systems to use less expensive kilowatts, because they were billed
higher for peak hours.
I created a two-day workshop for the
group, which had little understanding of finance or marketing. They
gathered internal information based on my instructions and then
provided the information to their internal project manager. My role was
to run the monthly meetings and serve as coach to the young engineer
teaching project management, marketing, and operations.
To cite
one example, the group raised the issue of labor rates and the
difficulty of getting that information. They did get a copy of the
contract with various utility subcontractors from their operations
department. I looked through the contract for the utility’s
outside-plant subcontractors and saw that the hourly rate for every
type of work (digging, trenching, installing, etc.) was listed. They
didn’t realize they had everything they needed.
The
deliverable was a business plan with detailed estimates of the cost to
provide the service plus information on competitive pricing.
(Testimonials)
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