Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
J.M. Barrie
Hi, I'm George, a retired management consultant and business capability leader turned software and AI engineer and author-creator of the Prosultant® management advisory network:
My past roles include:
After graduating from the University of Missouri at Columbia with an accounting degree, my early career included system analyst roles at:
So I'm not retiring to quit working.
-- Nick Saban, former head football coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
As a business professional, I understand the challenges and complexities of managing technology projects and improving ROI. I created this network to share my knowledge and experience and to help others navigate these challenges more effectively.
Many organizations haven't realized three critical needs for increasing performance and value.
I created the Prosultant® Network for business professionals to successfully engage, navigate, and influence technology projects and avoid the quagmire often associated with those projects. It's not another methodology. Instead, it's a framework of business thinking, organizing, behavior, and action, aka TOBA™, to successfully achieve project and business capability outcomes.
Prosultant® is a compilation of my project and business capability experience, supplemented by industry research.
Whether you're a business professional seeking a higher degree of engagement and influence on technology projects or an IS team member wanting to elevate the quality of project outcomes, Prosultant® provides the know-how to achieve your goals.
My first customer was the Manager of Labor Accounting at McDonnell Aircraft Company (now part of Boeing.) He was a crusty, seasoned individual who did not want anything to do with our internal IS department, Department 35, Systems & Procedures. Fresh from college, my job was to gain his trust and cooperation in supporting his business needs so we could succeed.
Forty+ years later, I still encounter business professionals who want nothing to do with their internal IS groups.
Two insights from career experiences on both sides of the table -- as a management consultant and as a client include:
As knowledge intermediaries and nomads, management consultants continually enhance their margin pools by distributing knowledge created by past client organization CAPEX-OPEX investments to future clients.
Also, when they leave, the knowledge they helped create for their client often goes with them, leaving a knowledge gap that, if not addressed, wreaks havoc in the client's organization.
While organizations seek internal ROI from their investments, they rarely leverage and monetize the know-how created from those investments with their organization peers -- a considerable networking and margin opportunity that management consultants benefit from.
Many organizations overuse management consultants to the detriment of their employees' growth and self-esteem.
I've consulted with over 100 global 500, middle-market, and emerging organizations across the private and public sectors. Most of them, except for a handful, had knowledgeable, competent, and willing-to-learn employees. They brought equivalent and, in many cases, deeper organization, industry, and functional knowledge than their management consulting counterparts.
Many organizations need to design more versatility in their job classification and roles.
Versatility ignites people's creativity and passion for their work, increases organizational agility, and reduces costs.
A key hallmark of Capability Thinking® is role versatility. I've practiced versatility in creating the Prosultant® Network by embracing many roles, including:
The Prosultant® Network is an aggregation of thinking, organizing, behaving, and acting disciplines based on my experiences and lessons learned from:
Most of those 600+ assignments delivered successful outcomes. A handful were not so successful.
“You can't live a successful life without doing some difficult things that go wrong. That's just the nature of the game, and you wouldn't be sufficiently courageous if you tried to avoid every single reverse.”
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get back up.
Embrace amateur passions to invigorate your professional career.
My amateur interests and experiences have included:
My doodling began early in my career while sitting through unnecessary, non-value-added, "mandatory" meetings called by others.
It advanced as a form of stress relief.
It then progressed as a thinking technique to conceptualize, innovate, and differentiate.
Re-creations of my doodles, including captions that reflect my thoughts at the time, randomly appear in my content as a reminder for you to:
One of my doodles 🙂