NOTE: To see all pages on this site, please "Allow Blocked Content" if using IE. Typical Client Results What Others Say... Mailing ListWe work with leaders of technology organizations and their teams who need to communicate more effectively, collaborate better, and execute fasterWith the tremendous pace of change in the world today, many business approaches that worked in the past are not working now. Three critical success factors for competing effectively in today's marketplace are:
Many technology leaders are faced with shrinking resources, greater pressure to produce faster, and the need to communicate authentically and effectively to their employees, customers, and senior management. We've spent the last 23 years advising technology leaders and enabling
technology teams to achieve these objectives. We know how to listen
deeply, see the big picture, and help you solve complex business problems.
We've recently added best practices from Agile, Scrum, and Lean manufacturing
to our service offerings, and we partner with other experts to be able
to scale appropriately to meet your needs. If you have any questions about how we might be able to help your or your organization, please call or email. I look forward to hearing from you. Richard [top]
Membership to the Mailing List news@richardmarks.comOn this web page you can subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, the mailing list news@richardmarks.com. This will give you the opportunity to receive future news and free resources related to improving performance in technology organizations. We never rent or sell your contact information.
Typical Client Results
Please use the services tab above for additional details on how Richard achieves those results. [top] What Others Say...Richard is a versatile, experienced management
consultant who specializes in strategic communications, performance
improvement, and organizational change. I have seen him in a variety
of challenging consulting engagements help technology leaders and their
teams develop repeatable, coherent solutions to complex problems. His
style is collaborative and friendly, yet very results oriented. One
recent client wanted to know if he could be cloned. I highly
recommend Richard to any leader seeking a strong communicator who is
not afraid to challenge their thinking with innovative concepts to improve
organizational performance. - Mitch Zenger, Vice President
"We were very fortunate to have Richard on our team as he was able to combine his talents of design, systems thinking, requirements expertise, facilitation skills, people skills, and the ability to execute. We would not have made the progress we did on the program without him. - Jeff Hahn, Director
"In planning and coordinating
executive level activities, Richard puts the companys best interest
first. He seeks out talents and leverages the expertise across the team.
He makes his team members feel appreciated and he is well respected
by everyone. There is something special about Richard that draws a person
into his world, work style, and passion for driving executive level
results. He is a pleasure to work with because he is very direct, clear,
and precise. Overall, Richard has the work ethic that is an asset to
any team or company. "I found Richard's direct yet compassionate approach to be one of the most effective at getting results. He is masterful at getting to the core of an issue and clarifying my thought process, saving me months, if not years, of time. By focusing on real-world, practical solutions, he facilitates taking action steps that work." - Cynthia Semenoff, CPA
"Richard has guided Cisco's Development Organization in the creation of our leadership program. He has the ability to expand his focus into business-, process- and change-management projects as requested, but is also able to narrow his focus on both strategic and tactical communication implementation as needed. He is a deep thinker and is always connecting the dots between the disciplines of business, change, training and organizational development. I've enjoyed working with and getting to know Richard. He's an interesting person and I've learned from him. He is a reliable senior consultant who I would not hesitate to hire in the future." Bob McGough, Operations Manager
"Richard was responsive to our needs and inquiries. Not only was he professional and co-operative, but at the same time friendly and easy to work with. I felt very confident with Richard's technical knowledge, as he always kept me up-to-date on various aspects of this project." - Rose Pimentel, Administrator
"[Richard] ...dared to achieve what we've been secretly dreaming about all along--more consistency in our executive communications across the entire organization!" - Shalon Maudsley-King, Program
Manager
"Thank you very much for the strategic planning work that you have done with our executive team during our recent leadership transition. Your assistance in advance of our global strategy summit has contributed to placing our company on a really solid footing." - John Fagan, Ph.D.
"The Business Requirements process [that Richard designed and implemented] is very useful to me because it provides a forum for all the stakeholders to provide input into decisions about the prioritization of resources. Before that forum was established, individual people would approach me directly with requests for the use of my engineering team. Since the resource usage is a "zero-sum game", I was put into the position of having to make the trade-offs myself and those decisions often were based on how well someone presented his case. The result is that other people would have their work delayed and would be unhappy about the change in schedule. I detest meetings in general but this is important because it removes the secrecy of decision-making and provides a process for modifying schedules accordingly." - John Robertson
"I can hire any number of people, tell them what to do, and they will do that. You operate at a high-level and manage to get things done in situations where there is a great deal of ambiguity." - Vinod Sharma, Senior Manager [top] |
|
ServicesFor all areas below, we can work both strategically and tactically. Our service offerings may include:
[top] |
Richard Marks
|
Case StudiesThe following examples describe recent consulting results for his clients,
which range from second round startups, mid-sized software companies,
and Fortune 100 organizations.
A Coherent Framework For Shipping Quality Software in Timely MannerSituation: A corporate enterprise eCommerce initiative had a loose and chaotic, ad-hoc approach to gathering and prioritizing requirements, which resulted in back room deals, constantly slipping schedules, frequent rework, and costly overruns. The development manager found himself in the position of having to make prioritization decisions based on which individual stakeholder 'squeaked' the loudest, and the other stakeholders were frequently unhappy. Each month the business, technology owner, and project manager would get frustrated in long meetings when revisiting the list of requirements, which were confusing and non-prioritized. Intervention: After analyzing the current state, we designed and implemented a requirements 'framework' that matched this organization's culture and style. This included synthesizing best practices for capturing, storing, and displaying candidate requirements team input. We initiated regular, weekly governance forums for the business team and for all department heads plus key stakeholders to 'prioritize the backlog'. This provided transparency to all parties involved, and greatly reduced the wheel spinning and 'back-room deals' that had been the previous default approach. Outcome: These weekly meetings with all key stakeholders represented brought transparency to the decision making process, reduced frustration, and built greater team spirit. More importantly, software was shipped faster, rework was reduced, and customer satisfaction increased, ultimately saving hundreds of thousands of dollars to this companies bottom line. Global Summit Success During Executive Team TransitionSituation: The CEO of a small but international organization took a sabbatical and nominated two of his team members to be co-CEO's while he was away. They were responsible for planning and presiding over an international event with several global leaders, but the co-CEO's authority and effectiveness was threatened when the global leaders went over their heads and continually called the CEO for decisions and advice. Intervention: We facilitated strategy sessions with the co-CEO's, and later advised them to bring up the unhelpful dynamic privately with the CEO without blame, which resulted in more positive behaviors. We then facilitated several brainstorming sessions with the co-CEO's on the international event, and we co-developed an approach, schedule, and success criteria for the occasion. Outcome: The co-CEO's performed admirably and the event successfully moved the organization forward. The co-CEO's established credibility and their leadership position with the international leaders. [top] Teamwork and Collaboration Made the DifferenceSituation: A Fortune 100 organization had asked 5 disparate groups to spend time outside of their 'day jobs' to create new requirements for a critical line in their organization. We noticed that we were meeting with each group lead individually on an ad-hoc basis, which resulted in conflicting priorities, lack of integration, and much wasted time for everyone involved. Intervention: We proposed to our client to bring the team leads together for regularly scheduled meetings in order to save time, get greater collaboration, and build 'esprit de corps.' We designed a standardized document structure, process approach, and facilitated the meetings on a weekly basis. Outcome: The team leads worked collaboratively, helped peer review each others work, and got inspired to work even more frequently with their individual teams. New requirements were created, which were the first for that industry's technology. [top] Data Process Improvements Led to Bottom Line ResultsSituation: Intervention: Outcome: [top] Post-Merger Intranet MergeSituation: Intervention: Outcome: [top] |
Richard Marks
|
AboutRichard Marks has over 23 years of experience helping organizations like those shown below simplify the complex and improve organizational performance.
His approach is collaborative, respectful, and results-oriented. Over 95% of his work is referral-based, as his goal is to create win-win partnerships and deliver outstanding results for his clients. Richard received his Certified Scrum Master training from Tobias Mayer and has a certificate in Agile Project Management from Chris Sims of the Agile Learning Institute. He has also trained with Peter Block and Alan Weiss, both legends in the management consultant arena. He partners with a wide range of experts in related fields to be able to scale to meet your needs. Please use the contact tab above for additional details on how Richard works with his clients. Recent member organizations:
[top] |
Richard MarksSan
Francisco Silicon Valley
|
ContactIf we can be of help to you directly, please call or email me using the contact information on the right. We typically schedule a phone call where we discuss your situation and decide whether it makes sense to meet in person. If so, this give and take session often provides significant value in and of itself. If it is clear that I can help you, we schedule a follow-up meeting so that I can get enough details to provide you with a written proposal. The proposal outlines your current situation, your objectives, and provides several fixed fee, service level options. At that time, you either select one of the options and we proceed, or you choose not to. If you decide to proceed, we work together to get you the agreed upon result. It's that simple. Let's get started! Richard |
Richard Marks
|