A Business and Technology Leader

I am currently an IT and business leader by profession. I believe in leadership by example and by building of respect and trust. Use the authority given you for the right things, set high expectations, choose good people with the skills and personality to do what you ask, and good things will happen.

A Consultant and Analyst

Is this the easiest and cheapest way to arrive at the solution I want? Is this the best solution I can get? How do I eliminate waste?

These are some of the most simple, and yet most difficult, questions in all of business, and they are questions that I've built my career on answering. Technology can be frustrating to use, expensive to implement and maintain, and a real drain on a company's bottom line. Applied in the right way and at the right time, though, technology can make all the difference.

I have built my IT and business career on knowing the right answer as to when and how to use technology. Process analysis, cost analysis, risk analysis, u nderstanding maintenance costs, even understanding human nature and how it plays into technology use are all aspects of what I do.

What sets me apart is that I am a translator. I know the detailed nuts and bolts of technology from programming to systems administration to networking to quality assurance, I have worked in and have expertise in all major operational functions of modern IT. I also know and understand business and management process. I've worked as management in manufacturing and distribution. I have led sales presentations and closed deals with Fortune 100 companies. I have worked in regulation, healthcare, and government. My family has been in management all my life; I was raised in management theory and understood business long before I ever considered IT as a career. I believe technology is there to make people's jobs easier and faster. If it is not easy to understand, implement, and use, it is not contributing to your bottom line.

A Project Manager

The number one thing I have learned in my career is that anything is a bad idea for your company if it is planned poorly enough. Someone stopping you in the street and handing you a million dollars can go terribly wrong if not handled well. Look at the track history of most lottery winners to see this in action. Bringing good technology to your company is not good enough. You need a plan, you need adoption, you need users to understand and welcome your project, and you need for business to continue as usual while new products are being developed and implemented. If something saves your employees two hours a day, but it chews up four hours a day for weeks because of problems with implementation- poor training, communication, execution- how long will it be before you actually break even on the project? How much business will you be behind when you finally get it running smoothly in your operation? These are problems I understand and can help with.

A Career Mentor and Team Builder

The best way to have great people in your company is to educate the good people you have. Train them not only in hard skills, but soft skills and management principles like I have mentioned above. Teach them about what your company cares about and your management values. Do not just train them what to do, but teach them why what they are doing matters and what role it plays in the big picture. Your employees should not want to be managers in your company- they should want to be leaders. They should not want to have a good job, they should want to be a good team member. They should care about what they are doing. I believe in working with people to help them understand their place in the team, in the company's Big Picture, and to look forward to what they want their role in that picture to be someday- and then help them learn the skills they need to get there.

A Writer, Artist, and a Curious and Creative Person

In spite of all of this talk of business and technology, I do of course have a life outside my career. I am also a writer, both of business and technology issues and of works of fiction. In the past year I've written everything from sci-fi comedy scripts for television pilots to business leadership articles for such folks as the Project Times. I paint, create drawings and sketch work, and do graphic design. I love antiques and restore and refinish pieces, mainly furniture and wood crafts. I also make furniture when time allows. I also love books, online media, football, travel, good food, outdoors, the gym, old cars, and creative people. I participate in a wide range of online forums and creative ventures online that allow me to be involved with creative and innovative people- independent artists, developers, podcasters, television writers, craftsmen of all types. I find nothing more inspiring than creative people attempting to find new ways to get their creations out there in the world and finding new ways to use technology to help them.