Over the course of my career I have developed distinctive competency at the intersection of two key areas.

The first is leading transformational change. I have led the creation of 8 new organizations, the renovation of 4 under-performing ones, and the redesign of 2 that were well equipped for the challenges of yesterday. Add to this the consulting engagements in which I educated, developed, coached and mentored others leading the transformations of their own teams. As a result I have learned a thing or two about the process, technological, and most importantly the cultural, dimensions that comprise transformational change.

My second is in digital innovation—leveraging technology to create competitive advantage, to create customer requirements to which competitors will be compelled to respond. I have done this as an employee and as a consultant, from roles in IT, Product Development and Marketing, but always with the goals of enriching: 1) The customer’s experience with the company and the product; and 2) The company’s insights into its customers and their use of its products.

I bring a sense of adventure, diversity of thought, and combination of creativity and experience to make a difference. I like to push the edge of the envelope in what we do and in how we do it. I like to design and build stuff in which the craftsman can take pride, and the customer will exclaim, “Cool!”

Productivity is outputs divided by inputs; in business it's revenue divided by costs. Today's organizations are burdened with a plethora of denominator managers and a dearth of numerator leaders. The problem with the denominator mindset is that as you approach the asymptote of maximum efficiency, there's not a lot of room for improvement. Worse, it's profoundly unremarkable work, and the chances of amazing someone are low. The alternative is to organize for joy--to create an organization that gives people the freedom (and the expectation) that they will create, connect, and surprise. This requires what I call "windward leadership."

Just like a key measure of sailing performance is the angle to which you can go to windward, so is a key measure of leadership performance the angle to which you can take your team into the prevailing winds. All significant break throughs are actually "break withs;" and without deviation from the norm progress is not possible. This requires windward leadership.