Zeisler Associates, Inc.

Expertise

Our consulting expertise is both broad and deep. We have studied and worked with some of the world's top thought leaders and researchers. We have learned our lessons well and have become experts in our own right so that many of our clients believe we have surpassed our mentors in expertise and the ability to deliver results.

We know how organizations work. Our associates have successfully worked for Fortune 100 companies, privately held businesses and start-ups in leadership positions in finance, sales, marketing, product development, operations and human resources. We have learned lessons in the real world of customers, suppliers and competition. Our clients state that our knowledge goes beyond the theoretical and academic and is underscored by our applied, operational perspective. We help you define business issues and develop effective approaches to deal with them - and we can roll up our sleeves and become an integral part of your implementation team. Our expertise includes:

Innovation

For too many companies innovation fails to deliver on its promise.

Leaders are frustrated by a lack of return on the investments in innovative projects. The process itself is ill-defined or worse, it is seen as a mysterious occurrence, depending on serendipity and a few “creative types”. As a result, concept-to-launch cycles are prolonged; portfolios get filled with flankers and line extensions; bold new initiatives are replaced by "safer" approaches because new ideas are just "too risky".

We think differently.

We know that the science and art of innovation relies on three things:

• The quality of leadership at all levels in setting direction and ensuring the insights and foresights of people throughout the orgnaiztion are tapped.
• The understanding that creative thinking and processes for innovation can be taught and learned by everyone.
• The realization that - far more important than culture - is a Climate that nurtures innovation.

We bring knowledge, experience, research-based tools and the right perspectives to help you build your organization’s innovation capacity. Our founder is one of the foremost authorities on innovation and creative thinking in the world today.

Change

Yes, change happens. But, according to most research across industries - the change organizations design and implement succeeds only 30% of the time. Only in baseball would that be considered a respectable average. In teams, sites and organizations around the globe, we have helped leadership define, plan and implement change effectively.

Zeisler Associates does so by building the change team and helping them understand the human dynamics of and the organization's readiness for change. We help leaders create future state goals and understand the processes, policies and cultural elements that can drive successful transformation. We engage people at all levels through powerful stories of change that create energy, urgency and action. We help people track progress, adjust for variables and stay on course. And we help anchor the gains in new ways of working.

Strategy Development with a Focus on Innovation and Change

We work with senior leadership to facilitate the development of and/or review strategic plans - with an eye on innovation, flexibility, implementation and effecting change in the organization. Strategic planning consists of identifying where you are, what you have to work with, where you want to be within a specific timeframe, and how you propose to get there. Through a series of processes and conversations designed to engage key stakeholders in answering these questions, the organization is able to engage in activities that create an intentional plan of how to live into the desired future.

Our associates provide clients with independent, insightful and confidential resources to assist in ensuring solutions are found and a maximum focus on what matters. We work to make certain the full range of planning takes place from competitive analysis to customer relationship experiences.

Financial Foresight

We bring a combination of top leadership responsibilities and financial acumen that allows us to help our clients evaluate and enhance the financial foresight iin their companies. Because our lead financial consultant is a former Division Controller with a $175 M closely held business we bring the wisdom to assist in financial analysis and management, company valuations and buyouts, acquisitions and divestitures, and other issues unique to you.

Leading Performance Indicators

Zeisler Associates assists companies achieve higher levels of performance by linking their Strategy to Dashboard Metrics and representing that linkage graphically on a Strategy Map, which provides alignment and focus and the clear process of goal setting very readily adapts to setting and evaluating performance against individual goals.

Our lead consultant on Dashboard Metrics has developed high levels of expertise through hands-on successes in helping organizations implement metrics and leading indicators as a key element of their business strategy. We combine forward-looking indicators with the more traditional backward-looking indicators of corporate performance – financial and operating results – better predict an organization’s future success.