No More Yes Men
Interviewed by Erica Friedman

Interview with Bernie Liebowitz, Interim COO, Business Advisor & Change Management Specialist		 Date Interview: 07/23/2009
Date of Credentialing:
Credential expiration:
 

How did you go from being a clinical psychologist to doing interim work?

I was a clinical psychologist working in the area of family business consulting. I needed to learn much more about business in order to help them. The more I learned about business, the more I expanded beyond family business to business in general. I like to think that I bring an objective and impartial point of view to the situation in a company. I am not trying to sell a business owner something canned and off-the-shelf.

How do you form that objective point of view?

I want to find out what the issues are that the business owner is experiencing -- issues that he might need assistance with and coming up with a solution to that, rather than imposing a pre-determined approach. I ask a lot of questions that challenge the management team and the owner’s point of view, and listen carefully to what they say. I think I act as an objective challenger.

I’m hired to set the stage so that the company itself can come up with their own solution, often one that they hadn’t appreciated previously.

You speak at a number of events – what are you typically asked to speak on?

My strengths are in the areas of strategic planning, organizational redesign, change management, performance management, and executive coaching.

Give us a home run – where you really made a difference in a company?

I came into a large business owned by a holding company that was dead in the water. The holding company CEO told the business president to get moving or they’d be sold. It was clear to me that the operations department was running the company, and the products they were creating were not the kind that the marketplace needed and wanted. We redesigned the company so that the front end of the company was divided into three cross functional teams, each one dedicated to a specific type of client. These teams would determine what kind of products were needed by the marketplace and tell the operations people what to create. The fact that the front-end teams were cross-functional also meant that delivery time was shortened considerably – everyone who had a hand in the creation was there to hear and to contribute.

 

 

 

No More Yes Men -- Bernie Liebowitz, PhD, Interim COO, Business Advisor & Change Management Specialist

Bernard Liebowitz, PhD, is president of the Chicago-based consulting firm Liebowitz & Associates., Liebowitz has been a consultant to businesses and industries since 1978 in the areas of executive and management coaching and development, strategic planning, team building, organizational design and restructuring, and mergers and acquisitions.

So what happened?

They implemented the change, it was very successful and the company resumed its growth.

How do you find creative solutions?

I just don’t want to use a template on a company. I want to find something that is unique, creative and is extremely responsive to the needs of the company. I do not do that out of my head, but by engaging the management team and many times the entire company in solving the problems that they are facing.

That’s a great point: the company engages to figure out its own solution.

I’m hired to set the stage so that the company itself can come up with their own solution, often one that they hadn’t appreciated previously.

When do you consider an assignment a success?

Success happens when the issue that we have dealt with is defined in such a way that the company accepts, works with and resolves. The company comes up with the problem and my job is to take their definition of the problem and look at all of the variables that contribute to it.

Take the home-run you mentioned – did they recognize any causes of the problem upfront?

They were wondering why they were sitting dead in the water and it was clear that the operations people had more say than the front end people. The surface definition of the problem was that they were sitting dead in the water. The real problem was that they were not responsive to the marketplace.


 

 

What is the first thing you do when starting a new assignment?

I learn the CEO’s definition of success.

And then?

I work towards that. In another situation, the company was growing rapidly but quality was declining and the shipment was late. So I sat down with the president and asked him what his criteria of success were. In working with the company we achieved his goals and for me that constitutes success.

I think I act as an objective challenger.

What are the industries in which you perform best?

I have worked across the board in service, distribution, and manufacturing companies.

And what specialties?

Scenario planning, performance management and executive coaching. Scenario planning is when we come up with several different scenarios that might describe future marketplaces. I ask the management team to describe their company thriving in different scenarios and we come up with a company model for each. Then we work towards a company that can thrive in any one of those particular scenarios and that is flexible enough to change if and when the marketplace changes.

That alone – scenario planning – is a key ingredient for helping companies. What is performance management?

Given the strategy a company develops, we will translate those into corporate goals and cascade those goals down throughout the company so that everyone in the company knows what is expected of them.

That’s at the company level. I take it executive coaching is all one on one?

Executive coaching deals with how the high potentials can be moved up in the company. Many times they lack a mental skill that would help them move up the ladder. I also do team building. Many management teams are nothing more than yes-men and that does not help the decision making in the company so I help them unravel that kind of issue.