State Of Readiness

In this episode, we will have a conversation with James Considine; the Chief of Staff and Head of Business Programs for the Aging and Caregiving business at Philips, where he oversee the enterprise PMO, Continuous Improvement, and Enterprise Reporting & Analytics.

Over the last several years, James has held a variety of operational/operational excellence roles building on his training in continuous improvement. From 2008 to 2012, James held various positions at GE, ultimately holding the role of Chief of Staff and Global Operations leader. It is here where he was trained in the disciplines of Lean Six Sigma – training that has served as his professional lighthouse since. It was in 2012 that James made the change from GE to Philips. His diverse career has enabled him to deliver transformational results in a variety of contexts; from manufacturing operations, to sales and marketing, to business development, and joint venturing.

James' "Superpower" is bringing order and clarity to chaos, creating structures that remove wasteful variation, while enabling people and organizations to deliver their best. He attributes his skills to his studies of philosophy and understanding people from their perspective; what motivates them, what fears they might have. In doing so, he is able to establish and maintain an alignment and commitment of people and their efforts to the company objectives and ensure the company is committed to supporting the people.

Although originally from Downstate New York, he went earned his undergraduate and MBA at the State University of New York in Albany – and it is in this beautiful part of the world – Upstate New York – where he has lived ever since. His main passion outside of family, friends, serving his community, and his golden retrievers is cycling up and down the hills around his home – He also gets most of his best ideas on the bike, so it's also quite productive professionally.

Host: Joseph Paris, Founder of the; XONITEK Group of Companies, Operational Excellence Society & Readiness Institute

​

Guest: James Considine

James is a passionate, proven global chief of staff, operations and organization transformation executive -- his primary expertise is strategy execution —transforming organizations in healthcare to deliver value and help people everywhere get the care they need, when and where they need it.

His specialty is partnering with CEOs, getting big things done - lots of them - repeatably, sustainably, in challenging global organizational and cultural environments.

Our guest in this episode of "State of Readiness" is Donald Kuk; continuous improvement expert extraordinaire. He started his continuous improvement journey in the mid-1990's at General Electric when he was personally selected by Jack Welch to join Jack and a select group of others senior leaders at GE in the very class to be trained in Six Sigma – taught by the original Six Sigma Guru himself, the late Mikel Harry. Since then, Donald has held senior leadership positions at JP Morgan - Chase, Computer Associates, AIG, BNY Mellon, and now Mednax (a leading healthcare provider in the States). Whether in the C-Suite or reporting to the C-Suite in his various positions, his responsibilities included; Continuous Improvement, Operational Excellence, Quality, Policy Deployment, and Business Transformation. I am sure you will find his experiences, stories, and insights as fascinating as I did.

Host: Joseph Paris, Founder of the; XONITEK Group of Companies, Operational Excellence Society & Readiness Institute

Guest: Donald Kuk

[icon name="linkedin-square" class="fa-2x" unprefixed_class=""]

In addition to graduating from GE's Executive University as mentioned above; Donald graduated from the College of the Air Force, US Air Force Medical School, Sheppard, AFB and earned his certification as a Surgical / Emergency Medical Technician. Afterwards, he went on to George Washington University and Vernay Laboratories where he studied Statistical Process Management under Dr. W. Edward Deming (who signed his certificate) and also the University of Michigan where he studied chemistry.

The companies Donald has worked at and the positions held include;

• MEDNAX; Chief Transformation Officer, CTO, Operational Excellence, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt
• BNY Mellon; Chief Process Architect, Strategist, Operational Excellence, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt
• AIG; Enterprise Transformation Change Agent, Operational Excellence, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt
• CA Technologies; Vice President Worldwide Transformation, Operational Excellence, Quality and Policy Deployment
• JPMorgan Chase; Senior Vice President Operational Excellence & Business Transformation
• Telaxis Communications; Vice President Operations, Operational Excellence and Business Transformation
• GE Global Research; Executive Manager Worldwide Advanced Technology and Business Transformation
• Intergraph; Director Advanced Technology

In addition to being published in respected magazines and journals (both on the web and in print), Donald has been recognized and honored with many awards and patents.

About the podcast

In this episode, I interview Peter Evans, Continuous Improvement Director for Lego Group. I have known Peter for a couple of years. And we seem to keep running into one another at Operational Excellence conferences – which are the circumstances of our first meeting. I have always found Peter to be an affable gentleman and have always appreciated his insights and the experiences he shared.

I grew up with Legos. Loved playing with them. My sons loved playing with them. It seems children all over the world love playing with them. So, if you're like me, you must wonder; "Is Lego the coolest company in the world to work for?" According to Peter, the answer is "Yes."

In this podcast, Peter shares is career journey and the wisdom (knowledge + experience) he has gained over time. And he and I do a deeper dive into his experiences at Lego; the type of company Lego is, what its values are, and how Lego and its employees remain aligned to those values.

Host: Joseph Paris, Founder of the; XONITEK Group of Companies, Operational Excellence Society & Readiness Institute

Guest: Peter Evans

Peter was born in 1955. The early part of his career was in finance in various industries, including defense, financial services, and telecommunications. He worked for General Electric under Jack Welch throughout the 90's including spells in Manchester, Brussels, Shannon (Eire) and Connecticut. From 2000 to 2013 he worked in Telecoms in the UK, first with Vodafone, then Cable & Wireless, before finally leading Operational Excellence for Virgin Media. And from 2013 to 2015 Peter led Process Excellence in Northern Europe for Maersk Line, based in Copenhagen. He joined the LEGO – the biggest tire manufacturer in the world – in February 2016.

Since February 2016 Peter has been Director of LCI (LEGO Continuous Improvement) at LEGO with specific responsibility for Business Service Operations and is actively involved in establishing a Global Business Services Organization for Finance, HR and other services.

Peter Lives in Newtown, Powys, UK with his wife Amanda, Dogs, Cats and various other pets and pests

Welcome to this inaugural episode of "State of Readiness", a podcast devoted to sharing knowledge of how companies can become high-performance organizations and hosted by Joseph Paris. Our first guest is Brent Gleeson; a Navy SEAL combat veteran with multiple tours to Iraq and Africa. Upon leaving SEAL Team 5, Brent turned his discipline and battlefield lessons to the world of business and has become an accomplished entrepreneur, author, and acclaimed speaker on topics ranging from leadership and building high-performance teams to culture and organizational transformation. Brent is the Founder and CEO of TakingPoint Leadership, a progressive leadership and management consulting firm with a focus on business transformation and building high-performance cultures. Brent has degrees in finance and economics from Southern Methodist University, certificates in English and History from Oxford University in England and a graduate business degree from University of San Diego. He is the bestselling author of TakingPoint: A Navy SEAL's 10 Fail Safe Principles for Leading Through Change, which was a #1 New Release on Amazon in Organizational Change and Business Structural Adjustment. Take a listen and learn Brent's views on what it takes to make an organization successful. Host: Joseph Paris, Founder of the; XONITEK Group of Companies, Operational Excellence Society & Readiness Institute Guest: Brent Gleeson [icon name="linkedin-square" class="fa-2x" unprefixed_class=""] Company: Taking Point Leadership Brent Gleeson is a Navy SEAL combat veteran with multiple tours to Iraq and Africa. Upon leaving SEAL Team 5, Brent turned his discipline and battlefield lessons to the world of business and has become an accomplished entrepreneur, author, and acclaimed speaker on topics ranging from leadership and building high performance teams to culture and organizational transformation. You can learn more about his leadership philosophies in his weekly columns on Inc.com and Forbes.com. Brent is the Founder and CEO of TakingPoint Leadership, a progressive leadership and management consulting firm with a focus on business transformation and building high-performance cultures. With degrees in finance and economics from Southern Methodist University, certificates in English and History from Oxford University in England and a graduate business degree from University of San Diego, Gleeson's extensive experience is both academic and real-world in nature. Gleeson has won awards for business leadership and was named one of the "Top 10 CEOs" in Entrepreneur Magazine's October 2013 issue for his exemplary approach to building high-performance teams in business. He is the bestselling author of TakingPoint: A Navy SEAL's 10 Fail Safe Principles for Leading Through Change, which was a #1 New Release on Amazon in Organizational Change and Business Structural Adjustment. Between his experiences in the SEAL Teams and building award winning organizations that have topped the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies, Brent has become a business transformation expert. TakingPoint highlights his ten-principle program all leaders and managers will need to lead change and achieve winning results in the twenty-first century business landscape. He has also starred in several reality shows including NBC's 'Stars Earn Stripes' where he and Chris Kyle of America Sniper along with other special operations professionals were paired with celebrities to compete and raise money for charities like Wounded Warrior Project. Brent is on the executive board of the SEAL Family Foundation and his family is an Ambassador Family for March of Dimes. He is married with three wonderful children.