Rick Maher’s Professional Notes

Today marks one month since being laid off. I still do not have a job.

This week I surpassed 75 different job postings to which I have submitted my resume. I have heard back from 4. One of the four canceled the initial phone interview because they realized only after scheduling that I did not meet their minimum experience requirements.
As someone who led businesses through operating challenges based purely on a mindset of using numbers - RESULTS - to celebrate success or drive home the need for change, the message is clear.

I must change.

Deviating from the typical frameworks I’ve used in the past to help businesses solve problems, I’m going to use a SWOT analysis to do so.

Why use SWOT?

First because I want to attack not only my current challenge, but to also set into motion a clear plan for my future. Second because SWOT is a baseline tool of any good strategist, which falls conveniently in line with many of the jobs I’m applying to.

How a Personal SWOT Could Go Wrong

No different from a company performing a SWOT analysis, I could easily slight the entire project toward my personal bias. I’ll attempt to avoid this problem by gathering input from those whom I’ve worked for or worked with, friends and family, career coaches, some potential employers, and hopefully some readers here on the website.

So SWOT? Then WHAT?

Not too sure what this SWOT will end up looking like exactly, but I’m thinking it will be the base upon which I’ll build a sort of business plan… a “personal business plan.” With this end goal in mind, I’ll perform the SWOT analysis focusing on past year, next 3 month and next 3 year time horizons.

Alright - on with the show - SWOT Analysis on Rick Maher - Strategy

As can be seen in the lack of posts here for the last while, I have been lax on managing my “online presence,” and again I find myself disappointed in others with my name.

If you are looking for me - the Rick Maher applying for strategy / continuous improvement jobs right about now, I can be found at the following:

• LinkedIn - Rick Maher
• Facebook - Rick Maher
• Personal Blog - RickMaher.com
• iSixSigma.com Blogger page - (old, but me)

I hope that, whether you know me already or not, you won’t hold it against me that other Rick Mahers (NOT me) like to hunt:

Or yet another (not me) that likes to fish:

However, I did referee soccer for 8 years, including this picture - which IS me and can be found online - from a tournament in Hawaii in 2003 (I am on the far right).

Hopefully that clears a few things up! Thanks for stopping by!

Out of nowhere today I found myself in the first black and white moral dilemma of my life. I was alerted that my name was being considered for a position at the company where I am currently consulting.
My employment agreement is very clear - I am not to take a job in any capacity with a client of my employer for at least 6 months after the end of my employment.

The letter of agreement that my employer presents to any potential client is also very clear - to proceed with a project, both parties agree not to hire any employee from each other for at least six months following the end of the project.

My first reaction was flattery - I was flattered that my work thus far has been worthy of interest for a full time position on what I perceive to be a fairly prestigious team of my client’s.

Then came the guilt. One of the primary reasons for my company insisting upon a non-compete agreement with each employee as well as each client is because my company does not want every client to abandon the potential of purchasing services through hiring consultants on full time.

So, how did I respond?

I immediately thanked the client who let me know that I was ‘talked about’ as he put it. He definitely noticed my discomfort and put the silver dagger in the situation saying, ‘and no-one has to know about it at this point.’

At that point I briefly mentioned the non-compete agreement and politely changed the subject.

Next question, do I leave the opportunity open for myself and keep it between the client and myself or alert my manager and risk humiliating the client for trying to circumvent the non-compete?

I decided to alert my manager - my whole team for that matter. I’m confident it was the right decision, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a bit worried about the potential trust I may lose from the client as I assume the issue will be addressed over the next few days.

My employer calls the changes that it develops for it’s clients ‘Method Changes.’

As I travel every week for my job, I have come to be quite the critic of all the aspects of the travel industry, and lately I have been whipping up some pretty good method changes to address some of the stupidity out there.

1. Airlines, hotels, and rental car agencies should put more functionality behind their frequent customer cards. For example, when checking in at a hotel, I should be able to swipe my card through a reader and get an instantaneous printout saying what room number I have been given. I then go to the room and use that card again to unlock the room door.
2. Rental Car Agencies should have a “directions request” portion of every rental set up online. So, while I reserve my car I also put in the address of the hotel where I will be staying, then when I get into my car there will be a Google Maps printout with directions to from the rental car agency to my hotel… Sure beats the idea of some clueless local trying to tell you that Idaho is southwest of Utah.
3. Hotels - stop cluttering every room with garbage fliers. Most of them have been thrown on the ground so many times that even if I was interested in the crap they are marketing, it looks so poor that I would be turned off anyhow.

That should get them started…

Oh! One thing that the airlines have listened to - dual jetways (one to the front door, one to the back door hanging over the wing)… I’ve been saying this for years, and now everytime through Denver I enjoy quick boarding / deboarding.  Very well done.

Inspired by a recent article in the magazine BestLife I decided I better get back to blogging.  The article specifically mentioned blogging as a means to improving one’s ‘Google image’ or the results returned when a potential employer runs your name on a search engine.  That was precisely the reason I started this blog.

However, that reason has never been the reason for actually maintaining it (as can be seen in my lengthy intermissions).

I have always liked exploring my ‘professional side.’  And on that front, nothing has changed.

I am now 10 months into my job with the Operations Consulting firm previously mentioned, and loving it as much as ever. As of January 1, 2007 I was given a promotion, from ‘Consultant’ to ‘Analysis Manager’.  The new role is quite a bit different in that instead of working on projects (developing, installing, and building sustainable operational improvement changes), I am now on a small (7 people) team that does the pre-project scoping and the final steps of the project sales process.

Anyone who has interviewed or considered interviewing for a management consultant job has read the questions like ‘how many phonebooths are there in NY City?’ or ‘How many white dishwashers were sold in North America last year?’

Well, my job is basically to ask those types of questions in terms of our potential clients, then determine the answers. In one weeks time, the Analysis team evaluates a business’s operational execution, determines the opportunity in terms of increased throughput, increased capacity utilization, decreased overhead, etc. then correlates that opportunity to an improvement to the company’s bottom line. From there we communicate to the President or Owner of the company the opportunity we found, the correlation of capturing a portion of that opportunity to the bottom line, and a rough outline of how the project team would go about achieving that opportunity capture.

It’s all pretty interesting stuff I think.  Even if I do typically work in the range of 80hrs per week.

You can probably imagine that is why this post is so helter skelter and hereby being cut-off.

More to come for sure.