For over 15 years, Maven has helped companies of varying sizes, cultures, locations and industries reach their goals -- from global Fortune 100 companies to local family-owned businesses. Let’s work together to make your project or initiative a success story too.
Extreme Networks
Connaissance Consulting
(Siebel VAR)
Amphora Brand Design
Marketscape Consulting
McGaw Marketing
York International
(HVAC)
OEC Graphics
(Printing)
Silver Star Brands
(Consumer Goods)
PATH
(Non-Profit)
CDS Global
(Fulfillment)
Microsoft was launching a B2C channel for the first time in its history to meet customer demands and get in the game with competitors who have strong retail and online consumer channels. This was a significant change for Microsoft and it was not easy for some internal stakeholders to understand the vision and get behind it. Many internal stakeholders were concerned that the Microsoft Store team was breaking Microsoft’s business model, so the team had to take a very proactive and aggressive approach in educating them.
Their goal was to saturate all possible internal communication and external marketing channels to drive traffic to the new website and generate sales. They wanted the product teams to use their platform to sell their products so they had a short-term goal of signing up all of the secondary products (Visual Studio, various server products, SharePoint, etc.) and over the long-term to get the primary products (Office and Windows). They knew the end goal, but didn’t know how to make it happen. The team appreciated that Shari is great at listening and absorbing the intent and then turning disparate thoughts into a comprehensive plan with concrete deliverables.
Shari was relentless in pursuing every possible communication channel, over 30 of them, even when she was exhausted and the team’s plates were overflowing. The Microsoft communications team said that it was the most well-run internal campaign they’d ever seen and other groups used it as a blueprint for their launches.
“I 100% recommend Shari. She is creative, smart, thoughtful, resourceful and relentless. She exceeds goals on every project and ALWAYS makes it happen. I have complete confidence that Shari will get the job done – professionally, on time, on budget, at quality.
Shari is a pleasure to work with and everyone on the team likes her. She’s got a great collaborative style and she’s very smart so she’s able to move everything forward without compromising on quality.”
JM Family Enterprises is one of the largest diversified automotive companies in North America with over 4,200 associates. Their continuous improvement department saw the need to integrate Change Management into their internal services. The department received Prosci training, then hired Shari to coach them and develop an implementation approach that aligned with their corporate culture. She coached Lean Six Sigma experts to successfully apply change management in several process improvement projects, including a multi-faceted program that significantly revised all IT Technology Operations’ processes and IT’s organizational structure.
“As my coach and mentor, Shari has always been honest, flexible and accessible. She offers her experience but also encourages my creativity. She challenges me to think of different points of view, but even her critique is expressed in a positive manner. She always has my goals in mind. Shari helped me revise artifacts to add that polish only an expert can recognize, without a need to take credit for herself. She is a genuinely happy person, so it is a pleasure to work with and be around her.”
“Shari demonstrates not only exceptional change management knowledge but the critical ability to enable buy-in resulting in optimal change adoption. She understands the fundamentals of integrating Project, Process and Change Management that not only drives successful change but also builds teamwork and morale. She makes change management fun!”
OEC Graphics introduced a new CRM to a tenured sales force that was not accustomed to leveraging technology. She established and led an internal change management team to develop a solid Change Management Strategy that included Internal Communications, Training and Reinforcement Plans for the organization. She trained and coached sponsors, managers and the change management team to effectively lead change. She partnered with IT and HR in organizational alignment and resourcing to support the change plans. Her presentation at the annual sales meeting inspired many potentially resistant employees to whole-heartedly embrace the change and even volunteer to help make it happen.
“Shari is a true leader of people, process, details and overall change management. She is astute in working with teams and building sustainable business strategies to win. The extra bonus is her friendly personality and grounded experience”
Terry Schmidt is a recognized thought leader with three decades' experience helping diverse organizations in 38 countries to improve performance, productivity and profits. He is a Harvard University MBA graduate and a renowned expert in the Logical Framework Approach project management methodology. Tony Robbins says, "Terry Schmidt is one of the most brilliant planners in the world."
Terry was working hard to get his latest book finished, published and printed before he presented at a major project management conference. Shari collaborated on content development and provided professional editorial services, and the book was finished and distributed at the conference as planned.
“Shari Fowler caught the glitches which almost slipped through and used her “magic” to create smoother, more intelligible writing.”
Connaissance Consulting was a Siebel VAR that later expanded to general IT consulting. Shari was a founding member of the company’s change management practice and contributed significantly to the development of its methodology, templates and service-offering selling model. She traveled weekly to serve clients in 10+ states over a four-year span, expanding her skill-set to include technical training, process improvement, business analysis and project management to meet client needs. She was known by clients and peers for excellence in communication, training, client relations, business need assessment, strategy and leadership. She served several clients, including Castrol Oil (a division of BP), York International, Corio/Extreme Networks, Aegis Insurance, Communications Data Services, and Montana State Fund.
“Communication is one of Shari’s strongest assets. She has the ability to communicate both verbally and in writing very effectively to any level. Her content is always very well-written. She has the ability to customize and deliver her communication in a manner that her audience can understand. ”
CDS Global, Inc. is a multinational corporation based in Des Moines, Iowa, that provides business process outsourcing and customer data management to various industries worldwide. One of their leaders was interested in implementing a CRM solution, but did not have leadership buy-in. Shari conducted their RFP process in half the usual time and delivered not only technical recommendations but also the foundation for a business case and strategic implementation plan to help build executive support for the change.
“Shari repeatedly exceeded the goals set for our project and worked very hard to make it a success. She is an excellent team player and is always willing to go through personal sacrifice in order to help her team, with a smile. Because of the short timeframe for this project, she had to make fast and accurate decisions under a lot of pressure. Shari can deal with a lot of ambiguity and still come up with good solutions under tight deadlines.””
Shari delivered a ‘change management for leaders’ course. Its content was excellent and it was well received among the leaders/managers. She also did some one-on-one coaching with some of the senior level leaders to help them understand their role in facilitating and supporting the change across the organization.
“Shari has a nice teaching style. She is an expert in her field. She does her homework. She is well prepared and organized and she delivers her material in a welcoming manner. Above all she is passionate about change management and this passion really comes through in her training delivery.”
The Business Advantage specialized in leadership and holistic business management coaching for small business owners. As a Business Success Counselor, Shari improved small business owners’ knowledge and effectiveness in leadership, organization, goal-setting, marketing, business development, accounting, finance, technology, and personnel management through training seminars and individual coaching.
“Shari’s greatest strength is her ability to actively listen to clients and probe their situations to help them get past the symptoms of their problems and come to the root cause. She is very good at asking the right questions and then reflecting the answers back to the clients to make sure she understands the entire scope of the situation before addressing it. Shari possesses the high integrity, concern for others and the thirst for self-improvement that are foundational to good leadership and the development of other leaders”
The Microsoft Store team acquired ownership of the legacy e-commerce program from another organization. Shari developed and drove the organizational transition plans for human resources, budgets, business processes, metrics, reporting, site content management (including localization), infrastructure, operations and much, much more. Despite some organizational sensitivities about the transfer of responsibility, in the end all stakeholders were very pleased with the migration.
“Shari has a passion for her clients, understanding their needs and being their advocate. When working with Shari, I was always aware that her focus was not just on getting things done (although she is very good at that), but on getting the right things done. She is capable of getting up to speed very quickly. Her extensive project management experience enables her to step in and add value from her first day. Shari is a pleasure to work with. Funny, positive, unflappable and a great collaborator – she is a person with whom you enjoy working long hours.”
Shari joined Aegis’s Siebel CRM implementation project when the development of detailed business requirements was approximately six weeks behind schedule. She jumped right in and took charge of the situation. Shari handled herself in a very professional manner throughout a difficult transition period, as the initial project BA was still involved. She worked weekends to establish a BA methodology that would work for the client, and then went to work converting initial documents into that format. This enabled her to see where the gaps were and what needed to be done in order to move forward. The fruits of her labor were realized in December when the release was delivered on time, under budget, and included more functionality than originally planned for.
“Shari is extremely proficient at quickly gaining understanding of business needs, formulating these into requirements that are clear and concise, and then translating these into technical specifications that are understood by the development team. She is a strong team player and would be an asset to anyone’s project team. I am glad that I had the opportunity to work with Shari.”
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