career started a technology company that successfully competed head-to-head with billion-dollar industry leaders. To compete, Chris’s company used technology in ways his competitors didn’t, and he focused on working with his client base to help them compete better.

Chris led his company through an SBA loan and two rounds of venture capital financing. He grew his company to over 300 professional employees with a worldwide clientele. He knows how to conduct business outside of the United States and how to negotiate contracts in different cultures. “We made our share of mistakes along the way“, he says, “and that is a major part of the value I bring to clients now.”

Chris’s first job out of college was to hone his technical skills in the burgeoning technology arena. He had full responsibility for major software development projects for General Motors and Eli Lilly & Co. where he was a hands-on designer, leader and implementer.

Almost every manager is self-grown, and Chris offers his experiences and insights as a mentor, trainer and coach to help a manager get ready to take the business to the next level. An objective, outside view helps managers think through, strategize, and tackle problems they may have been avoiding. Among the toughest of these problems is when a company has outgrown its management infrastructure.

Smaller companies often live by the checkbook with no real business plan. Chris is expert at developing business plans that will attract the attention of the financial community. He uses powerful tools for creating financial projections, and he teaches non-accounting managers how to understand what the financial projections are telling them.

Chris has a great deal of experience counseling with companies on marketing strategy. Chris helps a company build its marketing strategy around its “unfair advantage.” With e-mail as the preferred means of business communication today, Chris works with companies on developing powerful e-mail marketing strategies. Chris also has experience helping clients install e-mail management software.

Many companies are missing the boat on technology because they still see automation as a way to save money and increase productivity. While important, the problem is their competitors have also been doing this, so where’s the competitive advantage? Chris focuses on using technology to improve the customer experience, to help managers better achieve their strategic goals, and enhance competitive position. Several of his consulting assignments have been to rescue failed or failing technology projects that were of do-or-die importance to their companies.

Chris’s wife Barbara is a Master Gardener and their married daughter, Anne, lives in Chicago in the shadow of Wrigley Field. Chris participates in the Butler University mock interviewing program, has been a counselor for SCORE and keeps up with new technology. From the age of 13, he has been an avid investor.