"Beyond Six Sigma: Profitable Growth through Customer Value Creation"

Business Book Roundtable

May 1, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Gary Plaster and Jerry Alderman will present their book "Beyond Six Sigma: Profitable Growth through Customer Value Creation." The two Charter Consulting Partners apply their knowledge of six sigma to the issue of top-line growth. Learn more.

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Where

Gleacher Center
Room 100
450 North Cityfront Plaza
Chicago, Illinois

Who

Gary A. Plaster
Senior Vice President
Charter Consulting

Jerry D. Alderman
Vice President
Charter Consulting

Cost

$20 ($15 if registered by April 26th)

Program

6:00 PM - 6:45 PM: cocktails/appetizers
6:45 PM - 7:45 PM: Presentation
7:45 PM - 8:30 PM: Book signing

Registration

Register Online
Register via Email

Please register by Early deadline is April 26th

Other Information

You do not need to be an alum to attend this event.

Questions

Paul Maranville
312-961-9000

Event Details

Book Synopsis: After years of focus on cost reduction and efficiencies, the corporate agenda has clearly shifted. The authors recently completed a survey with The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business where 75% of the CEOs surveyed responded that profitable growth is their top priority.

Achieving profitable growth is tricky business; consider the following recent example at Ford Motor Company. On Tuesday, January 24, 2006, Ford announced the closure of 14 factories and elimination of 30,000 jobs. Some people might attribute this problem to cost, but other factors played as large or larger roles. Listen to what Bill Ford, Jr., had to say on the day of the announcements: �Selling what you have rather than what customers want doesn�t make sense. It used to be that you�d build it and they�d buy it. But that�s wrong, that�s antiquated. Now it will be that if they will buy it, we will build it.� Bill Ford, Jr., clearly �gets it� and has his work cut out from him in transforming Ford into a customer-centric rather than a supply-centric organization. What is so ironic is that it was Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, who so famously said when discussing the Model T in 1908, �Customers can have any color they want as long as it is black.� If you want to know if things change in business, just ask the Ford family.

In Beyond Six Sigma, the authors draw upon a broad range of experience helping companies build and guide growth initiatives to introduce a proven approach to profitable growth. This proven approach is called Customer Value Creation (CVC). In the book the authors explain what has made CVC successful and share the critical success factors that will enable any company to improve their approach to profitable growth. Through the book critical questions are addressed such as:

• 1) how can companies deliver on their profitable growth promises to shareholders
• 2) why is quantifying customer value so important
• 3) how does taking an �outside-in� approach improve the odds of success
• 4) why is it important to have a profitable growth process
• 5) what can you do to help ensure shareholder expectations for growth are achieved.

Using detailed conceptual explanations and real-world examples, the book presents a clear description of how these ideas and practices have helped numerous organizations. The book has been endorsed by executives at GE Healthcare, Lockheed Martin, FMC Corporation, CEMEX, The Columbia University Business School and others.

Speaker Profiles

Gary A. Plaster
Senior Vice President, Charter Consulting

Gary A. Plaster is an accomplished author and consultant with over two decades of experience advising �C� level executives. He is a nationally recognized thought leader in the area of growth strategy and managing growth. Mr. Plaster is the co-author of the book, THE ROAD TO SUCCESS: How to Manage Growth (published by John Wiley & Sons, 1998).

Mr. Plaster is a Senior Vice President with Charter Consulting, a strategy firm focused on helping companies grow profitably. Before joining Charter Consulting, Mr. Plaster was a Partner with Grant Thornton LLP, a public accounting and management consulting firm. He served the firm in a variety of roles including as the National Managing Partner of the Enterprise Strategies practice and as the firm's Chief Strategy Officer. Mr. Plaster also served as Chief Executive Officer of Winday.com, a Chicago-based technology start-up.

Mr. Plaster�s clients have included: Lockheed Martin, SAP, Honeywell, Exxon Mobil, Federal Signal, RR Donnelley, Ventas, NCR, Medtronic, IBM, Kellogg�s, Eli Lilly, Michael Foods, Liberty Diversified Industries, Michigan State University, Braun Intertec, and Alliant Techsystems.

Mr. Plaster has a BS in Industrial Engineering and an MBA in Finance from the University of Wisconsin. He has been a requested speaker for many organizations including Columbia University Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business, the Business Marketing Association, the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, the American Institute of Architects and Medical Alley.

Jerry D. Alderman
Vice President, Charter Consulting

Jerry D. Alderman is an accomplished business professional and consultant. During Mr. Alderman�s 20+ years of experience he has earned a reputation as a master problem solver who has the ability to develop unique insights into complex business problems. This book, �Beyond Six Sigma� reflects years of Mr. Alderman�s passion for helping companies develop a more rigorous and profitable growth process.

Mr. Alderman is a Vice President with Charter Consulting. Before joining Charter, Mr. Alderman was an executive at Boise Cascade where he gained a broad base of experience from manufacturing through sales & marketing and strategy related projects. During the last 10 years, Mr. Alderman has either served as, or counseled executives who are tasked with driving bottom line results. It has been during this time when Mr. Alderman developed an approach for combining the quantitative rigor of manufacturing with the 'Outside-in' perspective of the customer to achieve growth that is unattainable through cost-reduction only.

In addition to Charter Consulting and Boise, Mr. Alderman has also been involved with several entrepreneurial ventures where he has been challenged with achieving growth from a zero base. Mr. Alderman�s collective experience has led to work in a diverse set of industries and companies which include: automotive, paper and packaging, software, industrial products, chemical, printing, defense, office supplies and consumer products.

Before starting his business career, Mr. Alderman served six years on Nuclear Submarines as a Naval Officer through the Admiral Rickover program. During this time, Mr. Alderman participated in special operations on Fast Attack Subs and stealth missions on Ballistic Missile Submarines. These experiences combined with a bachelor�s in Civil Engineering, Master�s in Nuclear Engineering and an MBA from the University of Chicago that provided a broad base of problem solving skills from which Mr. Alderman grounds his work.

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