Sustainable Results with Integrity

We first worked with Edna Morris when she was President of Red Lobster.  We've worked with her ever since, as she led the James Beard Foundation and now, as she shares her wisdom as a board advisor and investor.  Edna is a friend, a mentor and lucky for us, a client.  We are humbled by what she said about us:

"In many companies, recognizing and using true diversity of thought remains an untapped opportunity. Most companies are desperate to find executives who can naturally mine the treasure of different perspectives throughout an organization. Diversity of race and gender are critical, of course, but diversity of thought is equally important. It often shows up between discipline areas. From purchasing to operations to marketing to human resources, one of the main tension points is often bringing all disciplines together to align against a common vision.

So often companies trip over themselves when they try to translate and hand off between the strategists and those who drive the business units.

It is rare to find highly strategic people with a heavy operational sense – those who can express strategies and concepts clearly, simply and in a memorable way. It is rare to find people who truly and genuinely embrace diversity, who seek the thoughts and opinions of a broad swath of people from across all functions.

The secret seems to lie in making it simpler, not more complex. Simplicity is often the best operating strategy.

Strategic Innovations Group – through Jane Melvin, the founder – has a unique ability to bridge what to most people are conflicting forces: heart and head, art and science, marketing and operations… to truly create better solutions out of the a diverse set of inputs. Jane listens and can very quickly get to the heart of the matter, place it in a strategic framework, simplify it and provide solutions against which a cross-functional team can easily take action. She has a gift of finding new ways of looking at things, often by connecting things that seem unconnected. She synthesizes so that key ideas are not lost, that the communication of them is strengthened and that the way forward is clear, strategic and actionable.

And that gets sustainable results. The right way."