Largest loan portfolio ($800 million) division serviced was severely delinquent and in danger of incurring significant losses. Company’s parent had not been proactive in identifying and remedying problematic credits in portfolio.

Coordinated with five different areas of company that had not identified problem or its severity. Focused collection and recovery departments on remediating highest risk credits. In addition, created a sense of urgency within division to fix portfolio as soon as possible.

As a direct result, improved portfolio delinquency 1,030 basis points, or $66 million in delinquent dollars, in nine months and prevented another $6 million loss during same period.

Recovery department of a financial corporation needed to enact process workflow improvements and develop a more consistent approach to resolving problematic credits because potential losses associated with these distressed credits were at least 50% higher than planned. However, recovery management team was unfamiliar with process improvement programs such as Six Sigma that would foster better decision making.

Brought in a team of Six Sigma black belts to review recovery department’s workflows and develop more effective processes, which prevented credit losses of $2.2 million, identified and prevented another $3 million from charging off, and realized an additional $500,000 in savings.

As VP of Credit Operations at a large regional bank, consolidated 12 remote credit operations with more than $1.5 billion in consumer portfolios, and simultaneously expanded operations to absorb $500 million in acquired portfolios. During this period, bank desperately needed to establish a standard operating paradigm because non-standard processes that proliferated throughout its operations created inefficiencies and errors.

Created a consistent set of operating procedures while eliminating at least 300 exception processes. These standard operating procedures helped to seamlessly consolidate more than $1 billion in acquired portfolios, improve delinquency of all 15 consumer loan portfolios 28%, and lower credit losses $30 million in a little more than one year.

Bank’s antiquated processing system impeded it from offering products and services needed to retain commercial clients, which comprised 70%, or $10 billion, of bank’s deposit base. Although there was little sense of urgency in updating bank’s processing capabilities among other management leaders, drove project forward and implemented state-of-the-art processing system.

Within six months of implementation, bank’s commercial deposit base was protected and grew $500 million. Received numerous compliments from long-time employees for leadership role in advancing and completing this vital project.

Business processes at a lending organization were not well documented, and error rates were too high. In particular, servicing costs were $400,000 higher than the industry average. In general, organization was more focused on making customer-specific deals, many of which were non-standard in structure, poorly documented, and costly to review.

Implemented a Quality Management System (QMS) to review process workflows in each operating department. QMS saved $400,000 in direct expenses by redesigning approximately 250 process workflows and improving error rates 10%.

$40 billion bank growing by two acquisitions per year, with a check processing department of 500 full-time employees, had no leader for more than a year. Chosen by Vice Chairman to take over check processing operations.

However, department management was resistant to change, and 75% of managers and employees did not have experience with continuous process improvement methodologies necessary to move department forward and keep up with growth.

Applied process improvement methods, identified key staff members, and reengineered department’s operations, which improved unit costs 11% and saved $1 million in direct expenses.

Outdated technology was putting company’s competitive edge at risk, with lost revenues averaging between $500,000 to $750,000 per month. Primary culprit was unsophisticated inbound/outbound call management system currently in use.

Coached and led management team in selecting new call management system, reinforced sense of urgency to complete project, and successfully implemented system in six months through focused project management discipline. New system increased gross dollars collected 20%, or $1 million, raised dollars obtained per collector 48% from $25,000 to $37,000, and lowered collection staff 19% during six-month period.

Bank had never considered outsourcing as a method to reduce courier and mail distribution expenses, which were $800,000 higher than necessary. As a local entity, bank initially wanted to avoid unpleasantness of laying off employees who performed courier and mail distribution duties in house.

Formed a team to evaluate outsourcing opportunities, drove selection process, and educated executive committee on benefits, which included identifying a potential $1 million savings during a two-year period by restructuring and outsourcing non-essential services.

In 1997, First Bank System merged with U.S. Bancorp, doubling assets from $40 billion to $80 billion. The combined bank needed to choose a common deposit processing system. The system conversion had to be completed in 7 months, about 10 months faster than what is typically required for a conversion of this magnitude.

Established and led implementation team that developed a focused, aggressive project plan. Team successfully converted multimillion-dollar platform in seven months, while simultaneously consolidating number of processing sites from 13 to 8. Team set a new industry standard by completing a conversion of this magnitude in record time.

New client application process company had in place was paper intensive, slow, and inefficient. Furthermore, productivity per sales consultant was below expectations. Improving current process was difficult due to existing sales management team’s lack of initiative and inexperience with continuous process improvement initiatives.

Led project team in creating and implementing completely reengineered application process that integrated electronic signatures and "same-time" sessioning online between prospective clients and sales consultants. New application process increased sales 40% within first 60 days after implementation and was the first of its kind in industry.

Poor management and unproductive sales consultants were undermining sales department and perpetuating underperformance. Affecting change was challenging because majority of staff had been with company since its inception, and all members of management team had been promoted from within. Furthermore, historically company owners had not dealt with performance issues swiftly.

Within first 90 days of joining company, eliminated 40% of sales staff and replaced Director of Sales. Enforcing higher performance standards dramatically improved company’s revenue profile, increasing new business 52% and improving productivity per sales consultant 38% within six months of reengineering effort.

Management needed to take immediate and decisive action to remedy deteriorating customer retention. Difficulty arose because rapidly growing company did not have consistent client communication processes and staff members were not thoroughly trained in client service.

Worked with entire management team in identifying reasons for cancellations. Then, implemented strategies that successfully overcame client objections and retained greater numbers of clients in program. Strategies raised net customer retention from 44% to 69% in seven months, saving company $2.7 million annually.