Caitlin Cassidy, Director, Executive Search
Caitlin Cassidy
ccassidy@leanexecs.com
Caitlin has 10 years of experience in executive search and the financial services industry including seven years with PWC and CCR (now Grant Thornton). Over the course of her career in search, she has successfully completed assignments placing C-suite, Director-level and a variety of other leadership positions across a wide spectrum of industries including finance, manufacturing, healthcare and professional services.
At Stiles Associates, Caitlin leads senior level search assignments and is responsible for full-cycle recruitment needs assessment, search strategy, profile development, research, candidate development and offer negotiation.
From her experiences working inside of global finance and accounting firms on behalf of top-tier clients, Caitlin brings a depth of knowledge and unique understanding of position requirements, candidate development and organizational culture to each search assignment.
Continue ReadingRon Cantrell, Vice President, Operations
Ron Cantrell, Vice President, Operations
ranctrell@leanexecs.com
Ron Cantrell joined Stiles Associates in 2012, bringing more than 30 years of sales process development and process management experience to the firm’s operations.
While often behind the scenes, Ron plays an integral role in day-to-day operations at Stiles Associates—continuously expanding relationships with our clients in order to better understand their culture and business so that we can tailor our services to meet (and at times even anticipate) their needs.
Before joining Stiles Associates, Ron was the National Sales Manager for a leader in the high-tech security systems industry, where he was instrumental in introducing and interpreting psychological assessments for large sales forces. For 12 years prior to that he was a sales consultant serving clients in the real estate management, insurance and manufacturing space.
Ron started his career as a free agent wide-receiver and is always willing to discuss the current state of the NFL.
Continue ReadingHow GM Struggled To Admit It Had a Problem Until It Was Too Late
Fascinating and very relevant Lean/TPS story and cautionary tale about how GM struggled to admit it had a problem until it was too late. Hear the whole story here.
Continue ReadingExecutive Sessions: Art Byrne on the Lean Turnaround
Lin Stiles sits down with Lean pioneer Art Byrne for an in-depth conversation about the critical role of leadership in Continuous Improvement and Lean turnaround efforts.
During the past 30 years, Byrne has implemented Lean in more than 30 companies in 14 countries. As Group Executive, he helped introduce Lean to the Danaher Corporation in the 1980’s. Later, as CEO of The Wiremold Company, he set the standard for the Lean CEO profile as he quadrupled the company’s revenue and increased its enterprise value by 2,500%. Byrne recently wrote about his experience at Wiremold in his book The Lean Turnaround: How Business Leaders Use Lean Principles to Create Value and Transform Their Company.
Art Byrne is currently an Operating Partner with J.W. Childs Associates where he leads the implementation of Lean management at Childs’ portfolio companies. Lin was the recruiter who placed Art in the CEO position at Wiremold and the two have known each other for nearly 30 years.
Stiles Associates – Art Byrne – Full Interview from Stiles Associates on Vimeo.
Art Byrne: Fundamentals of Lean Transformation from Stiles Associates on Vimeo.
Art Byrne: Evaluating Lean Leaders from Stiles Associates on Vimeo.
Art Byrne: Inventory Hides Waste from Stiles Associates on Vimeo.
Continue ReadingFour Lessons From a Decade of Lean Healthcare
In the past decade, lean management principles have expanded to the healthcare industry. What have we learnt?
Although Lean was born in Toyota in the 1950s and 1960s, it was not until after 2000 that the first hospitals in the USA, Europe and Australia began to explore it. These pioneering organizations came together to share their stories at the first Global Lean Healthcare Summit in the UK in 2007, which in turn triggered many more experiments around the world. Since then, interest has grown very rapidly.
We have now a great opportunity to learn from all kinds of healthcare examples where Lean has made a significant difference, from clinics and departments through to whole hospitals and even whole healthcare systems. But not all initial experiments were successful or sustained, and we are still a long way from making lean a widely recognized way of working across the healthcare industry.
Moreover, the challenges healthcare providers around the world face are far from being overcome. Ageing populations and unhealthy lifestyles are boosting the demand for healthcare faster than the growth of incomes and tax revenues from the middle classes. Additionally, we recognize that the quality of healthcare delivery has not improved as fast as the quality of other products and services in the economy. It is therefore not surprising that more and more healthcare professionals are looking at lean.
But what are the lessons that we can learn from the first decade of Lean in healthcare?
Continue ReadingRecent Searches: A Need For Speed
Our client, a Private Equity Company, had just acquired a $20 million producer of fully compostable consumer packaging for major clients such as Whole Foods, P&G and Chipotle.
Though experiencing explosive growth, the company was essentially still in start-up mode–with two founders functioning as Co-CEOs and neither of them having a background in manufacturing. To get this business quickly operational and ready for more growth, they asked Stiles Associates to help them find a Lean VP of Operations who they could “hand the keys to”.
Both the Private Equity team and the co-founders had profile aspects that they wanted to see met in the hire. Stiles Associates worked with both teams to establish common ground and a collaborative profile was developed. The firm mobilized an aggressive research and sourcing campaign and filled the pipeline quickly. After screening of candidates, we identified and recommended a very strong leader with an impressive record of success working for both start-ups and very large companies.
Both of the CEOs and the Private Equity Partners were extremely satisfied with our recommendation and an offer was made immediately. Total time elapsed from when Stiles Associates was engaged until the keys were turned over: 4 weeks.
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