GDI Consulting & Training Company is structured as a DBA (Doing Business As) of Gerald E. Dunn, Inc.  The original corporate legal entity (originally named ADI Consulting) was started in January 1980, primarily as a consulting and education firm focusing on information systems implementation, supply chain and business turn-around issues within the manufacturing and distribution industries.  Our firm is now based in Corona, California with clients around the world.  A brief list of some of our clients is presented in Exhibit 1, Partial List of Past & Current Clients.

It is what I learned in the systems implementation and turn-around work of the 1980’s that formed the foundation for my beliefs in transformation consulting. My experiences as a business owner, coupled with my experiences building a successful consulting firm and turning around distressed manufacturing companies, led me to create the Integrative Transformation^sm methodology… the guiding methodology behind much of our consulting and training work. The types and magnitude of the consulting work we perform are depicted in Exhibit 2, Types of Work Performed by GDI.

Type of Consulting at GDI
 
The owners of GDI Consulting & Training Company and Gerald E. Dunn, Inc. believe strongly that consulting value is added in front of clients, not in consulting offices. It is this philosophy that leads the owners of GDI Consulting & Training Company to think of client-facing resources as the major assets of the firm, with all other resources existing to support, or serve, these client-facing resources.

Today, GDI Consulting & Training Company is a firm with approximately seven full-time professionals and about as many subcontractors and alliance partners. Our Team Members live mostly in the west and spend nearly all of their time at client sites doing what consultants are supposed to do… providing high quality assistance to clients and helping to solve significant problems in a reasonable amount of time.

Other related businesses that share resources with GDI Consulting & Training Company include:

• PartnerLink^sm… a unit specializing in linking customers of manufactured products (and processes) with suppliers by leveraging over 30 years of manufacturing industry relationships built by professionals in the Gerald E. Dunn, Inc. Companies.
   
• Manufacturing Executive Institute (MEI)… a unit specializing in the delivery of public and in-company seminars to the manufacturing industry. MEI is also the publishing and training delivery arm of GDI Consulting & Training Company.  

Types of Professional Consultants at GDI

The word “consulting” is the word used to describe what we do and “consultant” is the title used to describe our Team Members who actually perform consulting

assignments. Unfortunately, these are very general words with many in our industry… and the butt of many jokes by those served by our industry!

If we analyze what we do at GDI Consulting & Training Company, we will discover that we really execute five quite different roles. These roles are depicted in Exhibit 3, FIVE Consulting Roles Executed by GDI Consultants.

Different assignments require that we conduct ourselves in different ways. Some assignments require that we work directly with executives, helping to shape their thinking on particular issues. This form of consulting requires Executive Consultants with substantial intellectual horsepower coupled with the breadth of knowledge that only

many years of experience can bring. Only our most senior professionals perform in this role.

As Analysts, we become “fact-junkies” who drill down through an organization to discover root causes of problemsand then build solutions to improve performance. Analysis is performed by a combination of specialists and breadth-oriented consultants who normally attack problems in a cross-functional team approach.

The role of Guide is probably the most misunderstood. To be a Guide is to walk in front of or side-by-side with the client. A Guide’s job is NOT to do the job for the client, but rather to provide the path, the motivation and the vision of the results. “Guiding” means leading from behind and leaving the success to the client. We cannot and should not, take responsibility for the client’s decision making. We are not executives and are certainly not employees of our clients’ companies. When executing the Guide role, we cannot force our will on the client’s staff. We must rely on our ability to persuade with facts. Ultimately, the client must make the decisions and run their own company.

Developers create solutions that require technical expertise to complete. Developing training materials, analytic methodologies, white papers, To-Be process flows, policies, procedures, work instructions and explanatory materials are a few of the results these professionals often develop.

The role of Expert is what many consultants carelessly think consulting is all about. An Expert at GDI Consulting & Training Company is a professional Team Member who clearly has specific knowledge that could lead to a specific solution to a problem at one of our clients. Everyone has expertise in something. The trick is to know what Team Members have irrefutable expertise in specific subjects and which ones only think they do. We commit to only allow expert consulting to be performed by known experts.

It is important in the world of professional consulting to understand the client's consulting needs before an engagement begins.  With a thorough understanding of the issues and client needs, GDI Consulting & Training Company can better staff an engagement with the right types of consultants.  Whether it be a need for an analyst or an expert, GDI stands reasy to match the right consulting talent to each engagement.