GDI ´¯`·-· Background, History & Organization

GDI Consulting & Training Company provides practical solutions to complex business and managerial problems in manufacturing and related industries. Our firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gerald E. Dunn, Inc. (GDI), a business holding company that has operated successfully for nearly two decades.

Our consulting and training business focuses its professional services in a number of competencies. GDI Consulting & Training Company applies specialized and common sense solutions . . . not overly-intellectualized approaches . . . to these typical client problems in manufacturing and distribution industries:

Cost management systems, including significant competencies in Activity Based Cost Accounting (ABCA) systems, Activity Based Leadership (ABL) processes and Predictive Cost Modeling^sm (PCM).
Core Business Process Reengineering, including our proprietary multi-phased Integrative Transformation^sm methodology.
Information systems data integrity and reliability improvements including our proprietary cyclic quality-of-data monitoring system.
Streamlining planning, control and execution processes; including significant competencies in ERP implementations, Just-In-Time (JIT) production processes, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) systems, Symphonic Manufacturing^sm, materials and inventory planning, sales forecasting and Statistical Process Control (SPC).
Business strategy formulation with specific experience in sales and distribution channel management processes.
Distressed situations and turn-around assistance for businesses in crisis.

For a more complete picture of GDI Consulting & Training Company and to learn more about our philosophies, services, client profiles, past projects, proprietary methodologies, products, seminars and affiliated practices, you should refer to our general brochure.

History & Organization of GDI Consulting & Training Company
By Alan G. Dunn, President

GDI Consulting & Training Company is structured as a business unit of Gerald E. Dunn, Inc. The original corporate legal entity (originally named ADI Consulting) was started in 1980, primarily as a consulting and education firm focusing on information systems implementation, supply chain and business turn-around issues within manufacturing and distribution industries. Our firm is now based in Corona, California and has clients around the world.

In addition to our employed consultants, we maintain formal alliances with a number of top caliber specialty consulting firms in order to provide talent where necessary. The most significant of the alliances are with Gemini Consulting in Morristown, New Jersey; Holt Value Associates in Chicago, Illinois; and Ennex Corporation in Los Angeles, California. We plan to continue establishing alliances with other complementary consulting firms. A brief perspective of our current alliance partner contributions and roles are depicted in Exhibit 3.

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 ten full-time professionals and about half as many subcontractors. Our Team Members live across the United States 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 companies that share resources with GDI Consulting & Training Company include:

PartnerLink^sm . . . a firm specializing in linking customers of manufactured products (and processes) with suppliers by leveraging over 20 years of manufacturing industry relations built by professionals in the Gerald E. Dunn, Inc. Companies.
Manufacturing Executive Institute^sm . . . a firm specializing in the delivery of public and in-company seminars to the manufacturing industry.

The word "consulting" is the word used to describe what we do. Unfortunately, it is a very general word with many interpretations . . . and the butt of many jokes. If we analyze what we do at GDI Consulting & Training Company, we will discover that we really execute four very different roles. These roles are depicted in Exhibit 4.

Exhibit 4
Consulting Roles

Executive Consultants

GDI Consultants in this role develop and nurture relationships with key decision makers and influencers at client project sites. Executive trust, presence, passion and innovation are critical characteristics of Consultants fulfilling this role. Substantial breadth and depth of experience is a prerequisite for executing the responsibilities of this role.

Analysts

GDI Consultants in this role perform structured analysis, mobilization, project design and financial rationalization activities. When fulfilling this role, our Consultants will probably be using GDI methodologies to determine root causes of problems and designing useful and practical solutions to those problems.

Guides

GDI Consultants in this role are responsible for guiding client teams through Implementation & Results Delivery (I&RD) projects, often times using proprietary GDI tools and methodologies. This role requires that the Guide provide "leadership from behind" to the client appointed Project Manager. . . While NOT taking responsibility for the client's actions.

Developers

GDI Consultants in this role are responsible for developing training courseware, models, methodologies, digital documentaries, books, "Plain Wrap" processes and software tools for use on client related projects. When fulfilling this role, Consultants apply significant creative skills, focusing on creating tools that can be leveraged across assignments and client relationships.

The role of "Guide" is probably the most misunderstood. To be a Guide is to walk in front (or side-by-side) with the client. Our 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 or failure 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. We cannot force our will on them. We must rely on our ability to persuade with facts. Ultimately, the client must make the decisions and run their own company.