Richard J.

Schwager
rs6ad864@westpost.net
40010 N. Candlewyck Ln., Anthem, AZ 85382
(623) 321-6004 (eFax); (623) 703-0509 (Mobile)
EDUCATION AND CREDENTIALS
MBA, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA; Baker Scholar (top 5% of class),
GM Fellow
BIA, General Motors Institute, Flint MI
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
?Led Deloitte Consulting engagement team on supply chain optimization
engagement for major Asian importer/distributor and manufacturer; reduced
wholesale vehicle inventory by 90% and reduced order-to-delivery time from
88 days to 28 days. Achieved cross-functional integration including new,
common make-model tables, dealer ordering and vehicle allocation system,
production forecasting, scheduling and preferencing system, and reporting
across Client Sales, Distribution, Port/Upfit, Logistics, and worldwide
Production activities.
?As Manager in Deloitte Consulting's Process People Strategy Service Line,
expertly utilized Reengineering for Results/Process Modeling, Supply Chain
Results and Change Leadership methodologies, plus industry-based best
practices from proprietary Firm repositories. Practiced Performance
Improvement at C-Level across groups, staffs and divisions, finally,
developed status and results reporting (including the "Leadership
Dashboard" ).
?While independently consulting, led transformation and relaunch of
automotive services company including contract and funding, collections,
product configuration, master schedule, finance, legal, HR and IT.
Successfully transitioned from undercapitalized, struggling general agency
to effective, rationalized sales arm of an acquiring partner via
negotiations through several firm valuation models developed within
engagement.
?Developed and implemented market and open point opportunity matrix, then
operating and financial control infrastructure for new US-based investment
firm whose mission was to invest in startup and buy-sell automotive dealer
opportunities. This resulted in recruiting/signing a successful network of
six dealerships nationwide.
?Launched one such startup Dealer operation by very closely matching S,G&A
to emerging revenue and cash flow, by target marketing to middle-lower
income demographic group, and by implementing national/web auction
purchasing as well as aggressive service-to-sales prospect turns.
LARGE-SCALE REENGINEERING / PROGRAM LEADERSHIP
? For General Motors Corporate Order-To-Delivery initiative, designed a
custom project management and systems development methodology named "OTD-
21", including stakeholder assessment, readiness assessments, redesign of
planning and communications, implementation of milestones, gates and
metrics, and considerable individual and group coaching and counseling.
Resulted in execution on time/budget on a very large scale Corporate
initiative.
?Again for General Motors, created common processes, data and systems to
support the sales of North American vehicles worldwide, and the cross-sales
of Canadian and US-produced vehicles. As a parallel initiative, designed
all US/Canada common overseas vehicle sales platforms in a way to be
readily "folded into" GM Corporate common systems in Billing, Order
Management, Logistics, Dealer Ordering, and Technical/Customer Service.
- Overcame nearly insurmountable change readiness challenge in the
incumbent GM Detroit organization who would lose over 1/3 of its jobs
(but whose knowledge/support was vital to the project's success) and
the GM Canada organization who was absorbing 32 FTE of work with no
additional headcount (similar impact to Detroit and Canada ITS
groups).
- Redesigned GM Canada group and individual roles, due to complete
transformation of role, authority, and accountability. Additionally,
emerging new process and information flows between individuals and
groups drove several more iterations of organization and systems
design.
- Project reduced transportation/upfits by 5-10%; eliminated obsolete
data center at cost of $3.5MM/yr., and eliminated 35% of active
professional positions in export operations.
?For leading Automotive CRM firm in the US, developed and launched a
framework for Firm-wide Project Assessment/Ranking and Project Management,
which provided a phased and gated formal methodology to manage a portfolio
of +-25 revenue expansion initiatives, ensuring implementation on-time and
within budget
OPERATIONS LEADERSHIP
?Created brand-new call center for vehicle fleet drivers by disaggregating
Driver Service function from Client Servicing and implementing new
organization design, processes and systems. Utilized Coopers & Lybrand BPR
methodology in mapping, identifying highest cost and client satisfaction
drivers, configuring, piloting and maintaining management and client buy-
in. Increased productivity 20% over first year.
?Led call center growth plan and expanded from less than 250 to more than
600 agents in one year; improved service levels by as much as 15 points,
improved quality monitors 12-20%, reduced handling time by about 120
seconds per gate, and reduced attrition by about 20%
?Added significant revenue opportunity by analyzing the patterns of under-
utilized agents, re-engineering cross-gate coverage, and applying freed-up
resource to the processing of vendor claims, a batch-based task which was
not critically time sensitive. This achieved a run rate of 200,000
claims/yr for "zero" incremental resources.
?As Site Manager for GM Locomotives South African, immediately addressed
critical performance deterioration due to 24-months history of failure to
remotely meet production or cost targets. Once performance was stabilized,
redesigned organization to better utilize individual skills and to better
align with production and sourcing problems. In 18 months, fully allocated
unit costs dropped by 35%, quality metrics improved by 140%, five months of
schedule deterioration was erased, and profitability was restored for the
first time in 4 years.
SUPPLIER STRATEGY/SUPPLIER NETWORK DEVELOPMENT
?Led management team and staffs, and overall Supplier Network in designing
and implementing new network-specific supplier strategies, new performance-
based agreements, and new leadership priorities focused on aggregation of
volume, creation of partnership and gainsharing, then flowing benefits
through to Clients.
?Increased quick-lube commissions by 18%, increased bodyshop commissions by
15% while improving network usage by 8%, and concentrated vehicle repairs
in 60% of original shops to gain leverage
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Hale Venture Capital Group 2009-
INVESTMENT STRATEGY MANAGER
American Express Business Travel Network - Service Delivery Optimisation
2007-present
SENIOR MANAGER, STRATEGIC PLANNING
Ensurety Group, Inc., Scottsdale, AZ 2005-
2006
EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER
Newgen Results Corporation, San Diego, CA
2004
DIRECTOR, PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Automotive Equity Partners, Detroit, MI
2002 - 2004
GENERAL MANAGER
Deloitte Consulting, Detroit, MI 1999-2001
MANAGER
Cross Country Automotive Services, Tucson, AZ
1997-1998
CALL CENTER MANAGER
PHH Vehicle Management Services, Hunt Valley, MD
1992 - 1997
VICE PRESIDENT, SUPPLIER SERVICES
General Motors Overseas Distribution Corporation (various locations)
1979 - 1992
DIRECTOR, SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT TEAM (Detroit, MI)
REGIONAL MANAGER and SITE MANAGER, EMD South African (Port Elisabeth, SA)
SALES and SERVICE MANAGER, ELECTRO-MOTIVE DIV. (La Grange, IL)