Who Are The "Associates?"
We
have relationships with a vast network of US-based and global senior
consultants who are available to assist our clients in achieving the
outcomes you seek. We don't believe in putting junior consultants
in the line of fire that you need to train about your business.
We only work with consultants who are compatible with our values:
pragmatic, results-oriented and who have a bias for quickly
resolving client issues.
Because of this network, we offer a broad range of capabilities. If
your needs are beyond our capabilities to provide what you need,
rest assured--we'll tell you so.
_____________________________
David J.
Gardner, Founder and Principal, is the only guy who has been working on
approaches to satisfy each customer’s unique requirements for over 30
years for a variety of industries, products and services. He is known
for his pragmatism and track record of achieving results for his
clients.
He has
held management and senior management positions in Product Development,
Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service, and Product
Management.
He joined
Tandem Computers in 1979 where he was responsible for Corporate
Documentation Standards for Tandem's highly configurable and expandable
computer systems. Dave learned what happens when customers make choices
that aren’t aligned with back-office processes.
In 1983,
he designed and implemented a Configuration Guide for Dialogic Systems
instituting a process that greatly simplified a complex, modular product
such that the field sales organization and international OEM customers
could easily define their order requirements. This methodology satisfied
the product definition needs of sales, marketing, engineering,
manufacturing, customer service and finance.
David
improved the approach for defining highly-configurable products at
System Industries in the late 1980’s by developing a methodology that
not only accommodated "new system" orders but also fully addressed
"add-on" orders. This company built modular disk and tape storage
systems that could be attached to each computer system ever produced by
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). 60% of the employees used the
Configuration Guides as a means to validate and order highly
configurable and expandable storage sub-systems used widely with
Digital's computing systems.
David
founded his consulting practice in 1991. Here are a few examples of
consulting projects undertaken:
Defined the end-user requirements and subsequent implementation of a
configuration tool at a Fortune 500 custom semiconductor
manufacturer.
Helped a semiconductor capital equipment manufacturer with a
detailed configurator requirements analysis and assessed the
business process impacts associated with implementing a mass
customization process.
Assisted a provider of product configurator technology and
consulting solutions with marketing and sales strategies.
In July
2002, David was recruited by E-ONE, one of the world’s largest
manufacturers of fire and rescue vehicles, as Vice President of Product
Management to lead an enterprise-wide change initiative to:
Reduce the cost and lead-time associated with engineering each
vehicle to improve company profitability
Reduce overall SG&A expenses
Accurately describe the company’s product configuration capabilities
to better set customer and dealer expectations
Provide
accurate material and labor costs to eliminate “margin surprises”
He is a
graduate of San Jose State University (BA) and Santa Clara University
(MBA).
David is
also a member of the Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC) and
has been Board Approved in the Area of Configurable Product & Services
Strategy and Implementation. This approval means that the consultant
has worked in a specialized area for a considerable length of time; has
provided detailed, documented evidence of success directly from clients
in that specialty; and has conformed to the Code of Ethics of the
Society, serving as a thought leader and exemplar in the profession in
general and their specialty in particular.
In 2010,
he was inducted in the Million Dollar Consultant® Hall of
Fame. Out of over 1,000 consultants who have gone through Alan Weiss’s
mentoring program, 26 have been inducted in the Hall of Fame.

Gardner & Associates Consulting is an operating
division of Lakshmi Ventures, Inc., a Nevada corporation.
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