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Year of the Customer 8-10 a.m., Tuesday,Sept. 14 The third seminar in the Year of the Customer Series, entitled Turing the Voice of Your Customers into Exciting Products/Services, is scheduled for 8-10 a.m., Sept. 14 at New Hampshire Community Technical College. The YOTC series is sponsored by Federal Savings Bank. This two-part session, the third of four in the Year of the Customer Series, focuses on SATISFYING YOUR CUSTOMERS...AND ATTRACTING NEW ONES. Each session will provide insight, direction and the tools needed to achieve exemplary customer satisfaction and dig into the nuts and bolts of maintaining and growing your customer base. Turning the "Voice of Your Customer" into Exciting Products/Services will feature. Getting Creative with Your Customer. Learning from a Panel of Doers This session will be a moderated panel discussion focused on translating techniques from the panel members into simple things that attendees can do tomorrow. Attendee questions will drive the direction of the discussion. Following the panel discussion, attendees will break into "interest groups" to further explore key themes from the session, and reconvene to share learning among all the interest groups. Presenter Biographies Michael Brassard, principal, Brassard Management ServicesMichael Brassard is Principal of Brassard Management Services, a strategic problem solving consulting and training firm and Partner in Brassard & Ritter, LLC, a publisher of business improvement resources. Michael has been teaching, writing and consulting in the business improvement field for 25 years. During that time he has trained, consulted and facilitated for over 1000 organizations around the world in Problem Solving, Organization Realignment, Process Improvement, Strategic Planning, Lean Operations, Product/Service Development & Design and Creativity-Innovation Methods. Clients have included every industry segment in the manufacturing and service sectors as well as local/state government and federal agencies. Michael is the author, co-author or editor of 8 books on organizational improvement systems and tools that have sold over 7 million copies worldwide in a dozen languages. He has addressed conference audiences in North and South America, Europe and Australia. After receiving his Masters of Public Administration from the University of Rhode Island and a stint of consulting to municipalities in the assessment and improvement of service delivery, Michael was a founding staff member of GOAL/QPC, an international training, consulting and publishing organization. During his 20-year association with GOAL/QPC, Michael was the senior consultant, trainer and author as well as the Director of Quality, Research, Learning Events and Product Development. Starting in the mid-1980’s Michael introduced a number of management technologies in the U.S. that have become part of the modern manager’s toolbox, including the Seven Management & Planning Tools, Hoshin Planning and Quality Function Deployment (QFD). The common link is that they have all served to make collaborative problem solving/process improvement, planning and innovation both easier and more productive. He has spent his entire career making business improvement information, knowledge and skills more accessible and useful to the widest possible audience. Paul A. Young, principal, Calypso Communications Paul Young brings Calypso Communications a national reputation earned by more than 20 year’s experience in business, government, and politics at the highest levels. Young is respected for his accomplishments in both the public and private sector building winning coalitions and positive public images. Paul’s achievements include national communications and public relations campaigns for Fortune 500 companies including Wal-mart, Rite Aid Corporation, Wheelabrator Technologies, and Northwest Airlines. He has been recognized for his international work with the bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Afghanistan, the International Medical Corps, M édecins sans Frontières, and his work in Eastern Europe promoting democracy. He served as a Senior National Campaign Advisor to the Presidential Campaigns of Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, and Steve Forbes and worked with both the Bush and Clinton Administrations to generate public support for issues such as NAFTA, Fast Track Trade legislation, and MFN Status for China.Young is a successful entrepreneur, having founded and operated Paul Young and Associates for 5 years before forming Calypso. Judi Delaney-Shirley, RD, Quality Control Manager Quality and exceptional good taste have been the hallmarks of Stonewall Kitchen since it's beginning in 1991. Thirteen years ago, the founders, Jonathan King and Jim Stott set up a three-foot square card table at the local farmers market, displaying proudly the few dozen vinegars and jams they had finished hand labeling just hours before. Today, Stonewall Kitchen boasts over 6,000 wholesale accounts nationwide, thriving catalog and web divisions and six company stores. Its staff now totals over two hundred, and five new stores within New England have been opened in the past several years. Stonewall Kitchen’s entire product line continues to be one of the most awarded in the industry year after year. Judi Delaney-Shirley is presently Quality Control Manager for Stonewall Kitchen, overseeing its in-house product development process. Even though the founders, Jonathan and Jim, are intimately involved in creating Stonewall’s ever-expanding product line, Judi is responsible for the exacting task of creating the needed production and quality control processes. Judi holds a BS degree in Nutrition from the University of New Hampshire. She has also worked for various Community initiatives such as the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program. Judi has also served as a sanitarian for the NH Bureau of Food Protection and as a Food Safety Specialist for Shaw’s Supermarket, Inc. Patricia Lynch, executive director, The Music Hall Patricia Lynch, also known to her friends as Patty, has held leadership positions in the performing arts since the 1980's. Upon arriving in Minneapolis after college, Lynch founded Brass Tacks Theater, which grew to be nationally known for new work, lean inventive management, and outstanding productions. Lynch served as CEO and artistic director for eleven years, working with many distinguished artists who, like she, have gone on to make impressive contributions to the performing arts. In addition to artistic direction, she was responsible for the theatre's financial performance, fundraising efforts, staff leadership, overall marketing strategy and board development In 1996 she was recruited by the College of St. Catherine, one of the largest women's colleges in the country, to serve as the Executive Director of its performing arts center, the O'Shaughnessy, the second largest theatrical venue in the city of St. Paul. Creating a strategic plan, she led the hall back to prosperity and an unprecedented profile in the Twin Cities: audiences have increased by 400% and contributions by 623% under her leadership. Focused on organizational development, the creation of strategic partnerships, increasing revenues, both earned and contributed and improving the financial performance, Lynch was able to usher in a new era for the O'Shaughnessy. She also founded the acclaimed Women of Substance series that features music, lectures, theater, dance and multi-media works. Lynch's works as a playwright have been produced in the Twin Cities as well as Chicago, Atlanta, Milwaukee and on tour throughout eleven states. She is published and has been featured in prominent new works festivals around the country. She has won numerous awards from the likes of the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays, the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Theater Communications Group. Sought after as a national consultant with clients and associations that have included the McKnight Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, FEDAPT, and Arts Action Research, Lynch evaluates performing arts organizations, assists in the creation of strategic plans, and advises on organizational development. She is happily married to award-winning director-playwright Kent Stephens. The newest addition to their family is Mister Buster, their lovable Norwich terrier. Cost for the sessions, sponsored by Federal Savings Bank, will be $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers. To sign up, contact Ginny Griffith at (603) 436-3988, ext. 14 or ggriffith@portsmouthchamber.org.
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