ROBERT H. RECK

Dr. Bob Reck is both an Adjunct Professor at Babson College and Harvard University, and President of Kendall Consulting Group, a general management consulting and executive education professional services firm.

During the past six years at Babson (graduate, undergraduate and executive programs) and Harvard, as well as for many clients, he has taught on the deployment of information technology for strategic business value. His lectures and consulting work help bridge the gap between business and technology. His previous academic teaching (1960's) was in electronic network theory and electro-magnetic field theory at the Universities of New Hampshire and Denver.

Bob's consulting work for Kendall Consulting Group focuses on change management; management and business process reengineering, redesign or reinvention; helping teams and organizations achieve high performance; business, technology and marketing strategy formulation; strategic planning; partnerships, alliances and organizational due diligence; and strategic information systems and IT planning.

Prior to starting his own business with several colleagues in 1992 and teaching with Babson and Harvard, he worked 12 years with CSC Index (a.k.a. Index Group), and before that with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mitre Corporation, Denver Research Institute, Public Service Company of New Hampshire, LILCO, and the Universities of New Hampshire and Denver. While with Index, he opened and directed their European Office in London and Paris; during this time he lived and worked in Europe.

Some Recent Consulting Experience

Dr. Reck has led and participated in many consulting projects for U.S. and European clients for over two decades. These projects include:

• Identification and implementation of competitive advantage and business process reengineering opportunities, particularly using information technology in a variety of business settings. His work in these areas has focused on R&D/product development, marketing/sales, order processing, customer service, and administrative functions for a variety of industries. Results have included both management process and operational process work redesign, and subsequent change management and implementation activities.

• Business strategy and planning studies with senior managers of publishing, automotive, computer, insurance, petrochemical, retail, and leisure/entertainment businesses, as well as government organizations. This work helped to focus attention on improving the business planning and management processes, identifying marketing opportunities, and identifying and implementing information systems support opportunities. Strategic information systems plans including management team vision, mission, objectives and critical success factor determination were elements of these projects.

• Development and delivery of executive and management education programs. For information systems professionals, these programs were often aimed at raising awareness of the management or business issues involved in corporate change, or aimed at reskilling the IS organization to make it more relevant to the business. For business managers, programs were frequently directed at stimulating and managing a business change process, particularly where dramatic improvements such as reengineering or improved competitive performance were goals. The role of technology in achieving desired results was part of this work.

Dr. Reck has worked with clients in many industries, including forest products, high technology, pharmaceuticals, health care, telecommunications, steel, publishing, broadcasting, photographic supplies, building products, public utilities, financial services and government. His U.S. clients include management teams in corporations such as AT&T, J&J, GE, UTC, Xerox, Marion Merrell Dow, Kodak, Southwestern Ohio Steel, IBM, Union Camp, Allied Domecq, Prudential and many others. His European clients include ICI, BP, Whitbread, ICL, IBM, Wang, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Montedison, and Courtaulds. In 1997, he also hosted a weekly radio show that covered many business and technology topics.

Prior Experience - A Few Highlights

While with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Bob worked on "reengineering" the Nation's air traffic control system. Some of the work he managed has led to the recent widespread deployment of the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system and its use in aviation. Other aspects of that work resulted in the 1970's-1980's automation of the air traffic controller's jobs, flow control, data links to the cockpit (only now being implemented), microwave landing system, and studies supporting the deregulation of the U.S. air transportation industry in 1977. Some of his other work supported various line of sight and over-the-horizon radar systems, military use of satellites for command-control-communications-identification with aircraft, nuclear detonation detection systems, atmospheric radio wave propagation characteristics, and oceanographic research.

Education

Dr. Reck holds doctorate, masters, and two bachelors degrees in electrical engineering and liberal arts from the Universities of Denver, New Hampshire, and Delaware. He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi honorary fraternities. He is a Fellow in the British Institute of Management.

On A Personal Note

Bob divides his time between his teaching, consulting, and leisure activities. He is a commercial pilot and uses his Cessna Cardinal to fly to many of his lectures or client engagements. He also flies between homes in Andover, Massachusetts; Rangeley, Maine; and Sarasota, Florida. The Sarasota home is newly purchased and undergoing major renovations (1998-1999).

Bob's wife, Virginia, is also a long-time consultant and founding partner in Kendall Consulting Group. She works in similar areas, and has the distinction of being a Fellow in both APICS and BPICS. She has also consulted at the top of several of Japan's more prestigious kiretsus, an unusual honor for an American woman. She also worked throughout Europe for Index for the years the family was based there. Previously, she worked for Wang Labs, Polaroid, Software International, and the Denver Research Institute. Bob and Ginny have been married for 34 years and have two daughters - one an architect in Boston who is being married in October, the other the director of marketing for a rapidly growing high-tech start-up in Newton.

Bob works with many charitable and non-profit organizations. For one, he worked periodically with prisioners at the Massachusetts Corrections Institution - Concord, an affiliation that prepared him for his teaching of MIS-7550! He drives a Porsche and has raced competitively. He has also completed several marathons (a few years ago!). His boat is named the "Paradigm Shift." He recently took up golf and is working on excellence in that frustrating sport!

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