What change
looks like in practice.
Selected engagements from Charles’s consulting and operating leadership experience—across culture, operations, technology, and financial services.
Regional valuation services group
Build operating discipline.
Put automation to work.
An 85-person regional group comprising an appraisal management company (AMC), a staff appraisal firm, and a valuation technology business. Introduced through a consulting conversation, the engagement expanded into responsibility for the group’s operations.
The operating challenge
Connect profitability, service delivery, people, and technology across related valuation businesses, then support the transition into an acquiring organization.
The work
- Directed operating priorities across planning, budgeting, procurement, service delivery, and leadership accountability.
- Redesigned workflows and resource allocation, with selective outsourcing and reduced back-office costs.
- Co-led operating strategy, design, and implementation of automated order workflows and AI-enabled business intelligence with technical partners.
- Supported acquisition preparation, process alignment, organizational integration, and client migration.
What this illustrates
Technology creates operating value when process design, leadership, service quality, and adoption move together.
Explore AI & automationNational appraisal management company
Redesign the operating model.
Improve the cost structure.
A transformation engagement with a 65-person national appraisal management company, combining national collateral operations restructuring and global delivery support.
The operating challenge
Build a more efficient national operating structure while maintaining attention to client experience and management oversight.
The work
- Consolidated three physical operating locations in the United States into one centralized operating location.
- Leveraged business process outsourcing (BPO) resources across multiple global locations, coordinating talent, delivery, and third-party oversight.
- Partnered with executives on financial forecasts, strategic planning, and implementation.
What this illustrates
Cost improvement and service quality can be pursued together through operating-model design, capable teams, and disciplined oversight.
Explore operational transformationBuilding shared ownership
in a real estate team.
A 10-person Indiana team. An engagement beginning in August 2019, lasting approximately 18 months.
The operating challenge
A traditional rainmaker-centered configuration needed a more connected way of working, with team members sharing ownership of progress and performance.
The work
- Moved platforms and created custom workflows.
- Refined the marketing and lead-generation program.
- Reworked support-staff compensation to provide incentives for progress.
- Expanded contribution from associate agents and gave support staff ownership of administrative documentation and transactional communications.
- Instilled a culture of collective ownership beyond a single rainmaker.
What this illustrates
Operating transformation reaches beyond a new platform. Workflows, incentives, leadership, and culture need to reinforce one another.
Explore operational transformationLarge national mortgage servicer
Bring analytical discipline
to disposition decisions.
Collateral disposition strategy for a 15-person group within a large national mortgage servicer, focused on foreclosure and real estate owned (REO) properties.
The operating challenge
Evaluate property-disposition options and loss-mitigation decisions with a clearer analytical basis.
The work
- Developed a disposition strategy identifying suitable properties for retention, minor repairs and auction-channel sale.
- Modeled proceeds and foreclosure-related losses, including amounts payable to GSEs and FHA.
- Put the strategy and rollout arrangements in place with a partner group that took on implementation.
What this illustrates
A useful strategy connects the analysis to the decision leaders need to make.
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