“Organizations can re-establish trusting relationships by establishing open communication amongst management and individual contributors.”

Dr. Dwayne Jakes is Founder and International Managing Director of Dwayne D. Jakes & Associates Management Systems, LLC. During Dr. Jakes twenty- year career he has been recognized as a Forward Thinker, Consultant, Professor, Speaker, and Executive. Dr. Jakes is Area Chairman, Management, Operations Management, Project Management, and Global Management, School of Business. Additionally, he facilitates Graduate and Undergraduate Business Courses at the University of Phoenix. He is considered a leading authority of People Commerce Development Systems Design™.

Dwayne D. Jakes & Associates Management Systems, LLC is unique among management consulting support services for its developmental work in organizational design. Since 2001, the firm has supported clients in the development of high productivity organizations, Consulting to Management (C2M), Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Business to Government (B2G), Operations and Management Systems.

MO: What inspired you started your own company? How have your background and experience contributed to its development and success?

Dwayne: I was working industry as a Management Consultant and I decided that I could provide clients the same level of support and managerial expertise operating my own organization. I began this journey back in the 1990s as Jakes Consulting Group which evolved into Dwayne D. Jakes & Associates Management Systems, LLC in 2001. I have been very fortunate to work in a variety of industries prior to engaging clients in Management Consulting. I have worked and managed several sectors and industries, to include; retail, restaurant, manufacturing, IT, education, residential, and non -profit organizations. Each industry has allowed me the opportunity to build relationships, budgeting, financial, and resources management, develop policy, assess performance, and complying with local, state, and federal governance. As a School of Business Professor at the University of Phoenix, and Certified Management Consultant with the Institute of Management Consulting, USA, I remain current on industry changes and emerging technologies, which allows me to mentor and groom our future leaders through simulation and case studies. All of these successful characteristics align to the past and future objectives of my firm.

MO: What are some ways that companies can capitalize on organizational potential that remains elusive to their traditional practices?

Dwayne: Organizational Transformation and Technology. Many organizations have built their businesses on traditional business models, values and cultures. These institutions have performed well over the last century and they are reluctant to embrace culture change and technologies. Some companies refuse to embrace technology and its value. Some organizations prefer to wear suits and ties, and market through build boards and the yellow pages. These organizations don’t embrace employee’s ideas, social media, webinars, or teleconferencing. The most successful organizations have open door policies with their employees, they communicate frequently, they reward forward thinkers with fresh approaches and ideas in the organization that can help their organizations remain profitable. Many executives believe that you have to bring an external candidate in to achieve these results. I disagree. In most cases organizations have internal talents that are being underutilized, because of antiquated good ole boy network practices. I believe each organization must reassess it talent base every quarter and identify the low and high performers accordingly, and create new opportunities within their organizations.

MO: Why do you think that the current state of the economy provides an excellent opportunity for new business start-ups?

Dwayne: The focus is on proprietorships, partnerships, or any type of privately held corporation with one or more owners. Historically in the United States Private Sector jobs determines the fate of the economy. According to the White House, Private Sector payrolls increases by 233, 000 jobs and overall employment rose by 227, 000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3%. The unemployment rate has fallen by 0.3 percent over the last 6 months.

Despite adverse shocks that have created headwinds for economic growth, the economy has added private sector jobs for 24 straight months, for a total of more than 3.9 million payroll jobs over that period. In the last 12 months, 2.2 million private sector jobs were added on net. In the last 6 months, 1.3 million private sector jobs were added, the most of any 6 month period in nearly 6 years.

The employment numbers are directly tied to private sector jobs. Whenever a new business secures funding through private donors, grants, low interest loans, credit union, small business administration, venture capitalist or other funding sources; it creates new employment opportunities domestically, which in turns stimulates job growth. The largest group of new business start-ups in the U.S. is Women-Owned Businesses. Thanks to the Recovery Act and the Small Business jobs act; SBA had a record year in FY2010, supporting more than $30 billion in small business lending across the country.

MO: Times of change often make people feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. Can you provide some techniques that companies can use to transform organizational change into trusting relationships?

Dwayne: Lack of Trust in organizations offers some of the leading indicators of how low morale, motivation, productivity, and performance. Many businesses are becoming complacent and underperforming their core objectives. Organizations can re-establish trusting relationships by establishing open communication amongst management and individual contributors and implementing these 5 steps; 1. Create a Shared Vision. 2. Promote Participation in Change. 3. Communicate the Change Strategically. 4. Cross Train, Coach, and Mentor. 5. Implementation and Measurement. Employees embrace change initiates when the core objectives of the company are developed with their feedback, thus creating the shared vision. Executives must communicate and align the mission of the company regularly with all levels of management from the individual contributors, team leads, middle managers, and senior management. This can be accomplished through meeting more frequently and providing weekly updates on the project objectives, goals, and milestones. Each employee should be cross trained, coached, and mentored throughout the organization on performance improvement, quality circles and resource allocation. Lastly, link organizational change implementation to organizational performance. Once all changes are finalized complete a post mortem change metrics update to communicate all successes or failures to all stakeholders in the transformation.

MO: What leaders are you inspired by?

Dwayne: Dr. Baldwin H. Tom, Founder & CEO of the Baldwin, Group, Inc., Dr. Paul G. Schempp, President of Performance Matters, Inc. Dr. Deborah Nixon, Founding Partners at Trust Learning Solutions, Toronto Canada. Dr. Dean R. Spitzer, President of Dean R. Spitzer & Associates, Inc. Dr. Wilma Slenders, Founder & President, Transcend Management Advisors, Inc. Dr. Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, President of AboutYOU, Inc. DeLores Presley, Motivational Teacher, Speaker, and Personal Power Expert. Lisa Haneberg, Vice President and OD Consulting Practice Lead at Management Performance International. Phil Johnson, Master of Business Leadership™ University Founder, Speaker, Coach, and Author. Stephen R. Balzac, President of 7 Steps Ahead, LLC. Tom Schafer, President at Schafer Consulting Network, and Dr. Howard Rasheed, Author, Innovation Renaissance; Seven Strategies for Winning the Future With a Sustainable Business Model.

MO: Can you talk about your plans to refocusing your global vision and brand awareness?

Dwayne: Professional Services Firms are very competitive especially Management Consulting. Many firms offer various products, services and value based solutions. The social media and mobile technology trends are evolving rapidly. Re-focusing and aligning my global strategic business model vision will enhance my international brand by providing new instantaneous customers from Generation Y. It’s crucial to measure everything you do on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. When you measure, you can see what is working and what is not working, and you can do more of what’s working. Facebook and other social networks equip you with many analytic tracking tools. My favorite tools for measuring social media s are: Social Mention, Klout, Google Alerts, Google Analyst, CoTweet, HootSuite, Radian6, and Marketwire. Studies show that clients prefer to work with businesses that have a strong social media presence. The Return of Investment of Social Media, more than 65% of businesses plan on increasing their use of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, blogging, and LinkedIn in 2012, according to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Nearly 80% of all active U.S. Internet users regularly visit social media sites (Nielsen). And while consumers spend 25% of their Internet time on social sites, Facebook has become the most visited website in the world. Your customers are there. These are numbers you just cannot ignore. The top two benefits of social media marketing are generating more exposure for the business and increasing traffic to websites, which will eventually increase brand awareness and drive revenues through market share.