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Background
Denise A. Harrison
President & CEO
Spex, Inc.
As a successful business catalyst for over 30 years, Denise Harrison has experience ranging from president of a financial services firm to president of the research center of a Fortune 500 corporation. Denise is mindful of both the long-range implications of strategic decision-making and the short-term implications of effective operations management.
"As you know, I was probably the most skeptical among Versar's management team regarding the importance of adopting a formal process and plan as I was afraid we might lose our flexibility and desire to enter into new markets. However, through the planning process, I was able to clearly see the strengths and weaknesses of our firm and the need to focus on a reasonable amount of goals and initiatives.
Your experience, enthusiasm and positive attitude in leading and facilitating the strategic planning process was greatly appreciated. Our entire team looks forward to working with you to update and refresh the plan."
- Dr. Theodore M. Prociv, President & CEO, Versar.
As President of a financial services firm, Denise initiated changes leading to record profitability through the introduction of an innovative one-stage process. This improvement bolstered customer satisfaction because it reduced cycle-time by 60%, significantly increasing customers’ cash flow. Denise achieved further enhancements by striking an alliance with IBM, using their technology to gain customers more detailed and more timely information as well as even shorter cycle-times.
Earlier, Denise was Senior Vice President and General Manager of two divisions of a Fortune 500 information services company. She significantly increased profitability and customer satisfaction by developing a system that monitored and tracked all aspects of the operation. The new system allowed information to flow directly into the customers’ databases, reducing both cycle-time and administrative costs for customers. While with this firm, Denise succeeded in several positions including President of the research center, Vice President of marketing, and Vice President of operations. As President of the company’s research center, she worked as a member of the senior management team to define the company’s international expansion strategy. Implementing this strategy resulted in the acquisition of a European firm.
Denise’s breadth of consulting experience varies from working with manufacturing companies, ranging from specialty chemicals to computers, and with service companies, ranging from banks to software developers. She is the author of numerous articles including: “Innovation – Where to Look for It”, “Strategic Planning: Sometimes a Road Less Traveled is Best” and “Turning Strategy into Action”. She is also a co-author of two books: Alignment for Implementation and Elements of Innovation and is the editor of Course and Direction a strategy newsletter, published by CSSP. Her commitment is to work with your organization to develop unique strategies that position the organization for future success.
Denise graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in Economics and holds a Master’s Degree in Business from Columbia University.