Dave McConachie

I have spent much of my career looking at organizations from different angles: as an owner operator, senior executive, board chair, director and consultant.

That range matters because business problems rarely respect organizational charts. People, operations, finance, leadership, customer experience, culture, decision making and communication are connected whether the organization treats them that way or not.

I have led operations and shaped strategy for growing businesses, stepped into organizations in crisis, and spent more than two decades on boards and executive committees. Along the way, I have presided over the BC operations of a national children's charity and helped realign a faltering business to profitability within nine months, ahead of a successful sale.

Those experiences have given me a perspective from both sides of the table: where decisions are made and where they have to work in practice.

I pay attention to what people actually do, not only what the policy says they are supposed to do. I look for the workarounds, assumptions and habits that have quietly become part of the organization.

My value is not in arriving with a formula. It is in staying with the problem long enough to know whether the answer on the table is the real one.