Assuming the role of President and Owner of a well-established consulting firm is a unique challenge. Kirsten Kuhlmann recently did just that at Oakland, Calif.-based Cliff Consulting, assuming the role once held by founder and UC Berkeley Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Professor Bob Cliff. Kuhlmann has a rich background with 25 years of executive leadership and business management expertise, and recently sat down with Consulting to talk about the changing of the guard at Cliff and her plans to continue the firm's momentum.
Consulting: What are some of the core values Bob Cliff instilled in the company that you hope to continue as the new owner?
Kuhlmann: Bob's such a natural kind of person that goes in and looks at operational efficiencies to all solutions, and all work that he did with clients is always practical and always as I frame it, in the "chess game" of elegant solutions; to make sure it's streamlined and going after the right things and always connected to the right strategic directions the company is going after, as well as his strong desire to always have ego-less consulting. Our agenda is about their agenda, and it's all about the people. How do we best help our clients? How do we make them successful?
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