Robert Wickman Email & Phone Number

Austin, Texas Area

BigIdeas Group assists businesses in creating operational excellence, advising leadership teams in areas of effective change management, organizational diagnostics and improvement, talent acquisition and retention, productive performance reviews, 360 Leadership programs, team analysis and growth, and succession planning.As a talent management consultant, I diagnose, design, and implement organization development initiatives in service of business strategies, priorities and objectives. Conducting client interviews to determine strengths and areas for improvement (SWOT), I develop continuous improvement plans, providing leadership with detailed, actionable data to assist with strategic planning and decision making. I am certified in an extensive suite of talent assessment tools. Clients receive objective information to increase the success of the organization by improving decisions that depend on or impact people. Our resources support your ability to build and sustain a marketplace advantage.▶ Organization diagnostics▶ Customized leader and team training programs▶ Business process consultingAdditionally, I help leaders and teams manage change, enabling them to produce the results needed to thrive in changing markets. Sales teams, leadership teams, engineering teams, production teams, marketing teams, cross-functional and multi-functional, geographically dispersed and localized. I serve organizations dedicated to their people working towards a shared vision and who collaborate on reaching that goal successfully. Clients experience higher productivity, greater alignment, and reduced conflict.

Austin, Texas Area

uFollowit is a start-up technology business targeting the trucking industry. I was brought in by an investor to develop uFollowit’s communication, marketing collateral, customer education pieces (YouTube training videos, quick sheets) press releases, business blog - all inbound and outbound communication and marketing efforts. I also managed trade shows, created webinars, assisted sales, and program development. It was a great opportunity to further develop the relational pieces and learn more about the logistics industry.During this time I had many opportunities to expand my expertise in SEO, as well as hone my writing skills; I'm a better writer and marketer because of the experience. It was here that I learned how to write a movie script for a training video – that was enlightening and fun. My first creative writing project.Most of what I was focused on was based on Hubspot's tools and current leading edge thought leaders, including author and presenter David Meerman Scott. His ideas helped us to create an online presence for uFollowit. Great stuff!

Austin, Texas Area

RightHire was created to assist businesses with their most important asset – their people. As a business process analyst, I helped organizations to better understand how best to position employees for maximum productivity. The results were improved communication, reduced conflict and turnover, and engaged employees.▶ Certified in all Profiles International assessment tools for hiring and staff development▶ Certified 124 modules of 360Solutions High Performance training curriculumClient services included individual assessments and coaching, strategic hiring processes and assistance, executive presentations, meeting facilitation, Management by Objectives (MBO), focused employee training, and team and leadership consulting. I delivered training sessions on the topics of Trust, Conflict Resolution, High Performance Teams, and Customer Service. RightHire was rolled into the BIGideas Group in 2007.

Austin, Texas Area

The VIA Group is a value-added reseller of Avaya communication systems, including unified communications (VoIP). My role was to manage all aspects of the administrative side, including developing business processes, implementing the first human resources activities, and managing three facilities (Houston, Dallas, and Austin), contracts, and marketing. As part of the leadership team, I facilitated the development of VIA’s vision, mission, and values statements, and worked to integrate them into an engaged company culture. I also helped to define market direction, wrote a business plan to expand an existing client’s reach 10x, and worked on business expansion projects.My responsibilities with managing human resources included organizational design and development, compensation and benefits, recruiting and hiring, outsources services contract negotiation and management, employee relations, High Performance team training and development, Management by Objectives (MBO), industry certifications (Microsoft and Avaya), and employee integration for a merger/acquisition. In managing the three facilities, I researched locations for a new corporate headquarters in expectation of growth, managed contracts, build-out negotiations, and utilities issues, helped create layout and floorplans, and managed the move. Once completed, I managed the daily facility operations to ensure teams were comfortable and productive.Working with the CEO, I built the first trade show booth, creating immediate industry exposure and new business, and managed all trade show logistics. I was also responsible for the marketing message and collateral until we had the resources to hire a full-time person. Additionally, I instituted the first CRM application to integrate with accounting and sales. This helped with business intelligence and an executive dashboard to more effectively manage operations and forecasting.

Austin, Texas Area

Challenged by the executive team to diagnose, develop, implement and administer a federally compliant corporate export management system for an international non-profit consortium of leading semiconductor manufacturers. I was recruited into this position because of my extensive background in program development, implementation, and project management, as well as a thorough understanding of the semiconductor industry and technology. As part of the Legal department, my duties included analyzing and classifying all exports, scanning for known entities, and ensuring all exports of technology and technology information were properly managed. This often required extensive research and interviewing to determine the applicable coding. I consulted with industry representatives, conducted executive presentations, routinely met with U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Export Administration and Customs officials, and internal and external lawyers to determine the correct actions.With no system in place when I started, I learned the federal rules and regulations and developed an internal compliance system to ensure SEMATECH operated within the law. As part of that system, I audited internal business functions and advised employees and assignees on relevant laws and regulations. I developed an internal training program and cross-trained the Purchasing department, Supplier Relations, Legal, Shipping & Receiving, and Security. I also developed and implemented a formal system to track access to technology. Additionally, I consulted with IT in the development of an online secure system to distribute SEMATECH’s classified intellectual property to its U.S. and international members. This system ensured compliance, increased speed of delivery, and drastically reduced the use of paper and printing systems, saving both time and money. The end result was a highly effective, well-documented import/export control system. Zero reportable compliance recordings during tenure.

Austin, Texas Area

As an internal business process consultant, I held a number of positions at SEMATECH, including SSQA Program Manager. In this role I advanced within the organization to manage all aspects of Standardized Supplier Quality Assessment (SSQA) Program. SSQA is an assessment process developed by leading semiconductor manufacturing companies to assist their suppliers with continuous improvement activities. Its foundations are ISO-9000, Malcolm Baldrige, and Motorola’s SQR. It is still in use today.My responsibilities included supporting SEMATECH’s Supplier Assessment and Consulting Services, and managing a joint manufacturer/supplier council. I facilitated the development of annual strategic supplier assessment lists, and trained supplier and validation teams throughout the U.S. I was also tasked with staffing, leading and coaching SSQA validation teams of industry specialists. I consulted on the first SSQA software to collect assessment data (business intelligence), analyzed completed assessment data, assisted in the development of supplier continuous improvement plans, implemented closed-loop corrective action plans, published formal reports, and presented to executive teams on assessment results and next steps. ▶ Coordinated over fifty industry supplier quality assessments▶ Consulted on over thirty continuous improvement projects with industry suppliers▶ Created a highly productive, cohesive industry task force▶ Presented and facilitated at industry conferences to C-level audiencesI enjoyed this role and had the privilege to work with many talented people from world-class organizations - they taught me a lot! Specifically, I learned how to analyze data to provide leadership with actionable intelligence information. The role also helped me to develop my business process consulting skills, and learned total quality management (TQM) philosophies and techniques. The SSQA program was successfully transferred to SEMI/SEMATECH in 1998.

Professional Diploma, Change Management, 'With Distinction"

In addition to completing all coursework, assignments, and exams, I read eighteen books on change management to supplement the learning..

Certificate, Executive Leadership

Excellent program for anyone interested in advancing their strategic planning and scenario planning skills. The scenario planning course.

Bba, Change Management, Communications

Activities and Societies: Honor Society