Kaizen Team

Kaizen Consulting, founded by Michael Walsh, has a team of successful professionals who serve clients across Canada and the US, grow their businesses to higher levels of success.

The Kaizen team prides itself in offering a broad understanding of business and decades of consulting experience. Team members have served in Fortune 500 companies, successful entrepreneurships, municipal leadership and as university faculty.

Kaizen has been helping entrepreneurs achieve greater success since 1995 and its team structure is designed to make strategic business consulting affordable for growing businesses.
 

Michael Walsh

Michael Walsh, founder and president of Kaizen Consulting, has been helping small business owners achieve profit growth and excellence in their fields since 1995. Examples of this include Back in Motion, ranked #1 on the 2007 Best Places to Work in Canada (published by Canadian Business magazine); Colorado-based Platte River Networks, increased from a six-figure business to a multi-million dollar enterprise in three years; and CEI, innovative architecture firm, whose revenues doubled in two years, and more than tripled within four years.

Michael's core belief is that businesses must be designed to achieve their owners' personal goals. With an advanced understanding of business models and structures, he takes the guesswork out of building a high-functioning company. His expertise stretches across business disciplines including: finance, sales & marketing, recruiting & people management, and succession planning, to name a few.

Clients say that Michael has a rare ability to communicate sophisticated business strategies in a simple way, and that his people skills have helped them resolve their trickiest interpersonal problems with customers, employees, and business partners.

His client roster includes business owners across many professions – including architects, engineers, doctors and other health care firms, financial planners, real estate offices and brokers, insurance companies, manufacturers, marketing agencies, and technology companies, as well as a whole host of other service based small businesses.

Michael lives what he teaches. Applying his methods, he's built Kaizen into a company that lets him live his personal dreams. Michael spends 18 weeks traveling every year, a favorite pastime, second only to hockey. Michael holds a bachelor's degree in commerce and economics from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Asia Pacific International University.
 

Consider Michael Walsh for Your Next Conference or Seminar

Barry Wood

Barry Wood joins Kaizen as a Senior Consultant.
 
Barry brings 35 years of entrepreneurial success to our table. He loves to share his business experience by assisting companies to maximize opportunities and achieve growth. He is passionate about helping people and organizations reach their greatest potential.

After graduating from the University of Maryland in 1975 with a background in Organizational Psychology, he started his first company, Botanical Decorators. With a humble $115.00 investment, he grew the company to a 10-acre nursery and greenhouse operation with 85 employees servicing the greater Baltimore/Washington area. For his success, Ernst and Young and Venture Magazine awarded Barry Entrepreneur of the Year.

He started his second company, Physicians Service Group and Pharmaceutical Management in 2001 from scratch and grossed $100 M in the first five years. PSG and PMG held accounts with many medical clinics on both the East and West coasts of the United States.

Barry has lectured nationally on Sales Success, Organizational Development, Leadership Training and Hiring the Best  During his lecture series years he mentored hundreds of companies across the United States, driving them to greater levels of success and providing substantial personal growth for their entrepreneur owners.

His unique ability is the tenacity he brings along with pinpoint focus and creative thinking to get problems solved.

When he is not busy helping people/companies grow he is spending time in his other passions which are grandchildren, traveling with his wife, boating and fishing…not always in that order.

Allan Newbury

Allan joins us as a Certified Kaizen Growth Consultant, combining his integrity and passion for the entrepreneurial spirit with his years of experience in the financial services industry.

From the beginnings of his career in 1965 to present, Allan has helped numerous clients integrate their personal and business plans by establishing realistic monetary and non-monetary goals. Allan has lived the Kaizen vision; through educating and advising, he helps his clients gain tremendous success and personal growth by making informed decisions about their money and business strategies.

Graduating from the BC Institute of Technology, Allan majored in finance and accounting and went on to earn both the CA and CFP designations. He has been a senior manager in a national CA firm specializing in owner-managed businesses, and has also been a senior financial advisor to personal and corporate clients in both national and international investment firms.

Allan has built his reputation by being an excellent communicator and teacher. He is devoted to assisting entrepreneurs, and his clients truly value his honesty and openness. The word of mouth references that his long-term clients willingly provide speak volumes to his success. They appreciate his patience and willingness to listen, and his ability to explain concepts in a way that make them easily understood and even more easily implemented.

Allan is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. He currently resides in West Vancouver with his wife, Inga, where he spends his spare time playing golf and enjoying fitness work & reading.

Norm Duplessis

Norman Duplessis brings 30 years of professional and entrepreneurial experience to the Kaizen Consulting Team. After spending 6 years in public practice, he took his CA skill and experience and acquired an ownership role in mid-sized concrete manufacturing company with 3 offices, $14 million in sales and a number of challenges. Over 24 years, he orchestrated four acquisitions, expansion into the United States, negotiated  a number of innovative financing and refinancing structures, was directly involved in new product development and was responsible for heading up the Company’s expansion into the concrete DIY market through Home Depot, Rona and Home Hardware. Sales topped $49 million in 2008 and the company was sold to a strategic competitor in 2009.

In addition, Norm involved himself in a number of entrepreneurial peer groups over the last eight years, shared his experiences and coached many business owners in overcoming challenges and finding growth opportunities in their companies. Business colleagues have found him insightful, quick in understanding different business dynamics and focused on confronting the real issues.

Norm joined the Kaizen group because of his personal belief in the concepts that Michael advocates. In Norm’s experience the only way to achieve strong growth, security and freedom is by effectively leveraging management and employees in the business. This can only be done successfully by creating proper systems and processes within the organization aligned with an effective growth strategy. 

Chuck Scharenberg

Chuck Scharenberg is the director of Kaizen Consulting Chicago. He has twenty years of experience as an executive coach and business advisor. He's helped hundreds of business owners achieve significant growth. Chuck is known for his systematic approach and his ability to help business owners grow into stronger leaders.

Chuck's clients say that working with him has given them renewed sense of purpose and clarity, as well as deeper awareness into their leadership strengths and challenges. They say he has a rare ability to help business owners create a culture of collaboration.

Chuck has worked with companies across many sectors including technology, financial services, insurance, real estate, telecommunications, manufacturing, and distribution, law and healthcare.

Prior to Kaizen he held several leadership positions. He served as a director, Operations Officer and CEO of a major healthcare corporation.

Chuck provides pro bono services to emerging business leaders. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Management from the University of Iowa and a B.A. from Regis University (Denver, CO). He is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a graduate of the B-Coach Systems business coaching certification program.

 

Jeff Fisher

Jeff Fisher oversees Kaizen's Reno office. His life as an entrepreneur began during his teens, when he owned his own fish bait supply company. Jeff's many successful ventures have taught him first-hand what it takes to build a profitable business. Most recently Jeff was president and CEO of Reno Lawn & Landscape, which he sold after growing the business to more than $4.5 million.

Now Jeff spends his time helping business owners achieve their dreams, applying his business acumen to devise creative approaches for business growth. Clients report that they value Jeff's candid assessment of issues and his inventive ways of solving business problems. He is a self-proclaimed techno-geek who knows how to apply technology to make life easier for entrepreneurs.

Jeff serves on the Board of Directors for the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce and as past-chair for the Northern Nevada Chapter of the American Red Cross. He is also past-chair of the Chamber's Leadership program. He is a member of EDAWN (Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada) and belongs to WIN. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1988.
 
 

Stephanie Dmytriw

Stephanie Dmytriw is Senior Success Partner at Kaizen's Reno office, where she helps companies structure for growth and profit. She knows how to design business processes that let entrepreneurs focus on the strategic aspects of their business.

Clients say Stephanie's analytical mind helps them think through every step of long-term growth, carving out a path that is logical and achievable. She's helped clients create procedures in human resources, finance, technology, operations and marketing.

She has held leadership roles in entrepreneurial companies. Most recently she was Director of Corporate Affairs for Reno Lawn & Landscape where she was instrumental in the company's growth to $4.5 million.

Stephanie holds a bachelors degree in business administration (1997) and a master's degree in speech communications (2004) from the University of Nevada, Reno. She earned her Professional in Human Resources designation in 2006 and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.

She volunteers with The Northern Nevada Literacy Council, American Red Cross, Junior Achievement , and the Reno-Sparks Chamber ‘Ethical Decision Making' and ‘Youth Leadership' programs.