Magazine reading notes 13

Fast Company - July/Aug 2007
"The King of Green Investing" about Vinod Khosla
"PG&E's Chemistry Test" about how the company is putting more focus on things like reducing energy usage, but is still putting out a large # of products with hazerdous materials. Alternative products are from companies like Method.

BusinessWeek - July 7 2008
Positive review of the HP TouchSmart computer "HP's Personal Touch"

Time - July 14 2008
"10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas" with the benefits around reduced sprawl, pollution, traffic and jobs leaving the US
"Pick Up a Mop" about the idea of, and science around, strategies to soak up carbon dioxide that has already been emitted
"Making of America: Mark Twain" cover story about the author

BusinessWeek - July 2008
Mention of the work outsourcing website http://www.elance.com/
Retirement planning feature that discusses among other things the idea of simply having a smaller house... perhaps a prefabricated one
Mention of "Emotional Branding" author Marc Gobe and his new think tank by the same name

BusinessWeek - June 30 2008
"I Have Just One Wod for You: Bioplastics" about the new industry around plastics that biodegrade

Time - June 30 2008
Joe Klein "In the Arena" piece about how if elected President Barack Obama should follow the example of Abraham Lincoln (as detailed in the exellent Doris Kearns Goodwin biography "Team of Rivals") and have opponents (i.e. Republicans) in Cabinet level positions... specifically current Defense Secretary Robert Gates
Mention of left-leaning political website http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Moving piece by Joe Klein on the legacy of Tim Russert titled "The People's Voice"

Books of Interest

“The Dangerous Book for Boys” by Conn Iggulden
"Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt
"Flow" Csikszentmihalyi
"Six Easy Pieces" by Richard Feynman
"The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

"Zero Days" by Barbara Egbert
"In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
"On the Road" by Jack Keroac
"The Hero" by Jon Krakauer... not coming out in 2008
next book from Erik Larson
"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain
C.S. Lewis
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
"East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
“The Billionaire Who Wasn’t” by Conor O’Clery
"Retool, Reboot, Rebuild" by Mehmet Oz, M.D.
"Heyday" by Kurt Anderson

"The Garden of Last Days" by Andre Dubus III
"Peace" by Richard Bausch
"The Lararus Project" by Aleksandar Hemon
“The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California” by Richard Rayner
“Intern” by Sandeep Jauhar
“A Fraction of the Whole” by Steve Toltz
“The Preacher & the Presidents” by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
"Go Put Your Stengths to Work" by Marcus Buckingham
“The Four Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss
“Grey Area” by Will Self
“The Mezzanine” by Nicholson Baker
“Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin
“Plainsong” by Kent Haruf
“The Blade Itself” by Marcus Sakey

Magazine reading notes 12: 2008 Feb-Jun 2

Oregon Lundquist College of Business Magazine
Piece on Rick Burton taking the CMO spot with the USOC
Piece by Paul Swangard on the Warsaw Center

Time - June 2
"Roused by Disaster" about the government response by China to their earthquake http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1808638,00.html


Time - June 9
"How to Survive a Disaster" with feature on Morgan Stanley Security Director Rick Rescorla http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1810315,00.html

Time - July 7

"Time: 85 Years of Great Writing" book recently published

"Sweet Deal" about how the state of Florida bought U.S. Sugar Corp. in an effort to save the Everglades... http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1818184,00.html

"10 Questions" with Neil DeGrasse, host of the PBS show "Nova Science Now"

Time - Feb 25

"Tuning Up the House" about energy assessments that can be done through http://www.currentenergy.com/

Time - May 26

"10 Questions" with Ira Glass, host of the NPR show "This American Life"

Piece on the band They Might Be Giants and their foray into children's educational CDs and DVDs including "Here Come the ABCs" and "Here Comes the 123s"... http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1806810,00.html

BusinessWeek - June 2

Excerpt from the boo "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good" by Sarah Lacy that looks in part at Marc Andreessen and his new startup... http://www.ning.com/... http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080516_232288.htm?chan=search

"Beyond Blogs" cover story... http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_22/b4086044617865.htm?chan=search

Magazine Reading Notes 11: 2008 Mar-Jun

BusinessWeek - Apr 21
"Amazon Takes On IBM, Oracle and HP" about cloud computing offering from Amazon
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_16/b4080000729196.htm?chan=search
Time - Apr 7
"Wake Up and Sell the Coffee" about Howard Schultz returning to Starbucks
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725973,00.html

Time - Apr 21
"10 Questions with Randy Pausch" about his "Last Lecture" which can be seen on http://www.youtube.com/ and has been made into a book
"Five Best Blogs": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/, http://www.lifehacker.com/, http://www.metafilter.com/, http://www.treehugger.com/, http://www.postsecret.com/

Time - May 5
"The Next J.K. Rowling?" about Stephanie Meyer the writer of the "Twilight" young-adult novel series... http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1734838,00.html

BusinessWeek - Apr 28
"HP Labs Latest Experiment: Itself" about the new HP Labs initiative to focus on 20 to 30 major projects... http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081072888929.htm?chan=search
"The Buzz from Starbucks Customers" about the month-old site http://www.mystarbucksidea.com/ and how it's giving customers a voice to the company

Fast Company - May
"How a Small Band of Sci-Fi Geeks in Leading Hollywood" about the youthful creators of shows such as "Lost", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Heroes"
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/rebel-alliance.html

Time - May 12
"100 Most Influential People" issue... http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601080512,00.html

"Fun with Photoshop" about the hit web comedy series "You Suck at Photoshop"
Story on http://www.techcrunch.com/ blog about Silicon Valley business
Story about online news rating site http://www.digg.com/
Story about Elizabeth Gibert who wrote "Eat, Pray, Love" as well as a short story in issue 141 of "The Paris Review"
Piece on multi-touch screen designer Jeff Han
Piece on Doctor Mehmet Oz
Piece on Randy Pausch and his "last lecture"

BusinessWeek - May 19
"A Touch of Genius" about the new innovations in touchscreen technology
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_20/b4084073144159.htm?chan=search
"Mining the Office Chatter" about HP's "Water Cooler" aggregation tool to see what's been written on blogs...

BusinessWeek - Apr 14
"A Town Torn Apart by Itself" about Nestle Waters N.A. and it's attempt to build an Arrowhead bottled water plant in McCloud, CA... http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_15/b4079042498703.htm?chan=search

BusinessWeek - Mar 31
"Morphing Video Games into Movies" about Electronic Arts new business model of using it's games in other mediums... http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_13/b4077076429342.htm?chan=search
"From Hitmen to Hitless" about the management changes at HBO amidst it's troubles recreating past success... http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_13/b4077050393595.htm?chan=search

BusinessWeek - Apr 28
Story about the Flip Video camcorder from San Francisco company Pure Digital Technologies

Fast Company - Jun
"China Invades Africa" special report about the resource grab now taking place

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/special-report-china-in-africa.html


Esquire - May
"The Things That Carried Him" by Chris Jones about the journey home for deceased Sergeant Joe Montgomery... http://www.esquire.com/features/things-that-carried-him
Mention by Chris Jones of writer W.C. Heinz and his story "Death of a Racehorse" from a 1949 New York Sun... http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/index.php/topic,28073.0.html
"1,026 Pages of Required Reading" about the following books: "The Garden of Last Days" by Andre Dubus III, "Peace" by Richard Bausch and "The Lararus Project" by Aleksandar Hemon
"Retool, Reboot, Rebuild" by Mehmet Oz, M.D. with a seven-day guide to improving personal health... http://www.esquire.com/features/better-man/better-man-0508
"The Better Man" piece on Don Wildman by Susan Casey... who is a regular Esquire contributor and wrote "The Devil's Teeth" about her time on the Farallon Islands... http://www.esquire.com/features/don-wildman-0508

Esquire - Jun
Mention of David Sedaris book "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" that comes out June '08
Note from Mehmet Oz, M.D. about the benefit for people over 35 to take 2 baby aspirin daily to thin the blood and kill inflammation

My Resume

* up to date as of January 2015

Dave Stark
davestark2@yahoo.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidstark2
https://twitter.com/davestark2


Profile

Versatile, results-focused, customer operations professional recognized for unique skills in complex problem resolution both internally and for clients. Counted on by company leaders to create and present solutions for major accounts, design reporting templates to manage planning, oversee and provide training for customer support teams, and lead on-boarding efforts for new customers.

• Builder of solid customer and internal relationships while calmly handling complex service issues.
• Strong working experience with enterprise systems, including ERP applications and shipment feeds.
• Skilled at working with data and superior writing skills enhanced by writing of blog posts and books.
• MBA from University of Oregon and BA from Western Washington University.
• Best-suited for using creative technical skills to identify and resolve complex issues, then presenting the solution in writing and verbally to stakeholders.

Work Experience

Hewlett-Packard Company Palo Alto, CA 2000-2014

Global Account Operations Manager / previously Account Operations Manager & Customer Inventory Analyst
Key member of the account management team including Sales, Customer Service and Supply Chain for new both account implementations and ongoing business at large and often global HP corporate customers. Design of the customer engagement solution against contract, creation and management of forecast process, product lifecycle planning and problem resolution, rollout and large product management, building and presentation of customer management reports and go-to contact for details on HP performance against contract, engagement design and global contacts for the business between client and HP.

• Ran a $26MM server ordering project for HP customer Home Depot. Deal included shipment of 3,988 servers refreshing 1,994 US and Puerto Rico Home Depot stores. Management of the product rollout included hosting of daily calls for almost two months and resulted in all servers being delivered to the customer within need-by dates and to enable HP to recognize the revenue by fiscal year-end. Led the team to get product build schedules in place and truckload shipping per Home Depot warehouse requirements and resolved issues with both missing cables and invoices to HP Financial Services in the US and Puerto Rico. Then repeated the same process a year later for another 440 servers for use in Home Depot Canada stores. Successful completion of this rollout required brokering an agreement between HP Financial Services and HP Transportation to resolve an issue with shipping costs.

• Created an effective customer forecast template for HP customer BAE Systems. Client was decentralized and unhappy with order turn-around-time for notebooks. Designed a detailed forecast model for the customer to use based upon purchase history by the BAE business groups and lines of business and convinced HP management to pre-build against the customer forecast, leading to a 33% (19 days to 12) reduction in turn-around time. This process and its result also strengthened the relationship with the BAE contract administrator.

• Responded to a product receipt issue with HP customer AP Moeller Maersk and prevented the return of over 500 docking stations to HP. Customer is headquartered in Denmark and product specifications of custom notebooks were changed by client and HP Sales team in Europe to include drop-in-box docking stations along with notebooks. US customer contacts ordered separate docking stations along with notebooks containing docks. Rather than extra docking stations being returned, worked with customer to get payment for ordered docks and set up a new custom notebook SKU without dock to be ordered and then paired up with docks in inventory.

• Resolved, along with Sales District Management, a pricing issue with HP customer Invensys. Products at time of standard transition had specifications greatly improved and prices were increased. Worked closely with customer management on buy-off of price increase and created the communications strategy to purchasers around the improved specs.

• Developed internal process of customer shipment, forecast and exit-rate reporting and then presented data at both an aggregate and account level to HP Supply Chain and Product Line management. This communication to internal business owners showed business controls around inventory prebuilding and allowed it to continue.

• Grew into having a very high level of expertise in Microsoft Excel. Asked by management to design and deliver Excel training to peers in supply chain and operations, including sessions on pivot tables and V-Lookups. Also created pivot table templates for use by Customer Service reps and was the go-to contact for Excel questions.

Athlon Sports Communications Nashville, TN 1998-1999
Private media company offering integrated trade and consumer marketing programs

Midwest Regional Sales Manager
• Sold integrated trade and consumer marketing programs with both direct mail and advertising in sports magazines.

• Generated all leads, cold-called to set appointments and did approximately 130 in-person sales presentations, typically to individuals in VP Marketing or VP Sales positions at corporations that could advertise nationally.


The Southwestern Company Nashville, TN 1992-1996
Educational and reference book publishing company

Sales Organization Manager / Sales Recruiter / Salesperson
• Worked in summer sales program starting while in college. Sold as well as recruited, trained and managed others.

• Managed 12 sales personnel in region during final summer and received Growth Award four years in a row for significant increase in annual personal sales. Finished in top 5% of salespeople company-wide in final summer.


Education / Achievements

MBA: Marketing, 1998 – University of Oregon  
BA: English, 1994 – Western Washington University

Author of nonfiction books published via Amazon: Words Written Down – 2012, 111 Books Reviewed – 2012, More Words Written Down – 2014 and Business Writing to Remember – 2014.