Working & Writing... and Writing About Working

One thing I like to do with this blog is take a look back every now and then at what I've written and pull some of the disparate posts together.

Topic for today's soliloquy is going to be working and writing, and the content written here about both since Sept 1st. Additionally, a piece from back in January bears linking to because... well, because I liked writing it.

Work, it's an odd thing. People engage in it to get the money for the things they want to do (like eat and put clothes on their kids), but in many cases, work can define someone and give their identity. For many, it becomes a struggle to bridge the gap betwixt the identity created by the work they're doing and the identity sought through the work they'd like to do. Actually, to that end, I've at times been jealous of people who have a job and are fine with it. Yes, I'm super duper jealous of someone with a job they love, but it doesn't seem like that bad of a racket to have a job that you work, leave it at the end of the day and merrily not think about either that work or any different (i.e. better) type of work till the next day.

However, burdens to bear are what they are and for those of us who aspire to something different, it's a good idea to think about it and take steps towards said different.

In terms of general musings around work, I posted both Commitment. To Work? and Urgent vs Important Work in the past six weeks. Looking more specifically at the type of work I fancy, Writers Write... And Not Always Well and Ex-CEO as Nebraska Volunteer Coach / Not too Late for Career Changes (title sure sings, doesn't it) appeared on this blog since mid-September.

All this said (and linked to), here's the point... if you want to do something, the best path forward is probably to start doing it. Ergo, if I want to write and want to have a particular type of work (yep, a writing type)... there's not many better ways towards that than writing, including writing about work.

To this end (and yea, I know the phrase was already used above), one piece I particular enjoyed writing about a field of work that's becoming increasingly bigger (with associated import) is Social Media... What a Place to Be!(?) Really had all the elements for me... a topic I find interesting, something I enjoyed writing and something I'm happy with the output.

Not bad... and something to aspire to doing more and more of.

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.