OUR PEOPLE

Our people are our greatest asset. Without smart, passionate, results-focused, down to earth people, our business would not reach its full potential, which is why we invest in developing our people to unleash their potential and give them a chance to do what they do best every day – make a real difference, and have a great time doing it. Combined, our people speak more than 30 languages, are spread across every continent and have  travelled to almost every country in the world. Here are some of the people that help make PIP the company it is today.

Allen L
Senior Associate
North America

Background

Allen came to PIP with six years of consulting experience, including four years of manufacturing and business process improvement.  He holds a BASc in Industrial Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Toronto, and has also trained as a rabbi.  Allen’s interests include ice hockey, SCUBA diving, and spending time with his wife and three children.

My work at PIP

During my nearly two years at PIP, my role has been developing management systems to improve business operations.  For example, at a copper mine, I helped management deliver a 19% decrease in planned shutdown times.  At an airport food production facility, I led the improvement of Supply Chain operations, resulting in a >50% reduction in stock-outs. The key challenge of my work at PIP has been coaching management on how to successfully implement these ideas.  My work does not consist of presentations, but rather making sustainable changes.

Why join PIP

I consider my work at PIP to be the perfect combination of analytical and “people” work.  My role is to determine the areas of greatest opportunities in a business (analytics) and then work with management to implement improvement ideas (people). Furthermore, at PIP, I am ultimately judged by whether my clients have realized their targets.  This means my clients’ personal success is most important, which is both a very challenging objective and a most rewarding accomplishment. Finally, I am very happy with my personal development at PIP, as my day-to-day responsibilities are preparing me for more senior management and executive roles, either in the consulting industry or running my own business.

Laurel
Manager
Australia

Background

I joined PIP with about 15 years of business experience, including building and operating over the past 5 years a mining and processing equipment procurement business in China. Before that, I worked in Russia in the consumer goods industry as well as in McKinsey as a consultant. I got my MBA degree in 1999 from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking and camping around Beijing with my wife and two children, as well as travelling abroad with them.

My work at PIP

I joined PIP this year as an Associate Principal, and my first engagement (still ongoing) is in Ukraine, where our team is helping a multinational steel & mining company increase output, reduce costs per ton and turn around management culture at its Ukrainian unit, for a total projected yearly additional value to the client of over $25M.

Why join PIP?

What attracted me to PIP was the pragmatic approach of delivering real bottom line results to clients through joint team work on the ground, as well as creating long-term impact via a change in clients’ organizational culture. I value a lot the managerial experience and operational background of my colleagues – it adds real weight to the analysis we are doing, and helps transform ideas into lasting results. I am learning a lot from my engagements, my colleagues and the formal training programs in PIP.

Lilian
Associate Principal
CIS

Background

I joined PIP with about 15 years of business experience, including building and operating over the past 5 years a mining and processing equipment procurement business in China. Before that, I worked in Russia in the consumer goods industry as well as in McKinsey as a consultant. I got my MBA degree in 1999 from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking and camping around Beijing with my wife and two children, as well as travelling abroad with them.

My work at PIP

I joined PIP this year as an Associate Principal, and my first engagement (still ongoing) is in Ukraine, where our team is helping a multinational steel & mining company increase output, reduce costs per ton and turn around management culture at its Ukrainian unit, for a total projected yearly additional value to the client of over $25M.

Why join PIP?

What attracted me to PIP was the pragmatic approach of delivering real bottom line results to clients through joint team work on the ground, as well as creating long-term impact via a change in clients’ organizational culture. I value a lot the managerial experience and operational background of my colleagues – it adds real weight to the analysis we are doing, and helps transform ideas into lasting results. I am learning a lot from my engagements, my colleagues and the formal training programs in PIP.

Allen M
Senior Associate
Africa

Background

I joined PIP with five years of operational and project management work in the mining and mineral processing industry. I have a bachelor of Engineering honours undergraduate degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and a postgraduate certificate in Operations from the University of Melbourne.  My interests include watching rugby, hiking and information technology.

My work at PIP

During my three years at PIP, l have successfully delivered and locked-in improvement initiatives worth more than USD 50 million on different mines across Africa. The initiatives I assisted our clients implement were a combination of cost optimisation and throughput improvement in fixed engineering plants. The key challenge of my work at PIP has been to develop business improvement and continuous improvement capabilities through extensive coaching and mentoring of client teams that will ensure sustainability of existing and ongoing improvements in the future.

Why join PIP?

I have always liked production operations and problem solving, at PIP I get to see production operations of all kinds and also get to solve real business challenges. One other thing I have really enjoyed while at PIP is seeing the transformation process client teams go through as they become improvement specialists beyond their normal area of practice. Joining PIP I feel my potential unleashed.

Ali
Associate,
Australia

Background

Ali joined PIP in 2011. Prior to PIP, he had worked in various industries including consulting (Accenture, IBM GBS), investment banking & retail banking, wealth management, pharmaceutical and telecommunications. He holds a BCom (High Distinction) from the UNSW and studied abroad on exchange at the Wharton School in UPenn. He is also a Co-op program scholar and a Harry Mason scholar. Ali is a big fan of travelling without a plan, has an obsession with mountain biking and loves the beach but an atrocious surfer.

My work at PIP

I began my tenure as a BA and now an Associate with PIP. Three memorable highlights below include staying in 40 year old ‘dongas’ at a remote coal mine and tie-not-optional Saturdays at a Casino conglomerate:

Business improvement at a coal mine – our team delivered $300M of improvements. I focused on an overburden removal contractor that cost our client the highest $ / BCM (bank cubic metre) nationally. Here we demonstrated performance uplift of 33%.

Diagnostic at a gaming conglomerate – Our team assisted the food & beverage practice increasing margin by identifying $25M+ of improvement potential

Strategic sourcing at a gaming conglomerate – Our team diagnosed $10M+ in improvement potential in food & beverages and delivered $8M+ in improvements in the food spend. The client had a highly proliferated item list (think ~8,000 food items – that’s as much as a large supermarket with 20 different varieties of tomato sauce). They were also dependent on a small set of vendors.

Why join PIP?

There is a great animation on YouTube by the RSA which illustrates the drivers of motivation as being – (1) autonomy, (2) mastery and (3) purpose. I think these three factors describe why PIP is wonderful place to join: Autonomy:  As a BA or an associate, your engagement team has high expectations of both the quality and quantity of your output. While you are accountable for these outputs, you are given the freedom of managing it. Mastery: PIP equips new joiners with a fantastic toolkit and trains you in the toolkit usually before your first engagement. Using this toolkit, we delve deeply into the operations of our clients and become experts in their industry. Purpose: At PIP, we continuously focus on the dollar impact, roll up our sleeves and work with our clients in actually delivering results.  We also make sure that our impact is sustainable after our exit. So expect to be working with the client team from day 1 and having your impact measured.…and we also test how we are measuring against these factors with our ‘team barometers’.