E. Michael Shays CMC

Michael Shays and his team help executives resolve management dilemmas, transition and conflict. They specialize in facilitating solutions to problems where there has been resistance, lack of innovation, or lack of progress. This assistance leads not only to breakthrough solutions, but to the smooth implementation of those changes.

The focus of this approach is on what must be achieved instead of what is wrong and what caused it. They work with the client to define a future solution and work backwards to create a new present instead of forcing a new present from the past. There are seven principles of effective thinking and opportunity development underlying this facilitated process, including purpose expansion, next generation solution, uniqueness, and people involvement.

The mix of creative and practical steps, divergent and convergent thinking not only gets to the heart of the real issues, but also provides a faster track to crossing the finish line with the right results. Michael also helps companies develop a more entrepreneurial environment by guiding intrapreneurial programs for their employees.

Michael is a professional speaker on the subject of Focused or Failed Leadership.

Professional Background

A former General Electric systems planner, Michael began his consulting practice with the international operations improvement firm, Bruce Payne & Associates. He passed his exams as a Certified Management Consultant in 1973 and was recruited by Coopers & Lybrand as a direct entry Partner where over the years he was given responsibility for the Systems Consulting practice in New York; all consulting to the firm's largest single client, AT&T and the Bell System; management of the Northwest Region Consulting Practice; and Communications Industry Consulting in the Pacific Coast Area.

After fourteen years with C&L, BDO Seidman recruited Michael to be the National Director of Management Consulting where he also served as Chairman of BDO’s International Management Consulting Committee. He left BDO in 1990 to open his own firm, EMS Network International, with strategic partners in four continents.

Professional Associations

Michael is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants USA and a recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award. He was Chairman of the USA Institute in 1983-85 and again in 2001-02, and Chairman of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes in 1993-95. He is also a former outside Board member of the Association of Internal Management Consultants.

Michael also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees and CEO of the Journal of Management Consulting Inc., publisher of C2M read in sixty countries and devoted to improving the practice of management consulting around the world. He has been an active member of the Institute for Global Ethics, the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center, and the Center for Breakthrough Thinking.

Michael is a former Navy pilot, a graduate of Principia College, and a past President of its Alumni Association. For additional information about Michael Shays, visit his page in GlobalLOOK from the MCNI constellation of web sites for management consultants.

Contact Information

E. Michael Shays CMC FIMC — EMS Consultants
858 Longview Road, Burlingame, CA 94010-6974
Tel: 650-342-5259 – Fax: 650-344-5005

ems@emsnetwork.com

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