Meet Barbara


Barbara ShannonI am Barbara Shannon and for over 15 years I have guided senior executives through business transformation initiatives.

My clients refer to me as the global project leader’s right hand and an insurance policy for the successful, on time, on budget delivery of project benefits.

I provide strategic planning and decision support, business process development and implementation, project design and governance and change management expertise. Typical projects include business process improvement, systems implementation (SAP/Oracle/CRM/PDM), post merger integration, business model change and new market ventures. I specialize in turn-arounds for at-risk programs.

I design and facilitate best practice project management approaches including:

  • Business Process Design and Implementation
  • Vendor Selection
  • Governance and Reporting
  • Change Readiness
  • Risk Assessment
  • Corrective Action Planning
  • Road Map Development
  • Leadership Alignment
  • Board Alignment
  • Change Management

I have worked with Applied Materials, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, Xilinx, FEI Corporation and New Wave Research on projects including post merger integration, enterprise business process transformation (ERP), sales transformation (CRM), new product introduction and IT portfolio optimization.

As a featured speaker at international corporate meetings and association events, I provide a wake up call to senior executives and functional managers followed by specific steps and tactics to help their projects succeed.

Prior to starting Shannon Solutions, Inc., I was a senior executive at Deloitte Consulting where I led global business transformation and change management programs. I also developed and trained clients Deloitte Consulting methodologies for Program and Project Management, Change Leadership, Balanced Score Card and Talent Management.

In addition to my client work, I am a guest lecturer at the Wharton School and I write and teach case studies for conferences, consulting firms and executive education. My Case For Change Workshop was filled to capacity at Gartner’s 2008 Business Process Re-engineering Conference.

I received my BA from Smith College and MBA from the Wharton School of Business where I am a member of the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change.

What Her Clients Are Saying

“Before this project I had a rather low opinion of consultants in general.  My past experiences had not been very productive or pleasant. From the very first day that I met Barbara I was impressed.  Barbara and I sat down and spoke about the experience I had with leading a change team. My experience was exactly zero.  She proceeded to give me a brief class on Change Management. I was unconvinced that all of what she was showing me would be applicable to our business and the global ERP implementation we were undertaking. I could not have been more wrong. Everything that Barbara had shown me those many months ago have come to fruition exactly as she told me they would. She has been my steadying rock to lean on when needed, my sounding board to vent to, the calming influence when things got hectic and frustrating, a wealth of knowledge about a subject that was very new to me and most of all a partner in heading up this team.  She has not been just a consultant; she is my management partner for this entire project.  I am, as are most managers, especially engineers, a controlling individual so for me to consider Barbara a partner in “my” project indicates a very high level of trust in her ability. Her ability to work under pressure, stay calm and keep the team focused has turned what could have been a very unpleasant experience into something very interesting to do.  In my opinion Barbara’s strongest point is her ability to communicate to anyone, no matter who they are. Her presentation skills are impressive and she has the ability to grab an audience’s attention and hold it no matter how dry the subject may be. I can honestly say that given the challenges we faced, this project would not have achieved the success it has without her as my partner.”

Michael K. Hollahan
ERP Phase II Business Transformation Manager
Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems

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