Panama BoundWhat type of job are you looking for? I have been an operational level manager for more than 30 years in the areas of Business Finance, Operations, Accounting and Information Systems with experience in health care, education, technology and manufacturing. I am looking for a position in business management, business finance or business operations. What nationality are you? I am a citizen of the United States of America. What languages do you speak (and at what level)? English (Write & Speak fluently)/Spanish (learner) What country or area are you looking to work in and why? I would like to work in Panama because I believe that might experience could be useful in a growing business environment and would ultimately like to retire there in about 10 years. What countries have you worked in? The United States. What countries do you have a visa to work in? None yet. What field do you currently work in? Business planning and disaster recovery. What fields have you worked in before? I have worked as the Deputy Associate Superintendent of School Finance for the State of Arizona, as the Chief Financial Officer for a state run health plan, Director of Operations and Finance for a medical facility, Business Development Manager, Information Systems Manager and Technology Consultant. What qualifications do you hold? I am experienced business manager with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Economics. I also taught college level courses in Business Administration, Accounting, Cost Accounting and Economics. Which do you consider more valuable? Formal education or skills and why? Former education and skills are both valuable, but skills are essential to actually executing an operation and formal training will often address the quality of outcomes. Even in cases where formal training is necessary to learn how to execute a task, it is the skill that is applied. Describe the benefits of working with others There are numerous benefits of working with others. The exchange of knowledge and ideas can create a more fertile work environment and the synergism of teamwork increases work output. The social aspect of working with others makes the experience more enjoyable and it has been proven that happy employees are more productive employees. Describe the benefits of working alone Working alone allows for deep concentration and the development of strong logical paths, but does not provide a check point to validate the accuracy of thought or decisions. What was your worst working experience? The worst working experiences of my career was having to go through the diagnosis, surgery and end of life with two outstanding employees. Company policies, insurance restrictions, and the health care system turned these two situations into horrible conditions. What is the most important lesson you have learnt throughout your career? I learned how to turn non-performing employees into a high-performance team by identifying their personal strengths and personal goals and aligning their work requirements with them. Clearly defining work objectives and holding individuals accountable for their team responsibilities usually leads to expected results. What unique skills do you have? For more than 30 years, I have served in a number of management level positions in defense, information technology, manufacturing, education and healthcare industries. I have developed excellent technical skills in organizational development, change management, financial analysis and budget management, business process and systems analysis, accounting and information systems management. Have demonstrated people skills that include influence management and cross-functional team building and process skills include strategic planning, requirements definition and project management. Technical skills include business process re-engineering, development and implementation of standard methods and tools, budget forecasting and budget analysis. I am adept in the use of Microsoft Office tools including Excel, Word, Visio, PowerPoint, Project and Outlook. What would you consider as your 'dream job'? The position of organizational consultant is the perfect position for me and has been for my entire career. Money, education, location, family support and experience have not been major considerations in my quest to learn and apply organizational principles to the improvement of organizational effectiveness, efficiency, quality. What I mean by the term Organizational Development (OD) is deploying the techniques theorized by management scientists like Peter Drucker, Max Weber and Adam Smith, and by technologist like John Zachman of IBM, Jay Forrester of Digital and Robert Anthony of Harvard. My focus is grass-roots operations within an organization where the rubber meets the road, and strives to answer the question, “can we deploy these concepts and measure the outcomes against current performances. In order to achieve this kind of activity, we must be able to measure or benchmark current performance in terms of culture and values, in terms of business priorities and critical success factors, and in terms of current operations. The key is to understand the requirements based on the organization’s vision, the alignment between business operations and that vision, the organizational architecture used to execute business goals and objectives. Once the requirements to achieve the vision are understood, existing performance is studied and a Gap Analysis is performed to determine the difference between where the organization wants to operates and where it is currently operating. The work to be performed is defined by the gap between current operations and the organization’s vision. The work to be performed is bundled into work packages called projects and the projects are defined in terms of skill sets needed, processes to be conducted and tools required (people, processes and tools). The entire effort has to be rationalized based on budgetary constraints. I work with senior management to define priorities, work across middle management to define work activities and to set a budget, manage projects to deliver the proposed outcomes within time and financial constraints, measure the results in terms of original goals and report them back to management. In most cases, a project this large is intimidating and the whole project cannot be presented in terms of employment or as a contractor; it’s just too big and complex to for most managers to comprehend. So, pieces of this framework can be presented where management is currently experiencing pain and need to find relief of some sort. None the less, working in this area would constitute my dream job. What are the most interesting aspects of your field? The most interesting aspects of my field is working within the organizational dynamics of different industries and organizations. It is based on the use of "Process Consulting" techniques as opposed to "Expert Consulting" which allows me to extract expertise from existing employees and other stakeholders, and take them through a development process. What are the least interesting aspects of your field? The least interesting aspects of my field is that you often get bogged-down in organizational politics that yield no productive outcomes. So, navigating the political mine-fields is often very challenging but least interesting in terms of productive outcomes. Please replace this with a question of your own While my preference in work is organizational development, I am experienced in Business Finance, Accounting, Business Management, Business Development and Systems Analysis. What type of opportunities do you see most often in the Panama business environment? How can potential employers contact you? The easiest and quickest way to contact me is via e-mail: philwilliams1@cox.net or philwilliams3401@gmail.com -or- You may reach me by telephone at: Home - 1-480-264-7907 or Mobile - 1-602-321-4296 | 
