Lansing Community College management and faculty had better hang on to their buttoned down shirts. A strategic planning firm, Marble Leadership Partners, has been hired to “develop a portfolio of improvement opportunities for consideration” and 
is known for its right brain creativity.
According to a New York Times article last year, Leslie Marquard, the Chicago firm’s co-founder, is known to bring her clientele into rooms full of pogo-sticks, ethnic art, hammocks, vintage furniture and a pillow “harem.”
Her goal is to jar loose stayed thinking and move people into a realm of what could be.
“The new method owes some debt to the books, A Whole New Mind, by Daniel H. Pink, and The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida. Both books expound on the need for creative thinking in the market place,” the Times article says.
Marquard was introduced to LCC faculty and students Feb. 5 when college president, Brent Knight, announced the contract at the State of the College address. The company is expected to present its list of opportunities in 60 to 90 days.
Marquard worked with Ernst & Young, and helped Wal-Mart develop its first enterprise strategy, according to the Marble web site. She has broad experience in utilities, textiles, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense, insurance, banking, music and health care.
Her partner, Bill Marquard, is a former adjunct professor of finance at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. His MBA comes from Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management.
Source: Linda Heard, LCC
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
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