J. Robert Carleton, Founding Partner
Mr. Carleton is now the Founding Partner and President of Vector Group, Inc. Bob was an original founding partner of Vanguard Consulting Group, Inc. in 1983, an earlier form of the present enterprise. He and Claude Lineberry started Vector Group, Inc. in 1993. He is the Director of Consultancy for Vector Europe, Ltd. Bob is also a Research Professor at the Sonora (Mexico) Institute of Technology. He has worked in both the public and private sectors and has extensive experience as both a manager and consultant.
Mr. Bob Carleton’s career represents over 35 years of experience and he is an internationally recognized authority in organizational performance and effectiveness. Bob is a global thought leader and pioneer in the emerging field of cultural due diligence and its application in successful M & A integrations. He has a lengthy record of achievements in turning around underperforming organizations and bringing them to the top of their respective industries with companies such as GM, Honeywell-Bull, Prudential Assurance, British Airways and Square D Company. He is an expert in organizational analysis and design, leadership and executive team development. As an accomplished author and speaker he is highly sought after and invited to international conferences and symposiums frequently. <presentations>
Mr. Carleton has significant international experience across numerous industries leading organizational transformations and bringing competitive advantage. He directs large scale change initiatives and implements global strategies. Described as having one of the keenest analytical minds and a true systems thinker, he identifies complex organizational problems and creates innovative solutions while aligning strategy, infrastructure and culture achieving dramatic results. He is particularly skilled as a facilitator in building executive teams and achieving enterprise success by leveraging individual and collective capabilities. His integrity is impeccable and recognized by other leaders in the field of organizational and human performance.
He has consistently delivered measurably improved organizational performance while implementing significant organizational change. He created the concept and published the first paper on Cultural Due Diligence to increase success in mergers, acquisitions and alliances in 1997. With Claude Lineberry he authored Achieving PostMerger Success: A Stakeholders Guide to Cultural Due Diligence, Assessment and Integration, JosseyBass/ John Wiley, 2004. He and Lineberry also co-authored Organizational Culture Change and Analysis of Corporate Culture for the Handbook of Human Performance Technology, Volumes 1 and 2 (Jossey Bass, 1992 & 1999). His new book published by HRD Press on Implementing Organizational Performance Improvement in Organizations coming out this fall. <books> <articles>
Career Summary
Recently, Bob returned to Vector Group after his tenure as Senior Vice President HR and Organizational Effectiveness for T-Systems North America (TSNA). While there he was a member of the Executive Leadership Team and a direct report to the CEO. He was in charge of three cost centers including HR, Recruiting, and Organizational Effectiveness, and one profit center – the Change Management Practice. The initial task was to bring together two companies of equal size (roughly 300 people each) and turn them into one cohesive work force with one benefits package, one employee handbook, and one consolidated management team while raising the general standard of performance in areas of direct responsibility. Mr. Carleton exceeded all expectations in these areas.
Bob turned around British Airways WorldCargo <freight division> reversing a 10 year record of high cost and meager profits. BA WorldCargo 5,000 person operation was languishing in spiraling costs and failing in its global strategy to deliver cargo as promised. He led the organizational analysis determining driving causes. Conceptualized and implemented a multi-faceted series of interventions geared to improve processes, improve profits and drive down costs. Drove for results from the shop floor to the executive suite gaining the full commitment of organizational members improving cargo delivery 200%.
He reduced the cost of sales 165%+ for Prudential Assurance Retail Services while increasing sales channels. The cost of sales was soaring astronomically at 2.65: 1. He and Vector Group were invited by recently hired managing director of this 8,000 member sales division to investigate and rectify the situation. Bob directed concurrent projects building infrastructure supporting attainment of strategic goals. Bob led an international faculty in delivering Leadership Mandate, a residential leadership development program for the top 500 sales managers designed to transform the sales organization. He was instrumental in building internal resources to carry on sustained change through a knowledge transfer and development of a “SWAT Team” or an organizational effectiveness team.
He achieved a $13M increase in profitability for Community Mutual Insurance Company (CMIC) through improved operations. As one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies in the US with 3,300employees and 350 managers, CMIC was experiencing dramatic competition and loss of business. Bob transformed the organization, improved operations, developed management capabilities while reducing complacency and creating a sense of urgency. The Vector Team under Bob’s guidance and leadership achieved improvement in 32 management practices for 350 managers. An internal audit showed a 600+% return on investment with an additional $8M benefit related to behavior change
Mr. Carleton led the hp/Compaq cultural due diligence and the new organization achieved all quarterly integration targets for three+ years following the merger. When hp was considering the merger with Compaq, its top leadership found Bob’s original article on Cultural Due Diligence (CDD) published in 1997. Vector Group worked with Mercer-Delta Consulting to design protocols for cultural due diligence focus group assessment for both company’s global operations. Bob designed focus group protocols to gather extremely sensitive information concerning company cultures. He managed Vector Group’s portion of this international project consisting of 144 focus groups in 23 countries on 5 continents completing them in three weeks. He and Claude Lineberry analyzed and reported results to top management ultimately rolling out results to combined management across both companies.
Earlier Career
Highlights of Bob’s earlier career include his position as Senior Training Analyst and Performance Officer with the Bank of America. He then moved into the role of Manager of Operations support for National BankAmericard <now Visa, Inc.>. As the Director or Organizational Development and Training for Alameda County, he led the training efforts for a county government employing 23,000 people including hospitals, libraries, prisons, courts, social services, etc.
Mr. Carleton along with Donald Tosti, Ph.D. and William Daniels founded Operants, Inc. in 1978. The company published training and development materials including the Performance-Based Management Training Modules (PBM). In addition to publishing, Operants, Inc. provided organizational consulting services for a number of client organizations. Ultimately, Operants was purchased by The Forum Corporation, Boston, MA where Bob served at Director of the Operants Division providing training and consulting services.
Carleton is a past president and founding director of the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction. He served on the ASTD Professional Standards Task Force, and is a member of the Board of Electors for the HRD Hall of Fame. He is a member of the “Tucson 7” Research Group.