From Math Whiz to Project Management Maverick: Laura Dribbin's Journey to Innovation and Success

Have you ever wondered what it takes to pivot from a pure math whiz into a leading light in project management consulting? Laura Dribbin, CEO of Peridius Consulting, joins us to chart her own extraordinary journey, taking us from her roots in the burgeoning PC industry to her influential tenure at Microsoft, and finally to the foundation of her own innovative firm. With stories that encapsulate the essence of entrepreneurial grit, Laura embodies the spirit of innovation and the relentless pursuit of success. Her unique "outcome management" approach to projects not only challenges the status quo but also redefines the very metrics by which we measure success.

This episode is nothing short of a master class in tenacity for the business-minded listener. Laura doesn't just share her wisdom; she gives us a front-row seat to the trials and triumphs of taking the road less traveled in business, from integrating AI into project management to the critical importance of personal connections in an increasingly digital world. Her candid revelations about the "three-month rule," combating setbacks, and the unwavering dedication to one’s values provide a blueprint for resilience in the competitive landscape of project management consulting. Captivating and insightful, this conversation with Laura Dribbin will resonate with anyone who's ever aspired to turn their professional dreams into reality.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hey folks, welcome back to another episode of the growing Lean podcast sponsored by Lean Discovery Group. This is your host, dylan Burke, also known as Deej. I'm happy to be here today with Laura Dribbin, founder and CEO of Peridius Consulting. Welcome, laura.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Thanks, Dylan. I appreciate you having me on today. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 0:24

It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure, so can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and your history, and how you ended up doing what you do?

Speaker 2: 0:33

Absolutely, absolutely. So. Everything I'm going to say is probably going to age me, but we'll forget about that during this conversation. But when I first started it was early in the PC startup. You know PCs were new to business. I had been a math major in college. I didn't really know what I wanted, but I fell into consulting early on, loved it. I worked for one of the they called it the Big Eight Now they call them the Tier 1 consulting firms there's not quite eight anymore and just loved consulting. But I then switched. I thought I wanted to try corporate America, realized corporate America wasn't for me after one year. And then from there I went to.

Speaker 2: 1:25

I worked at Microsoft and that was early on in Microsoft's tenure. So great experience. They hired eight people around the country to go out and be evangelists for OS2, land manager and SQL server, as anyone who knows anything about OS2 history. Midway through they said stop talking about OS2 and start talking about Windows. So that was a great experience. But after I had been there for a couple of years I was pregnant with my first daughter and realized had to figure out what my priorities were. I had been a road warrior up until then, my entire career, and knew I didn't want to do work travel. When I had children. I missed consulting, so that was my other thing. I wanted flexibility for my children. I wanted to get back to consulting. But if I went back it would have still been the same kind of environment where I would be a road warrior. So I ended up starting my own firm.

Speaker 2: 2:34

At that point in time Really had no background, but I decided I was going to start my own consulting firm, focused on the Chicago area, which is where I live. My experience was mostly in Fortune 1000 companies, so that was where I was going to focus my attention at the time. So that's how I got started. Shortly after starting the business, I had a tech background but I fell into managing a very large program for one of the Fortune 1000 companies and realized I love this, I'm good at it, I'm good at organizing people and plans and realized that was my niche. And back then I saw an opening.

Speaker 2: 3:23

Project management was not a buzzword in companies Construction engineering they used project managers for decades and used that term. But in the business community, project management was not a term that people were using. So when they said I need something done, please go ahead and figure out how to do it, make it happen. That's what I, you know, that's what we were doing at that time. So I used that opportunity to develop my business plan around going to be focusing on the delivery of my client's strategy. You know, focus just on delivery. And back then most consultants really, and still today, love doing strategy we figured we would do the tough end of like let's make sure that happens. So that's how we ended up into at the time what we called a program and project management consulting firm.

Speaker 1: 4:18

Okay, amazing, that's, that's awesome. And do you ever regret leaving Microsoft, seeing how far they've gone?

Speaker 2: 4:27

No, I don't, Probably an issue that I shouldn't be announcing on a podcast, but I stock, which we won't talk about, that made some mistakes in that end. But yes, but no, I don't regret it because I've been doing. I love what we're doing right now, I love what we've created and I'm just consulting. At the time I actually had an opportunity at the time at Microsoft to propose I remember proposing to Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates that they should create a consulting firm within Microsoft and at the time they weren't ready for it. I know they have one now, an arm of it, but at the time they weren't ready for that 100%, and could you walk us through your overall strategy, your business strategy?

Speaker 2: 5:19

Sure, sure. So you know my strategy has changed slightly throughout the 34 years we've been doing this. Initially it was program and project management. You know I would take on any project and our model is very different. It's unique to most consulting firms. Nowadays, project managers are everywhere and every consulting firm will say here's your subject manager experts, and we'll bring a project manager in. We have just been focused on project management. So what we bring is 1.25 resources to every project. We bring a consultant, very seasoned senior program manager who can manage the effort, and then we bring a partial quality manager and that is our part of our secret sauce Someone who will oversee, make sure we have the right fit from our side into the client and work with them, because we do have a new process that they participate in as well, which I'll get to in a second. But it all we're doing is bringing in the lead to a team that is typically a lot of disparate resources Tier one consulting firms, system integrators, other third parties. We do acquisition integration, that's two companies trying to come together, anything where there are a lot of different, disparate resources. That is our sweet spot and because our people, our team, knows how it's sort of like the orchestra conductor. They may not play every instrument, but they know how to bring everyone together to make music. So that's our strategy.

Speaker 2: 6:55

We have moved from a program and project management company, though, to what we call outcome management, and that was developed partly from the frustration that we had on why are we only talking about time, budget and scope? And any project manager has been trained in you've got to get a project completed on time, on budget, within scope, and that is what they learn the skills to do. Well, that is important. That's also important. So get it done does not always translate it to get it done right or get it done with the value that you initially proposed. So we have, at Purdue's, have added, created an outcome management process, and that is to address value generation.

Speaker 2: 7:41

So we start, we take project management tenants, but we have added on initially to what is what's a strategic objective. We create a strategic alignment process is what we start out with. We bring the executive team, and then we ask them what does success look like when you're all done, and then how you going to measure? So, for instance, they say well, we're going to do this project and it will increase revenue. We push to ask what does that look like? A half a percent Is that success? 300% is that success? So we narrow that down because that way we we are measuring throughout and then we, when we're done and we are completed with the project, we turn it. You know, we're turning it over to our client who can continue to measure that, those success metrics, to see if they are still staying on track.

Speaker 1: 8:35

Okay, 100%. And your business has been around for what? 30 years or something 34 years 34 years, so you've been through quite a lot of economical changes, like dot com bubble, recession in 2007, 2008, the pandemic. So how have you handled these changes in the economic climate and has that taught you to plan for unforeseen changes coming?

Speaker 2: 9:10

That's a great question at the end. But what we? I have seen that and I've gone through three downturns in this time, the three that you mentioned. This has been a rough year for consulting If you take a look out there, we are not alone and consulting has had a tougher year and I've been there twice before this. So I do know what it takes, and some of it is patience because it does turn around, and other is a different way of focusing on selling. I'm reengaging with people I haven't spoken to for years. That might have been prior clients that during COVID, sort of, might have gotten lost a little bit. So you know, my sales effort has changed.

Speaker 2: 10:01

But downturns, I think people panic. I look at it as a downturn, as an opportunity to reinvent. I find that the companies that do take that time to think about, you know, are we, you know, should we be doing anything different? Downturns are a good time for that. People who do focus on change and what can we be doing better, are often the ones who come out of a downturn way better than others who are in reactive mode and just trying to keep their head above water. So you know, we're always, you know, rethinking and re-planning.

Speaker 2: 10:39

But ours is a very specific niche and I will tell you, delivering something difficult isn't it is rocket science, but it does take a lot of soft skills and I think that's one of the problems with our industry that they are. You know, the associations focus a lot on tactics around what project management should be doing. Though projects rarely really fail in that space, it's because, more of you know you have a passive, aggressive stakeholder or you have people who really don't want this to happen, but they are being told they have to come along on the ride and unless you figure out how to engage these people, projects suffer and then and those realms- 100%, and when the pandemic hit did that?

Speaker 1: 11:36

were you already working remote or?

Speaker 2: 11:40

No, we had a small office because most of our consultants go to our clients, so we didn't we don't really need a lot of space because pre COVID they were going, they were going to the client site to work. But we really sort of were already aware, because our clients are Fortune 1000. So almost all of our projects for years have been global. Yes, you may have a team local, but there are. You're dealing with teams all over the world. So our team knew how to, how to react quickly to COVID. So it didn't really seem any different, other than now a lot of them are working at home because our clients are not creating people back quite yet, or, if they are not full time, more of a hybrid.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Okay yeah, standard Most industries not.

Speaker 2: 12:31

Yeah, so that worked out to our benefit, because I think a lot of people were not quite aware of how to work in a remote environment, and so our global experience had sort of helped us. I'm still a lover of hybrid environments on a personal basis, because I think that personal interaction helps in a multitude of ways. You know, putting a name and a face together the water cooler effect and just being able to meet face to face Occasionally, I think it comes, is beneficial.

Speaker 1: 13:08

Yeah, 100% agree.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Okay.

Speaker 1: 13:12

And most recently over the last, let's say, year and a half, two years, with the AI coming into the mainstream, are you taking advantage of the tools that are available to you?

Speaker 2: 13:27

I have read a lot not a lot personally, to be very honest, but I am. What I'm fine is, there's a lot of articles out and I think actually the Project Management Institute, which is a certification group for project managers, even has a certification, I believe, on that now and I think there's a lot of talk about how that will affect project management, and it hasn't affected us yet.

Speaker 2: 13:55

I think it will. I think, but in different ways. I don't believe any time that you're dealing with disparate groups of resources with different agendas. I don't believe that is going to be replaced by AI, and what I mean by that is the tactics that we talked about checking off boxes to do. To finish this, that is going to be something that eventually will definitely affect our, our industry of project management. That can be done through AI eventually, I am confident. But the personal interactions, which is where projects tend to fail, though there's still going to be that personal need that, I think, will retain our field, just it'll look a little different okay, a hundred percent, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:53

And what have to be in the biggest challenges since you've launched the business? I know it's been a while, but I'm sure there've been some notable challenges that you faced what? What are those and how did you overcome them?

Speaker 2: 15:07

absolutely, I think. Well, the biggest risk is I had no idea what I was doing. So, plain and simple, that was my biggest risk. I had come from a family of teachers my mother, my sisters and my father was an electrician so I fell into business and I really, you know, when I came out of school I didn't know what I was going to do with my degree, fell into business, and so I didn't have any role models of people who started businesses the area that I raised my children.

Speaker 2: 15:47

At the time, there were not a lot of women that were working, and so I was an oddity in that respect as well. So it was, it was, it was, it was, it was a constant learning. For me, every day was a new learning. How do I do this? Can I do it? I think the I had a three-month rule at the time when I because at the very beginning it was just me I would get the work and then I would do the work, and I had a three-month rule that I changed three months, which I'll get to, but the initial three months is it by couldn't bind a new project to do within a three month period and I would go look for a new job. That was my out and the logic being I couldn't really look for work while I was doing the work. So I would give myself three months. Because of who I am, I like challenges and that's sort of what motivates me. I always I never reached the three months. I actually came very close one time, but my my goal was I was not going to let that happen, so I worked hard to continue to find that. So finally I got a rhythm, I got more work and then I started adding people. So that was another challenge.

Speaker 2: 17:11

I started out of an, at the very beginning, hiring people who had the soft skills but didn't know anything about project management, and that didn't work out very well because I ended up training them more than I did looking for new work. And then I hired contractors that had were experienced and I realized well, this works, but I'm trying to build a firm and a philosophy, so I wanted to hire people, and so those are the steps that I had had to go through, and it was all learning and I happened to be a risk taker big risk taker, I would say which plays to, I think, the strength of most entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs are risk takers and I used it in that I never felt like anything was a failure along the way and I had plenty of failures, mind you, but but I learned from all. So my attitude is there's lots of ways to skin a cat. I'll try one way. That doesn't work, I will pull back and try another way.

Speaker 2: 18:13

So there were a lot of ups and downs along the way so I got to a great model which we would have today. I'm sure others may have, you know in hindsight, might have gotten there quicker, but I I don't mind trying things and failing and learning from them and moving on. So that was, that was, I think, my, my, my superpower, that I'm not afraid to fail that later, that three months that I mentioned, I have changed into and this has to do with that I have lived my values my entire career. If I'm unhappy for three months straight Everyone's unhappy in their job, you know they have a bad day, a bad week or a bad month, but three months in a row, if I have three months in a row, then I'm out. I decided like there's, life's too short, I'll go do something else, and haven't really reached that yet. Came close one time as well, but not quite yet.

Speaker 1: 19:17

I appreciate that and it makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of people are afraid to do that and admit that, but that's really cool. And also I admire the fact that you're not afraid of failure and you take it on head first. I think that's super important, especially as an entrepreneur. You need to have that. You need to have that ability to accept failure and learn from it and move on.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Without a doubt, life's too short and I'm a big believer of no regrets. So how do you have no regrets? Well, you try it, and if it doesn't work out, then at least you try it.

Speaker 1: 20:00

Exactly exactly me too, and I wanted to ask if you could rate your business today on a scale of one to 10, in terms of your satisfaction with the overall business. What would that be?

Speaker 2: 20:19

Oh, that's a great question. I would say I'd like to answer that in two parts. I think the model that we have today focused on outcomes, focused on the large transformational efforts that we have for our clients. That is the model that I have been trying to achieve for 34 years. We're there, we have a solid process, I have a phenomenal team and we not only help our clients but we actually always save them money when they allow us to help oversee their whole integrated team, because we're not tied to a specific vendor. We're not inclined to try and add more resources to up our buildings. We only succeed when the client gets what they're looking for. So in that part, I would rate that as a 10. Maybe a nine because there's always room for improvement. But I would say, as for on the selling side, I'm probably a seven or eight and that we're still small. Now we'll always be small because our model is small and because I'm living the values of.

Speaker 2: 21:47

I wanted flexibility when I built this company and I didn't want to travel, and so all these things adds to I got exactly what I had built. But I think that there is a holdout. When I started in the 80s, companies did not have an IIT staff other than a mainframe staff, they didn't have the knowledge base to be able to build the systems that they're building. That needed to be built at that time, which is why consulting companies grew so quickly. The Accentures, the Deloites, the ENYs, the IBMs, the system integrators all grew because they were able to bulk up quickly and so you had used to have entire encapsulated teams going out to companies to do the work that needed.

Speaker 2: 22:43

In fact, literally, it was like go ahead and get it done and let us know when you're done. Type up environment. Well, nowadays everybody has that kind of project expertise, whether it's tech or even in the business, is more involved nowadays than they were back then in making the decisions for their own team. But you still need, for transformation, some of these bigger companies. So what I think is happening that needs to change is some of these bigger companies are working with other third parties their clients internal team and they're still bringing in the program manager. But the difference is now you have different firms in there working together with an internal team. You need someone independent whether it's the client has their own internal person great. Or someone like us, where we are making sure that everyone is aligned to the goals. That's a harder message. That's an uphill battle. So that's why I would rate the message a little bit lower of where I'd like it to be.

Speaker 1: 23:56

Okay, 100%. And if we were to sit down again in 12 months time and everything has gone right, everything that possibly can has gone right for your business, what, firstly, what does it look like and what has changed since, from today?

Speaker 2: 24:14

Well, I think the economy right now needs a little boost, and I will tell you that in the that I am starting to see signs of it. So I'm hoping that those signs pan through, but in 12 months, for that, if everything goes right then then we are back to where we were last year and that we are taking on our clients a larger efforts, the ones that are. There's more of them because people are not holding back and our reputation precedes us. That would be a nice nice to have as well. Being a small organization when we're competing with the tier ones and the system integrators, sometimes it's a reeducation. Every time, here's what we do.

Speaker 1: 25:05

Okay, amazing. I love to hear it and I've just looked at the time and we are unfortunately a little bit over even. But if you were to give one piece of advice to other business owners looking to succeed, what would that be?

Speaker 2: 25:19

Don't be afraid of failure. It's going to happen. You will fail at one point or another. So engage with it. Learn from it and don't listen to all the naysayers. I've had a lot of naysayers throughout my career and they are, and it could be debilitating if you listen to them. So don't listen to them.

Speaker 1: 25:44

Believe in yourself 100% believe in yourself. Thank you, laura. I really appreciate your time today, and what is the best way for people to reach out to Laura Driven if you've got any offers for them or they're looking to follow your story?

Speaker 2: 25:58

Sure, take a look at wwwperidioscom. How to reach us is on there, as well as a lot of the articles that have been written through the years and recently, so take a look there.

Speaker 1: 26:19

Amazing. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 26:21

I really appreciate it today, your time and the platform. Thank you.