Meet Our Team

James B. Swartz

In 1976, Swartz became manager of an electronics manufacturing plant. Faced with intense competition, he and his management team studied and adopted the best manufacturing and engineering practices of the world’s leading companies. Working with the manufacturing people, engineers, and the union they achieved 30% improvement in productivity and 18% reduction in manufacturing costs in six months. Many operations originally slated to move to Singapore and Mexico were kept in the US.

This impressed Swartz on what could be done when people have the expertise and willingly commit to seemingly impossible objectives.

For the next ten years, he continued to lead aggressive lean manufacturing initiatives that dramatically improved manufacturing operations. In 1986, he turned his attention to helping outside companies find and seize new product or market opportunities and to redesign their product development and engineering processes to reduce time to market and improve the productivity of engineering operations.

He has made it his life work to help organizations find and seize opportunities to be great. To do this, he has researched the basic technical and strategic principles, drivers, mind changes, and methods that lead to rapid dramatic improvements. He has also studied and applied what it takes to develop and sustain aggressive improvement cultures.

In the past ten years, he and his team have led or facilitated over 300 successful designs or redesigns of manufacturing, engineering and business systems at AC Electronics, Simpson Timber, Granville-Phillips, Hughes Aircraft, General Electric, Kelco Industries, Chemtronics, Motorola, Martin-Marietta Energy Systems, Mason Hanger, Kemet, EG&G, Federal Express, Allied Signal, Bissel Co., US Department of Energy, Garrett Processing, Sparling, Delco Electronics, Deltronicos, Powertrain Div. of GM, Cadillac Motor, Buick Motor, Anchor Corp., Santa Barbara Research, Endevco Inc., TTI, York Inc., ITT Aerospace, Evergreen Health Management, Spraying Systems, Bobrick Inc., Donald Bruce, Golden State, Union Camp, SMIL, ConAir, LeBlanc, RAJones, and Landreth Engineering. 85% of these projects have resulted in large improvement.

In addition, he has conducted training workshops at APICS, Productivity Conferences, USDOE, United technologies, Bissel Co., Lectron Products, McDonnell Douglas, Hewlet-Packard, Indiana University, Arthur Young, Dresser Industries, United Auto Workers, Saginaw Div. GM, Spectralab, Quartz Devices, Argotech, Ideal Standard, University of Wisconsin, and University of Michigan.

He is the founder of Cygnus Systems Inc., a computer imaging design and manufacturing operation. He founded Competitive Action in 1987, and is the current chairman. He is the author of the bestseller The Hunters and the Hunted, published by Productivity Press, New York, NY. The book provides a systematic approach to transforming businesses by creating and implementing dramatic, non-linear improvements.

In the past six years, in addition to his busy consulting schedule, Swartz has researched what was behind the greatest achievements in history. He has found that all the great ones, regardless of their field followed a common Path of high leverage and high meaning strategies to find and seize great opportunities. The Path can be followed by any individual or organization that chooses to reach their maximum potential. The stories of how great creative leaders like Edison, Smith, Einstein, Curie, Wal-Mart, Michelangelo, GE, Wright, Da Vinci, Gutenberg, Galileo, Nucor, Ford, Gates, Jackson, Sony, Winfrey, and others discovered and followed the Path is in his second book Seeing David in the Stone.

Fifteen Years Scientific and Engineering background

	Jim received his MS in physics (with a focus on solid state physics) from the University of Illinois as a GM John Bardeen Fellow. As a research associate he studied the optical properties of dislocations in single crystal silicon.
	In 1960 as a physicist at Delco Electronics, he discovered the cause for low yields of solid state rectifiers and designed a new process to triple yields.
	In 1962, he was placed in charge of an engineering group with the responsibility to develop designs and processes for high volume, high frequency transistor manufacturing.
	In 1965 he became engineering product manager responsible for the engineering group developing integrated circuits for automobile products.
	In 1968, he was appointed program manager of the Fuel Injection Electronics Program that introduced the first electronically controlled fuel injection on General Motors automobiles.
	In 1973 General Motors loaned Swartz to Tuskeegee Institute as electrical engineering professor to set up a solid state laboratory and develop associated curricula.
	In 1974, he was appointed manager of Product Assurance. While managing worldwide product assurance operations, he also led a small team of engineers that developed a new and comprehensive set of tests that assured the reliability of electronic products in modern automobiles.

He is current president of the University of Illinois Physics Alumni Association.

Jim is a sought after consultant, speaker, and workshop leader.

Keynote addresses

	Speaker at The Productivity and Ford Motor Company's 5th annual Conference on Lean Management, October, 2000
	Reengineering in Manufacturing: Oct., 1994 in Melbourne, Australia.
	Entrepreneurship 2001 Symposium, June, 1995 in Stockholm, Sweden.
	AMTDA 70th Annual Meeting April, 1995.
	National Manufacturing Conference in Chicago, 1995
	TPM conference, Nashville, September, 1996
	ITESM Conference in Monterry, Mexico, 1997
	IIE International Conference, Miami, May, 1997
	Lean Manufacturing Conference, Chicago Ill, 1998

Major Speeches

Keynote speaker at Synergy Conventions’ "Reengineering in Manufacturing: The Hunter’s Approach Seminar and Workshop," Oct. 19-21, 1994 at The Regent in Melbourne, Australia.

Guest speaker at "Entrepreneurship 2001 Symposium," June 15-17, 1995 in Stockholm

Keynote Speaker at "the National Manufacturing Week ‘95 Conference," March 13-16, 1995 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois.

Keynote speaker at the TPM conference, Nashville, September, 1996

Keynote Speaker at 1997 ITESM International Conference in Monterry, Mexico

Keynote Speaker at 1997 IIE International Conference, May, 1997

Keynote Speaker at 1998 Reunion Conference, May, 1998

Keynote Speaker at 1998 AGTA Convention, October, 1998

Keynote Speaker at 1998 Lean Conference, November, 1998

Speaker for Newell Office Products Management Meeting, January, 1999

Speaker at The Productivity and Ford Motor Company's 5th annual Conference on Lean Management, October, 2000

Jim has a special gift and ability of walking through a process, asking several key questions, and then seeing the vision of the ultimate value delivery system. He provides a systematic approach to transforming businesses, creating and implementing dramatic, non-linear improvements in a very short period of time.

This approach plus other advanced processes and models are explored in his soon to be published book, Seeing David in the Stone.

Jim has developed into one of the premiere consultants in the world today.

Wil Danesi

Wil Danesi served as a Vice President of Allied Signal, Inc, and has more than 40 years manufacturing and engineering management experience.

Wil received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute, and completed Graduate Management Studies from University of Arizona.

Gregory J. Swartz

Greg has ten years of experience in project management, 2 years of engineering design experience, 2 years of manufacturing engineering experience, and 6 years of full time consulting experience.

Greg studied Electrical Engineering and Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame. He received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Evansville and is a member of Eta Kappa Nu honorary electrical engineering fraternity.

Previous to working for Competitive Action, Inc. Greg worked for Delco Electronics (Div. of General Motors) in manufacturing engineering on production test equipment, laser scribing technology and CAD/CAM. He then worked for McDonnell Douglas, Missiles and Defense Electronics Company in St. Louis as a Lead Systems Engineer for the Laser Communications Group. There he worked on satellite and aircraft based laser communications for the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), BSTS defense satellite, A-12 Stealth Attack aircraft, F/A 18 Hornet aircraft and NASA Pathfinder. He then held a position as President of a software development and systems integration company for ten years.

He currently holds a software patent related to iconic interfaces.

He has had experience leading manufacturing process redesigns, strategic business positioning analyses, administrative process redesign, business financial analyses, manufacturing scheduling redesign, and lean training/simulation seminars.

Julie Thorpe

Julie has over fourteen years of successful business and technical experience ranging from large manufacturing environments to small engineering and service oriented businesses. Julie’s background in both large corporate environments and a variety of small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures gives her unique perspective as project manager for Competitive Action .

Prior to joining Competitive Action full time in 1996, she held positions in several private and public corporations, in addition to working as a part time Consultant. Her career began as Manager of a retail gift shop in 1980. She worked her way through college managing retail booths at fairs and carnivals and delivering and installing computer equipment. In 1985 and 1986 Julie developed HVAC testing equipment and introduced Vision Inspection systems in the Manufacturing Engineering department at Delco Electronics. She then went on to become CEO of Cygnus Systems, Inc., a manufacturing and software engineering company. Before joining competitive Action she spent two years on a software solutions team and software development team at GTE.

These opportunities have allowed for a broad range of responsibilities from large systems development activities to creating and executing direct sales plans. Her background has provided her significant expertise in business planning, teaming, managing/leading large groups, delivery systems redesign, and manufacturing process redesign.

Since becoming a Consultant for Competitive Action, Julie has focused on leadership training, strategic design, process redesign, and improvement of administrative and manufacturing systems for numerous companies. She has also conducted numerous workshops on Lean Management and Leadership Through Changing Times.

Julie studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Evansville and Computer Science at Indiana State University. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Indiana State University with additional degrees in Marketing and Business Administration.

John Swartz, Ph.D.

John is a professor of Instructional Media at Sam Houston State University in Texas. John received his Ph.D. from the University of Ohio State University. John's area of expertise is teaching others how to make learning effective in an organization. He has published several books on the subject.

Joseph E. Swartz

Joe has more than 7 years experience in software product development and project management. Additionally, he has over 9 years of experience as a full time consultant.

Joe studied Electrical Engineering at Cleveland State University. He received a Master of Science in Management degree from Purdue University with a concentration in Operations Management, and was named a Krannert Scholar for graduating in the top 5% of his graduating class.

Joe regularly co-teaches "Capacity Planning & Shop Floor Control" and "Managing Your Operating System" classes for the University of Wisconsin's Executive Education Program in Madison.

Joe was trained to be a Six-Sigma Blackbelt by Honeywell International.

Joe is co-authoring, with Jim, the soon to be released book, Seeing David in the Stone.

Competitive Action is proud partners with Flexware Innovation, Inc. Flexware is recognized for aligning world-class manufacturing technology with business goals. Our strategic partnership provides the best opportunity for boosting your firms bottom-line.

Fifteen Years Scientific and Engineering background

Jim received his MS in physics (with a focus on solid state physics) from the University of Illinois as a GM John Bardeen Fellow. As a research associate he studied the optical properties of dislocations in single crystal silicon.

In 1960 as a physicist at Delco Electronics, he discovered the cause for low yields of solid state rectifiers and designed a new process to triple yields.

In 1962, he was placed in charge of an engineering group with the responsibility to develop designs and processes for high volume, high frequency transistor manufacturing.

In 1965 he became engineering product manager responsible for the engineering group developing integrated circuits for automobile products.

In 1968, he was appointed program manager of the Fuel Injection Electronics Program that introduced the first electronically controlled fuel injection on General Motors automobiles.

In 1973 General Motors loaned Swartz to Tuskeegee Institute as electrical engineering professor to set up a solid state laboratory and develop associated curricula.

In 1974, he was appointed manager of Product Assurance. While managing worldwide product assurance operations, he also led a small team of engineers that developed a new and comprehensive set of tests that assured the reliability of electronic products in modern automobiles.