In this 30‑minute capabilities presentation, Andrea Jones introduces AJC Company, tracing her personal journey from Intel process engineer to MIT‑educated entrepreneur and founder of AJC. She explains how family considerations shaped a part‑time, flexible staffing model that differentiates the firm. The core service offering is a no‑kickback, system‑agnostic ERP selection and implementation for mid‑market organizations, supported by a proven, repeatable methodology. Andrea details the Execute Agility coaching model (one month of preparation followed by three months of guided work) that enables clients to run continuous‑improvement projects without hiring full‑time project managers. Light organizational change management (OCM) focuses on ROI and adoption rather than heavy‑handed presentations. The team is also certified in Working Genius, using it to align team roles with project lifecycles. AJC’s client‑centric philosophy emphasizes transparent billing, a dedicated team, a non‑billable engagement manager for regular feedback, and a drama‑free partnership. Throughout, Andrea stresses the value of flexible, part‑time engagement, ROI, and long‑term relationships as the firm’s strategic positioning.
Chapters
Thank you for watching our AJC company capabilities presentation. This is what we'll go through today. I started AJC early in my career, but before that, I was a process engineer at Intel. This is what I wore to work every day, and it was a great job. I learned everything there was to know about operating procedures, improving them, growing the company, growing the ability to manufacture our product to sell more to customers at higher margins. That's really the job that I had all the time. After doing this for a number of years, I decided to go to business school, and I went to MIT. I have a master's in engineering systems as well as an MBA from MIT Sloan. I came back to Oregon where I was living at the time, newly married, and decided to start my own business. This is my husband and me the month I began AJC Company. The reason I really started is because I wanted to keep working and using my education and my experience. experience. I loved helping people. I loved improving things. I loved seeing new project work get done and everyone excited about the results and working in the new ways. So I decided to start consulting in those areas: project management, process improvement, change management. And over the next 9 years doing this on my own, here is what happened. My husband and I have 4 beautiful children. We're very blessed. And in 2015, when the youngest child turned 1, I joined Vistage. That's a peer advisory group that's international, and it really helped me to grow AJC Company. Over the next 9+ years, we grew the team and we all do project management, process improvement, change management. And here's the team today. One of the things that we have learned is how to really execute projects well using part-time hours. And that's the core of our differentiator and our service offerings. And also, the reason we care about being able to work flexibly and part-time is because we have families. Here's my family, grown up, or at least more grown up. A little bit more on AJC Company. We really want to help our customers. It is not about us. It is all about you. And what we do primarily is our signature specialty service offering is we do no kickback, system agnostic ERP selection and implementation for the mid-market. These are companies who they may have project managers if they're a firm delivering projects to their own customers, maybe in construction or in marketing or something else, but they don't have internal people whose full-time job is to run growth projects, but they still want to grow. And so we are able to partner with them to really become a member of their team for the time we work together and drive those results using part-time hours. So we aren't pushing billables on our customers. And we feel that there's a huge win-win opportunity here because our team is very experienced, they have great education and they worked, and now they're in a position in life where part-time makes the most sense. That's not to say we won't be full-time when necessary, because of course we will, but it's not necessary all the time and it's not our primary driver. I've also written a few books in this area because we've honed in our methodology and the way that we work. So these books, especially in the Execute Agility area, are available for purchase on Amazon if you want to learn more about how we think and how we coach companies. These are our primary service offerings. Again, it's the ERP system selection and implementation. We have a strong process that's proven and repeatable, and we guide it and we work with teams to make sure that they get the results they need. We use our Execute Agility model, and we also coach companies after they do a big transformation like an ERP that really involves almost every, if not every, discipline in the whole organization and changes how everybody's doing their work, there's going to be more continuous improvement projects. That's why they're called continuous improvement because they don't ever stop. And we know that they, these companies can execute on their own even if they don't hire full-time project managers, even if it's a designation in a part of someone's day-to-day role. We do that with our coaching in Execute Agility. Finally, we care about change management. I say OCM or organizational change management light because we also don't want to push billables and we know that you want an ROI. So we're not looking to take over with a bunch of fluffy PowerPoints that don't go anywhere. We're actually going to help you or coach you or help guide you on the path to get your entire team on board with things and using the new ways of working. and doing them well. Finally, you can see the Working Genius emblem. I am certified in Working Genius by The Table Group, as are some other members of our team, and we can facilitate Working Genius sessions. We often bring it into our engagements 'cause it really helps understanding the work lifecycle and to apply to teams depending on where their projects are at in the lifecycle. Here's a bit more on the system selection and implementation. I say ERP because it's probably the best known and most comprehensive system, an enterprise resource planning system. It's what companies will gravitate towards once they're done with QuickBooks and Excel, you know, the business equivalent of duct tape and baling wire. And again, we have a proven process that works for this. There's a lot of videos and collateral on our website, so I'm not going to read all the words on this slide. But please know this process can be applied to any system you need. If it's a CRM, if it's a warehouse module, if it's an inventory management system only, you can still use the process. Maybe it's not as comprehensive. Maybe that's where Execute Agility can help you do it yourselves. But this is really a process that works. And here's some quotes from customers who have shared the same sentiment. For Execute Agility, back to that coaching. We know companies can do this on their own. We know that you have team members who have a little bit of time in their weeks. Now, it's hard to keep that time structured and focused, especially if it's nobody's stated role or job to be the project manager. But what we do is we help you identify that person or people. We help you organize the work that you need to do to grow the business. outside of the day-to-day that you have to do to keep the lights on today. And we will coach your project management role, even if the title is not project manager, as well as your sponsor team and your whole core team to be able to run in this methodology in a way that works for you. So, 1 month of preparation and getting engaged, 3 months of you doing work with us actively coaching. So, you don't have to just train and not do anything. You're doing a project that makes sense for the business Anyway, learning as you apply the methodology. Once you've done that for a full quarter and we can transition the prioritization and the cadence to your team, we can step back and observe and make sure it's going well. And over time, we become your accountability partner. We have tools, we have training, we can step in if somebody goes on maternity leave, or if you have a new team member who needs to understand the process that you want to keep delivering and not take the time out to train. Or if in general you want to level up your project manager, we can be that partner for companies. It's like getting a personal trainer at the gym. Maybe you know now your routine and you know what you're gonna be doing every day, but if you don't have someone keeping you accountable, either you drop it or you don't really get stronger. And we can be that partner for your team to do this themselves. Here are some times where that has worked for other companies as well. We really have a different philosophy in how we care for our customers that we believe sets us apart. Our first one is we know that you don't wanna be surprised by an invoice. You don't wanna bill where it's a bunch of billable hours that you weren't expecting. And so we maintain your budget throughout our engagement. Everything is transparent. We know that you don't want to have to get to know a whole bunch of different people throughout the course of our engagement. And we have a dedicated team. Our people love the value proposition of AJC Company. They're not going to find work that they find with us other places and the culture and values that we provide to them. And we have a very loyal team and they love helping our customers. So we are able to give you the same human being from start to finish of your project. We know that you want to maintain relationships not only with us, but also with any vendors that we might be working with on your behalf, especially when you're implementing an ERP. This is a long-term relationship you're going to have with your partner. And sometimes it's hard to hold that kind of person or partner accountable during an implementation, or ask the tough questions in a selection. It's kind of like dating. You know, you don't ask on the first date if somebody wants kids. You wait a while, right? And if they say no and you do, it's a hard conversation. We are fine having the conversation. We are going to make sure your deepest concerns and needs are aired and all expectations are met. And we will do that throughout the project on your behalf. We know you don't want drama. Who does? There's enough going on in your life and everybody's lives that we don't need drama in our project work. And even with our own team, if there's ever any concerns, we want to make sure we are out ahead of it. And that's why we provide A non-billable engagement manager on all of our long-term projects. This is somebody who meets with you and your lead regularly, every other week or at least monthly, for just a few minutes to say, how are we meeting your expectations? Is there anything we could do better to add more value to you? Are there any changes that need to be made? Are things going okay? And we don't want to bill you for feedback. We want the feedback. So that's why we don't Bill separately. It is part of our service. I joke that the 5th one here, that customers want an ROI, really should be the first one. It's also table stakes. You don't believe you're gonna get more value than what you're paying for, you're not gonna get a return, and you won't pay for anything. I get it. I'm the same way. And we also know that any project in which you engage, any new change you're gonna make, any new system, any new building, any new succession plan, any new process, is only as good or will give you a return if all the people who have to buy in and use it are doing so. So part of return is the adoption, and we care about that. That's part of our change management philosophy. We believe that our why is really our strategic positioning, and we know that time spent in work can change over life's seasons. Our team continues to deliver value in the market, even over the seasons of life where we can't work full-time plus. That sets us apart, but it makes us better, and it helps us help the right-fit customer even better than any of our competitors ever could. We are excited to share that with you if you believe in our why.
