About us

Sophia Network’s Change Model

LISTEN AND ASSESS

  • Discover the current culture of the organization by conducting focus groups and interviews.
  • Use the Transition Listening process to engage employees in the change initiative.
  • Discover readiness for change and possible challenges to implementing and adopting change and transformation.
  • Summarize the current culture and readiness for change in a report & leadership discussion.

    • CREATE AND ALIGN

  • Acknowledge and let go of the past to create a new future from an empty canvas.
  • Executive team and Board align on the new mission, vision, and values of the organization during an offsite.
  • The Business Strategy is viewed from the context of the new vision, mission and values.
  • Engage the organization through communication structures and community engagement activities.

    • IMPLEMENT, REVIEW
    AND PIVOT

  • Create project or strategy teams and kick off the Sophia Network Design Thinking process to successfully implement strategy and critical projects.
  • Teams iterate weekly, getting all the teams together on a quarterly basis for an all-team "learning" review.
  • Develop the leaders (team members) to lead the change in the organization.
  • Certify internal coaches and pivot to new opportunities.

    • HOW WE WORK WITH YOU

  • We listen deeply to organizational issues with focused openness and curiosity, and from a blank canvas

  • We assess each situation and through our cumulative wisdom, research, expertise, and keen intuition we offer our clients customized solutions to address their needs

  • In our work with clients, their organizational cultures and individual employees are enabled to transform, while producing remarkable business results

    • Sophia Network is a network of consultants with expertise in Leadership, Organizational Change and Transformation, empowering organizations to grow, expand and innovate.

    We work with organizations to shift their culture to focus on organizational alignment, employee engagement and empowering all employees to become masters in organizational agility and resilience.

  • An intentional empowerment culture enables leaders and their teams to accelerate growth, expansion, and positive community impact in the face of any circumstance.

  • We frequently employ a powerful application of Design Thinking to drive innovative accomplishment of strategic initiatives, and empower successful integration efforts, key projects and other major accomplishments.

  • Our DESIGN THINKING STRATEGIC SOLUTIONSSM enables organizations to leverage teamwork and rapid prototyping to master strategic challenges, capitalize on new opportunities and create cultures that are a magnet for creative leaders, innovators, and other talent.

    • OUR POINT OF VIEW

    WE BELIEVE:

  • Design thinking is the preeminent approach to sustainably implementing strategy and critical projects for organizations to exceed business results reliably and consistently.

    • WE BELIEVE:

  • Design Thinking Strategic SolutionsSM methodology develops a new leadership mindset and dramatically enhances an environment of creativity, collaboration, engagement, agility, and resiliency.

    • WE BELIEVE:

  • Organizations that adopt Design Thinking to implement strategy or critical projects find that they become a magnet for talent and significantly increase employee retention.

    • WE BELIEVE:

  • At the heart of Design Thinking is what inspires each of us–the opportunity to contribute and make a difference. Our passion is partnering with leaders who ask, “what if…” and have the commitment to make that a reality.

    • Sophia Network’s 20+ year track record supports organizational success by

  • Establishing a foundation for off-the-chart business results

  • Applying Design Thinking Strategic SolutionsSM to implementing critical business projects and strategies for both short and long-term engagement

  • Our work helps you create a resilient and agile culture that attracts and retains talent and develops leaders to produce extraordinary business results.

    • If these opportunities interest you, we would like to explore together how Sophia Network could help profoundly change your organization’s culture and strategic outcomes. Please contact Ilene Fischer, CEO, 603-566-0299

    request a call

    Let’s explore the possibilities

    Request

    WHAT CLIENTS HAVE SAID

    “I never expected there would be such a cultural revolution in just 6 months. I was planning on leaving the company – really glad I stayed!”
    ~VP Operations Healthcare Insurance Company
    “It’s exciting coming to work now. This would not have happened without Sophia Network team guiding us through this implementation process.”
    ~CEO of Healthcare System
    “As a customer, I had problems for years with the company service reps but that is gone. I can tell it’s a different company now.”
    ~COO of a Technology company
    “This Design Thinking methodology has affected everything we do and how we think! "
    ~Executive VP , R&D Site Manager F100 Pharmaceutical Company
    Previous
    Next

    meet the team

    Ilene Fischer

    Learn More

    Charlotte Roberts, PhD

    Learn More

    Susan Markham

    Learn More

    GAIL THAKARAR

    Learn More

    Sue Thomson

    Learn More

    Debbie Viniar

    Learn More

    Advisory Board

    Susan Windham-Bannister

    Learn More

    Ilene Fischer

    Ilene is the Founder and CEO of Sophia Network, LLC, a network of professional consultants and business leaders specializing in helping organizations going through disruptive change: M&A's, new leadership, fast growth, new product introduction. We work with companies to implement their strategic plan and to implement critical projects using Design Thinking and other powerful methodologies.

    Over the course of her career Ilene has managed and delivered more than $50 million of complex Organizational Change consulting engagements, spanning multiple sectors and many industries. As the CEO of Sophia Network, she has a deep expertise with the following industries: healthcare delivery, healthcare insurance, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech, start-ups, digital healthcare and consumer products.

    Ilene worked with Astra Zeneca on multiple consulting projects, and with Harvard Pilgrim HC when they restructured their Sales team. Other engagements included working with Charter Health to culturally integrate the eight companies they acquired over 18 months, leading a team working with Pfizer to cut drug development time, and heading up a three-year transformation project with Anthem when they acquired BCBS of NH.

    Ilene also designs and facilitates highly praised leadership development training, innovative product design and strategic implementation. She is an executive coach and an invaluable resource to c-suite and senior leader executives.

    Previously, Ilene was the CEO and Founder of WomenLEAD, an online mentoring platform to advance women in their careers. In 2013, WomenLEAD was a Mass Challenge finalist and won the Verizon Powerful Answer Award. She raised over $1M in funding. Before founding WomenLEAD, Ilene was the CEO of WEST, a non-profit organization whose mission was to develop women as leaders in STEM fields. During her tenure, the organization tripled its revenue and doubled its membership.

    Ilene was the Managing Director for Sales & Consulting for the Tom Peters Company and served as Partner with Peter Senge’s Innovation Associates.
    Ilene’s Bachelor’s degree is in Chemistry and early in her career, she was a Chemical engineer, Quality manager and an expert in process redesign.

    Charlotte Roberts, PhD

    Charlotte Roberts is an executive consultant, speaker and writer who focuses on executives and executive teams’ ability to continuously challenge their current level of performance and more effectively lead organizational sustainability and competitiveness. She partners with her clients on strategy implementation and building high-performing leadership teams and organizations.

    An organization development consultant for over 20 years, Dr. Roberts’ clients have been in industries as distinct as shipbuilding, petrochemicals and utility services, consumer products and pet nutrition, and healthcare delivery. She helps Boards of Directors in non-profit and for-profit organizations deepen their capacity to work together effectively and to guide the organizations they serve. Charlotte employs custom designed evaluation processes for executives and boards that she tailors to their specific model of effective leadership, their organizations and industry. Over time, these teams forge more effective working relationships with one another, and with senior management, to mutually support and advance the mission and values of the organization.

    Dr. Roberts began studying the impact of leaders on organization effectiveness through an innovative leadership program, Leadership & Mastery®, which she co-led with Peter Senge beginning in 1984. Through this process, the model of Learning Organization was identified. She has co-authored books on this subject and on Board-related issues, as well as articles on leadership and management. Charlotte’s own practical research informs her model of leadership and how she works with clients. In 2007 a two-year research project, “Executives’ Fractured Spirit and Dissociation at Work,” was published in The Journal of Management, an international refereed journal.

    As a way to “pay it forward,” Dr. Roberts has served on the Board of Governors for Antioch University, a 5-campus national system, and the Board of Trustees of Guilford College in North Carolina. She also served on the Advisory Council of the American Compensation Association and the boards of several educational and service organizations. Having returned to her native North Carolina some years ago, Charlotte treasures time with friends and family by the lake or the ocean.

    Susan Markham

    Susan’s style is one of discovery, curiosity, and evocative dialogue that has people go beyond their current paradigms of thought, feeling, and execution to realize and inspire exceptional results. She is adept at empowering transformation.

    For over two decades, Susan has coached executives and their leadership teams in Fortune 100 and 500 companies in Pharma, Biotech, Medical Devices, Hospital Systems, and Contract Research, and in Auto Manufacturing, Consumer Goods and other fields.

    In the Life Sciences sector, Ms. Markham has overseen an executive team’s realignment of organizational structures to drive strategic priorities, helped another organization to streamline and substantially reduce time-to-market for new drugs and medical devices, and led/facilitated cultural integration as a key element of a successful M&A.

    Under Susan’s guidance, for example, thought leaders throughout a multi-hospital healthcare system examined Internal processes, challenged performance-limiting structures, behaviors and beliefs, and aligned on improved practices and cultural norms. As a result, the client achieved sustainable 90th percentile performance on key metrics such as Patient Satisfaction, Employee Engagement, Patient Safety, and Diversity & Inclusion. The transformative outcomes have been maintained now for three years and counting.

    Susan lives in Bucks County, PA along the Delaware River with her husband and dog, Apollo. She is very active in her local community, supporting emerging leaders and business owners. And she loves to dance and do Zumba!

    GAIL THAKARAR

    Gail is a global HR/People management and cultural transformational leader deeply practiced in the challenges of cultivating and sustaining diverse workforces to position businesses for agile growth. Gail is a trusted advisor to the CEO, coach to the C-suite, and confidante to employees.

    Ms. Thakarar works with agile and high-growth business leaders and boards of private, public and PE-backed companies, disruptive in their industries, to more fully realize the untapped value of their people. During the hardest of times, she helps businesses through mergers and acquisitions, digital and cultural transformations, and product proliferation to achieve significant top-line growth and bottom-line impact.

    An ‘HR as a business’ expert, Gail has saved over $70 million for her clients through enterprise restructuring and operational streamlining, supporting a go-to-market strategy. She builds thriving workforces, develops and scales the ‘connective tissue’ between high-level company strategy and ‘in the trenches’ development, and crafts targeted KPIs, and stronger governance practices. Gail excels at creating high-performance leadership teams, talent structures and organization culture.

    Gail led the people initiatives in over 30 M&As and supported an IPO, leading the cultural integrations and HR Strategy components for successful outcomes. She oversaw a strategic pivot for a start-up organization involving a group of Construction and Infrastructure companies, and led an end-to-end human capital strategic planning and branding process, integrating five legacy companies and multiple acquisitions resulting in a truly iconic company. Elsewhere, Gail grew a technology-focused Healthcare start-up from 30 to 500 employees in 2 years, and supported a Fortune 200 Financial Services company through organic and M&A growth from 3000 to 50,000 employees in 4+ years as it transformed from mortgage servicing to diversified financial services.

    Gail started her career with GE, GlaxoSmithKline and Bank of America. Her professional experience is complemented with an MBA from the Wharton School, working and living in cultural centers globally, and fluency in several languages. She has served on the Board of several non-profits and is presently on the Advisory Board of a tech company, Reppify and on the Advisory Board of Executive Transition Accelerator.

    Sue Thomson

    Sue Thomson is the, now retired, founder and Managing Director of Trinity Partners Consulting of Providence, Rhode Island. Her clients have been leaders of business, government and nonprofit organizations interested in achieving successful, long-lasting results by applying the disciplines of organizational learning, commitment-based change and skillful teamwork. Her later work has focused on helping government agencies and community groups with diverse viewpoints on critical issues to find common ground and agree upon top priorities to craft strategic policy agendas they can mutually support.

    A consultant to management for 20+ years, on her own and with Innovation Associates, Arthur D. Little, and Rath & Strong, Ms. Thomson has also managed large system change from the “inside” as a line manager and, later, Vice President for Management & Organization Development with Security Pacific Bank, and as Director of Human Resource Planning and Development with Analog Devices, Inc. More recently, she served as Deputy Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as an advisor to a national children’s advocacy organization in the D.C. area.

    Sue’s clients have included leaders in consumer products, technology, paper, manufacturing, home health care and oil & gas. She has also supported government agencies in several states including the State University of New York, as well as non-profits and non-governmental organizations, church leadership groups such as Bishop’s Councils, and denomination-wide financial organizations.

    Ms. Thomson is a contributor to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and The Dance of Change and is author of various articles on change, leadership, mergers and process improvement. Sue provides support to fellow consultants and clients of Sophia Network, LLC, when her talents are needed.

    When not working with clients, or helping out at her local church, you are likely to find her in dusty records vaults poring over very old documents in search of the trail left behind by her ancestors… and looking for just the right link back to an “old country” so she can justify a nice long vacation there.

    Debbie Viniar

    Debbie Viniar has a background in Biology, Psychology, Management Consulting (specializing in breakthrough performance) and leadership development. Through 25+ years of consulting and executive coaching, with a rich study program from many different fields, such as neuroscience, behavioral sciences, systems thinking, and design thinking philosophy as well as, the practical trial and error that comes from working with over 10,000 people, Debbie has been immersed in bringing out the best in people’s thinking and performance – this is her passion!

    She works with organizations out to achieve extraordinary results, despite circumstances, or past performance dictating that it’s “just not possible”. To accomplish this, oftentimes new leadership skills are required to be a match for the rapidly changing business climate of today, i.e., resilience, mental agility and flexibility, tapping collective intelligence, and creating a mindset for growth and possibility. Debbie brings the latest research and tools of neuroscience, leadership, and human performance to address today’s most pressing issues to ignite team collaboration, engagement, and productivity.

    Debbie brings an uncommon standard of commitment, energy, straightforwardness, and humor to her work. She has a natural ability to pinpoint and assess individual, team and organizational biases and blind spots that inhibit their capacity to deliver critical business results. She challenges her clients to take risks and step beyond their current strategies for success, but always with a deep appreciation for the commitment it takes to achieve something exceptional.

    Debbie has worked extensively in the pharmaceutical industry, Healthcare, Managed Care and Biopharmaceuticals. She has also worked in a plethora of other industries. Debbie has consulted in the United States and Europe.

    SUSAN WINDHAM-BANNISTER, PH.D

    Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in innovation, market access and market optimization strategies. She has been recognized by Biosphere as one of the “10 Most Prominent African American Science Leaders,” by the Boston Globe as one of the “10 Most Influential Women in Biotech,” and by Boston Magazine as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Boston.” She currently serves as a director of publicly traded life sciences companies, and large nonprofits such as St. Jude Hospital. She has served as Chair of the National Board of Directors of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS).

    Dr. Windham-Bannister is President and CEO of Biomedical Growth Strategies, LLC, an advisory firm that leverages her experience as a business strategist and her role as past President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), a public-private organization charged with administering a $1-billion Life Sciences investment fund. As MSLC’s CEO, Susan was responsible for the Center’s investment strategy, brand management, organizational development and return on public investment. A member of the Center’s Board of Directors, she worked closely with Massachusetts’ Governor and Legislature. Dr. Windham Bannister is the first African American to lead a life sciences-focused innovation fund of this scale in the U.S.

    Previously, Dr. Windham-Bannister was co-founder and Managing Partner of Abt Bio-Pharma Solutions (ABS), a boutique consulting firm serving life sciences companies. She led the firm’s Commercial Strategy Group, which formulated market access and competitive business strategies for global clients. In her 35-year consulting career, she has been instrumental in the launch of numerous well-known therapeutics, medical devices and novel biomarkers, and has supported several high-profile M&A’s. Her client base included Fortune 50 life sciences companies, technology leaders, health plans and healthcare delivery systems, and financial services companies.

    Co-author of Competitive Strategy for Health Care Organizations, and Medicaid and Other Experiments in State Health Policy, and author of articles on competition in today’s health care marketplace, Susan is a frequent speaker at national and international life sciences conferences.

    Susan earned a Doctorate in Health Policy & Management from Brandeis, a Doctor of Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and was a Post Doctoral Fellow from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a Fellow in the Center for Science and Policy (CSAP) at Cambridge University in England.

    A sample of Organizations we have worked with

    follow us on social media

    Linkedin-in Twitter

    USEFUL LINKS

    INQUIRE

    free consultation
    Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin-in