KAY SEVER:

KAY’S FOCUS IS DIFFERENT… So You Get A Different Result!

Leaders know how much money they made by looking at the income statement… but they DON’T KNOW how much money they left on the table!

Kay has helped identify >$100,000,000 of hidden losses!

Kay has worked side by side with corporate and production sites in a management/leadership/consulting/coaching role for 40 years with a 25-year focus on “Best Possible” Performance and Optimization Management. She helps management teams improve performance, profit, culture and change, but does it in a way that connects assets, the organization and management teams to their operating/financial potential for profit and growth… sometimes millions of dollars in hidden losses that never show up on the income statement. Kay helps companies find, quantify and stop these losses using metrics and strategies linked to achieving “best” results.

KAY’S HIGH-VALUE EXPERTISE is linked to her MINDSET!

Kay is always looking for “what’s missing” from profit, culture and change. This focus “expands” the number of problems and opportunities she identifies and helps her ask questions that other consultants and coaches overlook. Kay uses “out-of-the-box” analogies and exercises to help leaders see that they already have the power to be more effective… all they need is a DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.

Change Your PERSPECTIVE… Change Your PERFORMANCE!

This video contains analogies about perspectives, achieving optimization, change and management success that you have  never seen before. When leaders gain new perspectives about what is possible to achieve, things that were HARD to do are suddenly EASY to do! Problems that have never been solved are solved QUICKLY with a MINDSET and a STRATEGY linked to that mindset.  

Few people see what’s missing and then enable you to see it too! That’s the skill that Kay brings to the table. Kay believes the invisible world of potential is the “final frontier” of exploration and discovery for corporations… hidden potential that you already paid for but can’t access because barriers caused by organizational weaknesses and ineffective management processes block your access. These barriers steal profit, make work harder, cause mistrust, and weaken organizations… a world YOU CANNOT SEE OR MEASURE without data linked to it.

WHY KAY CREATED the MiningOpportunity Optimization Training Program…

Management’s toolbox DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY DATA OR PROCESSES DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE/SUSTAIN “BEST” RESULTS. This void means that executives and management teams 1) cannot measure/quantify the dollars of upside potential they are not able to capture and 2) have no process for aligning/upgrading their processes with optimization metrics and strategies so they can convert hidden upside potential to profit and achieve “best” results. Much of Kay’s career has been spent studying and analyzing the dynamics of this management system void… the hidden barriers and losses it creates and what is required to fill the void to achieve optimization. Her perspectives, awareness, discoveries, insights and in-depth knowledge about “optimization disconnects” are unique and invaluable.

NO MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROGRAM for positioning a company to achieve optimization existed, so Kay created one. She saw an opportunity to launch an all-inclusive training program for executives and management teams SO THEY COULD MAKE SMART CHOICES that release millions of dollars in trapped profit to the bottom line and add the elements they need to achieve and sustain “best” results over the long term. Her approach to optimization creates a shared vision for what executives and management teams could not see before and accelerates team learning so optimization work can begin. Kay’s insights, tools and strategies CANNOT BE FOUND IN ANY OTHER EDUCATION/DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM; all are PROVEN IN THE FIELD to change what people “measure, fix and talk about” across the organization… yielding new knowledge, new questions, new solutions, and new choices all designed to achieve and sustain “best” results.

Kay realized that optimization processes linked to equipment can be “perfect” BUT… to get the maximum result, the organization, management system and leadership team MUST ALSO BE POSITIONED FOR “BEST POSSIBLE” RESULTS! Kay designed MiningOpportunity to create a PLATFORM for this positioning.

MiningOpportunity is the ONLY optimization management system that

• LINKS Optimization Metrics to the Organization and the Management System to achieve “Best Possible” performance.
• ENABLES a Measurable Focus on Loss Reduction and Risk of Loss.
• REMOVES Invisible Barriers/Bottlenecks to “Best Possible” Performance.
• EMPOWERS Leadership Teams to be WILDLY SUCCESSFUL as they “Move Beyond Budget AND Beyond Improvement” to a sustainable level of “Best Possible” Results.
• DELIVERS OPTIMIZATION using a Capital-Free Approach.

CLIENT LIST:

Rio Tinto, Peabody Energy, ICG, Freeport McMoran, Cleveland Cliffs, Chinalco Peru, others.

KAY’S QUALIFICATIONS make her the RIGHT PARTNER for OPTIMIZATION WORK

Education/Certification/Studies:

• Purdue University, Krannert School of Management, BS in Industrial Management
• Past CMC (Certified Management Consultant, 2008, a certification heavily based on client testimonials and ethical work practices, only 1% of all consultants earn a CMC).
• Kay completed a one-of-a-kind 3-year in-depth study of management’s barriers to change and optimization. Takeaways from this study were profound and gave Kay many break-through perspectives and “aha” moments about 1) why it is hard for management teams to change and 2) how management teams impact the bottom line with their words and actions. The insights gained from this study make current change management paradigms obsolete and are Kay’s alone; the only place you can gain access to them is by working with her. You can learn more about her barrier study on this website.

Notable Projects Prior to Consulting/Coaching:

CYPRUS AMAX MINERALS COMPANY (19 years, 3 Divisions – Copper/Molybdenum, Coal, Gold/Exploration). Operations across USA, Canada, Chile, Peru… I worked with all management levels, domestic and foreign producing operations and support departments to improve operational, financial and organizational performance. Site experience: 4 years at an underground coal mine.

• Helped lead an capital-free optimization initiative for metals and coal operations when no money was available for new equipment. This initiative enabled the metals division to break-even at 100-year-low prices when other companies were closing operations. Copper Division conservatively quantified $20,000,000 in savings that year. Specialized in Optimization Metrics and linked them to assets, the organization and the management System.
• Designed and implemented the company’s first mobile equipment productivity tracking system for hard rock mining and later modified it for surface coal production
• Part of the Design Team for the company’s first real-time maintenance system
• Built the first company-wide budget reporting/consolidation system
• Designed the most accurate forecast model in the coal division.
• Algebraically defined and modeled complex coal contract specification calculations for utility customers.

Publications/Speaking:

The books, articles and technical presentations listed below are further evidence of Kay’s unique insights and broad perspective about performance, optimization and change. These qualifications combined with her broad field/corporate experience and her honest feedback about what needs to change make her a great business partner. She works with executives and all levels of management and functional groups (operations, maintenance, procurement, marketing, accounting, human resources, permitting, engineering, etc.)

Books/Articles:

• Kay wrote her first business book in 2008: Building An Opportunity Culture: Addressing the Barriers that Steal Profits and Prevent Sustainable Change
  
• Kay has 180+ articles in print. Topics cover performance optimization metrics, organizational barriers and management challenges with optimization and change. These articles were published in Coal People, Energy Global, North American Quarry News (NAQN) and Aggregates & Mining Today. She continues to contribute monthly articles to Aggregates & Mining Today, where her column has run continuously since January, 2009.
  
• Quality Progress, Dec 2007 – The Power of Process Orientation

Webinars/Technical Sessions:

Kay has given webinars, presentations and technical sessions at many Industry Conferences over the last 20+ years…

• MinExpo (2004, 2008, 2012)
• SME Webinar (2024)
• SME Annual Meetings – Denver/Salt Lake (2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021)
• SME Arizona Conference (2013)
  
• SME Minnesota Conference – 1/2 day workshop (2016)
• Mining Industry Improvement, Pittsburgh/Tucson (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
• AZ Rock Products Annual Meeting (2008)
  
• Mining Procurement Conference – Brisbane/Perth, Australia (2014, 2015)
  
• Mine Management Symposium – Lima, Peru (2015)
• Loading/Hauling Conference, Phoenix (2013, 2015)
  
• MineWest, Denver (2005, 2006)
• Toronto Mine Optimization Conference (2014)
• American Society for Quality National Conference, Irvine, CA. (2009)
• Arizona Quality Alliance, Mesa, AZ (2008)