KAY SEVER:
“Best Possible” Performance Expert
Optimization Management Coach
The Voice of Opportunity in Business

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 hidden potential for profit and growth.
Kay helps companies find, quantify and stop these losses by strengthening the weaknesses that caused them. Weaknesses in asset management, the organization/corporate culture, and management activities cause losses that DON’T APPEAR on the income statement. When these weaknesses exist, companies can leave millions of dollars on the table and CANNOT ACHIEVE “best possible” performance!
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!
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 that the invisible world of potential is the “final frontier” of exploration and discovery for corporations… hidden potential that you have already paid for to make more money and solve the problems that steal profit, make work harder, cause mistrust, and weaken organizations… a world YOU CANNOT SEE, MEASURE OR ACCESS without data linked to it.
WHY KAY CREATED MiningOpportunity…
Over the first 20 years of her consulting work, Kay gained unique perspectives about the barriers that prevented success with “best possible” performance and optimization. She 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” PERFORMANCE! Kay designed MiningOpportunity to create a PLATFORM for this positioning.
- MiningOpportunity is the ONLY optimization management system that LINKS Perspectives, Metrics and Strategies to “Best Possible” performance.
- MiningOpportunity is the ONLY optimization management system that SHAPES a New Corporate Culture focused on Loss Reduction as performance improves.
- MiningOpportunity is the ONLY optimization management system that REMOVES Barriers to “Best Possible” performance.
- MiningOpportunity EMPOWERS Leadership Teams to be WILDLY SUCCESSFUL as they “Move Beyond Budget AND Beyond Improvement” to a sustainable level of “Best Possible” Results.
Client List:
Rio Tinto, Peabody Energy, ICG, Freeport McMoran, Cleveland Cliffs, Chinalco Peru, others.
Education/Certif./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.
Other Qualifications:
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 (all departments of 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 written 120+ articles about management’s challenges with optimization and change. These articles were published in Coal People, Energy Global, North American Quarry News (NAQN) and Aggregates & Mining Today. Her monthly column in Aggregates & Mining Today/NAQN has run continuously since January, 2009.
- Quality Progress, Dec 2007 – The Power of Process Orientation
Technical Sessions:
Kay has given presentations and technical sessions at many conferences over the last 20 years…
- MinExpo (2004, 2008, 2012)
- 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)

OPPORTUNITY: The only element with an infinite atomic number and weight. An odorless invisible element defined as a hidden or substandard set of circumstances in business that, when not acted upon, creates invisible losses that reduce profit. These losses can be eliminated by management when linked to beliefs, behaviors and numbers that drive the corporate culture, yielding a desirable green substance found in financial institutions.