Who we are

About Black Box Consulting

Founded in 2011 by talent process, strategy and technology expert Andy Rice, Black Box Consulting is a talent management consulting firm comprised of an elite group of expert senior-level consultants with a combination of experience in both business strategy and daily operations.  All of our consultants bring this combination of strategic and operational expertise to our engagements, enabling us to provide a single contact and a seamless partnership with clients through both the planning and execution of critical talent initiatives.

Through our expertise, we are helping companies large and small maximize the business return of their talent management functions.  We can help you:

  • Link your talent and human capital management operations to business strategy
  • Develop a plan to integrate your human capital management function and to manage your human capital management transformation program
  • Optimize your human capital management processes, use of technology and organizational model
  • Select, implement and launch your human capital management technology
  • Manage the execution of your critical talent initiatives

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Andy Rice, Principal and Lead Strategist

Andy has played an instrumental role in the success of his clients, working with Fortune 500 companies and other organizations on critical initiatives including integrated talent management strategy and planning, talent management transformation, change management, business process improvement, and technology selection and implementations.

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Jonathan Grafft, Principal Consultant

Jonathan comes to Black Box Consulting with significant background as a strategic and technical consultant and a proven track record working with Global Fortune 500 and emerging new economy clients. Jonathan brings a unique combination of talent management knowledge and technical skills to clients.

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Chris Kalaboukis, Principal Consultant

Chris brings over 20 years of extensive experience in technology, product, project, and software development management to Black Box Consulting. His pragmatic, technology focused approach drives successful outcomes for diverse clients in the talent management, sales performance, and data governance space, among others. 

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Kathy Karneth, Principal Consultant

Kathy is an accomplished Project / Program Management Consultant who specializes in Human Capital Management and Information Technology. She has demonstrated ability to aggressively deliver global projects while achieving high levels of client satisfaction and endorsement from multi-cultural audiences. She builds strong cross-functional teams managing to strict deadlines and budgets.

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Kelly Keating, Principal Consultant

Kelly brings over 18 years experience to Black Box Consulting in helping clients improve the effectiveness of their HR systems and processes. She has served as senior consultant and project manager for complex HR projects with over 50 companies spanning 40 countries.

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Sally Millick, Principal Consultant

Sally brings a unique holistic view to helping clients achieve their goals in Talent Management. Her career spans positions in talent acquisition / RPO management, HR technology implementations and optimizations, technology and contingent labor vendor management, competency and selection processes, employment branding, and consulting operations.

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Ernie Nunez, Principal Consultant

Ernie is a seasoned talent management program manager, skilled in helping clients successfully complete large scale global talent management transformation and technology implementation projects. He has lead teams on a variety of initiatives that include talent management program management, strategic assessments, requirements definition, system selection and system implementation.

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Carole Seymour, Principal Consultant

Carole is a strategic partner to her clients, helping them realize the business value of their talent management processes and systems. She brings 20 years of Program Management, Change Management and Talent Management experience solving business problems with her clients, specializing in global and complex strategic initiatives.

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Holistic Approach

One of the primary challenges in a consulting relationship is the gap between strategy and execution.  Organizations are recognizing that a consultant that focuses on delivering “recommendations” or “strategies” often contributes to a failed partnership. The reason is simple: in many of the more challenging situations, the discipline for developing a practical strategy must be driven by a responsibility for its success in execution.
A core value of Black Box Consulting is the ability to provide both the expertise to establish the right strategy and the partnership to support its execution. Ownership and responsibility for the project is handled through a single Black Box consultant.  No ivory tower plans. No handoffs to junior associates.
When strategy and assessment are all that you need, we provide the results that drive success. And when complete partnership is required through execution and change management, we are with you all the way. 

The Black Box Method

Whether your organization needs to develop an overarching talent strategy, solve a persistent challenge or address a specific need,  an engagement and assessment framework we apply called “The Black Box Method” can prove critical to your success.  This approach yields deep insight in developing both an actionable, detailed plan and the means to put that plan into practice. The Black Box Method is built on four key steps:

Link talent operations to business results

One of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of talent strategy is the connection to core business goals. This is understandable, as talent decision makers focus on addressing specific and known talent challenges, such as a slow recruiting process, high turnover or quality or performance. The Black Box method begins with a look at your talent operations as they relate to business goals

Architect and envision the future

Building from a current-state picture of your talent operations and broader business goals, we can then develop a snapshot of the desired future state of operations needed to drive optimum business impact. This includes addressing the specific challenge or need being addressed as well as the related functions that may influence performance.

Perform a gap analysis

Where do the current systems, processes and organization support your future vision, and where do they fall short? These are the questions we answer when establishing strategic priorities. By identifying the specific gaps that stand in the way of your goals, we can ensure that you apply the right allocation of time and effort to the top priorities.

Develop a roadmap to close the discovered gaps

Based on the impact and effort needed to close the discovered gaps, Black Box can then develop a roadmap for action that is based on clear priorities. This is a tremendous advantage, particularly in the very common situation where different parties are promoting conflicting interests. The result is a plan that is best positioned for adoption and support by all stakeholders.