Charles Baum

Charles Baum is the founder of Starting Point, a consulting practice that helps organizations use immediate performance successes to build momentum and capability for larger-scale performance improvement and change.

Mr. Baum worked for six years with Robert Schaffer & Associates, the firm that founded the breakthrough approach for managing performance-driven change described in the Harvard Business Review classic “Successful Change Programs Begin with Results.”

He then spent four years as a general manager in a construction firm, where he helped transform a chronically troubled inner-city division into a high-performing organization. This experience is described in the business best-seller The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Katzenbach and Doug Smith.

From 1991 through 1996, Mr. Baum’s principal client was McKinsey & Company. Through this association the breakthrough approach was introduced to more than 50 clients involving thousands of people -- and yielded in excess of one billion dollars of performance improvement as well as substantial quality and service improvements. During this time he personally launched more than 300 teams to help McKinsey consultants and clients begin their change initiatives. This involvement, along with a description of his work with Dun & Bradstreet, is discussed in Taking Charge of Change by Doug Smith and Masterful Coaching by Robert Hargrove.

Mr. Baum also participated in Vice President Gore’s National Performance Review. In particular, he helped the Occupational Safety and Health Administration achieve immediate performance results to kick-start and lend credibility to its nation-wide reinvention process. Two OSHA teams launched by Mr. Baum were recognized with Hammer Awards awarded by the Vice President, and are included in Vice President Gore’s book The Best Kept Secret in Washington and High Impact Consulting by Robert Schaffer. The teams’ efforts led to a 75% reduction nationwide in the time for employers to fix safety hazards identified by their employees.

From 1997 through 1999, Mr. Baum served as the chief operating officer of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, a department responsible for managing 5 million acres of land, regulating forest practices, and fighting wildfire. In this capacity he emphasized a shift to ecosystem management as well as a business perspective that helped the department respond to a major budget challenge induced by the Asian economic downturn without laying off staff.

Mr. Baum also worked with the North Slope Borough Mayor’s Office from 2000 – 2004 on its overall approach to meeting its budget challenge.

Mr. Baum holds a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has served as a faculty member of the New York City Leadership Institute, and as a governor-appointed member of the State of Washington’s Information Services Board, which oversees the state’s information technology investments. He also serves as an executive coach to participants in “Achieving Excellence,” a collaboration between NeighborWorks America and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.