Operations Consultant
Certified  PMP · Six Sigma · Wharton AI · IBM AI
Experience  Cisco · CN Railway

What worked at twenty people is breaking at sixty.

I find where your processes break under pressure, rebuild them so those mistakes can't happen, then document everything so it runs without you.

If your processes are breaking under growth, regulation, or complexity, and the mistakes are creating risk you can't afford, you're in the right place. Doesn't matter if you're a 50-person company or a division inside a bigger one. The problem is what matters.

Problem specific, not industry specific.

See what a hire actually costs →
30+ years in operations
AI Operations · Wharton · PMI · IBM
Remote · US & Canada
Not industry specific. Problem specific.
Proof

Here's what the work
looks like in practice.

The best way to understand what I do is to see what happened when I did it.

The Problem

Cisco kept acquiring companies. Every acquisition meant different customer bases with different needs. Banks and hospitals needed time to test updates before deploying. Regular customers wanted them right away. Someone had to manage both without breaking anything.

What I Did

Rebuilt the distribution process to handle it. Some customers got monthly updates. Others got quarterly updates with more lead time. Coordinated maintenance windows across thousands of accounts. Executed migrations with a team of four.

The Result

Zero disruptions. Every customer type got updates that worked for their operations. The system runs without you.

The Problem

One mistake could shut down a hospital's communication system. The wrong contract decision could cost millions. Cisco saw the risk at scale and needed someone to rebuild the process before those mistakes happened.

What I Did

Rebuilt Cisco's cancellation process from the ground up. Interviewed legal, billing, sales, customer success, and the team executing the work. Wrote the rules, built the guardrails, created email templates so the team couldn't say something that creates legal exposure. Documented everything in plain language. Trained the team.

The Result

Zero accidental cancellations. Legal exposure eliminated. No more customers released from contracts for convenience. The system still runs without me. When the business changes, we update the system together.

The noise

You stopped noticing the noise.
I find it. I make it stop.

It doesn't feel like a crisis. It just feels like another day.

  • A new client gets onboarded - and everyone does it slightly differently
  • A contract comes up for renewal - and it falls through the cracks until the client calls
  • Month end arrives - one person closes the books, no backup, no documentation
  • A CSM spends their day answering process questions - and nobody is driving adoption

After a while you stop noticing it. It becomes the cost of doing business.

That's the noise. And that's what I do. I find it. I write it down. And I make it stop.

You're not juggling fewer balls. You just don't have to juggle them all at once.

Business is supposed to be hard. It doesn't have to be that hard.

How it works

I don't come in with answers.
I come in with questions.

I talk to the people setting the goals. Then I talk to the people doing the work. Those two stories are almost never the same. The gap between them is where the noise lives.

1
I start with the goal
Interview the people who set the expectations. What are they trying to accomplish? What's supposed to happen?
2
Then I talk to the people doing the work
What's actually happening? Where does it break down? What are they getting versus what they're supposed to deliver?
3
I go back and verify
I tell people what I've heard and give them a chance to correct me. This builds the real picture of the process. Not what's in the handbook, what actually happens.
4
I find the gaps
Where the expected outcome and the actual outcome don't match is where the process is broken.
5
I rebuild it
Rules, guardrails, decision trees, templates. Everything the team needs to execute correctly without guessing. And I build AI into the workflow where it removes friction - not where it just sounds impressive. AI is a tool. It won't fix broken processes. But when the process is solid, AI can make it significantly faster.
6
I document and train
Plain language instructions. Step-by-step. Then I make sure the team knows how to use it. I build with the people doing the work, not above them. They're the ones who have to run it after I leave.
7
If the right next step is a hire, I help with that too
Sometimes the work reveals that you need a full-time operations manager. When that happens, I help define the role, find the right person, and train them. Most companies hire that person before the foundation exists to manage. I build the foundation first. Then if you need someone to run it, I help you find them and hand it over properly.
Who I help

Does any of this sound
like your week?

You built something real. It works. It's growing. And somewhere along the way the job became something nobody fully planned for.

This is what happens when you scale. The processes that worked when everyone knew everyone don't work anymore. And nobody has time to fix them because everyone is busy keeping things running.

Someone just gave notice. Half your operation lives in their head and there's no manual.
Your team is making it up as they go. Nobody ever wrote down the rules.
You're the answer to every question nobody else can answer. That's not leadership. That's a bottleneck.
The software you bought didn't fix the problem.
What worked at twenty people is quietly breaking at sixty. And everyone's too busy to notice.
You posted for one person who can do two different jobs. That hire gets made. And in 18 months you're doing it again.

I take three clients at a time.

Not because it sounds exclusive. Because it's the only way to do the work right. When you're in, you have my full attention.

James Dickson
James Dickson
Operations Consultant · PMP
30+ years in operations
Cisco Systems
Canadian National Railway
PMP Certified · 2022
BBA · 2013
About me

30 years of operations.
Railways, enterprise tech, Cisco.

I've spent three decades in places where mistakes have consequences. Railway operations where safety was life or death. Enterprise IoT where failures had legal and operational impact. Cisco, where I ran programs for banks, hospitals, government agencies, military installations.

I learned the same thing everywhere. The problems aren't usually the people. The problems are the processes. Or the lack of them.

When execution fails under scale, regulation, or ambiguity, it's because nobody wrote down the rules. Or the rules don't account for what actually happens. Or different people are following different versions.

I fix that. I find where it's breaking, rebuild it so the mistakes can't happen, then document it so it runs without you.

Based in Illinois. Moving to Victoria BC in fall 2026. Available remotely across the US and Canada.

I take three clients at a time. When you're in, you have my full attention.

What I offer

I turn tribal knowledge into
easy to follow processes.

Four ways to work together. Bundles save 15% versus a la carte. And if you want your documentation to stay current after we're done, there's a lightweight monthly option for that too. All work starts with a free call.

Complete Transformation

Everything. Full discovery, complete documentation, team training, plus process maps, quick reference cards, a new hire onboarding checklist, and two check-in calls after handoff. The most complete engagement I offer.

$20,000
fixed price
Everything included
  • Find & Fix - full discovery
  • Complete process documentation
  • Team training and Q&A
  • Process maps and flowcharts
  • Quick reference cards
  • New hire onboarding checklist
  • One decision tree
  • 30-day and 60-day check-in calls
Most popular
Full Process

Discovery, documentation, and training in one defined engagement. Includes a decision tree and a 30-day check-in call. This is what most clients need and the best value I offer.

$12,500
fixed price
Save ~15% vs. a la carte
What's included
  • Find & Fix - full discovery
  • Complete process documentation
  • Team training and Q&A
  • One decision tree
  • 30-day check-in call
A La Carte

Each service stands on its own. Start with Find & Fix and decide what makes sense from there. No commitment beyond the current phase.

From $175/hr
Individual services
Find & Fix · $175/hr or fixed scope

The diagnostic. I map your actual process. Not the one in the handbook. I talk to the people doing the work. I find where decisions are inconsistent, where edge cases escalate, where revenue is leaking. You get a clear report: what's broken, what it's costing you, what needs to happen.

Write it Down · from $7,500 fixed

I write the rules. The guardrails. The decision trees. The email templates your team can use so they don't say something that gets you sued. Everything in plain language. If someone leaves, the process stays. If someone new starts, they can follow it from day one.

Teach it to Your Team · from $3,500 fixed

I don't just hand over a document and leave. I train your team, answer their questions, and make sure they feel confident before I go. The goal is they stop escalating to you every time something feels uncertain.

Process Maintenance

For clients who want their documentation to stay current. New staff, changed processes, new decision trees - handled on an ongoing basis. A small monthly commitment that keeps everything running the way it should.

$600
per month
4 hrs/month included
What's covered
  • Documentation updates as processes change
  • New hire orientation support
  • Additional decision trees as needed
  • Monthly check-in call
  • Additional hours at $175/hr

Available to clients who have completed a Full Process or Complete Transformation engagement.

Good to know

Fixed prices are confirmed after the initial Find & Fix engagement, once we both understand the scope. You'll always know the number before work begins. Every engagement starts with a free call. No pitch. I ask a few questions, you ask a few, and we figure out together what makes sense. No surprises.

I take three clients at a time. That's not a pitch. It's real. It keeps the work focused and the attention undivided.

Real results

Here's what the work
looks like in practice.

The best way to understand what I do is to see what happened when I did it.

Proof · What I build keeps working after I leave
Three different problems.
Same result every time.
The real test of any process is whether it runs without you.
The Software Update Program

I needed to step away from my role at Cisco for six weeks. I was running the software update program for the entire Webex platform - banks, hospitals, government agencies, military installations. I was the only person with the whole picture. I had to build something that would run without me. It did. Six weeks. Not a single call.

Hundreds of enterprise customers. Zero escalations.
The Cancellation Process

A team at Cisco was losing revenue through gaps in their cancellation process. Different people made different decisions. Customers got different answers. I wrote the rules - clear enough that anyone could follow them. The revenue stopped leaking. The team ran it without me.

Zero accidental cancellations. Legal exposure eliminated. The system runs without me. When the business changes, we update the system together.
Post-Sales Provisioning

Provisioning was handled differently by every person who touched it. Edge cases landed on senior leaders. I mapped the actual process, standardized every step, documented every exception. New people could follow it from day one. Senior leaders stopped being the answer to everything.

2,300 migrations. Zero escalations.
Experience

30 years of figuring out
what actually works.

Cisco Systems
Senior Operations Leader
2020 – 2025

Led revenue lifecycle operations across a global, regulated environment. Built the decision and accountability systems that removed senior leaders from daily exception handling and eliminated legal exposure from operational errors.

SaaS · Global Operations
Enterprise IoT
Customer Operations Lead
2009 – 2020

Built and ran customer operations for a technology platform where failures had real legal and safety consequences. Designed the systems that kept operations running when things went sideways.

10 years · High-stakes ops
Canadian National Railway
Operations & Field Leadership
1987 – 2009

22 years leading operational teams where getting it wrong had real consequences. Built the instincts and discipline that only come from working in a place where safety was life or death.

22 years · Safety-critical
What people say

From people I've
worked with.

Real recommendations from colleagues at Cisco and previous roles.

"

He brought structure where there wasn't any, kept the project on track, and helped align multiple stakeholders around shared goals without overcomplicating things. He was the one people turned to for solutions that actually worked.

Tim Collins
Principal Consultant, Business Development
Worked together at Cisco · 2025
"

James is one of those rare individuals who is not only incredibly hardworking and dedicated but also an amazing leader. He genuinely cares about the people he works with and always goes above and beyond to support his team.

Simone Richards, PMP, CSM
Project Manager, Cisco
Worked together at Cisco · 2025
"

His ability to navigate complex challenges and deliver tailored solutions was instrumental in enhancing our service offerings. A person of integrity and dedication who fosters a collaborative team environment.

Jason D Mann
Senior Commercial & Product Leader
Former colleague · 2025
"

He leads by example, earning respect through his actions and clear communication. Always asking insightful questions and ensuring processes are well-documented and easy to follow. Keeps the customer at the heart of every decision.

Renee Spencer
Business Operations Manager
Worked together at Cisco · 2025
Get in touch
I find the noise.
I make it stop.

Business is supposed to be hard. It doesn't have to be that hard.

Start with a free call. No pitch. I'll ask a few questions, you ask a few. We'll both know pretty quickly if it makes sense to work together.

Remote across the US and Canada. Short engagements. Defined scope. No surprises.

I take three clients at a time. If you're the right fit, let's find out.

Email[email protected] Phone(630) 387-9153 LinkedInjames-dickson-pmp