The LUMI Company, LLC was founded in 2003. Peter Vultaggio CEO and Co-founder is also an author, international speaker and management consultant. He travels over 100,000 miles per year working with primarily Fortune 500 multinational corporations. Maisie Vultaggio COO and Co-Founder is also an author, and a human resources and communications professional. Together they bring extensive experience in operations management, human resources, organization development and learning and development. With many years of experience in corporate America they studied how to simplify the way people learn in organizations while preparing corporations for the 21st Century. The result is the very pragmatic Strategic Manager Series™ which delivers great value for today’s busy managers through a series of short 4-hour workshops. These highly engaging and interactive sessions deal with participants’ real-life issues, facilitated by professional LUMI Company training consultants.

The LUMI Company has offices around the country and alliances with consultants abroad for working with our multinational clients. The programs are also written and offered in Spanish with bicultural and bilingual consultants. The team of consultants has over 100 years of corporate management experience which they bring into the classroom to help managers contribute more value into their organizations.

The LUMI philosophy is to make the complicated - simple. The way we do this is by inventing learning technologies. Theories alone do not accomplish productivity. LUMI understands that the job of today’s manager is “doing.” The job of LUMI is “sharing” what works best. We comprehensively investigate and master numerous models of modern management theory. We combine and modify the best of what we learn and devise templates -- tools suited to your particular situation.

Peoria, AZ (HQ), Boston, MA , Pittsburgh, PA , San Francisco, CA

The LUMI approach is unique because we don’t provide training, we provide productivity tools. The level of engagement for participants is high because managers don’t leave work to participate in LUMI learning sessions. Rather, they just change where they sit for a few hours while they continue their work. The sessions are strategic in nature. Each is a clinic where managers consider the effect of their decisions and take a long term view of their work. LUMI products are designed for learning while doing. In each, managers learn to apply one or more specific tools to the work situation they bring to the class. Managers do their own work, not LUMI’s, or a Harvard Business case.

LUMI’s approach is to emphasize the “work” in workshop. The ratio for all courses is 50 -60% participant work with the rest spent on coaching and facilitator-led lecture/content. Participants are working on their real-life situations and then walking out with the knowledge, skills and tools to perform this on their own. Using individual, group and whole class exercises, in a matter of a few hours, participants learn what would otherwise normally take days in other courses.

Yes. Every tool LUMI has designed is developed to enhance the skills of the strategic manager which include: analytical thinking, strategic visioning, problem-solving, decision-making, delegation, coaching, engaging, influencing, and empowering.

The concepts are based on our understanding of today’s business environment. We believe leading companies have new expectations of their managers. Senior leaders want more from managers than day-to-day decisions. They want managers to take a longer term look at the issues. They want more than problem-solving and symptom fixes that are problematic for upstream or downstream partners. They want systemic fixes. They want performance managers who "move the dial" on employee engagement and customer satisfaction versus their competitors. They expect managers to be the direct link to changing employee attitudes about key business outcomes, like productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction, quality and safety. In short, they want managers who are strategic partners. The Strategic Manager Series reinforces the reality that managers today need to be competent in analytical and creative thinking. Today’s “working managers” delegate, coach, engage, influence and empower their employees to free up more of their own time for strategy. Highly skilled strategic managers attract talent who would love to work for them even from outside the organization.

One often hears these terms in the workplace or in other more “concept-driven” training companies but The LUMI Company specializes in the HOW to DO this in the day-to-day performance of an employee. Since management sets the bar for the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization, SMS programs focus on evolving and supporting the manager into a highly capable, innovative, analytical, strategic, empowering, influential leader for the 21st Century organization.

The Strategic Manager Series ™ was designed for first level up to midlevel managers. Since the programs are results oriented, the tools and techniques are useful to anyone in any type of organization. For example, decision-making tools are useful to anyone involved in making decisions, what may change between levels of management is the amount of information, people, budget etc. involved in the decision but the process is the same. The complexity may increase but the decision making process still supports them. A LUMI client uses the decision making tools for making management decisions involving over $1million dollars while also teaching the tools for their non-managers to use in their day-to-day decisions. LUMI facilitators are experienced in working at the executive level and to the hourly worker level with these programs.

Each year, LUMI goes through a rigorous process of updating its tools and materials. For example, the current versions of the LUMI tools reflect the workplace of today. The LUMI Company understands that today there are four generations represented in the workplace. Each generation in the workforce has different needs and expectations from their workplace and from their learning environment. For example, in our management classes where Gen X’ers prepare to take over strategic management positions from retiring Boomers, we target the information we present toward specific and practical outcomes. Gen X’ers want clear statements of what is expected of them and coaching to ensure success. Our programs are designed to give them that, while for PreBoomer and Boomer participants we also teach them how to manage this way. We are also sensitive enough to adapt the sessions to the learning needs of the Gen Y’ers. Several of our consultants are experienced in working with clients on managing to the generational differences particularly in the arena of engaging and retaining employees in today’s business environment.

LUMI is currently in the process of working with a business partner to provide web-based tools in the Strategic Manager Series ™.

The LUMI Company is dedicated to empowering people and making the complicated – simple. For example, our Spanish-speaking bilingual and bicultural trainers not only conduct the workshops in Spanish, but understand the cultural nuances as well. The SMS materials are not translated into a different language; they are rewritten from the perspective of the other culture. It requires not only knowing how they speak, but how they think as well, which can only be accomplished by consultants native in the language and the culture of which several of LUMI Consultants are.

The problem with many of today’s training classes is that the learnings are not transferred into the workplace. Billions of corporate dollars are wasted each year because what was taught in the classroom remained in the classroom. We call this the Vegas-style of learning “What happens in the classroom, stays in the classroom.” Unfortunately this is how training has been done in corporations up to now. Companies are constantly searching for ways of sustaining what was taught in the classroom.

The LUMI Company products are created with sustainable organizational results in mind. We are less a “training” company and more an organizational effectiveness company. We concentrate on how to effectively change individual and organizational behaviors to improve overall organizational results. Of course the participants’ reactions are important but it is not our focus. Since few companies are willing to invest in evaluating at the Level 3 and 4, the LUMI Company stands out because clients can gauge the use of the tools back in the workplace. For example, a common comment from the client is “I’m glad to see our managers actually using the tools back at work.” It is also easier for the client to do follow-up work, coaching etc with the participants because the learning is not buried in a workbook but a dynamic part of a tool for that program. It is easy to institutionalize the learnings by merely setting the expectation that the delegation tool or decision making tool, for example, will be used to insure managers make optimal choices for the organization.

The LUMI Company also partners with a technology company that provides clients the capability of having employees enter their goals and plans online. This allows managers to oversee their employees progress in using the tools, to insure alignment with corporate and team goals, and to derive the greatest ROI from the training.

The LUMI Company does not work with “trainers.” All of our associates are consultants that train. They are respected professionals in their field, often called on for speaking and consulting engagements. They have certifications in multiple training programs with extensive classroom experience. Since our programs are results-driven, they cannot be taught by someone who hasn’t “been there, done that.” All LUMI Consultants have a minimum of ten years corporate business experience. Most hold an advanced degree applicable to their work and are all currently engaged in their field of expertise such as, Human Resources, Organizational Psychology, Operations Management, Executive Coaching, Financial Management, and Organization Development.

At LUMI, our goal is to make the sessions come alive for each participant. While our workbooks are “off the shelf”, we can support some customizations to help provide the optimal learning environment. Therefore, we go through a series of actions to make the learning events specific to each client organization. We conduct informational meetings to understand the development needs of the organization. If we all agree on a business fit, we then learn as much as we can about the client-organization to understand the culture and the participants. We can even change the workbooks and tools to have the client-organization’s look and feel. We then factor in the organizational need, culture, and workshop audience to determine the best fit consultant with the optimal blend of style, experience and expertise for that organization.

Yes. We offer means for clients to certify their own facilitators.

Yes. Facilitators will become part of a network of certified facilitators, invited to LUMI sponsored events, and updated on changes and additions to Strategic Manager Series™ programs and facilitator materials.

Yes. The LUMI Company aspires to empower their organizations to higher levels of competitive advantage, professional and personal success. This not only requires keeping our finger on the pulse of what skills are required for the organization of the future, what learning style and instructional design will best meet the need of the current workforce, but also how to support the client-trainers who do remain current as well. We go one step further and help our client organizations use foresight to anticipant needs as they relate to developing their employee and manager workforce. The LUMI Company has six Consultants who work directly with clients including any support and coaching needs.