Randall A. Lipton, president of The Lipton Group based in Laguna Niguel, Calif., founded this management consulting firm in 1990, specializing in designing and facilitating major organizational change in large corporations.

The Lipton Group is respected internationally for its approach to change management as well as its successful track record. Most notable of its projects is the reengineering of The Hillhaven Corporation and the National Education Training Group (NETG), a subsidiary of National Education Corporation (NEC).

Hillhaven was a healthcare provider with 40,000 employees in 22 states operating close to break-even when The Lipton Group began its reengineering program in late 1990. The company had not achieved plan in three years. The reengineering was completed in early 1992, less than eighteen months after it began. Incidentally, most reengineering programs occur over a three- to five-year period with only a 25 percent success rate.

Between 1990 and 1995, Hillhaven’s operating revenues grew from $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion with net income rising to over $51 million, up from $2 million. Consequently, shareholder value increased 400 percent during the same period. An international trade publication, Focus on Change Management, published an article in October 1995 on the success of the Hillhaven project calling it one of the finest examples of a highly successful, accelerated reengineering program to date.

Immediately following the Hillhaven initiative, The Lipton Group began the reengineering of NETG, which is the largest publisher of electronic training materials in the world. Shortly after the project began, it became apparent that NETG required a complete turn-around and new leadership. Lipton replaced the president and chief executive officer in July 1992. Through new strategic planning, rapid organizational change and effective execution, NETG was stabilized within six months and shareholder value was retained throughout Lipton’s tenure. New leadership was brought to NETG in early 1993 and NEC stock rose from $7 per share to $20 per share between 1993 and 1997.

Prior to forming The Lipton Group, Lipton was vice president and senior staff consultant with Results Management, Inc. from 1987 to 1990. He was responsible for several major interventions for such companies as Automated Data Processing, McDonald’s and Burns & Roe. Lipton was with Gap International from 1985 to 1987 as a senior staff consultant. He was responsible for staff development and interventions at larger corporations and institutions such as Teleflex, Litton, Hospital of University of Pennsylvania and DuPont.

Prior to Lipton’s management consulting career, he used his engineering background to do extensive work in the communications field in the 1970s. A sampling of engineering/communications projects include his work as a designer for Jerrold Electronics, which designed and manufactured equipment for the cable television industry. He became one of the first people to employ advanced programmable calculators to design, later known as computer aided design.

As chief engineer and assistant manager for CATV Service Company, Lipton conducted the cable television company’s system design, performed FCC compliance testing, developed their management systems, and negotiated commercial contracts. In 1979, the company was purchased by Storer Broadcasting for the highest per subscriber value in the cable industry at that time.

Lipton’s research and development background is extensive. He worked for Transducer Systems, Inc., and was responsible for R&D for linear variable differential transformers, devices used to measure movement. He developed the transducers used in the control surfaces actuators in the F-15 fighter jet. At DuPont, he was responsible for training a group of research scientists in the areas of project management and the generation of maximum creativity within group. The scientists went on to develop Stain Master. His work with the R&D department of Becton Dickinson helped them provide the technologies that enabled their hypodermic products market share to grow from 54 percent to 75 percent over a five-year period.

While at Hughes Aircraft as a field engineer in the Electron Dynamics Division in the late 1970’s, he developed installation procedures for the new 4.5 meter satellite system (earth station) for the cable television market. Lipton was also responsible for identifying and resolving the system integration issues as well as performing the initial installations.

Following his work at Hughes, Lipton worked as a technical consultant for several companies, including Tayburn Electronics, which was an electronic news gathering design and manufacturing company. He was responsible for transmitter R&D and later the company’s manufacturing operation. Lipton tripled the output of the manufacturing operations, from $70,000 per month to $210,000 per month, in his first three months as manager of manufacturing.

For San/Bar Corporation, Lipton was responsible for systems engineering and project management for its digital microwave radio product line. Other clients included Amfac, Pompano Cable, Coastal Alarm and Hughes Aircraft Radar Systems Group.

Because of his expertise, Lipton has been contracted by other management consulting firms to train their consulting staffs as well as assume lead roles in designing and conducting difficult interventions.

Lipton has lectured on organizational change at various universities including Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. For numerous corporate and civic groups, he has addressed a range of topics including business process reengineering; organizing and managing for breakthroughs in R&D; leadership; the art of coaching and team-building, and the rapid transformation of corporate cultures.