Women in Business – Croixstone

Lunch and Learn (Virtually) with Croixstone on April 19

“Nothing happens until something moves.”

– Albert Einstein

As organizations face the possibility of a recession, making choices on what actions to take in light of uncertainty can be difficult. And that difficulty can lead to organizational inertia. It is the responsibility of leaders to wake their teams out of inertia.

Join Croixstone Consulting for a lively “lunch and learn” virtual event to learn practical tips on how to “own the moment” and propel your organization past organizational inertia.

Event Details:

• Cost: Free with Eventbrite Registration
• Date: Wednesday, April 19
• Time: 12:00 Noon – 1pm ET
• Type: Virtual Meeting (Zoom – Interactive)
• Registration Deadline: 5pm ET on Monday, April 17
• Event Link: Click here

About the Expert

Jennifer Bowron serves as a Senior Consultant in Croixstone’s Human Capital Practice with more than 20 years of broad experience as both an internal and external consultant across growth businesses.

Jennifer’s background spans across a variety of industry sectors including: high-tech manufacturing, consumer products, financial services, healthcare, education services, and nonprofit. She has guided teams in senior Human Resources leadership roles at companies including: Polypore International, Daramic, Celgard, Stanley Black & Decker, and RR Donnelley Financial.

Based in Charlotte, Jennifer is known for her savvy leadership in helping companies to “own the moment.” Be sure to read Croixstone’s latest whitepaper, “Overcoming Organizational Inertia” (authored by Jennifer). Click here to read.

The Power of Women-Owned Companies and Supplier Diversity

The big picture: As a woman-owned and certified firm, two of Croixstone’s leaders (Patti Weber, CEO and Lisa Cahill, Senior Talent Leader) are joining more than 4,000 fellow participants at the annual WBENC National Conference taking place this week in Nashville. The conference is the largest event of its kind for women business owners, welcoming thousands of women entrepreneurs and corporate executives ready to make connections and do business.

A quick look back: In 2020, Croixstone celebrated a milestone moment in achieving national certification as a WBE (Women’s Business Enterprise by the Greater Women’s Business Council, a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

The power of women: According to Fundera, the USA has 12.3 million women-owned businesses, with 40% of all US businesses being owned by women. Businesses owned by women general $1.8 trillion a year to the US economy. Women are starting new businesses in droves – – they started a net total of 1,821 new businesses every day last year.

The benefits of supplier diversity: Croixstone actively promotes the benefits that come with robust supplier diversity programs. As Harvard Business Review shared in its August 2020 article entitled “Why You Need a Supplier Diversity Program”, there are sound commercial reasons for creating supplier diversity programs. These reasons include:

• Inclusiveness is great for innovation. Diverse suppliers bring diverse ideas, viewpoints, backgrounds and knowledge to companies.

• Inclusive procurement strategies widen the pool of potential suppliers and promotes competition in the supply base, which can improve product quality and drive down costs.

• By providing more sourcing options, inclusiveness can make supply chains more resilient and agile.

• Supplier diversity delivers numerous channels from which a business is able to acquire goods and services.

• Inclusiveness allows a business to benefit from new prospects from business growth with the rise of new customer requirements based upon shifting demographic certainties.

• The “feel good” factor associated with supplier diversity programs can also reflect positively on brands.

Yes, but: There are several common obstacles that challenge companies in building and sustaining robust supplier diversity programs. Common challenges include:

• Supplier diversity professionals find it challenging to secure cross-functional buy-in from managers and senior-level executives.

• Capacity. According to one study, 54% of corporations dedicate one staff person or less to supplier diversity.

• A lack of supplier diversity data and insights.

• Difficulties in identifying suppliers who also meet procurement criteria.

• Challenges and/or inability to verify supplier diversity claims.

Moving forward: Croixstone is committed to promoting the benefits of supplier diversity, and to helping corporate America navigate the ongoing challenges and obstacles that face corporate supplier diversity professionals.

Let’s talk: To learn more about the benefits of supplier diversity and how Croixstone can help, contact our CEO, Patti Weber, at pweber@croixstone.consulting.

Croixstone’s Lisa Cahill to Participate in ENCOUNTER Charlotte

One of Croixstone’s favorite hometown nonprofits is Leadership Charlotte. This great organization has a mission to develop and enhance volunteer community leadership by providing a diverse group of emerging and existing leaders with the opportunity to increase their community knowledge, civic network, and service to the community.

Leadership Charlotte offers two programs to fulfill its mission. The organization’s core program is “Leadership Charlotte”, a 10-month program where an average of 50 participants explore current issues with a variety of community leaders. Additionally, the organization offers a scaled-down version of its core program called “ENCOUNTER Charlotte.” This program serves as an orientation to Charlotte and to community leadership over a two-day period each spring and fall.

Croixstone’s very own Lisa Cahill (Senior Talent Leader) is participating in ENCOUNTER Charlotte’s spring 2023 program. She joins participants from a diverse portfolio of organizations across the Charlotte region including: Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, Novant Health, Truist Financial, Microsoft, Grant Thornton, Bank of America, Second Harvest Food Bank, Dowd YMCA, and more.

Croixstone’s CEO, Patti Weber, and Managing Partner, Mark Weber, are past participants of ENCOUNTER Charlotte. Learn more about the organization here.

Croixstone Promotes Grace Lynch to Director, Business Operations

Croixstone is excited to announce today the promotion of Grace Lynch to the role of Director, Business Operations. Grace joined Croixstone in March 2021 in the role of Senior Manager, Business Operations.

In her role as Director, Business Operations, Grace will continue to apply her background in operational and process excellence to sustain and scale Croixstone’s internal business operations function.

“Grace has played a vital role in delivering high-impact operational services and results since she joined the firm nearly two years ago,” said Patti Weber, Croixstone’s Chief Executive Officer. “Croixstone’s success in executing a national expansion strategy amidst the global pandemic, while concurrently achieving record revenues and profits, is a testament to Grace’s skills and expertise in leading our internal operations.”

Grace’s professional background includes nearly two decades at Wells Fargo during the bank’s growth spree where she provided leadership focused on problem resolution and process optimization in the Office of the President. During her time at the bank, Grace also performed due diligence and integration activities for mergers and acquisitions. Additionally, Grace served as a leader in the bank’s credit risk area where she was responsible for evaluating credit processes, policies, and regulatory requirements for all consumer lines of business, including mortgage originations, student lending, credit card, non-real estate lending, collections, and repo and asset disposal.

As a social innovator, Grace is one of three co-founders of the Charlotte Pancreatic Cancer Alliance, a community group that fuels collaboration and amplifies the voices of the Charlotte region’s pancreatic cancer community.

Learn more about Grace here.

WOSB Recertification

We are continuing to celebrate a memorable week at Croixstone Consulting! In follow-up to our news on September 26, 2022 that we have received national recertification as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE), Croixstone is proud to announce a second achievement this week.

Our CEO, Patti Weber, announced today that Croixstone has been granted recertification as a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB). The certification was granted by the Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC), a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), who serves as an approved third-party certifier for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s WOSB Federal Contracting Program.

This latest achievement fuels continued growth opportunities for Croixstone by allowing the firm to compete for federal contracts set aside for the WOSB Federal Contracting Program.

Read our Press Release here.

Croixstone Consulting Turns “6”

The Croixstone Consulting team is celebrating its sixth business anniversary this month! Patti Weber and Mark Weber launched Croixstone as a boutique management consultancy in 2016. Their vision was to offer the world a highly differentiated business model in management consulting that would transform careers and businesses. The two entrepreneurs powered their vision by using their superpowers in strategic networking and relationship-building to connect the brightest minds.

In honor of the firm’s sixth business anniversary, here are six fun facts about Croixstone Consulting.

#1) Our name. Rivers are a hugely important part of life that connect humans in so many ways. The inspiration for Croixstone’s name is the St. Croix River (French: Holy Cross), a tributary of the Mississippi River that forms a border between the states of Wisconsin (the home state of Patti and Mark) and Minnesota (where the firm’s founders each began their careers).

#2) One more thing about our name. The correct way to pronounce the company’s name is “kroy-stone.”

#3) Our garage was a loft. Many of the world’s best known start-up companies were launched in garages. Croixstone launched its business in 2016 in Loft 309 of the former Lance Crackers building on South Boulevard in Charlotte’s booming South End Neighborhood. Not a garage, but a very cool loft to build a very unusual company.

#4) We LOVE constructive nonconformists. Business mavericks. Rebel talent. Call them what you will. One of our core beliefs is that these are the people who drive innovation in companies.

#5) We also LOVE portfolio professionals. We believe portfolio careers are the future of work. And so do many other thought leaders and futurists.

#6) Curiosity. One of our core values. We practice intelligent exploration and intellectual humility. We apply the best of our professional life experience, but always stay focused on what’s left to learn. From space exploration companies to solar farm developers to fintech unicorns, our curiosity has fueled Croixstone’s ability to build a truly unique client portfolio over the past 6 years.

The Charlotte Ledger 40 Over 40 Awards Celebration

The Croixstone team is joining The Charlotte Ledger and U.S. Bank on Thursday evening, April 28, to celebrate this year’s honorees of local Charlotte unsung heroes aged 40+ who are doing great things in our community. We are looking forward to a fun night honoring The Charlotte Ledger’s amazing 40 Over 40 winners from 2020, 2021, and this year.

The honorees from 2021 include our very own Patti Weber, CEO and co-founder. Read more about Patti here.

Congrats to 2022’s winners! We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

We’re Celebrating our Nomination for 2022

The Croixstone team is in a celebratory mood! The firm and our CEO, Patti Weber, have been nominated for the 11th annual 2022 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Crowns of Enterprise Awards.

The Crowns of Enterprise Awards recognize and honor small businesses that demonstrate exemplary leadership and sound business strategies. Charlotte-Mecklenburg strives to acknowledge and display the hard work and resilient efforts of the community’s local small businesses, illustrating the positive footprint and economic impact they have on Croixstone’s home town.

Winners will be announced during the annual Charlotte-Mecklenburg Crowns of Enterprise Awards Ceremony taking place on Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Learn more here.

LinkedIn is Rightfully Tackling an Archaic Stigma

With the demand for labor at historically high levels and workers continuing to quit their jobs at historic rates to take advantage of that demand, there has never been a better time for employers to break free of archaic rules of hiring.

For a reason that has never made sense to us, employers have traditionally scoffed at job candidates with breaks in their employment. In fact, two of our senior female leaders, Patti Weber (CEO) and Grace Lynch (Senior Manager, Business Operations), have taken breaks during their impressive careers to raise children.

We applaud LinkedIn’s news this week that it is rolling out a new feature called “Career Breaks” to all LinkedIn users allowing professionals to provide more context around breaks in employment.

Learn more about the LinkedIn Career Breaks feature here.

The Fast Five: Croixstone CEO Patti Weber and the NAWBO Accelerated Growth Program

In January of 2021, Croixstone Consulting announced that our CEO, Patti Weber, was one of 25 women across the USA accepted into the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Accelerated Growth Program. Sponsored by Wells Fargo, the program featured a premier suite of learning modules, high-level education and mentorship to help participants increase their market competitiveness and to position them to achieve the next stage of growth and expansion. Patti completed her participation in the program in October 2021. We caught up with her to ask five fast questions pertaining to her experience.

For people who aren’t familiar with it, what is the NAWBO Accelerated Growth Program?

An opportunity to collaborate and share best practices with other women-owned businesses.

Why did you participate in the program?

At Croixstone Consulting, we are always seeking to operate with excellence and part of that is to always continuously learn. How can we do things in a different way as we seek the path to excellence?

Tell us about the other women who participated in the program.

The women who participated were from across the USA and ranged from an Alaska-based owner of a touring company (Seward Tours LLC dba Sunny Cove Kayaking) to a former broadcaster with a production company based in California (WorldWise Productions LLC) to an attorney based in Pennsylvania (ND Galli Law LLC).

What was the most unique company who participated in the program?

There was a wine club based in Portland, Oregon named Upstream Wine Club that was launched during the global pandemic. The company makes it easy to discover great Oregon wines.

What’s the best piece of advice that you received?

Trust your gut…those feelings of intuition. Following your instinct can direct you toward the best path for you and your company.