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Harvey Gellman - Pioneer Computer Consultant

I have created this book about Harvey that I would like people to help by adding and editing the book. Feel free to make edits and I will review them. In addition I invite suggestions on structure and anything else. Please let me know what you think of my effort and PLEASE make changes and corrections. Anybody can make edits.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The Early Years

He got his doctorate in Applied Mathematics at University of Toronto in 1951. The title of his thesis was "Computation of the field produced by a moving liquid"[2], and his supervisor was Edward Bullard[3]. While he was getting his Ph.D., he also ran the first computer center in Canada and wrote programs for his Ph.D.research. In those days, most of the people using computers were mathematicians. The computer was a Ferut which was developed by Ferranti-Packard and the University of Toronto. His first job was with Atomic Energy of Canada, where he wrote analytical programs for the scientists at Chalk River Laboratories which ran on the Ferut computer. He lived in Toronto, however, and was getting some complaints from AECL about his expenses, so he decided to become a consultant. His first consulting job in 1955 was in association with Watson Watt, the inventor of radar. Harvey worked at the Toronto Office. After a year, they decided it would be better for Harvey to go out on his own, and H.S. Gellman and Associates Limited was formed.

This firm was, I believe, the first computer system consulting firm in Canada. His first client was AECL, with which he continued to have a consulting relationship until 1990. A thirty-five year consulting relationship... - the lifeblood of any successful consultant. His offices were in the McLean Hunter Building on University Avenue. Shortly after he moved in, he met Don Campbell in the elevator. Don had just joined McLean Hunter, the book and magazine publisher. He had worked previously for AECL, and they recognized each other. It was from that chance meeting that Harvey acquired his second client, right then and there. Don, of course, became the leader at McLean Hunter, and always consulted Harvey on computer questions. From the relationship with the computer center and the Ferranti Packard Ferut, Harvey's team developed the first Reservation System for TransCanada Airlines, Reservec. Harvey also did some of the original programming for Eaton's, the leading department store and catalogue retailer in Canada. Through other contacts, he helped Imperial Oil, Canada's leading oil company, set up its computer services group.

The DCF Years

My first recollection of meeting Harvey was after I joined DCF Systems, where he was in charge of the computer systems consulting group, in 1965. His firm, H.S. Gellman and Associates, had been bought by DCF to strengthen their analytical talent. Omand Solant was the chairman of DCF and a colleague and friend of Harvey's.

Harvey was an imposing character who had a great voice and powerful presence. I always thought his voice had a sub-hypnotic effect, and what he said always sounded true. I do not think the first year at DCF was good for Harvey, but it likely helped him get over the experience with the colleague who had left taking a significant piece of business with him. That experience stuck with Harvey; he had felt extremely betrayed.

Harvey however was a natural consultant and understood that the client was the most important person in the consulting business. When I had a problem with a project and I went to Harvey, he would always ask me, "What's in the best interest of the client?" Another thing that Harvey tried to instil in all the consultants was the importance of the quality of any written material.

Harvey's right hand man was Ron Carroll, an ex-IBMer. Ron joined him in 1964 after Harvey sold H.S. Gellman and Associates to DCF.

DCF at that time was owned by Dehavilland and had aspirations of becoming a big Systems Integrator under the leadership of Larry Clark. Larry eventually became founder of SPAR Aerospace, the creator of The Canadarm. DCF was originally a consortium founded by Dehavilland, CAE and Ferranti to bid on the installation of Bomarc missile bases in Canada in the mid 50s. The bases was the only system integration contract they won. CAE pulled out because they realized they were competing against themselves. Ferranti pulled out when they encountered financial difficulties developing the FP6000, the only Canadian designed computer. I think the FP6000 was used for the first Reservec system. DCF was spending lots of money bidding on huge projects, but their only paying work was Harvey's consulting teamwork, as well as some other small engineering projects. On a Thursday in August, 1965, Dehavilland announced that anyone not working on billable projects was "transferred" to Dehavilland, and Harvey was made president of the new DCF Systems, a consulting company. However, Dehavilland got into difficulty with a Douglas contract for tails and wings for DC9s, so they eventually transferred the contract to Douglas Canada and took over DCF's offices. DCF - all twelve of us - moved to downtown Toronto, 74 Victoria Street. Since it was obvious Dehavilland really did not want to be in the consulting business, Harvey and Ron offered to buy DCF, but Bill Boggs, the turn-around president at Dehavilland, wanted more money than they were offering. He went shopping for a buyer and found that one of the big eight firms was interested, but only if Harvey came with the deal. Needless to say, there was no deal. Eventually, in 1966 or 67, Bill Boggs reluctantly agreed to let Harvey and Ron buy DCF Systems. Harvey and Ron introduced a profit sharing plan, and DCF Systems became profitable. Ron was the ideal business manager as a partner for Harvey and, under his management, DCF grew and prospered.

In 1968, Computel and Systems Dimensions (SDL) in Ottawa went public, and their stock was soaring. Paper millionaires were born overnight. Ron wanted to take DCF public, but he realized the process would take a long time. Around that time, he met Ted White, a friend and another ex-IBMer, in the elevator of 74 Victoria Street. Ted and Gerry Wanless had just taken AGT Data Systems public so that AGT could get into the service bureau business like Computel and SDL. Unfortunately, their consulting business got into trouble while they were doing the IPO. Ted's idea was that the two firms, AGT and DCF, could merge, Ron would have the public company and Harvey would manage the consulting business. A deal made in heaven. Or was it? Harvey said that, at the time, "I did not want to stand in the way of my partners." However, because at that time Harvey had all the control, I suspect that his partners, Ron and a couple of other senior guys, thought they had his full support. Later, Harvey would say that that was the worse decision of his career. The deal was announced in early 1969 and the AGT stock hit $25 from an issue price of $5 the year before. However, all the shares were in escrow, so none of the principals could trade - lots of paper millionaires...

The AGT/DCF Years

AGT's plan was to offer packaged services rather than just machine cycles. In other words, they could, for example, put together a package to process trades for brokerage firms. This idea was their differentiation. The downfall came in the selection of their computer. All these former IBMers selected RCA Spectra 46, a super timesharing machine that would outperform everything else at an unbelievably low price. However, like most other timesharing machines of that era, the software did not work, and AGT ended up without a working computer after having invested so much of their money in RCA Spectra 46. Eventually, they bought computer time from SDL.

However, it was not all bad news. AGT/DCF was now a large computer system consulting firm and the Bank of Montreal needed help developing their multi-branch banking system. BMO bought ten percent of AGT and gave them a huge contract to supply people to build this system. While the data center was struggling, the consulting business was booming. However Harvey, who was on the board of directors, was getting more and more uncomfortable about the direction and decisions of AGT. He felt hampered being an inside director, and in 1970, he decided to become an outside director. He then started asking some very difficult questions; I suspect those board meetings were not always fun. By then, the stock was trading in the two dollar range, and Ron Carroll had also left because of disputes with Gary Wanless. These were very difficult times for everyone. Harvey was an independent management consultant, but with offices also at 74 Victoria Street.

One system AGT sold was a brokerage package that they eventually got running. The development had been sponsored by a brokerage house that agreed to pay a per-transaction-fee when the system got running. When the system got working, however, AGT lost money on each transaction. The only saving grace, ironically enough, was that, at the time, the market was down and the volume was low. The deal was so bad that when the post office increased its postal rates, AGT lost even more money. They eventually renegotiated the transaction fee, and their system became very successful and was used by many companies; this was an early version of outsourcing a business process to another company.

At one stage, Gerry Wanless proposed a merger with Consumers' Computing, a spin off from Consumers' Gas. Consumers' Computing was in as much trouble as AGT. Harvey asked some good questions at the board meeting, and although the deal had been announced, it never was consummated. It was clear that Harvey still cared, and was trying to do his best for the shareholders.

Meanwhile, the BMO project had come to an end, and without Harvey at the helm of the consulting business, it was in tatters. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Gerry Wanless went to ask Harvey if he would come back to help bale out the consulting business. This was in 1972, and by now Gerry was really desperate.

Harvey came back and started to refocus the DCF Syestems Division on consulting. Many of the people only had experience on the BMO project, and knew nothing about business development. Harvey's saying at that time was: "The Client is King." Many people greeted that with a lot of cynicism; they did not last. Harvey quickly proceeded to clean house and get DCF back on an even keel. By now, DCF counted about thirty consultants - down from over a hundred in the heady days of the BMO project. The group started focusing on the client, and business improved dramatically.

In order to increase our visibility, we decided to produce something we could mail to prospective clients. The document we decided to produce on a regular basis was to be a definitive paper on some subject related to what we called "Management Topics." It was well received, yet quite a challenge to prepare because, if I recall, we had committed to producing it quarterly. One thing Harvey really understood, and had good skill at, was keeping visible. He told me once that he had been very shy when he was younger, but realized he had to overcome this trait to develop a business. He certainly overcame his shyness, but he always remained a very private person.

In 1973, Multiple Access bought AGT for two dollars a share. The DCF consulting group was very uncomfortable because one of our senior people, Mike Asner, had had a bad experience with Multiple Access. The senior people at Multiple Access knew nothing about the consulting business and really considered it window dressing, not a serious part of the business.

I was very uncomfortable with this latest situation at AGT and in 1973, I had decided to leave. However, looking at DCF Systems Division, I realized we had some really good people even if most of the senior people had left. Harvey was fifteen years my senior, and I was the next most senior in the company. No wonder the business was so dependent on Harvey; except for me, Harvey had all the relationships. If I was going to stay, the structure needed to change. I decided we needed to find a way to keep senior people and that, in the consulting business, senior people needed to have a stake in the business. Thus, after discussion, a group of us that were among the more senior people in the company decided to approach Harvey to see if he would join our offer to buy DCF.

Harvey had told Multiple Access management that the people in DCF Systems Division were restless, but no action was taken. Harvey was not surprised at our proposal but was going on vacation and wanted some time to think. We had proposed a limited partnership with each partner having equal shares, but with variable compensation. I decided to propose equal shares as I could not see how to change the number of shares over time, and we were trying to structure something that could not be sold and would be an expanding partnership. Compensation would be based on performance and contribution.

Harvey returned from his holidays with a real concern about the equal partnership. He was much older than the rest of us and, based on his previous experience, was worried the "young bucks" would betray him. I explained my thoughts about the company to him, but he was not happy; I did not know where to turn. I finally asked my brother Bill, a management consultant in Halifax, for help. Harvey had met him and had offered him a job when he graduated from Harvard; he trusted Bill. We met at the airport on a Saturday morning and when we were done, we had an agreement. Harvey would be President for as long as he wanted to be, we would not change our line of business without his approval, and he would not be asked to leave, without his approval, for fifteen years. Basically, Harvey was offering his business to his partners for the reassurance that we would not betray his trust in us. Harvey in return had to promise to work full time. We had a breakthrough.

On April 1, 1974, we asked John MacCutcheon, President of Multiple Access, to sell DCF to us for the asset value. We heard nothing from John in response, so we called him to arrange a meeting on May 1, 1974. At that meeting, he said he did not want to sell but, if we insisted, he wanted ten times what we had offered. We responded that he was obviously not taking us seriously, so we were quitting. We walked across to our lawyer and composed our letter of resignation, decided on the name of our new company, and what we would say to the staff and clients of DCF. Thus, Gellman Hayward was born, and opened for business on June 3, 1974.

That last month at DCF was an unbelievable experience. "Mac" (that's not his real name) was sent to take over as transitional manager of DCF. His problem was that he could not put a sentence together without using a four-letter word. That was so counter culture at DCF, it came as a shock. The staff called him "Tex", because he wore cowboy boots. Another really "smart move" on Mac's part was sending a lawyer's letter to all DCF staff saying that Multiple Access Ltd. owned everything they knew. We called it the "frontal lobotomy letter." Even a receptionist who had joined two weeks before got one of those letters. Nobody from Multiple Access talked to anybody at DCF to find out what the problem was. It was amazing as well how Mac did not take into consideration the needs of the clients. They may have even threatened clients, but I cannot be sure about that.

One thing that frustrated me was that there had been no negotiation or discussion between the parties. I mentioned this to Mac personally, and the next thing I knew, I had a meeting with John MacCutcheon. I asked him why there had been no discussion, and he explained that he was mad at Harvey. I asked if he had a counter proposal, and he simply asked me to trust him for six months. I couldn't believe it; he gave me absolutely nothing to take back to my partners. It was over.

Everybody had resigned from DCF without having another job offer. They trusted us, and of course, Mac had driven them away.

The next time we saw John was in court, several years later.

One good thing about leaving DCF behind was that we were off the hook for "Management Topics"; producing a definitive article on a subject on a regular basis had been very difficult.

Chapter 3 Gellman Hayward

The Early Years

Harvey Gellman, Jim Hayward, Burry Foss, and Michael Asner were the first four employees and owners of Gellman Hayward. The most amazing thing was on our first day of operation all the ex-DCF people showed up. It was truly inspiring the confidence they had in the new company. We started with a staff of twenty-four and we waited for the phone to ring after the announcement of our founding. We quickly became very busy and after a couple of months, we knew we were going to be fine.

Harvey was always a great stabilizing influence on the new team. He gave leadership and direction. He made things simple. In addition, he was always looking for new ideas. He was such a wise man.

In 1975, he showed me an article called "Consultants, Expand your Capacity to Serve your Clients", by Robert Schaffer. He said that this fellow had some new ideas about consulting. I read the article and it did not mention The report.' In those days, the consulting process was data collection, analysis, and report. Schaffer had quite a different approach. That article and our subsequent work with Schaffer transformed our consulting practice. Harvey had been consulting for twenty years by this time, but he changed his approach to be more effective with his clients. I always admired that about Harvey. He always went the extra mile for his clients.

So what was so revolutionary? A consultant is in the business of delivering change, not a report. Too often we had worked with clients and done an excellent report, which they loved, but then it was just put on the shelf but no change was made. What value did the client receive? Schaffer said the product consultants were selling was change, and that the report was only one of the instruments of change. He also said people only do what they are ready to do. If you go outside their readiness, you will be ignored.

We were so impressed with what Schaffer had to say, we had him do a workshop with all our consultants for both an evening and a full day. The first night, before we had started, Bob had said to Harvey and me privately, "I will know I am staying in their readiness zone if tomorrow sometime, somebody says, You know, he is not saying anything new; he is just saying it in a different way.' That will be the test." I was in the washroom at the midmorning break and one of the people said those exact words. I was amazed at the time because I thought that most trainers were successful if they were praised for their great insight. Maybe being praised for your great consulting report was a bad sign. What a novel idea!

Bob also said that the success of a consulting firm was in maintaining continuing relationships with clients. He said, "How do you continue a relationship after the "Final Report"? We were blown away. The firm was starting to see the consulting business quite differently.

This experience was one of many that Harvey discovered in his continuous search for improvement.

With the formation of Gellman Hayward, Harvey was now with a group that he could trust. One could even say that, after twenty years of trials and tribulation, he now was with a group where there was mutual trust and respect. He was so comfortable that after the first year, he asked to take a six-month break, and go to Israel. We worked out an arrangement such that the full time clause would not be evoked and Harvey went off to learn Hebrew. Things were going well with the firm.

Gellman Hayward was formed on the basis of an expanding partnership so that, as people became key members, they would be asked to join the partnership. After a year, we asked one of our key employees to join the partnership. He was flattered and surprised at how easy we made it for him. The next year, however, when we decided we should consider some others, his reaction was, "Why should I dilute my share?" We should have known at that point that we were in trouble because, although we introduced three new partners at that time, it became increasing difficult to continue doing that. We had a problem.

Another issue was our philosophy towards growth. I had always stated that we would have natural growth driven by the demands of our clients and the market place. Compare that strategy with the DMR strategy of becoming a national firm. We were formed at the same time, but they grew much more rapidly than Gellman Hayward. In 1988, when we were about one hundred professionals, we decided to set some growth targets for the first time. From that time on, strangely enough, Gellman Hayward never grew. The issue of the partnership becoming more and more closed had become our biggest problem. At one stage, one of our partners described us as a dysfunctional family.

However, the market place saw a high quality consulting firm that was really committed to its clients. We had some excellent continuing relationships and did high quality consulting work. Everyone practiced Harvey's respect for everyone else in the firm. A lack of respect for anyone was not tolerated.

The importance of quality in written documents was also in the veins of the firm. Harvey developed in the group an ability for everybody to review and edit others' work. This ability to have two editors and a proofreader who could really give feedback without the receiver feeling attacked was incredible. When I tried to institute the same practice at the business of a client or at CGI, I realized that what we had achieved at Gellman Hayward was quite amazing. This selfless pursuit of quality was awesome.

The whole firm supported this quality production process. Support staff would not allow documents to go out until they were perfect, with no corrections. And this was achieved in the days before word processors, when the process of correcting was much more labour intensive. We believed, just like Tom Peters who said people saw coffee stains on the flip down tray as a sign of bad engine maintenance, that an error in a report or letter would be interpreted as poor quality consulting work and a lack of respect for the client.

"Going the extra mile" was one of Harvey's little sayings. In recollection, he had many of these simple little phrases that just stuck with you. They reminded you what the values of our firm were. Another was of course "The Client is King, " and we all had that inscribed in our hearts.

Harvey was a master at the public relations game. Almost immediately after we formed the firm, we started looking for a consultant to help us in this area. We selected David Eisenstadt, who was an excellent idea man, but short on implementation. Harvey believed that one developed new consulting business by getting people to call you, as opposed to your cold-calling people looking for work. Thus we set about to create an image for Gellman Hayward. In later years, when people would approach us as an acquisition target, they were always surprised at our size. Based on our image, they expected a far bigger firm. Sometimes we would dominate the Report on Business, if they had a special technology issue. I recall one time when there were twelve articles in one issue and we had written eight of them. We eventually brought our public relations work inside, but it always was a very important item at Gellman Hayward.

Visibility of the firm was really important because business development is the consulting business is very difficult. When people had a problem, we needed them to think of us. That was very difficult so we engaged in many activities to give us name recognition. We wrote articles and gave speeches at conferences about the hot topics of the day. One thing we did was hold breakfast seminars where we had a internal or external expert talk on a subject and then invite discussion at each table where a Gellman, Hayward consultant was the host. All these things helped increase our visibility.

Early on, we developed a process whereby any articles published in the firm were reprinted with a standard look and mailed to our list of clients and prospects. Later we came up with an idea for a regular mailing by producing a summary of the best articles on a subject. We called it "Management Notes." In 1999, I met someone who had kept all our old Management Notes. To me, it validated the value of all that work and their contribution to the business. We developed a real image for doing quality work through those Management Notes. Of course, the articles and speeches also helped.

Harvey's search for new things also became a way of life in the firm. He was always looking for ways to improve or try new things. I often called Harvey our organization renewer. I think sometimes he abandoned things prematurely, but maybe that was his way. If somebody else picked it up, okay, but Harvey was moving on.

One of Harvey's weaknesses was that he was not an operational guy. He needed others to run the firm for him. In the past, it had been Ron Carroll or a succession of others at DCF. At Gellman Hayward, we were all consultants primarily, so it was difficult to find somebody to run the store. That may have been one of our principal weaknesses. I think managing Gellman Hayward was like herding cats. We struggled with management for years and at one stage we appointed a CEO, Tom Stark, to run the show. On reflection, I think each partner felt, "Tom should tell those others guys what to do, not me." I suspect we were stuck and we lacked readiness to change. If we had been able to keep expanding the partnership, maybe the management problem could have been solved. In the firm, "overall Management" was the code word for our major insoluble problem. Like all the partners, Harvey was a free spirit. Once things were organized, he moved on to the next challenge.

Harvey talked many times about "managing the knowledge worker". I suspect we never quite mastered that one. One thing he tried to introduce was a coaching system and we did make sure that everyone had a coach. Our management style was to give every person a lot of freedom while always focusing on the client. This level of freedom and responsibility was difficult for many people. However, others they thrived on it. It was not neat and tidy, but allowed everyone to focus on business development and the client work.

One thing I concluded was that consulting work of the type Gellman Hayward did was not for everyone. In the consulting business, one has no place to hide. Either you have a happy client or you do not have consulting work. If you are not busy and in demand, you're frequently available and very visible. The other thing is you are always either under the gun of the client or you are looking for work. That kind of pressure is not for the faint of heart. For those who like it, there really is no other job.

Sales in Gellman Hayward were an on-going challenge because we waited for the phone to ring. Although we became very visible in the market place and had good continuing relationships, new clients were hard to come by. The senior people did the selling, the managing, the project management, and consulting.

About a year after Gellman Hayward was formed, Multiple Access filed a law suit against the firm and the partners. After several years of process, we went to court and sat through two painful weeks of testimony opening up again all the drama of those last days at DCF. At one point, the judge called the lawyers into his chambers and said they should advise their clients to settle because nobody except the lawyers were going to win in this case. We decided we wanted to prove we did nothing wrong. About a year after the trial, the judge handed down his decision. The only fault he found was that Harvey had not informed Multiple Access of our proposal when we first approached him. He awarded damages which were less than our original offer to buy DCF Systems Division. Soon after the judge handed down his decision, John MacCutcheon was no longer CEO of Multiple Access. I suspect the loss of this case and other business problems were significant contributing factors in his departure.

The Later Gellman Hayward Years

This section of the history of Gellman-Hayward is the most difficult for me to write about. We were a very successful and highly visible consulting firm. However we got stuck at 100 consultants and overall management of the firm was a problem. We had an office in Calgary with a partner who wanted to move to the US and a struggling offices in Calgary and Edmonton.

From 1988 on we were approached by several organizations because they wanted to buy us. I recall one US firm from Buffalo approached us. However when the CEO discovered we had nine partners, he realized he could not make nine people millionaires and stopped the conversation. Another company was surprized when they came to talk with us, how small we were compared with our image in the market. In the 1988 time frame, we were approached by CGI to buy us and the partners serious considered the offer. In fact my recollection was that the partners with the exception of myself and Tom Stark approved of the deal, even Harvey to our surprize. However Tom Stark did not like the deal and told the partners that he did not think we could deliver the performance CGI was demanding for the deal. Tom thought the partners were expecting Tom to deliver the goods. He stated hewould not manage the CGI Toronto office. Without any more discussion that I recall, the deal died and we decided to try to make the partnership work.

We made a valiant attempt to make the partnership work. We added five new partners with fewer shares. That helped but I think Burry Foss wanting to be in the States and Tom wanting to manage by consensus made solving the problems difficult. I often wonder if we had started with a different structure whether things would have turned out better. We had lost the vision of an expanding partnership very quickly. Everybody wanted to be consultants and not managers of the business. I think we all thought if we gave up our practice we would lose our value to the organization. I take a lot of responsibility for that philosophy and the devaluing leadership. I was really into consensus leadership but not will to take on the leadership using that model.

Harvey always wanted to create an organization that would continue after he retired, and he was part of the search of solution to the "Overall Management" problem. In the late 80's Gellman Hayward was not growing and people were leaving. We had become an organization of one hundred consultants with offices in Toronto and Calgary and nine partners. Adding additional equal partners was becoming increasingly difficult.

I am not sure when he decided that we could not solve the problem on our own, yet eventually the partners decided we could not solve it on our own. Although we had structured the company so it was difficult to sell, I think the partners wanted their money out. According to the agreement, leaving would not give each partner much money. Thus, sale to a suitable partner was the only solution. Harvey never revealed his feeling about this, but I hope he did not feel betrayed.

Harvey was a faithful partner and again was trying to do the best for all of us. One thing Harvey had was a skill to survive and he really won in the end. I suspect however the pragmatic solution of selling Gellman Hayward was as painful to him as the rest of us. He would act in the best interest of the partners.

CGI Years

The transition to CGI was very difficult. The merger was difficult with the very best intentions on both sides. The conflict between the existing CGI in Toronto and Gellman Hayward office was managed very poorly.

Harvey was given a position on the Board of CGI and was given responsibility for the quality Improvement program in CGI. A job he tackled with vigor and impatience that made things happen. After a couple of years, he decided to reduce his working days to three days a week, but remained a loyal CGI supporter. His work then was to open doors in Toronto for CGI's Toronto office. He also coached people trying to set up new businesses. In the mid 90's he helped Graham Boundy develop the data warehousing business in Toronto. The result was several small projects, and then a project with Bell Canada.

Another important activity during this period, he wrote a book in collaboration with two others called "Taming the Tiger". The tiger' in the book was information technology. The book was excellent and had much of his wisdom but I do not think captured his humanity and caring for people.

However, except for a few, all Gellman Hayward people left CGI. The stock we got in the sale/merge with CGI stayed at or below the price at the sale for many years. The partners who stayed, Harvey, Beverly Fingerhut and I, were restricted in selling our shares so I think we all kept them. In 1996, CGI signed a deal with Bell Canada that gave Bell a 25% stake in CGI but limited voting rights. This was a major breakthrough for the shares and in the next two years the stock soared. It split three times and when Harvey fully retired in 1998 it was selling for thirty-two dollars or $320 for the original shares. So when Harvey retired he did very well, much better than we expected or even dreamed.

Chapter 4 Harvey Sayings

Having worked with Harvey Gellman in the consulting business from 1965 to 1997, and then participated in a discussion group, the Senge Circle, from 1989 to 2003, I was often struck by his skill at distilling lessons into simple saying or ideas. These ideas have stuck with me over the years and I have applied them in my consulting practice. Here are some of these ideas

Harvey Saying: "The Client is King" -

One of Harvey's sayings that goes back as far as the 1960s, and that he kept repeating, was "The Client is King".

At the time, it sounded ridiculous and impractical. People would say, "What about profit?" or "You got to be kidding, that is really stupid". But his point was clearly that you have to put the client first; everything else is secondary. I find it difficult to recall or understand how ridiculous that sounded at the time because now it is so obvious.

We have come a long way in our thinking about customer service. I wonder however how many of us really practice putting the client first. The point Harvey was making is that the only real asset most consultants have is their client, and they must be the consultant's primary focus.

At that point I was just learning the consulting business, and I often would go to Harvey with a client problem. Since he was such a clear thinker and liked to keep things simple, the question he would often ask me was, "What is in the best interest of the client?" Such a simple question, but not one that is necessarily easy to answer. It always helped, though. So putting the client first, and keeping other issues secondary always worked for me.

I wonder why this principle is so difficult for many businesses to put into practice. I think most businesses consider they are in the business of selling some product or service, and spend all their time trying to sell more services or making more profit. Most people are trying to sell the latest feature or the latest idea. So, rather than being customer focussed, they become product focussed.

Most businesses measure sales and profits and rarely measure customer satisfaction. They measure the customers they lose, but do they know why? Were they acting in the best interest of the customer? In the volume selling business, I think everybody assumes the price is the determining factor.

Another problem might be that the best interest of the customer is a very intangible thing. In comparison, the product is very tangible and can be thought about in a concrete way. If we really care about the customer and their interests, however, we might behave quite differently.

So Harvey's simple saying, "The client is king", is still very relevant and still a challenge today.

The Best Interest of the Client

Everyone Deserves Respect

One of the things that was special about Harvey was his respect for everybody no matter what their role. He believed that everybody had a special role. He felt very passionately about this and my first experience with this was with the support staff. He watched very carefully how people treated support staff and demanded they be treated with respect. He certainly modelled this behaviour in everything that he did.

I am sure all the support staff at Gellman Hayward felt very important and special. He also demonstrated this with the maintenance staff in the office building. They had such a positive feeling for him they came to his retirement party in the office. He also knew about all our children and my children all remember Harvey.

This characteristic is most interesting because Harvey was not a warm and demonstrative person. However there was no question he was quite fanatical about everyone deserving respect.

All the support staff in our office building experienced the respect of Harvey. The cleaning and the maintenance staff in our building all knew Harvey and he knew something about each one of them. For many of us, these people are transparent but not for Harvey. He knew something about them all.

When a reporter came to interview Harvey, one thing I noted is that Harvey would find out something about this person was and established a relationship with them. He sincerely took and interest in each and every person he came in contact with. He was always ready to help and support people.

One image I have of Harvey, the President of the firm, is him cleaning up the coffee stains and coffee mugs in our kitchen in the office. He was a man of service with respect for others.

Editing and Proofreading

Harvey believed that every document we produced must error free and high quality. In the days of the typewriter, that was no mean feat. We did not even have white-out on our letters or published reports. Everybody in the firm supported that position. Harvey got us all to be believers.

In order to achieve that level of quality, Harvey got the firm to institute a procedure where every document that went out the door had two editors and two proof readers. I have yet to figure how Harvey got us to accept this procedure but one thing he did was model this behaviour. He had a game he would play with proofreaders. He would give the reader a quarter for every error that was found.

The bigger challenge was to get two editors to review your document. The editor's job was to make sure the document delivered its intended message in a clear manner. The difficulty with this process was that most of us attached our ego to our creations and find the feedback difficult to accept. However we got to the point that we looked forward to getting our documents back with red marks all over it. To get the firm to get to that level was really a challenge. For us we fervently believed in this concept. We achieve something really special. It was a standard procedure that nobody questioned. His point was that the only visible thing the remains when we leave the client was our documents. Thus quality of our documents was evidence of the quality of our work. I think this fact is like Tom Peters saying in "In search of Excellence", people judge how well an airline maintains their engines by the cleanliness of the flip down trays.

I must also mention the downside of this search for perfection discouraged me from doing much writing earlier in my career. I have now decided that passing on my experiences and learning is more important than the prose being perfect.

Readiness

I mentioned previously how important high quality documents were for us at Gellman, Hayward. However to our great frustration, we would produce a high quality report for a client and receive high praise but nothing would change. In the mid 70's Harvey discovered an article by Bob Schaffer and showed to me. Having read it, I flippantly said "Clearly he does not understand consulting he does not talk about the report'." However the article was very profound and insightful. The basic theme was that nobody does anything they are not ready to do (Readiness). Thus the praise we received for our report was a method the client used to putting distance between himself and us. We then realized what we really wanted to deliver was change, not a high quality report. The report could be a tool but not the product. Readiness is a simple but very profound concept. The concept applies to the consultant as well as the client. Many consultants have difficulty with their egos and really want praise even though they know it likely means a failed consulting job. I always had difficulty with that aspect of readiness. This event dramatically changed the way we delivered our consulting services.

Although we continued to produce quality documents, we paid much more attention to the consulting dynamics. I was so excited about this new revelation that I decided to make a readiness assessment at the first opportunity. I was asked to propose on a piece of work and set about to assess readiness. I discovered the assessment was much more difficult than the concept. I did not have a clue and realized that there is more to this concept than a simple idea.

Over the years, as I attempted to apply the concept, I realized the difficulty of making a readiness assessment. I have many stories of readiness assessments and my lack of readiness to accept the reality of many situations. In the process of assessing readiness, the readiness of the consultant is just as important as the readiness of the client. So many times, I want to apply a previous experience to a new situation and do not pay attention to the specific details of the current situation.

One of the things that I look for in any consulting situation is early successes for the client. I believe early success increases the client's readiness to take on more change. I think that is true but often the client wants a proposal for the big fix. Often I will try to propose both, a longer term strategy and some early wins. I suspect in some circumstances the idea of early wins scares the client particularly if the readiness for change is low. A better strategy might be to propose what the client wants and as the work progresses, I can find some early wins in the context of the longer term strategy. These early wins will give the client courage to tackle some of the more difficult changes. Once we are into the project, we can much more reliably assess the client's readiness for change.

A simple of example of a statement of lack of readiness is a person saying "I should ." One of my teachers taught me that that is a statement of bad intentions. He taught me to hear an additional phrase at the end, "but I am not gonna." Another fellow said, "People are full of shoulds."

Over the years I have learned not to jump to conclusions about readiness and remain sceptical. One of my rules of thumb is to watch the feet, not the words. Readiness is demonstrated by actions, not words.

Hidden Factors

In my search for the meaning of life, the universe and everything, I must keep reminding myself that things are not always as they appear. This fact is really evident in business and I refer to them as the "hidden factors". These are the items that people do not reveal but are major influencers. These are both personal things and broader issues.

If a person has a substance abuse problem or marital difficulties, you may never know but will affect everything. If the person is about to lose his job or had a seriously bad appraisal by his boss, how might they behave with you? If the person has had bad experiences in dealing with other people in your role, for example salesperson or consultant, they will be very guarded. Underlying prejudices of all types can be very insidious. What happened just before you met with this person? Things are often not as they appear.

I find that if I keep this idea in my awareness I am less likely to jump to conclusions that might lead me down the wrong path. This idea brings to my mind one of Harvey's favourite saying, "I am confused, help me understand." It works miracles if the statement must be authentic expression of your feelings. However if we remember the hidden factors, we are often confused.

One of the dangers in coping with hidden factors is our discomfort in dealing with uncertainty. The main coping mechanism in dealing with uncertainty is to fill the gap with speculation and guesses. The strategy works as long as you are ready to change your mind as facts appear. I notice often I get so attached to my guesses that I disregard facts. Ignoring reality is never a good consulting technique.

Subject Files

Here is a modern data management challenge that Harvey solved manually many years ago. Technical journals and articles were a very important way of keeping up to date. Harvey read or scanned many journals. We had a library of journals that was the envy of most organizations. When Harvey read a good article he copied it put the date on the top and filed it according to the subject in his "Subject Files". The neatest things was when he read what he considered a classic, he would put a "C" in a box on the top. If any of us wanted to research a subject, we always went to the subject files first. Managing the volume of data that would accumulate over the years was a challenge which Harvey solved very simply. Annually he would purge or have purged, everything that was older than three years except for those marked with a "C."

Keeping in Touch

One of the challenges we all have is keeping in touch with our network of associates. I have always found it a challenge. Harvey had many neat ways of keeping in touch. One was if he read an article that he thought some of his contacts would like to see he would mail it to them with a little note attached saying "Thought you might find this interesting. No acknowledgement required. Harvey." I recall he had this as a hand written note which he had printed in blue so it looked personal. Again Harvey invented something simple but profound.

Harvey and Operational Responsibility

You may think by now Harvey walked on water but that was far from the truth. One thing Harvey didn't take much interest in was operational responsibility. Running the day to day activity was not his strength. The way he dealt with this was to find others who took more interest in these activities to do the operational management. The closest he would come was to invent some routine procedure that required no involvement when it was in place. Over the years I was with Harvey he always had others take on those tasks for him. I think he was well aware of his limitations in that area.

Keep It Simple

In the system business and consulting we have a great tendency to talk in jargon and acronyms. Harvey really encouraged us all to avoid jargon and abbreviations. In the systems business, many words mean different things depending on you point of view. Thus using a particular word may fail in its attempt to communicate meaning. Take a little more effort and express things more simply. Harvey would say "I am a simple man so express it in simple terms for me". Early on that would annoy me because Harvey was far from a simple man but he was making a point. An example of problems with words is "software", that could mean anything from everything that is not hardware to a specific part of the code in a computer and anything in between. Application is another meaningless word.

If we are trying to communicate, avoid shortcuts and keep it simple. People in specific field or discipline often communicate in short forms which can leave some people behind or lost. In these situations, most people are too embarrassed to ask for clarification. The result is these people are often lost and unable to contribute. I have been often surprised to find when I ask the meaning of some term the person using does not know what it means.

Whenever I become part of a group that has a lot of jargon, I develop a list of short forms and their meanings. I find that helps and I carry the crib sheet with me for quick reference. Eventually I learn all the terms and am confident enough with a new term appears to ask its meaning. I suspect these questions help many people.

Be The Best That You Can Be

Are Your Projects Loaded For Success?

Harvey often asked "Is this project loaded for success?" A good question to ask frequently to yourself or any project manager.

So what do I do if the answer is no. My general approach is revise the project plan and objectives to loaded it for success. If you cannot do that, look in the mirror and ask yourself "Why am I doing this?"

I was asked once to help an organization to create a "Strategic Systems Plan". They had done all the right things in putting an organization together that was textbook but a couple of key people were not involved. I knew it was not loaded for success and suggest an alternative first step. We would demonstrate the IT department could produce results so that the key man, the head of operations, would get involved. The breakthrough project created a rapid result and revealed a key weakness in the organization. We corrected the weakness and we were off to the races with a dynamic and results oriented plan, as opposed to a ponderous "Strategic Systems Plan" that would give the organization constipation.

Another project I joined many years ago was really loaded for failure and I did not take the initiative to make my thoughts known. I think many people knew or thought the same thing but did not voice their concern. I think we all felt overwhelmed. It was a huge project that was heading for disaster. I eventually left the project but this project continued for several years and was eventually abandon. I am quite ashamed that i did not take a firmer stand on the design of the project. I think it took a lot of courage for the little boy to say "The king has no clothes on." I guess I did not have the courage to stand up and be counted.

Sometimes designing a project to be loaded for success requires some creativity and some risk but I have found without exception it was worth the effort.

Use of Words

So many words we use get to lose their meaning by overuse and misuse. In the IT business, the word "system" has totally lost its meaning. It is almost become a non-word. We are really mental cripples in the use of the language. We use so few of the words available to us to make our meaning clear.

Another area to think about is "big words" or loaded words. These are words that contain lots of baggage. Simple examples are words like "hate", "overwhelmed', "neglect", "abuse", and "waste". These words are used to elicit reactions that go well beyond the immediate statement. We are must take care to use the right word so that our meaning is clear. There, I used a big word, "must". What I meant was "using the right word so that our meaning is clear is the better way". I guess I have to have the courage to be imperfect.

Open Question

In doing interview to find out what is going on in an organization, Harvey had a really neat question that revealed some amazing responses. This question would come near the end of the discussion and Harvey would say, "Is there any question I haven't asked you that you would like to answer or any question you think I should ask you?" The important thing at that stage is to wait quietly and patiently because the person will need some time to think about the question. Remember silence is often the best question. It is a great open question as well.

Be Passionate

Chapter 5 Consulting Lessons Learned

Introduction

Job Security

Be Skeptical

The Courage to be Imperfect

What have you learned lately

• contribution or work task,
• love or intimate relationship,
• relationship with family and friends,
• achieving your self ideal,
• spritual task or relationship with the universe.

Golf and Life

Trying

A New Methodolgy AIM

Coaching

Consultant Effectiveness

Hidden Factors - New Ideas

Pain and Growth

The Cloud Theory

The Consulting Report

The Three G's - A Consulting Methodology

Warm-up

Introductions - Part of Training Sessions

Chapter 6 People Remember Harvey

B.A. Griffith from My Early Years in Toronto[1]

I first met Harvey in the spring of 1965, when he interviewed me for a consulting position in DCF systems while I was completing my Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon. I accepted a job offer and joined the firm in August, 1966, where I immediately began work on a major project to automate the Interprovincial Pipe Line. Harvey impressed me as a kind man who was very concerned about the individual but had no time for any nonsense if something was not done in the interests of the client.

Some of the things I learned from Harvey include:

1. The need to help a client to change. Often the best consulting recommendations do not work because the client is unwilling or unable to change. Harvey used his "drip" method to continuously stimulate a client's thinking and reinforce the ideas and changes that are needed to get a business result. This, combined with Schaffer's Breakthrough Strategy, proved to be a very powerful combination which I have used successfully in my consulting activities to this day.

2. Working a consulting engagement according to a set of principles and not relenting. Harvey expressed this as keeping it simple but he applied objectivity to this idea before it became well known as part of "best practices". I have found that following Harvey's practice of "taking the high road" has been one of the most important success factors in ongoing client relationships.

3. Quality is important and is also hard work. In the 1970's we added to the visibility of Gellman Hayward by publishing extensive check lists for IT management in one of the monthly IT newspapers. This required a lot of staff work and diligent quality control. The check lists received significant praise from the IT community but after awhile it became more work than it was worth.

4. The importance of a consultant to be physically fit. Harvey ran every day on the roof of a building in Toronto that housed his gym. He continued this until arthritis began to affect his hip. I began my 30 years of running at the age of 30 and only quit in 2000 because of my knees. I found that it provided the energy I needed to cope with the demands of a fast-paced consulting career. Even today I am in the gym five days a week with two of those days devoted to cardio-vascular fitness.

I have read the comments that Jim Hayward and Bob Fabian have prepared in Harvey's memory. They express the many sides of the man that everyone that worked with him found so valuable. For me, I have to say that after observing the practices of dozens of consulting firms over the years there is not one that provides the sense of caring and yet the drive for results that Harvey taught. I will forever be in his debt for the practices he showed me and the success that I have had in my 37 years as a management consultant.

Ron Gilmore Remembers

June 18, 1998

Dear Harvey

This is a short letter that I know I have written in my mind several times, over and over during the past several years. Finally, I was encouraged to take the time to commit my thoughts to paper. My action was nudged gently forward when I called your office to chat recently. The receptionist indicated that you have (apparently) officially retired. I am now encouraged to write before the passage of too much further time. The days, months and years feel to be roaring by like a riptide without any obvious slowdown. The purpose of my letter is simply to stop the clock for a moment and to say "Thanks". Thanks for so many things. Harvey, you have had an indelible and constructive impact on my life and you should know some of this.

I am not exactly sure when I first became aware of you and your work but I do believe it would have been during my terrific years (1967 through 1969) that I spent taking my Masters Degree in Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. Somewhere during that massive injection of content (and a little bit of process), I came across your name and some notions of your early work as a systems consultant. This small piece of information became one of the first bits of my varied media collection of you that has grown continuously throughout the years.

After I left the academic world of Waterloo in 1969 to join the real working world at Systems Dimensions Limited in Ottawa, I continued to hear your name more and more often. The references about Harvey Gellman tended to come from folks that I held in high regard and the references were always positive, each carrying elements of magic and legendary change attached. Your work was seen as solid, senior, major change and always extremely thoughtful. I believe I had the opportunity to read some of your early articles on consulting. For my ten years with SDL, the references and legend continued to grow in my mental "Library of Harvey Gellman".

When I left SDL in 1978 (to escape the emotional nonsense of a corporate take-over) and returned back to Western Canada, I jumped into some work that paid the bills but was not exactly enriching. One day I spied the tiniest advertisement (no graphics, small font) in the Calgary Herald, seeking an information systems person with at least ten-year's of experience in oil and gas systems. I had absolutely no oil and gas experience at that time (if you do not count buying gas for my car and changing the oil now and then). It was one of the worst ads I had ever seen and my professional profile did not fit at all but the magic hook was the name of the firm - Gellman, Hayward and Partners. If it had been a blind ad, I never would have bothered to respond. This couldn't be! The Harvey Gellman? Well maybe, just maybe, it really is Harvey Gellman somehow. When you do not live in Toronto you miss a lot of the corporate shuffles and Jim Hayward was unknown to me at that point. I can still replay the small argument I had with myself about possibly replying to the ad. I finally decided to send in a resume. I guess, the rest is history as they say. Often, I reflect how fate and fortune combined to make this one my best ever decisions.

Thanks Harvey for being the real Harvey in that small newspaper ad. My reply started a chain of events that have changed my life.

Our association has allowed me luxury of having you as a dominant pillar in my life - both professionally and personally. On one side, I have used you as my target, my model - the person to emulate in my profession. Personally, I have learned from you and added some strength to my belief system based on your approaches and your wisdom. Thanks for all of that. I truly believe that your input here has shaped much of my success and much of my personal happiness.

Specifically, you need to know some of the key items that you have helped me with. These tenets continue to support me and many others today.

Dealing with People - Your notions of giving each person, whether it was the car mechanic, the elevator operator (remember that profession), the taxi driver, the receptionist, the chairman of the board or the vice president, the same degree of respect was astounding to me. My earlier beliefs had categorized, judged and sentenced many folks even before they opened their mouths. I had judged them by their dress, their job position and likely many other discriminators. How many had I short-changed? Well, I continue to practise and practise to give everyone the opportunity to contribute. Remember our discussion about the insurance agent (dripping with gold jewelry and the proverbial shiny shoes). It took a total reframing to figure out that he actually was trying to help us solve a partnership problem.

Involving the Client - How many times have I thrashed and thrashed with a difficult customer situation? How many hours of stress have I suffered with others unnecessarily? Only to have the clouds clear away like magic when I finally remember your counsel on this topic. If I had only learned this as a younger man. Oh, well, never too late. And you will be delighted to know that I have formally passed on this (and all of your other lessons) to my children. This winter, I ran a Sunday morning class for ten weeks for my children, Wendy and several of the young consultants who are working with me. I often found myself sharing the thoughts, the counsel and the wisdom that you passed on to me.

Interviewing - I have targeted myself to become one of the best interviewers on the planet. With full information, the business of problem solving (which is what I think I do) becomes so much easier. To this day, I replay and replay the interviews that you and I did together. Harvey, you are an absolute classic as an interviewer. Today, even with all of my focus and practise, I am only slowly approaching your level of expertise. However, keep the faith! I will be as good as you someday. Different, but I am determined to be every bit as good an interviewer as you in my own "kid from the West" style.

Helping Others - It has become a practise for me to imitate how you always made time for people, especially people in transition. So many people have lost their jobs in the oil and gas sector during the unending cyclical upheavals that I seem to have a steady stream of folks who want a slice of my time. Naturally, with the billable hours dimension of our work, the time slices are precious. However, I have come to appreciate your notion that we were put here on Earth for reasons beyond the almighty dollar. It feels good to be able to offer information, counsel or maybe just a listening to people in transition. Perhaps, a more holistic reward system.

Business Ethics - We get so busy, worrying about so many things, heads down, reacting and often we forget some basic principles. What a relief it is to know that I will always have a formidable edge over the rest. There is a wee person perched on my right shoulder who scans all the situations that come at me and raises the alarm system in those deep, caring tones, "Well, perhaps we should look at this another way". I hope you recognize yourself. Please know that I have learned to pay close attention to those alarms and respond quickly to the alert.

Assignments - We only worked on a couple of assignments directly but they were great. Thanks for giving me the room to take on some tough pieces and grow, knowing you were with me every step of the way. How could I possibly have failed with that kind of support? Not a chance! And now, I take on assignments even more challenging, knowing that I am girded with the tools that will enable me to succeed - the tools of a master craftsman. My fail-safe mechanism is to know that if I ever need your counsel, I can call and you would help again.

People - The people you gathered around you have proven to be an amazing lot. I learned how we could be different, with certain frailties each. Yet, as a group, we were simply awesome. I may never have the opportunity to be part of such singular strength again in my life. However, I have been able to lean on the individuals for counsel as we have all moved forward. Even the individual capacities have proven immensely supportive. My network has become the envy of many. Like you, I have made contributions or deposits in that network that will build up an asset that will be there should I require some support.

Harvey, the lessons can go on and on. Lessons about fitness, straight talk, simplifying, writing, business reading, filing, learning new skills, dealing with discrimination, etc. You will likely never know the number of people that have learned of you and through you through me and my many references - like the young man in Ottawa who kept hearing your name. Those synapse connections are working for some others like it worked for me. I know that you are a part of me that I value immensely.

If you and Lil ever come our way, please stop for a visit, however brief. Wendy and I would be delighted to see you again and be your hosts out West. You are with us constantly and much treasured. You have met our son, Tom but we also have two delightful daughters who have heard so much about you. Tom has recently decided to join Gilmore Systems and come to work with me. I believe he eventually wants to add the management consulting dimension to his work. No problem there. Your lessons will go on and on.

Thanks for the book - much enjoyed and sincerely appreciated. This business is truly a fascinating "Tiger". There is no end to technical learning. For me, the people side has no end either and here your impact has been immense. Thanks Harvey. Please enjoy yourself.

Ron V. Gilmore, CMC

Beverley Fingerhut

It is difficult for me to tell stories about Harvey because there are so many. I spent many hours with Harvey as he was my coach for many years and each hour was so precious and valuable.

We talked about everything including of course client issues and problems. What stands out for me:

How difficult it is as consultant to achieve a balance between work, relationships and children.

How support staff was equal to or more important than the consultants

To walk that extra mile for a client

And Visibility - the importance of making your achievements visible.

Harvey often spoke to me of his early years and his wonderful family. His love for his wife Lil came out loud and clear. No matter how busy he was they would go away for weekends together.

One day I was walking down Eglinton Avenue and there was an elegant couple walking in from of me arm in arm. He was wearing a brown leather jacket and they looked so trendy and happy. I caught up closer and saw that it was Harvey and Lil.

What impact did Harvey have on me:

Harvey nurtured and believed in me. Not being from the system side there were times when I faltered but he was always there to tell me I could do it and he was always there to help.

He helped me work out my problems with clients by asking me questions and making me think things out.

When my husband and father passed away , he always came into my office to ask how I was and how were my kids doing and that thoughtfulness and caring continued throughout our relationship.

I know that when Harvey retired, he continued to help people. One on one, he helped people with daily chores, played cards with them and enriched their lives.

I am very lucky to have Harvey as a mentor and coach. He has influenced both my work life and personal life. ] There is a Hebrew word for a rare men like Harvey. It is a tzaddik - which essentially means a wise man, a good man, a gentle-man.

Warren McCarthy, President, Effectivation

Lucille Narun, Consultant, Gellman Hayward and CGI

Lucille Narun wrote, "Harvey has been an inspiration and role model for me and many others." "Harvey was always genuinely interested in every person in the firm and would always smile, greet everyone and inquire about the family." "Harvey told a great story about his early morning fitness club and his relationship with the janitor (Can't quite remember all the details, but I am sure Harvey or someone else can). The message was always clear treat everyone with the same respect - from the janitor to the boardroom'."

Darrel Shaw, Consultant, Gellman, Hayward and CGI

Darrel Shaw wrote, "Here's a couple of things I remember about my interactions with Harvey. 1. I remember us both waiting for the elevator to go to the 8th at the 33 Young Street office. I had just joined GH a few weeks before. I of course knew of Harvey but had not met him personally up to that point.

I proceeded to introduce myself: Hello Harvey, my name is Darrel Shaw, I recently joined GH and I haven't had the chance to officially meet you as yet'.

I don't remember Harvey's exact words, but he said something to the effect of Darrel, you don't need to officially meet me we can talk anytime'.

It probably didn't seem like much to him at the time, but it made a huge impression on me to know that I could have that kind of conversation with the founder of the company!

2. The other thing I remember about Harvey is he would often take the time to ask about my family. He even had a knack for remembering details that I told him from previous conversations!

3. One thing that comes to mind is this I had just come into the office one morning, and Harvey was in the reception area. After greeting me good morning, he proceeded to ask me a question: Darrel, do you know the city in the U.S. with the highest percentage of black population?' After pondering the question for a moment, I responded It must be Atlanta, Georgia'. Harvey responded No Darrel you're wrong It's Gary, Indiana your hometown!' Harvey had just heard a bit of trivia on the radio that morning. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed that he even remembered where I was from!"

Mark Dymond, Consultant, CGI and Price Waterhouse

Mark Dymond wrote "Did Mark Bissel reply to you with a story? - He once told me an excellent story (better than any I have) If you don't get it directly from the horse's mouth here's my version: "When Mark was managing the CRC, one of the things he received was lots of Beta software from Microsoft. When the new version of software came in (a Beta of MS office for Win 95, I believe) he asked all the staff if they would like a copy to evaluate. "Of all the young bucks trying to get a leg up, who asked for the software? Only Harvey. Trying new things is hardly the typical mark of a senior citizen but definitely his way."

Caroline Thornton, President, Nadum

Caroline Thornton of Nadum wrote, "I am a huge Harvey Gellman fan and would like to add a small element to the compilation you are working on." "I first met Dr. Gellman at a conference where someone introduced us as "Competitors"." After hearing him speak on his work and beliefs, I approached and suggested, "I don't think we are competitors, I think we are collaborators." He immediately arranged that I come to his office the following week so we could discuss this further. He became a mentor and wise guide as I started a new business and to this day has remained on my personal list of "Very Special People". "Before Dr. Gellman retired, a group of women who he had helped in various ways had arranged to take him out to lunch. During the luncheon each attendee expressed their gratitude to him and how his help and support had made a difference in their life. Harvey was clearly embarrassed but at the end of the luncheon he said, "You know I have helped dozens of people but it is interesting that this group of women are the only ones who have actually taken the time to say thank you." His advice was "If you wait for people to always say thank you, you will always be disappointed!"

Mark Levine, Consultant, Gellman Hayward and CGI

Mark Levine wrote, "I'll start out by saying that in the context of illustrating Harvey's wisdom, my story might seem a little self serving. Harvey had the "wisdom" to hire me at Gellman Hayward. The specialness lies in Harvey's abilities to recognize a person's abilities and the direction in which they can be taken as well as his no-nonsense approach to life and the puzzles it presents. "When I asked him to recommend a good basic skills course to allow me to enter the computer field (in, at that point, an unknown capacity), he confirmed that the course I had already selected would be just fine."

"His suggestion, my acceptance of his suggestion, and the approval of Harvey's colleagues in the Automated Systems Group were important and welcome milestones in my life. It was Harvey's wisdom that allowed this to happen."

Bertha Murray WORKING AT GELMAN-HAYWARD

1986 is one of my special years, for 1986 was the year in which I turned 56. It was also the year in which I joined Gelman-Hayward.

The first day of a person's new employment is important to that person, and most people remember what took place on their first day at work. Well, I remember what I experienced on my first day at Gelman-Hayward, and what occurred on many of the days that followed.

As most of you know, I joined Gelman-Hayward as an Accounting Clerk, reporting to Paul Smith. Shortly after Paul completed my orientation tour, I was approached by a tall balding gentleman. He wore a great smile and stretched out his hand. He told me his name was Harvey Gelman, and he hoped I would be happy working with the company. I mumbled something in reply. I don't know what I said, but I remember thinking "Imagine, the president of the company is welcoming me!"

Later, this incident was repeated. This time I was approached by a younger man who told me his name was Bob Hopkins. However this time I was less flustered, for I had just been greeted by the president. And I remember thinking "If this is the way people are treated here, for sure I'll be happy!"

Later, as I learned more about the firm, and about the senior management team, and as I made friendships, I realized time and again how lucky I was to be part of this company. I looked forward to going to work each day. We worked, but there was time to laugh, time to get together after work, time to bond, time to be friends, time to be a family.

I can honestly say that I don't remember one unhappy day at Gelman-Hayward. I remember the get-togethers: the picnics, the barbecues, the fabulous Christmas parties. Perhaps most of all, I remember my surprise 60th birthday party held in the board room during lunch hour. It was incredible! Some pretext was used to get me out of the building, and when I returned, the board room was full of people, balloons, and gourmet food prepared by colleagues at home and brought to work. It is a memory I cherish to this day.

A moment ago I said I can't remember one unhappy day at Gelman-Hayward. That is not entirely true. I experienced an unhappy day at Gelman-Hayward - - my last day at work. The merger with CGI had made my position redundant, which was understandable. Even so, it was painful to realize these happy days were at an end.

Looking back at that time, I don't remember whether I thanked senior management for those happy days. Although it is best to express one's thanks in a timely fashion, the time in which one may express thanks never expires. On that note, I say "Thank you Harvey, thank you Jim, thank you Tom, and thanks to all partners, for making my five years at Gelman-Hayward the happiest of all my working years."

Bertha Murray June 24, 2003

Marsha Gillis

Marsha Gillis wrote, "I could not think of anything specific that Harvey had ever said when talking to me, but I certainly remember the example he set when he worked here. His leadership was truly in evidence in the small details of his office life - the most memorable thing for me was indeed the fact that he always unloaded the dishwasher and did his part to keep the kitchen clean. This flies in the face "do as I say, don't do as I do" attitude that many people in the leadership roles often have. If Harvey could help keep the kitchen clean, then no other staff members in the office had the excuse not to pitch in!"

Brenda Ericson, President, SAS Institute Canada

Brenda Ericson wrote "For me, Harvey Gellman has always been a solid supporter and a reliable sage. I have the highest respect for him and am happy to share this story about my "introduction" to the wisdom of Harvey Gellman. "In 1988, I began to make trips to Canada in preparation for my new position as VP Sales and Marketing for the new SAS Canada subsidiary. During one of the trips, I read a very interesting article on leadership in the airline magazine. I tore the article out and made a promise with myself to contact the writer when I moved to Toronto. With all the details of the office opening and hiring employees, I forgot about the article. Then, in early 1989, I attended an early morning breakfast session where someone from one of the Big Six was presenting the results of a study. The meeting was very boring; the speaker was obviously not in tune with the Canadian market. At one of the breaks, I started talking to another woman who expressed disappointment with the presentation. When she told me she worked at the consulting firm Gellman Hayward, I immediately asked her if she would introduce me to Harvey. Beverly Fingerhut told me about how Harvey deals with people - his caring approach, his astute mind, his interest in technology and how it is changing the world." "It was a meeting I will never forget. A week later, I was in Harvey's office. What a wonderful person! His manner was completely relaxed and we talked about technology and all the changes in the industry. Then, Harvey wanted to know more about me and my background. He told me about his early work out in western Canada and about his sons and how different they are from each other. We talked about music, languages, travel and family. I expressed concern about the challenges ahead. Harvey told me, no one ever gets anywhere because they're lucky. We make our breaks! The message in his treatment was a strong belief and endorsement of respect and humanity." "Years later, when I was experiencing a difficult period in my career, Harvey maintained strong support for me and helped me rebuild confidence I needed to rebuild my life. Harvey Gellman, more than any other individual I have ever met, practices equality and respect with everyone." "His ability to listen as Canada's first high-technology consultant, he set a standard that the consulting industry should be proud to uphold. He could easily qualify for Canada's man of the year. He is a man that lives his values."

Catherine Boivie

Catherine Boivie wrote "My story about Harvey relates to when I first met Harvey when I was the president of the Toronto chapter of Association for System Management (ASM). I established an advisory board for ASM and invited Harvey Gellman to be part of the board." "When I met with Harvey to discuss the annual plan for the Association, his first question was "What's ASM's strategic differentiator? Why should I go to these events instead of another association's event?" That was 8 years ago and I still ask that question when I plan a new project or initiative." "That was the start of our friendship. I now live in Vancouver and every time I am in Toronto, I make sure to meet with him and we discuss some of the issues facing us today. Harvey is a wonderful mentor and friend who is kind and considerate. "He feels uncomfortable with recognition to his achievements. When some of us wanted to set up a scholarship in his honor, he discouraged us from doing so. That was unfortunate, because I thought it would have been a way to let people know about his achievements, his contribution to technology, diplomacy and kindness."

Bob Fabian

Harvey Gellman 1924 -2003

Harvey Gellman died on April 23, 2003. Harvey was important to many people, and on many levels. He was important to me as a mentor, coach, advisor, and friend. For me, his legacy is the example he set in business, and in life. He never preached, but his views were powerfully communicated by actively listening and by asking "simple" questions.

With Harvey's help, many of us were led to a better understanding of the human challenges we faced. He would listen. It sounds like a simple thing to do. The problem for most of us is that we block information that doesn't fit our preconceived notions or come from a proper source. Harvey was able to hear new ideas, regardless of how much he might (initially) disagree. He was open to all, giving equal hearing to the custodian and the chairman.

Helping a client, or a colleague, change requires that you understand where they are coming from. You must really listen, even when the speaker gets it wrong. But if you listen hard enough, you will often uncover persuasive reasons for change. Without apparent effort, Harvey was able to hear the whole story. He had an uncanny ability to help us recognize that required changes flow from what we already know and believe. All of us would gain by following Harvey's example.

Harvey was fond of saying, "I'm just a simple man." He recognized on a deep instinctive level that a persuasive, compelling message must be simple. He insisted that problems were not really solved until you could to provide a simple solution. Holmes expressed it as, "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." Harvey didn't quit, and didn't let his colleagues quit, until they had gone through complexity to reach the simplicity that lies beyond.

The power of simplicity works on multiple levels in the worlds that I shared with Harvey. In consulting, the dual challenge is to discover the basis for change (by actively listening) and then to lay out a path forward in terms that are simple enough that no one will misunderstand. An effective consultant must do both. Harvey excelled, and helped his colleagues excel. In computing, simplicity also pays big dividends. A simply designed computer system will be easier to build, document, test, and maintain. Harvey's "simple" filter dramatically improved a number of weak designs.

Harvey was unfailingly courteous and open. He was also one of the most moral men I have known. He never preached, but the example he set showed a profound respect for other people and their best interests. Ron Gilmore, a mutual colleague in Calgary, tells the story about the little man sitting on his shoulder. "When I face a tough decision, I look to the little man on my shoulder. He guides me to the right path. His name is Harvey." Harvey helped many of us discover what was right for us and gave us the strength to stay the course.

Be open to what everyone has to say. Fight through to simplicity. And through it all, show deep respect for everyone you meet. Harvey set an example we struggle to follow. He will be remembered.

Bob Fabian Toronto April 30, 2003

Jennifer Copeland, Consultant, Gellman Hayward

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"Shortly after joining CGI in June 1995, I had the opportunity to conduct a series of weekly workshops on the Smalltalk programming language. A memo was sent out to every member in the Toronto region to announce the upcoming course, but I was still a little overwhelmed when, to my surprise, over thirty attendees showed up to the first session. Among them was Harvey. "I felt gratified that there appeared to be such an interest about learning about object-oriented programming, particularly from someone at such a senior level as Harvey. But my suspicion was that the expectations of certain people were at odds with the actual aim of the course. So I carefully explained that even though commercial versions of Smalltalk include a suite of visual development tools, my plan was to examine the underlying language itself, down to the nuts and bolts. My goal was to provide a prospective on the object-oriented paradigm thought the mechanics of actual Smalltalk code. I warned the subsequent sessions would be "hands-on", requiring everyone's participation in programming exercises. Sure enough, the following week's attendance was reduced to half its size, and by about the third or fourth week we were down to our core group of five or six people who would stick with it to the end. Of this band of diehards, Harvey was the most avid. He faithfully completed every assignment, contacting me between sessions with questions about his code. During the group sessions, his contribution revealed his real desire for understanding, and usually resulted in expanding my own knowledge-either I would have to do further research to be able to be able to come up with an answer to his question, or thinking things through at Harvey's prompting would help situate my own understanding with a broader context. Since then, I have boasted on more than one occasion about teaching Smalltalk to a Senior Vice President at CGI. What impresses people is not so much the fact that I was capable of teaching a radically different programming language to a Senior VP, but that Senior VP had the inclination to learn it in the first place. And in my capacity as teacher, I still ended up learning as much, if not more from Harvey.

EULOGY FOR HARVEY GELLMAN

Written and Delivered by Jim Hayward April 27, 2003

I am Jim Hayward, Harvey's partner for many years. I probably have spent as many waking hours with Harvey as Lil.

We have been blessed to be touched by Harvey.

In such a volatile business it is amazing that we worked together since 1965. Through different manifestations, ups, downs, middles, good and challenging times. Needless to say I owe much of my success to Harvey's gentle guidance, leadership and friendship. I will treasure my memories forever. So many memories. The profound influence he had on us all.

How to sum up a man of such immense talent? First, the profound respect and interest he had in every individual. He never refused a request for help from anyone. I think if we had all the people he touched in one place, even the Skydome would not be big enough.

Harvey liked to keep things simple. "I am a simple man, so you have to deep things simple." Far from a simple man, but so wise.

Whenever I had difficulty with a client and went to Harvey for advice he would say, "What is in the best interest of the client?" Wow! That sure mad it simpler, even in very difficult times.

Harvey had another expression that bugged the profit-oriented consultants. "The client is King." He always believed that deeply.

I just wanted to provide you with a little history of what I know about Harvey. Harvey was the first PhD from U of T in Computer Science. For income during his PhD he ran the first computer center. That is he was operator, programmer, repair man, etc. A Pioneer! He worked as a programmer for Atomic Energy. Harvey then set up a consulting firm with (or for) Watson Watt in Toronto in 1955. After a year he formed HS Gellman and Associates, in 1956 I think. How brave. Harvey's first client was Atomic Energy, which his company had as a client until 1992. Thirty-six years. Talk about continuous relationships. A key to his success. Harvey merged with DCF Systems in 1964 and I joined him in 1965. He bought DCF in 1966 and merged with AGT in 1969. We formed Gellman Hayward in 1974, which we sold to CGI in 1992. Harvey retired in 1998. Quite a career

But simple facts gloss over this great man.

How many people have I met that said things like "Harvey saved my life"?. One fellow, Greg, said that. Harvey had helped him when he was going crazy with his kids and recommended a book. Simple.

He touched everybody. I remember the glowing tribute the building maintenance people gave to Harvey at 33 Yonge at his retirement party.

Harvey touched all my children in a special way. Sue, my daughter, drew cartoons for his slides.

I always said Harvey had a way of saying things that made it sound true. I called it a sub-hypnotic affect. What a voice.

Harvey once told me he was very shy as a child and had to work hard to overcome it. He sure did.

Another story I only learned recently, directly from Harvey. Did you know he quit high school and worked in an electrical manufacturing plant? They had an electrical test set that he was the only that could figure it out. He realized he wasn't so dumb, went back to school and the rest is history. Neat.

We had a company BBQ where we had a contest to name our softball team. The winning entry was "Harvey's Ball-Bangers".

So many memories. Such a man.

I love you, Harvey. We all love you. "How Great Thou Art".

Chapter 7 Major Consulting Assignments

Harvey was involved in some of the major IT consulting assignments in the last half-century. Some of them were with the government and some were with large private sector organizations. In the mid-sixties Harvey was a part of the consulting team that supported the Glasco Commissions, which studied the structure and efficiency of the federal service. Recommended the structure the Information Systems function. Later he served on a team that supported the Johnson Commission in Saskatchewan with a similar mandate. In the late sixties he was part of a team looking at cost reduction in the Manitoba Government. The one I remember the most was the Committee on Government Productivity for the Ontario government in the early 70's. Harvey recommended that much of the work done by internal groups could be done more cost effectively by the private sector. This recommendation was not popular with the public sector and resulted in the DCF and, the then, Gellman Hayward not getting much government work. These risks did not restrict Harvey from telling things as he saw them. He always tried to work in the best interest of the client. In the private sector, Harvey did ground breaking work with many organizations before they had their own systems organizations. The structure of the Information Systems function was often Harvey's design. Many of Harvey's clients included Eaton's, Maclean-Hunter, Imperial Oil, Air Canada, Bank of Canada and many others. I worked with Harvey on the Manitoba Study and learned so much about his solid common sense approach to consulting. Harvey always tried to keep things simple and with these government studies that was always a challenge.

Chapter 8 Conclusion