MPI LEADERSHIP
MPI leadership—supported by staff and augmented by a network of subject matter experts (SMEs)—brings extensive business, management, and manufacturing expertise to all its projects. MPI also applies research and knowledge-development standards lacking among other research firms and agencies.
An experienced executive, entrepreneur, journalist, author, and researcher, John R. Brandt is the founder and CEO of MPI Group and the former editor-in-chief and publisher of both Chief Executive and IndustryWeek magazines. His new book — NINCOMPOOPERY: Why Your Customers Hate You—and How to Fix It (HarperCollins, 2019) — is based on groundbreaking research into leadership and performance excellence at MPI across more than fifty thousand organizations. Brandt has earned more than twenty editorial awards for excellence, and also led more than three hundred advisory, marketing, research, and data engagements for clients, including Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Grant Thornton, Infor, the Italian Trade Commission, Microsoft, Performance Solutions by Milliken, SAP, and many others. Brandt also maintains a busy lecture schedule, speaking worldwide on how organizations, industries, and communities can avoid Nincompoopery and Despair by adapting themselves to the realities of new markets, new corporate structures, and new customer expectations.
A recipient of a prestigious Neal Award in 1998, Brandt has also served as a Neal Awards judge. He has also served as a member of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership National Advisory Board; judge for the National Association of Manufacturers Awards for Workforce Excellence; co-chair of the Northeast Ohio Product Innovation Initiative; advisory board member of both SupplierInsight.com and Ken-Tool Manufacturing; director of the Work in Northeast Ohio Council; and president of The Press Club of Cleveland. Brandt is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Case Western Reserve University, where he received the James Dysart Magee Award in economics.
Watch MPI CEO John R. Brandt deliver a series of brief presentations on customer value—Nincompoopery: Why Your Customers Hate You—and How to Fix It—that shows leaders how to find and kill the corporate stupidity that drives customers crazy.
As Vice President of Research for MPI, George Taninecz applies more than 20 years of experience in studying management and operations. He develops research, benchmarking, and maturity-model tools that enable organizations to assess their performances, gauge best practices, and define paths for improvement. He also oversees the creation of thought leadership for MPI clients that explores industry trends and issues, management strategies, and operations processes. His new business novel — Winning Innovation (coauthored with Norbert Majerus, Routledge, 2022) — teaches the principles and practices of innovation excellence through the story of a fictional, Italian racing-bike company.
Prior to joining MPI in 2003, Taninecz worked in knowledge development at McKinsey & Company for the firm’s manufacturing practice. Taninecz’s background also includes a decade as a journalist at IndustryWeek magazine. During his tenure as the magazine’s managing editor, he was a director of the America’s Best Plants program and launched numerous research initiatives for the publication, including the IndustryWeek Census of Manufacturers.
Taninecz has supported the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) and others as an editor and/or project manager for award-winning books and workbooks, including Designing the Future by James M. Morgan and Jeffrey K. Liker (McGraw-Hill Education, 2018), Lean-Driven Innovation by Norbert Majerus (CRC Press, 2016), Perfecting Patient Journeys by Judy Worth et al (LEI, 2013), Gemba Walks by Jim Womack (LEI, 2011), Managing to Learn by John Shook (LEI, 2008), and Lean Solutions by Jim Womack and Dan Jones (Free Press, 2005).
MEET OUR TEAM
At a tactical level, The MPI Group’s leadership and executive team—augmented by a large network of subject matter experts (SMEs)—brings extensive business, management, and manufacturing expertise to all its projects. MPI also applies research and knowledge-development standards lacking among many research firms and other agencies that support firms seeking to develop innovative thought leadership.
John R. Brandt, CEO and founder of The MPI Group, has devoted more than two decades to studying leadership in effective, purpose-driven organizations. An expert on how companies can adapt themselves to the realities of new markets, new corporate structures, and new customer expectations, Brandt is an accomplished management innovator and an internationally recognized expert on manufacturing and technology.
Watch John R. Brandt discuss the six strategies for Next Generation Manufacturing success.
Before founding The MPI Group in 2003, Brandt followed a unique career path combining two decades of experience in marketing, management, and consulting with a passion for journalism that has earned him more than 20 awards for reporting, writing, and editing. He was publisher and editor-in-chief of IndustryWeek (IW) magazine, which garnered more than 70 editorial awards for excellence and doubled its revenues under his leadership. While at IW, Brandt led the development of several pioneering research efforts, including the IW Value Chain Survey, the World-Class Communities Project, the IndustryWeek 1000, the World’s Best Managed Companies Program, and the IW Census of Manufacturers, which was co-sponsored by the MPI Group. Additionally, Brandt served as president, publisher, and editorial director of the Chief Executive Group, publisher of Chief Executive, where his leadership transformed the magazine into one of publishing’s most surprising comebacks.
A frequent lecturer around the globe on topics ranging from leadership and customer value to management best practices and building world-class communities, Brandt’s travels have allowed him to build relationships with leading executive teams and gives him a unique perspective on how organizations can reinvent themselves through the application of proven management best practices. In both his speech presentations and advisory activities, Brandt combines these assets with his wit, research, and insight to help organizations position themselves for long-term profitability.
A recipient of a prestigious Neal Award in 1998, Brandt has also served as a Neal Awards judge. He has also served as a member of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership National Advisory Board; judge for the National Association of Manufacturers Awards for Workforce Excellence; co-chair of the Northeast Ohio Product Innovation Initiative; advisory board member of both SupplierInsight.com and Ken-Tool Manufacturing; director of the Work in Northeast Ohio Council; and president of The Press Club of Cleveland. Brandt is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Case Western Reserve University, where he received the James Dysart Magee Award in economics.
John R. Brandt is on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
As vice president of research for the MPI Group, George Taninecz applies more than 20 years of experience in studying management and operations. He develops research fielding and analysis tools that enable organizations to assess their performances, gauge best practices, and define paths for improvement. He also oversees the creation of thought-provoking white papers, reports, and unique-format knowledge (e.g., crossword puzzles, comic strips) for MPI clients that present industry trends and issues, management strategies and practices, and primary and/or secondary research findings.
Prior to joining the MPI Group in 2003, Taninecz worked in knowledge development at McKinsey & Company for the firm’s manufacturing practice. Taninecz’s background also includes a decade as a journalist at IndustryWeek magazine. During his tenure as the magazine’s managing editor, he was a director of the America’s Best Plants program and launched numerous research initiatives for the publication, including the Census of Manufacturers.
Taninecz also has supported the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) and others as an editor and/or project manager for award-winning books and workbooks, including Lean Solutions by Jim Womack and Dan Jones (Free Press, 2005), The Gold Mine by Michael Ballé and Freddy Ballé (LEI, 2005), Getting the Right Things Done by Pascal Dennis (LEI, 2006), Managing to Learn by John Shook (LEI, 2008), Gemba Walksby Jim Womack (LEI, 2011), and Perfecting Patient Journeys by Judy Worth (LEI, 2013).