The story of Blue Organizational Solutions has a rather unusual beginning. I was a partner in a CPA firm in Columbus, Ohio—Whalen, Blue & Company—but wasn’t doing any accounting. Clients were lining up for my advice. So, I decided that either I needed to tell them to go away, since I wasn’t trained to counsel them, or I would go back to school to learn more about what they were asking me. I had attended Ohio State with a major in agriculture, having been invited into the honors program. So I went to an MBA advisor there. I explained my situation and he said, “Two floors up, organizational behavior.” To make a long story short, I was accepted in the doctoral program in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland and was the first in my class to complete the program—also the first CPA to earn a PhD in OB there. In my dissertation statistics, I had documented a quantum condition in organizations, also unexpected. Neither my advisor (the department chair) nor the rest of my dissertation committee realized what I had found. Neither did I back then. So began my OB career. As I tell people, I came to my calling legitimately. People came to me for advice, and I listened and learned through them about my calling.
These days, Blue Organizational Solutions conducts special group projects with high returns. Despite these high returns, busy companies find it hard to find time for the projects. With my organizational background and many years as a CPA, the projects vary widely. Our firm intervenes to staff a vital, but vacant Midlevel in companies with a group. The projects provide the focus for the group’s work. Once a group finishes one project, the members move on to the next one. As our intervention comes to a close, the group take overs the process, as we bow out. That not only leaves the organization with the Midlevel successfully staffed, but also with a group to pursue high-value projects. Some of the more popular project areas are listed below: