Dr. Lynn W. Phillips is an Expert on Customer Experience (CX) Engineering and Customer-Centric Strategy in Berkeley Research Group’s (BRG) Digital Transformation Advisory Practice, and a former award-winning teacher and scholar while serving as a faculty member at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), where he first met BRG’s Executive Chairman and co-founder Dr. David J. Teece. Lynn also held faculty positions at Harvard, Northwestern, Rice, and at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. In 2022 Lynn was named by Stanford’s Class of ’85 as one of three professors that had the most impact on people’s careers, looking through the lens of 35 years after graduating GSB. Lynn is a Northwestern PhD graduate of its Kellogg School of Management with over 35 years of experience in executive education and consulting as the founder of his firm Reinventures and now as part of BRG. Lynn is widely acknowledged as co-creator of many core Customer Experience Engineering concepts now used by business teams globally to choose winning Customer Value Propositions (CVPs), then architect and execute the Value Delivery Systems (VDSs) to profitably provide and communicate that CVP lineup—based upon Day-in-the-Life-of-Customer insights that far transcend what customers can imagine. He has supported over 150 aerospace-defense new business capture teams pursuing and delivering programs for customers across the US Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and other federal agencies. He brings an in-depth grasp of best and emerging next practices from his advisory work with technology intensive enterprises in energy, natural resources, finance, healthcare, IT, logistics, pharm/biopharm, semiconductors, telecoms, transportation, etc., spanning 40+ countries.
Mel Hughes has over 40 years of experience in aerospace-defense and national security. He began his career as a US Navy carrier-based fighter pilot and project test pilot. After joining Lockheed Martin, he held leadership roles as Manager of Systems Engineering, Peacekeeper ICBM; Chief Engineer, Small ICBM; Director, Business Development, Advanced Programs; Program Director, Peacekeeper ICBM, Small ICBM, and Titan II/IV Space Launch Vehicle; and President, Tactical Defense Systems business. After leaving Lockheed Martin, Mel was President/COO and CEO of two sector start-ups: MicroSat Systems and Innovative Space Propulsion Systems. He now consults full time specializing in the aerospace and defense industry, with a focus in helping business teams improve their program executional excellence planning and recovery supporting program schedule and fiscal performance. He has leveraged his expertise to help a wide range of aerospace-defense contractors in winning new business capture and keep sold opportunities including Aerojet Rocketdyne, BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Northrop Grumman, United Launch Alliance, and Raytheon, among others. In this role Mel acted as advisor on over $500B in competitive bids, achieving a 100%-win-rate on programs such as Orion, GOES-R, GPS III, Joint Strike Fighter and GBSD or Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, in which he served as Chief Strategist to Northrop Grumman’s capture team. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in advanced aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech and is also a graduate of Harvard’s Advanced Management Program. He has worked on projects with Dr. Phillips since 2003, including client work at BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Sandia.
Dr. Stanton ‘Stan’ Sloane is a 30+ year veteran of the aerospace-defense business. After serving as an officer in the US Navy, Stan began his career in the aerospace and defense industry with General Electric Aerospace in 1984, which subsequently became Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin. Stan served in a variety of roles including engineering, program management and business development. His last position at Lockheed Martin was Executive Vice President of Integrated Systems & Solutions (IS&S), a $5B, 14,000-person systems integration business, that was one of the major divisions of the company. He has also served as CEO of $1.8B SRA International, and held senior executive roles at Decision Sciences International, Comtech Telecommunications and Frequency Electronics, including positions as President, CEO and Director, and has served on the Board of three publicly traded firms. It was during Stan’s tenure at Lockheed Martin as EVP that he collaborated closely with Dr. Phillips in developing a training course for new business capture teams aimed at integrating Lynn’s Customer Experience Engineering frameworks and concepts into IS&S’ new business capture and keep sold processes, with Stan authoring key elements of the core content that is still used in the training today, albeit upgraded and contemporized since. As recounted in this book, this work with Lynn led to all-time high contract win-rates. Among his academic accomplishments, Stan holds a bachelor’s degree in professional studies (Aeronautics) from Barry University; a master’s degree in human resources management, Pepperdine University; and a Doctor of Management, Weatherhead Business School, Case Western Reserve University. He also holds Airline Transport Pilot and Flight Instructor licenses.
