Philip L. Donihe
President of Innovekt, Inc.
Meet Your Coach
Philip L. (Phil) Donihe is a passionate leader, leadership coach, innovation expert, and systems specialist. He provides 30+ years of diverse business management experience along with client-configured Innovation Systems. Innovekt’s goal is to create extraordinary value and enhance the long-term prosperity and sustainability of individuals, teams, and organizations by growing capacity, providing leadership, facilitation, and systems for Strategic Planning, Innovation, Transformation, and Improvement Processes.
Phil’s passion for innovation has developed from over three decades of specialized experience with leading and facilitating business improvements and transformations while working in leadership positions in major US companies. Phil’s expertise in the strategic and integrated use of a wide range of innovation tools, including Lean, Six Sigma, and Robust Design, has led to multi-million-dollar improvements to the top and bottom lines of many companies and industry-leading innovation.
As President of Innovekt®, Phil has developed systematic approaches to business improvement, which empowers clients to connect the creative energy of their leaders and people with the direction of their organization. Innovekt’s consulting services and systems, including Certinn®, Inngineering™, Innterprise®, and GrowNet™, enable organizations to maximize financial performance through science-based relationship building, and by accelerating and sustaining the development and commercialization of innovative products and services. The power of Innovekt’s systems is available in the company’s web app at innovekt.app.
Innovekt® is certified with the US Small Business Administration as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business and is a registered US Government Contractor.
Professional Experience
Life changing for Phil Donihe was his learning of the art and science of Strategic Business Improvement and Total Quality Management through working with some of the world’s foremost innovation leaders and practitioners. Phil worked directly with Dr. W. Edwards Deming, becoming the lead facilitator for Deming seminars in the General Motors Corporation. He learned the power of advanced engineering and statistical methods from Dr. Genichi Taguchi and Shin Taguchi. Phil’s personal interactions with Professor Stuart Pugh enabled him to experience the power of focused creativity in a conceptual engineering framework that set a new standard for structured innovation. Phil has applied his learning in management positions to achieve significant improvements in profitability, quality, reliability, productivity, and success.
Phil has excelled in management and director positions in engineering, manufacturing, quality, reliability, lean enterprise, innovation, and business operations. He has led and used the tools of Strategic Business Improvement, including employee and high-performance team development and innovation, to enhance the profitability and operations of the following companies: Shaw Contract Flooring Services, Inc. (Berkshire Hathaway); Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Berkshire Hathaway); the General Motors Corporation; TDS Automotive; Sea Ray Boats; and Outboard Marine Corporation. His leadership has resulted in industry leading innovation with the GAME ON system winning the Synthetic Turf Council’s Innovation Award. He received a Manufacturing Innovation Award and a Chairman’s Award. In these positions, he managed teams ranging in size from 6 to 300 people. He contributed to the ShawVet and Women’s Innovation Network organizations for Shaw Industries.
Phil has developed and led training courses throughout his career focused on innovation, lean enterprise, quality, design, and more.
Following graduation from the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he specialized in physics and engineering and was on the Dean’s List, Phil Donihe served as a commissioned officer in the US Army 82nd Airborne Division and the US Army Airborne Board. He received the Commendation Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal and was honorably discharged.
Philosophy and Approach
- VALUES: Integrity beyond question, service with excellence, and collaboration in creating “new”
- TOP PRIORITY: Making a real, practical contribution to the financial top and bottom lines of companies in ways that ensure their long-term viability and prosperity
- Maximizing productivity, return on investment, and profitability
- Working with executive and management leaders and teams to plan and execute new strategies and systems for innovation and business transformation
- Achieving sustainable innovation and profitability from acquisitions, new entities, or under-performing segments
- Helping companies courageously engage in transforming their approach to business, form strategic alliances, and initiate new courses of action
- Leading and facilitating new product and service creation and development initiatives that contribute to expansionary and revolutionary innovation
- Leading and facilitating implementation of systems that enable leaders and associates to fully engage in evolutionary innovation as an ongoing business practice
- Being of high-value service at every stage of an organization’s business cycle
- Realizing the strategic and financial value of achieving high quality at minimal cost
- Using a fact-based approach as well as structured and visual methods for problem-solving and decisions
- Facilitating collaborative and ever-improving teamwork and leadership
- Building organizational capacity through training, mentoring, collaboration, and accompaniment
- Encouraging others with a positive outlook, helping them to pursue their dreams for success
Education
To develop excellence, Phil Donihe has committed to ongoing continuous improvement through specialized training built on top of his Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy in West Point (engineering focus) and post-graduate coursework at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Below is a partial list of specialized training:
- US Coast Guard Master Captain’s License
- Certified Change Management Practitioner (Prosci®)
- ISPI™ Certified Practitioner (Innovation Strengths Preference Indicator®)
- Character Foundations Assessment™ Certified Practitioner
- Design Thinking
- Lean Manufacturing and Lean Enterprise (University of Michigan Certification)
- Design for Six Sigma
- Six Sigma Black Belt
- Certified Reliability Engineer
- Value Stream Mapping
- Finance and Accounting
- ISO 9000 Lead Assessor
- Demand Flow Technology
- Dr. Deming’s Advanced Seminar, New York University
- Dr. Deming’s Quality & Productivity Seminars – Lead Facilitator
- Quality Function Deployment (Basic and Enhanced)
- Design of Experiments & Quality Engineering (Taguchi Methods)
- Professional Instructor and Pro Trainer
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