Mark B. Jacobs has spent 30 years in executive leadership guiding major growth initiatives and turnaround efforts using Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Sales & Operations Planning, Category Development, Leadership Development, Technology-Driven Processes, and SmartScalingTM - a process he refined and published in 2018.  

 

Mark was an entrepreneur from the age of 16 when he started his first business, an asphalt repair company that he grew into a residential paving business with its own asphalt plant and equipment yard which he sold at 19.  While finishing college he bought and converted warehouses into loft condominiums. 

 

After graduation Mark joined ADP Dealer Services as its youngest District Manager – taking over the poorest performing territory and turning it into the company’s 3rd best in terms of installed base per prospect. Recruited to Motorola he contributed to their world class Quality Systems initiatives – earning opportunities to work with operating unit leaders to define, plan and execute implementations.  

 

Recognizing the power of well executed operating constructs Mark returned to graduate school with the intent of deepening his knowledge of business theory and starting his own Total Quality Systems consulting practice.  

 

Within 2 years of graduating with his MBA the performance-based consulting firm he started boasted clients such as Caterpillar, Great Dane Trailers, Excel Communications, Marvin Windows and Doors – to name a few.  The firm was merged into an international organization providing Mark with an exit and the capital to purchase small manufacturing firms where he applied the processes and grew them – making a business of acquiring, growing and selling businesses.  

 

Mark has led re-capitalizations and start-ups, developing key organizational change agendas and leading their evolution to profitability and achievement of scale. 

 

His success scaling mid-life companies the real-world experience necessary to define a construct for achieving scale.  Working with 2 other successful, seasoned executives Mark led an initiative to develop and prove out the first business accelerator for mid-life companies.  That business accelerator for midlife companies is the basis for the ScaleWerks Protocol. 

 

Mark has also overseen and contributed to major educational initiatives including the Physicians Executive Leadership Institute (Duke University) and the National Science Foundation Learning Portal.  He is the author of Reality Leadership (Forbes 2000) and The SmartScale Playbook.

 

Mark is a graduate of Indiana University where he earned an undergraduate degree in Operations Management with emphasis in Quantitative Business Process Implementation and an MBA where he concentrated his studies in accounting and finance.