Mary Ann Holloway is one of those rare people who can consult, advise and execute – and do it all with unmatched cheerfulness and a no-nonsense attitude. I engaged Mary Ann to help us found and start-up a company that would have two activities – buying and owning operating businesses and investing some of the free cash flows generated from the operating businesses into public market investments. Her focus was finance (setting up an Office of the Controller and all that goes with that) and human resources (setting up criteria and processes for job descriptions, hiring, motivating, incenting, and evaluating). She not only set up these departments but ran them and trained those who took them over. Her thinking was always strategically sound. She was organized. She was meticulous and timely in execution. She always inspired respect among those she dealt with in part because she is a natural teacher and taught people while she led them.

Were I to cite key words to describe Mary Ann Holloway and why she succeeded so well with us, they would be words like "accountable", "devoted", "effective", "sensible", and "intelligent". I would unhesitatingly recommend her, especially to companies looking to improve a variety of processes from finance to sales to human resources in a sustainable way. She becomes a partner with any business she works with and any business she works with is better off for having had her influence it.  John Allison, Chairman & CEO, Unio Holdings LLC (New York)
 

 

Mary Ann Holloway, of Comprehensive Business Consulting & Training Corp., has been providing business-consulting services to our company since December 2002. She has become a valuable member of our organization, and has proven her ability to streamline and develop processes and procedures, which have dramatically improved our company. Mary Ann has been very successful in motivating our staff and encouraging them to organize task forces and committees to improve our workflow and procedures. She has worked with our accounting, production, purchasing, sales and management staff in many facets of our business and her ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously has been proven many times over. This letter is written without reservation, and I must add that Mary Ann’s honesty and integrity is unquestionable, and I am confident that she will be an asset to any organization. Yours truly ,   Jeffrey Goldstein, CEO, LaMar Lighting
 

 

As principal owner of multiple small business interests over the past fourteen years, I have had many opportunities to work with strategic partners in an effort to grow my business.  These alliances have covered a wide range of business topics including; Business Development, Sales, Marketing, Human Resources and Finance.  Some of these relationships have met their intended goal, but many did not.  In my mind, falling short of the mark had little to do with the experience or effort of the partner, and everything to do with not taking the time to understand my business.

I began working with Mary An Holloway in 2003. At that time, my industry, digital document imaging and workflow, was just beginning to mature. We needed help both in developing our product and service offerings, as well as measuring the profitability of our outsourced document conversion service center.  Mary Ann was integral in driving both projects to successful outcomes. She developed project plans centered on examining the market, thus helping us focus on the best industries to pursue. In addition, Mary Ann designed and implemented a series of KPI's, Key Performance Indicators, to capture and analyze all of the data necessary to determine the profitability of our Service Center.  We were quickly able to revise our pricing formulas to better cover our costs, while maintaining desirable profit margins.

In the past six years that we have worked together, I have enjoyed working with Mary Ann on several levels. She has an unmatched attention to detail, leaves no questions unasked, and does not work on the clock. She has an extremely high energy level, communicates well both orally and in written form, and most importantly, is able to work with many different personalities, regardless of their stature or rank in the organization.

I recommend Mary Ann to anyone who is not satisfied with standing still in business. In these difficult economic time, the businesses that have the best chance of survival will continue to look at all aspects of their organizations. Increasing efficiency and reducing costs are at least as important, if not more so, than continuing to drive revenue and maintaining market share. I consider the projects that we have worked on with Mary Ann amongst the most successful in our organization's fourteen years.  Thomas G. Doyle, President, Shoreline Records Management