Who Sophie Parker & Associates Serves

We work with talented, successful, mid-career executives who manage complex businesses and public service agencies.

We work with clients in a variety of industries, including:

• health care
• entertainment
• publishing
• travel
• construction
• energy conservation
• retail

We also work with nonprofit organizations and government client agencies, including:

• immigration
• environment
• social services

People often work with us at transitional times—a job change, a promotion into a senior management position, or working with a new team for a specific project. What all our clients have in common is the desire to find and implement solutions, a willingness to examine difficult issues that impede progress, and, most of all, a commitment to excellent work. We bring the change process knowledge; you bring the depth of industry expertise.

Are some of these statements true for you?

• After many years working in a technical capacity, I have been promoted to managing a division of technical and scientific staff. Most of my career has been focused on technical problems, but since my promotion I find my time is consumed with people and administrative issues.
  
  
• I head a government agency that’s so large, my management team functions like a medieval city-state. Divisions are run as separate fiefdoms. How do I get my directs to buy into a much-needed change?
  
  
• We work in a business where things change minute to minute, and our continued success depends on our ability to work together to meet deadlines. I can tell the team is stressed—not only are we separated geographically, we also come from different cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, our boss seems too involved in unrelated details. I can see ways to improve, but I can’t figure out how to bring it up.
  
  
• I co-manage a nonprofit organization and don't get along with my co-manager. He's good at marketing, but not good at dealing with people. It might be best if he were eased out of managerial duties, but I'd like to keep him for his marketing savvy. Is there a diplomatic way to do this?

• I just took a job with a government agency that offers services to students. The problem is that there is way too much demand for what we do and not enough resources. I need help planning ahead so I can stop putting out fires.

As our client, you are likely to be successful with us if…

You care about what you do at work.

You respect your coworkers, and you want the company to succeed.

Everything you do uses your skills and talents to the limit.

You are willing to take risks, because you know that nothing else will get the results you need.

You are willing to examine your assumptions about the nature of the problem and to take responsibility for your part in it. After all, the only person that you can make change is YOU.

Now that you know the kind of clients and problems we work with, click here to see How We Work.

Partial Client List

• The Appalachian Mountain Club
• Boston Center for the Arts
• BradyGames, DK Publishing, Indianapolis, IN
• Center for Public Interest Careers (CPIC) Harvard College
• The Discovery Channel
• First Night Boston
• HomeBase Abroad
• IKEA
• International Institute of Boston
• International Rescue Committee, New York, Boston
• Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture
• LISC/AmeriCorps, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago
• National Park Service Volunteer-in-Parks Program (VIP)
• National Park Service, Washington DC, Denver
• National Association of Broadcasters
• Unitarian Universalist Funding Program

"The content of this training, as well as the execution of the simulation by Amber and Sophie, brought together staff from various levels of our organization. As I watched my staff open up to each other through conversation and dialogue on issues of hierarchy that rarely get discussed, I began to see a sense of teamwork and shared understanding develop among the group. The experience was personally engaging and undoubtedly left us with a greater sense of community, while giving us tools with which to address and work with issues surrounding hierarchy in our organization – I expect this training to have a lasting effect on our work!"

~ Executive Director, Andrew J. Falender, The Appalachian Mountain Club