Consulting was a natural segue for me professionally.
One of my key strengths is delivering through people. It started when my Aunt Lily gifted me the Day-Timer you see below in the 80s as I went to college. (Day-Timer is now part of ACCO Brands).
Getting that planner inspired me to connect with people. Each week from that time on, I have made it a point to connect with three people each week, and I would plan those calls in my Day-Timer. The result is a natural well-curated network of family, friends, and colleagues that helps me get things done, and always has my back.
That relationship-building principle and skillset have served me well in business. One of my most thoughtful decisions was to partner with Tompkins Ventures. The following is an internal Tompkins newsletter write-up on me and my business:
Business Partner Spotlight
Anna McGovern
anna@pondviewconsulting.com
Transforming a Side Gig into Full-time Consulting
Anna McGovern has a massive consulting toolkit to help her clients: From sales and operations planning to value chain analysis, procurement/strategic sourcing, network optimization through end-to-end capacity planning, and more.
But with the Tompkins Ventures network at her back, the managing director of Pondview Consulting, LLC has expanded her client offerings into the realm of the unlimited.
“The beauty of the Tompkins network is the breadth and the depth of the Partners,” McGovern said. “There’s not a solution we can’t offer. I just pick up the phone and say, ‘I need this.’ That’s magic.”
Examples abound. One of her clients needed a 3PL in Toronto. While she knows logistics, that’s not her area of expertise. The Tompkins Ventures Logistics Practice and CEO Mike Royster helped McGovern match that client with the perfect Commercial Partner.
Tompkins Ventures has also matched her consulting with a Business Partner specializing in installing business systems but needed supply chain expertise for the Asia-Pacific region. While he implements technology, McGovern runs the program management and creates the process roadmap. That has turned into an opportunity for sales and operations planning (S&OP). She is also working on several procurement projects and deals in Latin America.
The growing success allowed McGovern to devote full-time attention to consulting. She became Business Partner No. 23 in April 2021. The “side gig” became permanent in January 2022. That’s when she gave up a 4-hour daily commute from Connecticut to the South Bronx for a New York area food bank working as Chief Supply Chain Officer.
Before that, she was the VP of Supply Chain and CPO for Arcade Beauty and spent 23 years working globally for Unilever – a company that routinely ranks as one of Gartner’s supply chain “Masters.” She started at Unilever as a supply chain planner and ended as the head of procurement for their personal care category, which carried an annual global spend of 8 billion euros.
“Many projects start slow before coming to fruition,” she said. “But that’s the nature of the business. The benefit of Tompkins Ventures is that I now specialize in a wider area of business relationships. And that’s a benefit for all Business Partners. But the more opportunities you seek out, the more clients you offer Tompkins Ventures’ solutions to, the more seeds you plant, and the more deals you close.”
And suppose her clients ever need a warehouse in Dallas, a packaging optimization solution, supply chain finance, or a host of other Tompkins Ventures offerings. In that case, McGovern can match them with solutions via one phone call.
“I would have to turn a lot of things away if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m part of this network,” McGovern said.
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If you want to discuss supply chain and procurement excellence, let’s chat. I want to know your thoughts.
Schedule a discovery call with me here.