Cella Consultant LaManda Minikel brings fifteen years experience in a broad array of business environments from design firm owner to creative leader at the nation’s largest event company. From live events to above-the-line advertising, LaManda has managed projects and teams of all levels of size and complexity while improving productivity, billability and team success.

Staff Analysis and Optimization
As part of the integration of two companies, LaManda oversaw the transformation of three disparate internal creative teams into a powerful whole. Step one was evaluating the spectrum of talent and homogenizing job descriptions. Step two was process mapping divergent job tasks into a unified group and educating staff on best practices and a shared creative vocabulary. Step three was implementing a technology solution to track time and process steps. Working with senior management and team leaders nationwide, the new creative structure became a successful role model for more than 36 satellite creative teams nationwide.

Process Evaluation & Re-Engineering
Through a process review, LaManda was able to uncover that a creative team’s pervasive quality control issues were the result of a lack of version control. Following this discovery she was able to streamline the processes of the decentralized team of 17 writers and editors and develop a tool to ensure efficiency and quality that allowed the team to succeed against their goals and customers’ expectations. Eight years later the team still uses the technology and process.

Creative Operations Technology Change Management and Adoption
LaManda has created and executed against change management plans to ensure timely and complete adoption of project/agency management systems across an organization. In support of the creative department leader, she lead communication and awareness efforts, as well as partnered with the implementation team to develop and lead custom training for the end users (the creative team). In addition, she supported follow-on activities to support the full change management requirements including revamping the project management process.