Extended Family

Dana Cogan

Founder, IdeaPractice

For over 15 years, Dana has been helping global organizations enhance productivity through organizational, leadership and people development. He has worked with firms in the IT, financial and pharmaceutical industries on projects involving departments across the value chain as well as in strategic planning and staff functions. His programs weave the learning process into the work environment, enabling individuals to develop ideas and skills together with their colleagues into concrete practices and superior results.

  • Process/culture creation in post-merger organization;
  • Collection and analysis of data on quality of employee experience;
  • Facilitation of planning and implementation of employee-driven change based on climate survey data;
  • Competency, process and role mapping to align organization with strategy;
  • Proactive development and leveraging of diversity in the workplace through community;
  • Best practice capture and implementation through combination of workplace engagement and virtual learning experiences.

Dana has taught MBA courses on leadership, culture and communication and delivered presentations for Organizational Development Network, the American Society for Training and Development and Japan Management Center. Together with Andrea Konuma of Look Consulting Group, he contributes articles on productivity to HR Club, a Human Resource Development web community based in Tokyo.

Dana holds an MA in Asian Studies with a focus on Japanese leadership from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a Certificate in International Management from the Pacific Asian Management Institute and a BA in Philosophy from Pomona College. He is fluent in Japanese. He is certified in DiSC.

Chris Brannen

Chris is the founder, and currently president and director of training and consulting, of The Brannen Group. She is an international business consultant specializing in cross-cultural issues throughout the Americas, the Pacific Rim, continental Europe, and the United Kingdom. She has conducted over 2,000 seminars worldwide in strategic business development, organization development, cross-cultural negotiations, cross-cultural teambuilding and training, and localization of international company-wide programs. Her business experience at all organizational levels—from one-on-one sessions with Presidents/CEOs of multinational corporations, group-oriented workshops for middle managers, to training for individual contributors (engineers, lawyers, human resource personnel, administrative personnel, and line workers)—has earned her consulting, her seminars, and her public speaking engagements an industry-wide reputation for “real-life,” business-specific practicality.

Chris spent the first twenty years of her life primarily in Japan. Educated in Japanese, Canadian, and American schools, she attended Sophia University in Tokyo, received her BA from the University of Texas at Austin, and her MA from the University of California at Berkeley. She worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Oriental Languages from 1978 to 1987 and edited the UC Berkeley Japanese language text Basic Japanese by Haruo Aoki in 1988. Her publications include Doing Business with Japanese Men: A Woman’s Handbook which she coauthored with Tracey Wilen (published in 1993); a chapter in Japanese-Style Management in International Society (written in Japanese, Volume 2, 1995); and Going to Japan on Business: Protocol, Strategies, and Language for the Corporate Traveler (updated edition published in 2001).

Chris is also a certified trainer for the following programs:

  • Situational Leadership (The KenBlanchard Company)
  • The Seven Habits for Highly Effective People (Franklin Covey)
  • Quality Management Skills (ODi)

Visit The Brannen Group on the web.