About the author
Dr. Larry Senn is a pioneer in the field of corporate culture. He founded Senn Delaney (originally called Senn-Delaney Leadership Consulting Group) as a culture-shaping firm in 1978. It was a spinoff of Senn Delaney Management Consultants, a business process consulting firm. The challenge of implementing change in organizations led to Larry's interest in the power of the personality or habits of organizations to support or defeat initiatives. His vision from the beginning was to create a transformational process to assist CEOs and their own change leaders in creating healthy, high-performing cultures. Today, Senn Delaney is the oldest, most experienced organizational culture-shaping firm in the world.
Larry's 1970 doctoral dissertation, Organizational Character as a Tool in the Analysis of Business Organizations, played a key role in Larry's journey. It was the first field study of corporate culture in America. Based on his principal finding that "organizations become shadows of their leaders," Larry created Senn Delaney - the culture-shaping firm - to work with CEO teams and organizations from top to bottom to create the behaviors needed to support strategies and enhance business results.
Larry's vision and leadership for more than 30 years has helped Senn Delaney become an international firm that is widely recognized as the leading authority and practitioner in the field of culture shaping. Based on his early work, Larry was recently named "The father of corporate culture" by CEO Forum magazine.
In addition to his role as chairman, Larry actively works with clients on culture-shaping initiatives. He also guides Senn Delaney's product development team to continually improve offerings and services to enhance all aspects of the Senn Delaney culture-shaping methodology.
Larry has led culture-shaping engagements for the leaders of numerous organizations, including dozens of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, state governors, members of two U.S. president's cabinets, deans of business schools and the presidents of major universities. He has extensive experience working with top leaders in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, retailing, insurance, financial services, consumer products, energy and health care. Larry is an accomplished consultant, business advisor, group facilitator, author and CEO coach.
Prior to founding Senn Delaney, Larry ran his own retail business in college, was a senior engineer in the aerospace industry and a faculty member at University of Southern California and University of California Los Angeles where he taught leadership. He was also an assistant coach of UCLA's championship gymnastics team.
Larry was a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year in Southern California. He and his wife Bernadette are active joggers and fitness enthusiasts and Larry is a triathlete. They have five children, three grown, one in the business school at USC and one still at home. Born and raised in the midwest, he now resides in Sunset Beach, California.
Published books
Winning Teams - Winning Cultures, 2nd edition 2010
The Human Operating System - An Owners Manual, 5th edition 2010
The Secret of a Winning Culture, 1999
In The Eye of the Storm - Reengineering Corporate Culture, 1996
21st Century Leadership: Dialogues with 100 Top Leaders, 1993
Published thought papers and articles
The Team at the Top Is it really a team? -- The 8 Characteristics of a High-Performance Team
The Cultural Aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions
Aligning Strategy, Structure and Culture
The last frontier: Maximizing organizational synergies
Now is the time for leaders to check the shadows they cast
The CEO's most important job: Aligning strategy, structure and culture
The CEO as Chief Culture Officer
Education
University of California, Los Angeles
Bachelor of Science, Engineering
Master of Business Administration, Management
University of Southern California
Doctorate in Management, Organizational Behavior