If only one person can run the technology, you don't own it.
You are renting capability from an employee. You can't see the lease, renew it, or stop them from ending it.
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Make the system legible. Move value deliberately.
We support investors and leaders facing wicked problems and complex systems - environments where where value, risk, and execution depend on understanding context and constraints, not just forecasts.
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WHEN TO CALL US
Call Ground & Form when the technology works and the organization still can't use it.
A company buys an expensive technology. The demo was real, the business case was sound, and everyone in the room agreed. Two people learn to run it. One of them works for the vendor and flies home on Friday. The other takes a better job in March. By late summer the asset sits behind a curtain at the end of the bay, and it has quietly left next year's budget. Nobody calls it a failure. Nobody made a bad decision. Nobody got taught.
The same story looks different from the other side of the table. The seller closed the deal, delivered a product the customer liked, and then never heard from them again. No second order, no expansion, no reference for the next five deals. The sale happened. The supply relationship never did.
How it usually unfolds
Week one
The seller's engineer teaches the floor
He is good at it. He also has a suitcase, and he is flying home on Friday.
Month four
The one person who really knew it is gone
Everybody else can sort of run it. Nobody wants to be the one who breaks it.
Month nine
The asset is behind a curtain at the end of the bay
Pallets stacked in front of it. Nobody has touched the controls since spring.
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This is the normal outcome, not the rare one.
Six numbers, and every one of them is about people rather than products.
None of this is lost to bad technology. It is lost in the gap between the purchase order and the first person who has to walk up and press the button.
Organizations work with us when:
A major technology purchase is stalled, and no one agrees why
The asset is installed, and the people around it were never trained
Architecture exists, but execution keeps breaking down
The capability lives with one person, and that person is a flight risk
A pilot went well and the enterprise contract still will not close
The deal closed, and then the customer went quiet
If the problem is well-defined and linear, we are probably not the right firm.
If the problem is systemic, ambiguous, or high-stakes, we likely are.
The thing nobody says out loud
Nobody made a bad decision. Nobody bought a bad product. Nobody got taught how to use it.
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WHAT WE DO
We don't sell frameworks. We change what decisions are possible.
We identify where leverage truly exists in complex systems, and education is where it usually is. So we make the learning part of the purchase itself. Not a workshop before signing, and not a favor negotiated once the equipment is bolted down: a priced, scheduled, contracted deliverable bought on the same signature as the technology. It starts before go-live and it keeps running for as long as you own the asset, through new hires, new shifts, new versions, and the departures nobody planned for.
The whole point
If one person is the only one who can run it, you don't really own it yet.
You are renting that capability from an employee. You cannot see the lease, you cannot renew it, and you cannot stop them from ending it.
The method, on every purchase and every vendor
01 · Name the gap
We write down exactly what your people will need to be able to do to run the technology, and who is going to be able to do it. In writing, with names on it.
02 · Buy the teaching with the asset
Who trains, when, how many people, to what standard, and for how long after go-live. Priced and signed alongside the technology, not requested as a favor afterward.
03 · Prove it while the terms are still open
You find out if people can use the technology on a modest purchase, while you can still change the contract, rather than on the one with your name attached to it.
04 · Keep it running for good
The curriculum and the training records belong to your organization, not to the employee and not to the vendor, so the capability outlasts both of them.
We sit on both sides of the table, by design
On the buy side
Education as risk reduction
Enablement is how a complex purchase becomes approvable. We turn “can our people actually run this?” into a contract term with a standard attached, so the decision is defensible before the money moves and the asset is still delivering value long after it does.
On the sell side
Education as the second order
A trained crew renews. Certifications earned on the first contract still count on the third, so you stop re-selling yourself to a customer you already won. On complex systems we can be named on the contract as the third party delivering the training, which means you do not have to build a training department to close the deal.
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TEAM
Andy Hillier, CSEP Senior Advisor | Systems Research & Education
I help organizations understand complex systems and uncertain environments.
Andy brings more than a decade of experience to advisory work, shaped by a genuine curiosity about how complex systems—and the people within them—actually function. His background spans solution architecture, systems integration, and hands-on consulting across organizations of all sizes, including time spent at several respected global accounting, engineering, analytics, and consulting firms - including FICO, EY, and Burns & McDonnell. That mix of technical depth and practical, real-world exposure is what fuels his approach today.
In his current consulting role, Andy focuses on helping teams make better decisions by teaching and building curriculum on predictive modeling and decision-support systems. He pairs this work with a strong academic foundation: dual M.S. degrees in Accountancy and Management with a focus on Information Systems Management, and ongoing Ph.D. research in Systems Engineering at Colorado State University. His passion lies in understanding how strategy, technology, and governance intersect—and how organizations can navigate that intersection with clarity and confidence.
Andy has also spent years teaching at the University of Akron, developing coursework in business application development and backend systems integration. Guiding students and early-career professionals has been one of the most rewarding parts of his career, and it continues to influence how he shows up as an advisor: practical, thoughtful, and invested in long-term growth.
Outside of his professional and academic work, Andy is deeply committed to community service and creative impact. Having served as Chair of the Public Art Commission for the City of Akron, he lead budget planning and project development for public art installations—including guiding annual funding requests. At the University of Akron, he volunteers on curriculum initiatives and advisory boards, helping shape programs that prepare future technologists and leaders. He’s also contributed as a Research Storyteller for the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, translating entrepreneurial research into accessible, engaging content. Previously, he served with CraftyMart as a board member, artist mentor, and curriculum developer, creating practical tools for independent artists to better price, cost, and grow their businesses. These roles reflect his belief that education, creativity, and public service are integral to strong communities.
Grounded in formal modeling, structured analysis, and outcome-oriented thinking, Andy aims to bring both rigor and empathy to every engagement—helping clients cut through complexity and move toward decisions that actually make a difference.
Education
Colorado State University
Ph.D., Systems Engineering
MBSE, Simulation, Operations Research, System Dynamics
Candidate - A.B.D.
University of Akron
M.S. Management
Business Analytics — Information Systems
2023
University of Akron
M.S. Accountancy
Information Systems Concentration
2022
University of Akron
B.S. Geology
Geophysics Concentration
2016
Graduate Certificates
Colorado State University
Human-Centered Design Thinking
2026
University of Akron
Strategic Leadership
2023
Predictive Analytics & Machine Learning
2023
Business Analytics
2023
Industry Certifications
Systems Engineering
INCOSE—Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP)
Snowflake SnowPro Core (2023 [Inactive])Alteryx Designer—Advanced (2022 [Inactive])Microsoft Azure Data Engineer—Associate (DP-203|2021 [Inactive])Microsoft Azure AI Engineer—Associate (AI-100|2021 [Inactive])
Honors & Awards
Top Master of Science in Management — Information Systems Graduate
University of Akron · College of Business · Apr 2024
Top graduate award for the 2023–2024 academic year.
Volunteering
Steering Committee Member & Score a Better Future Ambassador
FICO Cares · FICO
Economic EmpowermentEducation
Jul 2025 – Present
Guides service strategy, inspires volunteer engagement, and shapes how FICO shows up in communities — from campaign ideas to platform improvements. Score a Better Future delivers financial literacy education through FICO employees to high-school and college students, international learners, and adult learners, covering credit, spending, and financial planning.
Entrepreneuership Research Storyteller Fellow
Journal of Business Venturing Insights
EducationScientific Communication
Jan 2026 – Present
With the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, I contribute to the Research Storytelling initiative, focusing on science communication and the dissemination of entrepreneurial research. My role involves collaborating with a dedicated team to produce creative content that resonates with both academic and non-academic audiences. I embrace innovative storytelling methods to enhance engagement and broaden the reach of our publications.
Monitors stream health using equipment to assess temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, chloride, and total suspended solids. Evaluates aquatic macroinvertebrate communities at defined sampling sites. Contributes data to the Lake Erie Basin Assessment Framework report.
Member
INCOSE - Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter
Community DevelopmentProfessional Development
Jul 2025 – Present
INCOSE member chapters serve as local hubs for the international society, fostering a regional community for systems engineers to network, learn, and collaborate. They advance the practice by organizing technical meetings, workshops, tutorials, and mentoring for SEP certification, while directly contributing to the global body of knowledge.
Public Arts Commissioner — Commission Chair
City of Akron, Ohio
Arts & CultureCommunity Development
Aug 2023 – Apr 2026 · 2 yrs 9 mos
Served as Chair of the Akron Public Art Commission, advising the City on all matters pertaining to public art programs — including artist selection, artwork placement and maintenance, and policy recommendations to the Mayor. Increased public awareness of visual arts including sculpture, painting, mosaics, photography, and video. Presented annual reports on Commission activities and ensured alignment with defined administrative policies.
Developed curriculum for Beginner and Master Maker Sessions to empower independent artists, artisans, and craftspeople. Topics included cost management, product costing, budgeting, pricing, breakeven analysis, margins of safety, marketing, and comparative profitability analysis, as well as practical tools such as Excel, QuickBooks, and Access.
I help organizations avoid costly spend, negotiate the best deals possible on complex contracts and programs, and increase revenue via strategic sourcing initiatives.
Rachel brings nearly a decade of experience in supply chain, procurement, and category strategy, shaped by a genuine drive to find smarter, more disciplined ways for organizations to manage spend, risk, and vendor relationships. Her background spans strategic sourcing, contract negotiation, contingent workforce program design, and cross-functional stakeholder management across manufacturing environments of significant scale, including time at Owens Corning and Associated Materials. That combination of hands-on negotiation experience and structured category strategy is what fuels her approach today.
In her current role, Rachel focuses on helping organizations build and mature procurement functions from the ground up—designing first-generation programs, standardizing processes, and translating supplier relationships into measurable, sustained savings. She has led RFPs and negotiations across categories as varied as MRO, travel and expense, IT hardware and software, telecom, and professional services, consistently delivering results in the range of 3-10% savings on tens of millions of dollars in managed spend, while building the governance and reporting infrastructure to sustain those gains long after the deal is signed.
She pairs this operational track record with a strong foundation in negotiation and supply management: she is a Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM), has completed the KARRASS Negotiation Seminar and Redbear Negotiation Certification, and was recognized in 2026 as one of the Institute for Supply Management's "30 Under 30" rising supply chain stars. She holds a degree in Logistics Management from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, with a minor in Personalities and Social Psychology—a pairing that shows up in how she approaches negotiation: as much about understanding people and incentives as it is about terms and pricing.
Rachel's passion lies in the intersection of process discipline and relationship-building—helping organizations move past ad hoc vendor management toward strategies that are transparent, defensible, and built to scale. She has developed KPI frameworks, led companywide training rollouts, and worked directly with HR, Finance, Operations, and IT leadership to align procurement strategy with broader business goals, believing that the best outcomes come from bringing stakeholders in early rather than presenting decisions after the fact.
Outside of her professional work, Rachel is active in her local community through faith-based service and environmental volunteering, including serving as a Stephen Minister and Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at her parish, mentoring middle school students through youth ministry, and volunteering as a citizen scientist monitoring stream health for the Summit Soil and Water Conservation District. These commitments reflect a consistent thread in how she works: showing up for people, listening closely, and staying invested for the long haul.
Grounded in data-driven analysis and outcome-oriented negotiation, Rachel aims to bring both rigor and genuine partnership to every engagement—helping clients build procurement and vendor strategies that hold up under pressure and deliver results they can measure.
Education
Ohio State University
B.S., Logistics Management
Personalities & Social Psychology Minor
2019
Industry Certifications
Supply Chain & Procurement
ISM—Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM)Redbear Negotiation CertificationKARRASS Negotiation Seminar
Honors & Awards
30 Under 30 Awardee
Institute of Supply Management · Apr 2026
The ISM 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars recognition program shines a spotlight on outstanding young procurement/supply chain management professionals for their passion, creativity and contributions to supply chain management.
Volunteering
Stephen Minister (em)
Holy Martyrs Catholic Church Parish
Religious ServiceCommunity Development
Sep 2025 – Present
Stephen Ministry is a global, interdenominational lay caring ministry providing one-to-one Christian support to individuals experiencing tough times like grief, illness, or job loss. Trained caregivers (Stephen Ministers) provide confidential, long-term, and consistent emotional and spiritual support, helping bridge the gap in pastoral care within congregations.
Youth Ministry Core Team Member - LifeTeen
Holy Martyrs Catholic Church Parish
Religious ServiceEducationCommunity Development
Jul 2025 – Present
Life Teen is a Catholic youth ministry with the mission of leading all teens closer to Christ through the celebration of the Eucharist, the teachings of Christ and His Church, and through the experience of being loved and accepted. Welcomes all high school students to an energetic, fun and prayerful environment where they can grow in relationship with their peers and with God.
Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion (emHC)
Holy Martyrs Catholic Church Parish | Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
Religious Service
June 2025 – Present
According to Redemptionis Sacramentum , an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion is a layperson formally instituted to administer - that is, distribute - Holy Communion during the Roman Catholic Mass. They are referred to as extraordinary as the ordinary ministers of Holy Communion are Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are particularly dedicated to the Eucharist. Their purpose is to serve the congregation by distributing Jesus in the Holy Eucharist to the faithful. These ministers assist the priest-celebrant in distributing holy communion at Masses and at special feasts during the year.
Monitors stream health using equipment to assess temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, chloride, and total suspended solids. Evaluates aquatic macroinvertebrate communities at defined sampling sites. Contributes data to the Lake Erie Basin Assessment Framework report.
Elizabeth Heckler Research Associate | Communications Strategy
I help organizations with content creation, brand management, and proofing.
Education
University of Akron
B.A., Communications
Public Relations Concentration, Creative Writing Minor
2019
Professional Certificates
University of Akron
Social Media
2019
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DEPTH & PHILOSOPHY
For those who want to understand how we think.
We identify where leverage truly exists in complex systems—and help decision-makers act on it.
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PRICING & CONTRACTS
Aligned Incentives. Structured Value.
At Ground & Form, our pricing model reflects the way we work: logically structured, performance-aligned, and built
for transparency. Our approach is designed to ensure payment is tied to impact you can trace—and results you can trust.
See an example MSA contract agreement:
MSA:
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ADVISORY PRICING
Fixed Retainer + Performance-Based Fee
For advisory engagements, Ground & Form combines a monthly fixed-fee retainer with a
contingency-based performance fee to align effort with measurable impact:
The retainer ensures availability, strategic continuity, and access to systems expertise throughout the engagement.
The performance fee is based on a percentage of verified value delivered—such as cost savings, revenue uplift, or efficiency gains—validated jointly using pre-defined and easily measurable KPIs and SLAs.
This model ensures payment is tied to the real, measurable, and attributable results we deliver.
If you prefer a flat-fee contract for a set amount of service hours, we are always open to contract negotiation and individualized pay structures with your procurement and legal team.
Learn More our Performance-Based Pricing Methodology:
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PROJECT PRICING
Budget-Based Fee Model with Transparent Components
For project-based engagements—including architectural services, technology development and implementation, programs, workshops, instructional coaching, instructional design, and curriculum review—fees
are structured around a project-based budget and billed according to clearly-defined activity types:
Hourly rates for implementation, development, instructional time, curriculum development, coordination, and administrative services.
Pre-approved expense budgets for travel, lodging, per diem meals, and on-site meetings & delivery where required.
Technical infrastructure costs, including sandbox or simulated learning environments, cloud infrastructure, digital delivery platforms, or specialized modeling tools.
Materials and licensing, when applicable, for educational content, assessments, third-party services, hosting, or tools integrated into the learning process.
Each engagement includes a detailed budget estimate and delivery timeline, with flexibility for modular rollout or milestone-based phasing.
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AUDIT & PRIVACY
Open and transparent model. Protected IP that follows your company's standards.
We understand that your IP and data is valuable, and want to be able to provide you the best service possible. For that reason, when possible,
we will work with your team to keep all of your data internal to your system and only access it through the approved, authenticated channels. When possible,
we can work with your team to implement sandbox environments, software, or other necessary items for training. During and throughout training, we are open to
an audit process that ensures transparency surrounding any potential use of all parties' IP:
Monthly audits for advisory engagements.
Post-engagement audits for project-based engagements.
On-request audits for all reasonable and legitimate purposes.
Controlled-access and administration for all provided services, software, and infrastructure where requested.
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SERVICES
What we actually do.
We identify where leverage truly exists in complex systems—and help decision-makers act on it.
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COURSES
Learn from us.
Take a professional development course to grow your skills with project-based learning experiences. Gain PDUs to extend the lifespan of your professional certifications.
