Darcy Bien

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Strategist Darcy Bien partners with CEOs, executives and leadership teams to plan their organizations’ futures. With nearly 20 years of experience helping hundreds of companies, her team-based approach and time-tested processes helped build her national reputation for delivering “actionable strategy.” The daughter of a brilliant entrepreneur who struggled with execution may explain Darcy’s bulldog tenacity among clients for doing whatever it takes to achieve successful strategic implementation.

In addition to Partners In Change, Darcy is the co-founder of Stretch Strategic Leaders, a business-growth consulting firm and has also partnered with the Dayton-based consulting firm, Aileron, since 2010, to support their strategic planning initiatives. Prior to that, she was the National Partnership Director of the National Speaking of Women’s Health Foundation, where she developed new partner sales processes and created long-term partner strategies. With her expertise in strategic planning, continuous process improvement, and Total Quality Management, Darcy co-led the Strategic Eight Planning Process with the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce for five years.  She facilitated over 100 companies in their public sessions.   

Darcy holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her career started at Procter & Gamble, where she spent five years cultivating operational, team development, and risk management. During graduate school, she developed a marketing strategy for Converse, Inc., Action Sports Division, utilizing consumer behavior technology and ZMET, and created several business plans. As a business solutions consultant, she completed a process improvement sales initiative for Bayer Plastics and a supply chain management project for Johnson Wax Professional. 

Recognized as one of Cincinnati’s Forty under 40 and selected as an examiner for the Ohio Award for Excellence, Darcy enjoys volunteering in her spare time – having served as the HBS alumni Club President, PTA President, and Junior Achievement Instructor. When she’s not volunteering at her children’s school or running her three kids to an after-school activity, she’s running the trails with her dogs (who are not bulldogs).

With concentrated expertise in strategic planning, continuous process improvement and performance management, Darcy customizes the strategic planning process to fit her client needs.  She implements a strategic plan and implementation process to support leadership and team development efforts. She has led a CEO roundtable of current and past clients to ensure strategic execution and is currently facilitating a Quarterly Strategy in Motion Book Club and Learning Forums. 

Her tools are aligned with Pat Lencioni’s The Advantage, Gino Wickman’s, Traction, Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy, Jim Collins Good to Great and Beyond Entrepreneurship, and Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard/Strategic Maps, to name a few.  She has utilized the DiSC system and Pat Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team for team workshops.

Two of her most influential books are The Road Less Travelled by Dr. M. Scott Peck and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.