About Croll Productive Synergy

Certified Lean Office productivity specialist Cynthia Marsh-Croll's professional journey.

I was raised in a single parent household during the seventies. My mother and I had to work as a team to run the house and take care of my grandmother who lived in the same town. Unlike most of my friends I had responsibilities that were well beyond my years. But this laid the foundation for my career as a productivity specialist.

I begin utilizing what I had internalized while attending Kean College in Union, New Jersey. Here was my first real adult experience at organizing time, class work and employment so that everything was done efficiently and competently. At eighteen I had my own apartment and the life lesson of running my own house. I worked while in school as the file clerk at Siegel Tire in Edison. I was successful at juggling my school and work duties to graduate Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Management Science/Marketing. I was also invited and gladly accepted membership in the PHI KAPPA PHI Honor Society.

This was only the beginning. While I was the administrative assistant to the president of Tom Nigra Talent Management my database skills first emerged. Working with dBase for DOS I assisted in and processed on a monthly basis a 5000 piece direct marketing mailer. In fact, it was my personal mission to make this a half day job instead of a full day one. As a college project I developed a new mailing procedure that utilized bar codes to automatically sort the mail. This eliminated about 5 hours of tedious manual sorting every month. One of my other tricks I implemented was using template software to eliminate multipart contracts that had been typed on an IBM typewriter. This dramatically increased accuracy which reduced the cost of forms and increased the time we could spend on promotion.

While I was employed at Computer Associates International, I was an administrative assistant and database administrator for Pre-Conference Education. I developed and acquired many computer, policy and procedural development skills. Computer Associates was a firm believer in cross training so I had lots of exposure to different functions within the department. In fact, I became the unofficial trainer for all new hires and people rotating in our department. This was because every time I was assigned a specific position I would fine tune and streamline it to near perfection.

After having our daughter, my husband and I moved to the Hudson Valley. I knew that I wanted to work a quality part –time job as I balanced family and work. I was thrilled when offered the Horton Healthcare Foundation secretary and database administrator position. It was a real eye opening experience when my boss Bob DeValentino sat me in front of an empty database with records from the seventies and instructed me to fill it. I immediately asked a ton of questions about the parameters and intended uses of the database. They sent me to Columbia University for intense database training. Upon my return I fine tuned the system. As the database was utilized I found myself at board meetings presenting donor reports generated from the system. I am very proud of the foundation I built at Horton which is still being utilized today. My other accomplishments included developing a filing system, procedures, reports and efficient workflow for this position.

As the office manager of JDB Management, I was responsible for a 77 unit apartment complex. I oversaw the conversion from a manual tenant tracking system to a computerized version that enabled us to track all tenants lease expirations, security deposits, appliance and improvements. It also allowed us to keep track of storage areas that did not necessarily coincide with apartment numbers. Though there are many benefits to this system one of the more powerful ones is the ability to process leases quickly and ensure that security deposit records were accurate This meant that apartments were filled quickly and rents were collected in a timely manner. Duties included bookkeeping, scheduling and meeting procedural deadlines. Current procedures were refined and new ones implemented to ensure an efficient workflow for the office and tenant related documentation. I composed a procedure manual for the position which is still in use today.

Being a merchandiser for Teters Floral Products I was responsible of six retail stores. This allowed me to experience the retail environment first hand. I gained expertise in scheduling shipments, reading planagrams, seasonal displays, zoning and customer service development. Now I have the wonderful experience of being a business owner who helps my client’s reach their goals, enrich the community and be the wife and mother I need to be. I am one very lucky woman.

These twenty years of experience as an employee and business owner is a resource I will utilize for my clients.

Ms. Marsh-Croll is also a member of the following organizations:

• Orange County Chamber of Commerce
• Lean Enterprise Institute
• The Association for Operations Management - APICS
• National Association of Professional Organizers
• The Broome Street Traveling All Star Band

My first public appearance. Check it out on YouTube.