Services
Operational Clarity
Drawing on five decades of leadership and executive experience in the United States Marine Corps, NATO, and the Senior Executive Service, the Clifton Group helps organizations achieve measurable operational excellence and cost efficiency — with one ultimate purpose: to strengthen the warfighter and improve the lethality, readiness, and resilience of America’s armed forces. Our approach is rooted in the principles that defined a lifetime of service: clarity of purpose, disciplined execution, and uncompromising integrity. We partner with defense and federal organizations to bring order to complexity, strengthen management systems, and build the leadership, data, and operational foundations required for dependable performance in support of the Marine Corps and the broader War Department mission.
Operational clarity begins with establishing a precise and uncompromising True North — an understanding of mission-critical priorities and the outcomes that directly support combat effectiveness, logistics readiness, and sustained force capability. We help leaders eliminate ambiguity, align teams, and focus effort on what genuinely moves the readiness needle. This includes building management routines, decision-making frameworks, and information flows that improve visibility and reduce friction, allowing commanders and senior leaders to make faster, more accurate decisions that support the warfighter at the edge.
With a proven record of success in enterprise-wide transformation, CFO-level financial stewardship, and Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), the Clifton Group — in cooperation with our NorthStar partners — delivers lasting results in cost reduction, risk mitigation, supply chain modernization, ERP implementation, installation management, and human capital optimization. These improvements directly translate into stronger sustainment, more efficient logistics, and enhanced operational availability — all critical to maintaining Marine Corps lethality and the broader readiness of U.S. forces.
Every engagement is anchored in accountability, transparency, and the enduring values that have kept America strong. We don’t simply recommend improvements — we build systems, discipline, and leaders capable of sustaining a high-performing warfighting enterprise. Our work ensures that resources are aligned, processes are stable, and information is reliable, so that every Marine, every commander, and every mission receives the support they need to fight and win.
Cost and Process Improvement
We lead a disciplined, process-based approach to eliminating waste and driving measurable cost savings across large, multifaceted enterprises. Recognized for delivering sustainable, high-impact improvements, the Clifton Group, in cooperation with NorthStar partners, integrates proven Lean methods with advanced analytics and emerging AI accelerators to increase speed, accuracy, and insight. The result is a performance-driven organization where efficiency and effectiveness reinforce each other—creating enduring value for mission and stakeholders.
The Clifton Group strengthens the analytical and operational foundations leaders need to make faster, more confident decisions. We begin by improving data quality at the source, ensuring leaders operate from information that is timely, trustworthy, and aligned with mission priorities. We then assess and redesign critical processes, removing waste, reducing cycle times, and creating predictable, repeatable performance across the enterprise.
By pairing Lean principles with AI-enabled analysis, we uncover hidden inefficiencies within legacy systems and siloed structures—revealing cost drivers, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities that traditional methods often miss. Our recommendations are both analytically rigorous and operationally realistic, reflecting decades of practical experience.
Finally, we help organizations institutionalize the leadership routines and management disciplines required to sustain gains. We work with leaders and teams to embed metrics, increase performance visibility, and strengthen data-informed decision-making. The outcome is more than localized efficiency—it is long-term organizational capability, resilience, and measurable improvement that endures under pressure.
Innovation and Change Leadership
We bring an analytical, results-driven approach to organizational transformation—identifying and mitigating risk through disciplined root-cause analysis and practical problem solving. With direct experience leading difficult change within traditional and highly complex environments, we help organizations move decisively from the as-is to the desired future state. By combining clarity of vision, transparent communication, and data-driven process analytics, we ensure that innovation is both achievable and sustainable—building cultures of adaptability, trust, and measurable improvement.
The Clifton Group, in cooperation with our NorthStar partners, strengthens transformation efforts by helping leaders sharpen priorities, align teams, and eliminate the barriers of resistance that weaken execution. We apply structured planning methods, Lean-based analysis, and proven financial and operational frameworks to clarify what must change, why it matters, and how success will be measured. Our work begins with a deep assessment of current-state operations, governance, systems, and performance—revealing not only the symptoms, but the underlying systemic and behavioral causes of organizational friction.
From there, we partner with leaders to design and implement practical, achievable pathways forward. This includes aligning cross-functional teams, clarifying roles and responsibilities, establishing performance metrics, and building the disciplined management routines needed to maintain momentum. Our change-leadership philosophy emphasizes transparency, communication, and accountability at every level, ensuring that progress is visible and that leaders and teams remain aligned throughout the transformation.
Most importantly, we help organizations internalize the behaviors and problem-solving disciplines that make transformation last. We build leaders capable of navigating complexity, making honest analytic judgments, and driving operational decisions rooted in mission, data, and long-term purpose. The result is not a temporary initiative, but a durable cap
