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The Consultancy That Prevents Layoffs

By fixing systems, not firing people

20 years turning operational chaos into measurable performance—without the clipboard.

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Author: Making Things Better (2025)
Clients: Startups to Fortune 500
Ben Klaiber consulting with executive team
471
pages of methods
20
years experience
Real systems. Real fixes. Real results.
20
Years consulting experience
471
Pages in Making Things Better
Zero
Layoffs when systems fixed first

Why Media Covers MMWB

The Layoff Alternative

Helping CEOs recover margins without cutting people—a contrarian approach backed by measurable outcomes

Hidden $25B Waste

Employees waste 25% of time fighting bad software. MMWB quantifies and eliminates this hidden operational tax

AI Reality Check

Challenging AI hype: Why AI perfects wallpaper but can't handle time zones—and what this reveals about tool design

Tech Debt ≠ Code Debt

Reframing tech debt as broken handoffs between systems—the real source of operational failure

Book: Jobs Without Mythology

Making Things Better (2025): Extracting learnable methods from Apple's documented turnaround

Thought Leadership

Published insights on UX failures, workflow friction, and AI limitations on LinkedIn/Medium

Business Press: Executive Strategy & Operational Excellence

Story angles for Forbes, WSJ, HBR, Inc., Fast Company

Executive under strategic pressure

Fix Systems First, Cut People Last: A New Framework for CEOs Under Pressure

When revenue drops, most CEOs see only one lever: layoffs. MMWB shows there's another path—one that protects talent while recovering margins.

"Have we mapped where time is lost? Do tools support how people work? Most companies cut headcount before answering these questions."
KEY DATA POINT:
25% of employee time lost to system translation, reconciliation, and workarounds
Best For: CFO Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Strategy+Business, WSJ
Expert Available For: C-suite decision-making under financial pressure, alternatives to layoffs, margin recovery strategies
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The Silent Profit Drain: How Broken CRMs Cost Companies Millions

Revenue doesn't just leak from lost deals. It bleeds through billing errors, duplicate customer profiles, missed follow-ups—all symptoms of broken system handoffs.

"Your team isn't building value. They're translating between systems, reconciling discrepancies, working around broken handoffs. That's not work. That's waste."
APPROACH:
Clients recover efficiency by eliminating hidden friction in workflows, improving close rates on high-value products
Best For: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Business Insider, Inc. Magazine
Expert Available For: Operational waste quantification, CRM optimization, revenue leakage analysis
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Worker juggling disconnected systems
Bureaucratic meeting with clipboards

Why Adding Oversight Accelerates Failure: The Audit Culture Trap

When performance drops, most companies add oversight—more reporting, more documentation, more meetings. Top performers leave. Metrics don't improve. The problem gets worse.

"One company restructured so Team Leads spent 65% of their day auditing each other. Top performers fled. No metric improved. They solved the wrong problem."
PUBLISHED ARTICLE:
"All Too Human: When Auditing Performance Replaces Performing" (LinkedIn)
Best For: McKinsey Quarterly, HBR, Fast Company, Strategy+Business
Expert Available For: Performance management failures, organizational design, talent retention
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New Book Reframes Steve Jobs as Method, Not Magic

Most Jobs books sell mythology. Making Things Better extracts documented operational patterns from Apple's turnaround into frameworks leaders can apply Monday morning.

Metal Detectors, Not Magic - Systematic problem-solving
Arithmetic of Dignity - Measuring what matters
Whining vs. Why-ning - Blame vs. forensics
Publication: Framewise Press, December 2025, 471 pages
Best For: Publishers Weekly, Book Business, CEO Reads
Expert Available For: Operational turnarounds, Steve Jobs's documented methods, organizational transformation
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Making Things Better book cover

Tech Press: Platform Innovation & UX Thought Leadership

Story angles for TechCrunch, The Verge, Ars Technica, Protocol, VentureBeat

Disconnected systems visualization

Tech Debt Isn't Code—It's Every Broken Handoff Between Your Tools

B2B platforms ship features but ignore integration points. That's where tools fracture and users build workarounds.

"If users build shadow systems, your official system failed."
Published: "Why Your Sales Stack Is Making You Work Harder" (Medium)
Best For: TechCrunch, The Verge, Protocol, Ars Technica
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AI limitations visualization

AI Perfects Wallpaper But Can't Read Calendars

Modern AI can generate photorealistic art but fails at basic contextual tasks. This isn't a bug—it's a design philosophy problem.

"We optimize for demos instead of eliminating friction."
Published: LinkedIn (47K+ views)
Best For: VentureBeat, MIT Tech Review, The Information
Read Article →
HTML field structure problem

Why Web Apps Break Copy-Paste

NetSuite, Shopify, Talkdesk—billion-dollar platforms that make basic text selection impossible. This isn't accidental.

"Web tools optimize for data entry, not extraction."
Published: Medium
Best For: InfoWorld, The New Stack, Hacker News
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Systems thinking visualization

Breakthrough Comes From Systems, Not Superheroes

Tech culture worships individual genius. But sustainable results come from fixing the infrastructure that produces outcomes.

"Heroic efforts compensate for broken systems."
Framework: Metal Detectors, Not Magic
Best For: Product Hunt, First Round Review
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Tool integration failures

Best-of-Breed Tools That Don't Talk

Sales CRM + support + billing + shipping = four disconnected truths about the same customer.

"Tools work perfectly until information crosses boundaries."
Case Study: 5 min/invoice = 1 FTE reformatting data
Best For: SaaS Magazine, InfoWorld
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Customer journey blueprint

Why Enterprise UX Lags Consumer Apps

Consumer apps feel magical. Enterprise tools feel punishing. This isn't about budget—it's about philosophy.

"Technology must serve people, not the other way around."
Expertise: 20 years designing B2B interfaces
Best For: UX Collective, Nielsen Norman Group
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Local Media: Toledo Success Story

Story angles for Toledo Blade, Business Journal, WTOL, 13ABC

Toledo Firm Helps Fortune 500 Companies Avoid Layoffs

MMWB Inc., based in Toledo, Ohio, has spent 20 years helping organizations across the country eliminate operational waste that forces executives into impossible decisions about headcount.

LOCAL ANGLE:
Midwest values meet national expertise—proving world-class consulting doesn't require coastal zip codes
Best For: Toledo Blade business section, Toledo Business Journal
Hook: Local business making national impact

From Northwest Ohio to the Fortune 500

Ben Klaiber built MMWB Inc. from Toledo, working with everyone from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 divisions—without moving to Silicon Valley or New York.

LOCAL ANGLE:
Choosing to build a national practice from Toledo—proximity to manufacturing roots and Midwest work ethic
Best For: WTOL "Made in the 419", Toledo Business Journal profiles
Hook: Local entrepreneur competing nationally

Toledo Author Publishes Book on Steve Jobs' Operational Methods

Ben Klaiber of Toledo releases "Making Things Better" (December 2025), extracting documented operational patterns from Apple's turnaround into frameworks leaders can apply immediately.

LOCAL ANGLE:
471-page business book written from Toledo—challenging mythology with documented methods
Best For: 13ABC morning shows, Toledo Blade Sunday feature
Hook: Local author takes on Steve Jobs mythology

Why This Toledo Consultant Only Takes 2 Clients Per Quarter

Unlike traditional consulting firms that chase volume, MMWB Inc. maintains strict exclusivity—working with just two clients at a time to ensure systems actually get fixed, not just documented.

LOCAL ANGLE:
Midwest craftsmanship applied to consulting—quality over quantity, staying until it's fixed
Best For: Business Journal feature stories, WTOL business spotlight
Hook: Unconventional business model driven by results

Toledo's Answer to Management Consulting

While McKinsey and BCG bill by the hour and leave before implementation, Toledo-based MMWB stays embedded until workflows are fixed and teams can deliver full performance.

LOCAL ANGLE:
Manufacturing mindset meets operational consulting—no clipboards, just fixes that last
Best For: Toledo Blade op-eds, Business Journal thought leadership
Hook: Challenging Big Consulting from Northwest Ohio

Meet the Expert

Ben Klaiber professional headshot

Ben Klaiber

Principal Workflow & Experience Architect

Author • Consultant • Systems Thinker

Ben Klaiber is the Founder and Principal Workflow & Experience Architect at MMWB Inc, where he's spent twenty years helping organizations fix broken systems before they break the people using them.

Ben's approach challenges the conventional consulting model. He doesn't audit performance. He identifies the friction dragging metrics down and stays until everything's fixed and teams can deliver their full performance without compensating for broken workflows.

With deep technical expertise and sharp understanding of human behavior, Ben sees operational friction the way a compass reads true north. He specializes in fixing handoffs between systems that work perfectly in isolation but fracture when information needs to cross boundaries—the integration points where organizations lose capacity they've stopped noticing.

Author: "Making Things Better — Timeless Lessons From Steve Jobs on Fixing What's Broken." (Framewise Press, 2025), extracting documented operational methods from Apple's turnaround into practical frameworks leaders can apply immediately.

Based in Toledo, Ohio, Ben is available for speaking engagements, podcast interviews, and expert commentary.

Areas of Expertise:
Operational Systems Architecture
Cross-System Integration
Workflow Friction Diagnosis
Executive Advisory
UI/UX for B2B Platforms
AI Integration Strategy
Speaking Topics:
  • Metal Detectors, Not Magic: Systematic Problem-Solving
  • The Arithmetic of Dignity: Measuring What Matters
  • AI + Human Behavior: Context-Aware Systems
  • Why Enterprise UX Lags Consumer Apps
  • Preventing Layoffs Through System Optimization
  • The Hidden Cost of Broken Handoffs
Available For:
Keynotes | Podcasts | Expert Commentary | Workshops

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Complete press information, bios, case studies

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Professional photos for print and web

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Company Logos

MMWB logos in all formats

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Sample Chapter

"Metal Detectors, Not Magic"

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Quotable Moments

Key insights for social sharing

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Case Study Pack

Multi-system alignment, KPI recovery

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Book Cover Images

3D render, flat cover, social formats

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Fact Sheet

One-page company overview

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Pre-Written Interview Questions

Copy-paste ready for podcasts, articles, and Q&As

  • Why do companies reach for layoffs when the real problem is operational waste?
  • How much employee time is actually lost to fighting bad software?
  • What's the difference between cutting headcount and recovering capacity?
  • What questions should CEOs ask before approving layoffs?
  • How fast can system fixes show ROI?
  • What is the typical profile of a company that needs this work?
  • Can you quantify the hidden cost of broken workflows?
  • What is the audit culture trap and why does it accelerate failure?
Request Custom Questions
  • What's the HTML field structure problem and why does it matter?
  • Why does enterprise software UX lag consumer apps?
  • What's the difference between tech debt and code debt?
  • How is bespoke AI training different from generic LLMs?
  • What happens when 'best of breed' tools don't integrate?
  • Why do users build shadow systems and workarounds?
  • What's the difference between presentation and function in modern AI?
  • How do you diagnose workflow friction in B2B platforms?
Request Custom Questions
  • How is Making Things Better different from other Steve Jobs books?
  • What are the key frameworks readers can apply immediately?
  • Why focus on documented history instead of mythology?
  • What does "Metal Detectors, Not Magic" mean?
  • How do you extract learnable patterns from Apple's turnaround?
  • Who is this book for and who should skip it?
Request Custom Questions

Get in Touch

Press & Speaking

media@mmwbinc.com

567-249-5075

Typically responds within 4 hours

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Book Reviews

media@mmwbinc.com

Sample chapters & full review copies available

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Client Engagements

booking@mmwbinc.com

2 clients per quarter maximum

Schedule Discovery Call

X/Twitter: @bbkmmwb | LinkedIn: /in/benklaiber | Website: mmwbinc.com

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