---
title: "About Mike Sommer"
description: "Kadence Group is Mike Sommer's advisory and build firm. Twenty years and 75+ enterprise engagements. Former Senior Director at IBM. CGEIT, CBI, Stanford GSB."
url: https://www.thekadencegroup.com/about
site: Kadence Group
---

# I see what others can't, and build the road to it.

Kadence Group is my advisory and build firm. I help leaders get stalled programs back to green, and find the value already sitting inside their business.

*Founder and Managing Partner*

## Mike Sommer, Kadence Group

Credentials: 20 years, 75+ engagements, Former Senior Director, IBM, CGEIT, Certified Business Intermediary, Stanford GSB

For twenty years I've worked inside large enterprise programs. At IBM I built the operating models behind eight figure Salesforce programs. Since then I've led work across healthcare, life sciences, MedTech, education, and other regulated industries.
Diagnosis first, always. That was the job across more than 75 engagements, and it's the job now. Most stalled programs don't have one problem. They have three: how the work runs, who is pulling which way, and what the technology can carry. Somebody has to name all three out loud.
I built [Business MRI](/business-mri) from that work. It's the method under every engagement: the same inputs, the same questions, and the same outputs every time. It reads a program fast and puts a number on what's wrong. Then I stay in the work with your team until the fix holds.
Kadence Group is selective by design. The person you meet is the person who does the work.

*What I hold to*

## Four rules for every engagement

### It's almost never just the technology.

Most stalled programs have an operational bottleneck and a political one sitting next to the technical one. Fix one alone and the program stays yellow.

### Say it out loud, in writing.

A risk nobody writes down doesn't get fixed. Every finding gets a name, an owner, and a dollar figure.

### Fix it in order.

The first fix should unblock the rest. A long list of equal priorities is a list of nothing.

### Evidence protects people.

The people who raise hard truths are doing the job well. A written read gives their knowledge a name that travels up the chain.

*Also from Mike*

## Business MRI and Heartbeat

### Heartbeat (Podcast)

Conversations with business leaders about getting stuck programs moving again.

[Listen to Heartbeat](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/heartbeat-by-mike-sommer/id1763113782)

### Business MRI (The method)

The diagnostic method under every engagement. Four dimensions, three bottlenecks, one order of fixes.

[How Business MRI works](https://www.thekadencegroup.com/business-mri)

## See what's real. Build what's next.

[Book a conversation](https://calendly.com/mike-sommer/1-hr-meeting-block)