Michael E. Parker
Michael E Parker is a highly skilled entrepreneur, an accomplished inspirational leader and a budding author based in San Francisco, California. He is both the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Michael E. Parker Enterprises, Value-Centered Solutions, Inc and “You Are a CEO”, among others.
Michael E. Parker | CEO & Founder
Driven from the Start
Michael E. Parker spent much of his childhood in Richmond, California, an area known for having high rates of violence, poverty, and drug abuse. Although Mr. Parker grew up in a tough neighborhood and even faced some challenges at home, he eventually found a way through it. Michael’s godparents injected his life with the support, advice, and encouragement that he so desperately needed. With the appearance of these positive influences in his life, Michael’s outlook fundamentally shifted, as did his ambitions.
Education as a Key to Success
After this much-needed infusion of hope into his life, Michael E. Parker’s short-term focus was on academia. He realized the necessity of obtaining a degree, both for his development as well as for his career path. The idea of controlling one’s professional life as an entrepreneur spurred Michael in his quest for higher learning. After graduating high school, Mr. Parker earned his bachelor and master’s degrees in Business Administration, Operations and Procurement from California State University, Hayward.
Toyota
Mr. Parker began his career with Toyota and was quickly placed on the fast track. He was chosen to work with the highest ranking executives at the company. Akio Toyoda, president, and CEO of the Toyota Motor Corporation selected Michael to go to Japan and receive full training in lean management – a huge honor and a touchstone of Mr. Parker’s early career. As a Senior Project Manager, Mr. Parker realized his calling as an entrepreneur around 2001. Walking away from Toyota was Mr. Parker’s decision, and it required courage and conviction to leave the comforts of Toyota to create businesses in different industries.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
After accepting this entrepreneurial path, Michael E. Parker took a leap of faith and created businesses in the service, manufacturing and technology industries. Each industry denotes different business climates, and each industry tends to attract different personality types. Michael E. Parker found that to get people to work together in a small business environment was only possible by cultivating the group and focusing on a unified vision. This was an endeavor unto itself, but Mr. Parker found that creating an operation that has a common principle that permeates each business was the key to growing his ventures to eventually include 400 employees in 4 different states. As a newly independent entrepreneur, Michael E. Parker oversaw tremendous growth in his business, but he also learned some hard lessons about building businesses in different environments. With the downturn of 2008, Michael E. Parker, along with all business owners, was tested in his ability to adapt.
Adaptation and Improvement
In spite of the adversity posed by the volatile marketplace at this time, Michael E. Parker found that this incited reinvention, assessment, and improvement. When the market crash forced this entrepreneur to lose 80 percent of his workforce, he realized that he couldn’t operate the way he used to. Instead, he had to look for new ways to create opportunity. Resilience and a refusal to give up were the key factors that got Mr. Parker through this challenging time. And his efforts did not go unrecognized. Mr. Parker won awards such as the 2008 Wells Fargo Checkpoint Trailblazer Award, the Black Expo Champion for our Youth Award (for LifeSkills411) as well as the CBS/KPIX Jefferson Award in 2012. Additionally, Mr. Parker made appearances on various news outlets like CBS 5 Sunday and Comcast Newsmakers and was featured in Forbes.
Michael E. Parker Today
In addition to delivering this powerful message through workshops and lectures, Michael E. Parker has continued to seek out and create tools that aid others in their pursuit of cultivating high-performing businesses. Consulting and speaking engagements with Fortune 500 companies tend to fill Michael E. Parker’s calendar. However, he also has had the opportunity to return to his alma mater as an instructor at Cal State, Hayward where he enjoys providing students with what he has learned and experienced throughout his career while gaining new perspectives from a whole new generation of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Michael E. Parker Enterprises
If all your happiness is centered around your desire for money, you will never truly be happy because your desire for money cannot be satisfied.
You Are a CEO
A self-achievement community dedicated to helping people celebrate the small wins in life to create a culture of consistent self-achievement every day.
Lean Consulting
As a pioneer in lean consulting, Michael E. Parker prides himself on being able to build quality into an operation for various industries.
2DOLIFE
An online life assistant that helps busy, goal-oriented people get more out of the 2 things we all spend in life: money and time.
VCS, INC.
A business consulting company dedicated to utilizing value-centered methodologies to improve the performance of businesses around the world.
Jovance Salon
An upscale salon and barbering facility that has been nationally recognized, and customer acclaimed, utilizing value-centered principles to provide exemplary service and speed to its clients.