After more than a decade as a highly successful workplace experience lead, director, and executive at the global information technology consulting company Avanade, Michelle Caldwell and her partner at the firm decided to venture out on their own and launched The Synozur Alliance. Today, the company specializes in business and strategy consulting that supports the transformation journeys of customers and the modern workplace. Ms. Caldwell laid an impressive professional foundation of achievements beforehand, having transformed a $30 million portfolio at Avanade to $110 in three years and being named a Microsoft MVP and a regional director.
In addition to attracting clients using their primary strategy, The Synozur Alliance focuses on value chain creation consulting, in which they perform design work to visually articulate a project vision and communicate it to leadership and employees leading up to the point of its actual technical implementation carried out by other partners. They also help smaller Microsoft partners working on technical implementation build stronger businesses to greatly increase their net worth. Ms. Caldwell has earned the trust of clients who have followed her from previous companies, and she is known for prioritizing their needs before her firm’s because she counts their success as her own. She believes it’s important to have patience and understanding with clients, especially those undergoing major transformations for the first time — a nurturing trait she developed early in life by watching her mother put her family first while working in the banking industry. Ms. Caldwell says one of her own business goals within the next five years is to earn and replace her previous income in half of the time that she was working for other companies.
Ms. Caldwell advises other entrepreneurs to focus on building their networks inside and outside their current organizations, get involved in their local communities, and find ways to participate in their industry away from their day-to-day work. One way she achieves all of this is by public speaking at conferences, something that once terrified her due to her introverted nature. Yet, she was determined to conquer her fear of being onstage, and it has paid off in the significant impact she has on other professionals — and in dividends. Certified in cloud technologies and Microsoft, Ms. Caldwell is often invited as a featured speaker at conferences including, but not limited to, Microsoft SharePoint and Project Management, Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft 365 EduCon, Future of Work, and Employee Experience.
Before her years at Avanade and starting The Synozur Alliance, Ms. Caldwell founded and operated 2 Brown Shoes LLC. She also was a founding member and president of BuckeyeSPUG, a SharePoint practice and delivery manager, a professional certified scrum master, a business development manager at Saras America, and a Microsoft solutions division account executive and small and mid-market solutions and partners account executive in commercial services at the Information Control Corporation. Other roles to her name include business development manager at the Ray & Barney Group, co-founder of Caldwell & Zyla, and a project manager and systems analyst at Nationwide Insurance. Ms. Caldwell holds a Master of Science in project management from the George Washington University School of Business and has completed coursework at Barton Community College.
In addition to her primary endeavors, Ms. Caldwell is a mentor and serves on the board of a community homeless shelter. Also close to her heart is volunteering with Forgotten Dogs Rescue by fostering puppies and donating to support the organization’s rescue and medical initiatives, volunteering with Homeward Pet Adoption, and supporting the Detroit Pit Bull Crew. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, and growing flowers and vegetables in her garden.