Media

The Future of Work

The New American Workplace

Case Study: Consumer Goods, Food and Retail

BUSINESS PROBLEM
Our client is a $100 million+ company, employing over 500 people and competing in a highly competitive consumer packaged goods category. With its sector consolidating quickly, management felt that sustained growth would be critical if the company were to survive the onslaught of competition. As an ESOP, management wanted to ensure that its employees were fully vested in its growth plan and the strategic planning process.

THE  SOLUTION
Optimize was engaged to conduct a thorough strategic planning process. Every employee was invited to provide input in the company’s vision. Extensive evaluation of employee engagement was completed and benchmarked.

OPTIMIZE ACTIVITIES

Over four years, Optimize:

• Held focus groups with over 200 employees
• Interviewed 21 managers
• Conducted an online survey of all employees
• Provided a detailed summary analysis of employee engagement feedback, sorted by location, department and seniority
• Delivered a presentation to management
• Conducted 360s with the management team
• Conducted a pre-strategy planning session.
• Professionally facilitated a 3-day strategy offsite
• Developed a strategic planning document, vision map and action plan
• Conducted quarterly follow-up meetings with management

OUTCOMES
During the strategic planning process, the company:

• Was recognized by a leading industry publication as a Best Place to Work
• Made a significant decision regarding expansion into new markets
• Instituted a new production process
• Evaluated its product development process and developed 10 new products
• Reversed a decline in two of its signature products

Case Study: Construction

BUSINESS PROBLEM

Our client experienced rapid growth and contraction due to the cyclical sector. Ownership wanted to maintain trajectory, reduce risk and build profitability. In an effort to diversify, the client added a business unit that struggled to reach growth targets and find brand identity.

THE SOLUTION

Optimize facilitated strategy meetings over 3 years. In addition to fortifying corporate strategy, optimize helped the client add rigor to its business unit-level operational plans. The client established a new set of values and objectives, and built synergies across business lines.

OPTIMIZE ACTIVITIES

• Professionally facilitated strategic planning & operational meetings
• Facilitated team building sessions with stakeholders to create a system for referrals and sensitive information
• Provided referrals to board members
• Provided counsel on human capital initiatives and rebranding
• Launched organizational surveys for manager input
• Developed all strategic planning documents

OUTCOMES

During the strategic planning process, the company:

• Maneuvered the changing market, outperforming peers in the upturn
• Grew to be the largest privately owned company in the space
• Internal referrals led to $500k incremental revenue in first year
• Improved customer retention rate formed a board of directors focused on long term value
• Deployed human capital resources to be an employer of choice
• Bought a building to serve as headquarters, joining disparate businesses under one roof

Case Study: Manufacturing and Distribution

BUSINESS PROBLEM

Our client sought to expand distribution, build revenue and optimize its business value for a future liquidity event. The company faced head winds in its international markets and had operational challenges related to production. In particular, the company had significant difficulty hiring qualified staff required to support its growth.

THE SOLUTION

Optimize facilitated a series of strategy meetings over a 2-year time frame. In collaboration with the CEO and management team, Optimize deployed a rigorous planning process (supported by market data) and established a new cadence for planning and formal tracking of strategic objectives.

OPTIMIZE ACTIVITIES

• Professionally facilitated four strategic planning meetings
• Provided sales and marketing consulting services
• Provided human capital consulting services
• Implemented a scorecarding system
• Launched organizational surveys to gather input from all line managers
• Developed strategic planning documents, vision maps and action plans

OUTCOMES

Subsequent to the strategic planning process, our client:

• Sold the company, achieving its  market valuation target
• Achieved double digit annual gains in EBITDA
• Re-engineered its product development methodology
• Recalibrated distribution strategy in the U.S. and internationally, and hiring a Director of Sales
• Developed a signature product for international distribution
• Developed recruiting resources
• Dramatically improved employee satisfaction in manufacturing operations, improving quality and cycle time results

Case Study: Financial Services 

BUSINESS PROBLEM

Our client faced commoditization in a highly fractured industry. Eroding industry fundamentals put pressure on pricing and profitability. After 30 years, the firm was undergoing a generational change of control.

THE SOLUTION

Optimize was engaged to help the company grow. We leveraged strategic planning as a process to drive innovation, and to focus the management team on what matters most.

OPTIMIZE ACTIVITIES

• Professionally facilitated seven strategic planning cycles over seven years
• Conducted a customer advisory board to identify industry trends
• Launched organizational surveys to gather manager input
• Surveyed our client’s customers to improve the firm’s value proposition
• Developed strategic planning documents, vision maps and action plans
• Worked with the Board of Directors for a smooth ownership transition

OUTCOMES

During the strategic planning process, the company:

• Focused on a market niche, becoming the market leader eight years later
• Developed a passive income stream that dramatically increased profit
• Established vertical integration across three businesses
• Launched a disruptive portal technology to sell the firm’s services
• Positioned their company as the subject matter expert in their field
• Deployed a “virtual office”, eliminating half of its office space
• Increased revenue per employee by more than 40%

Case Study: Technology & Engineering 

THE PROBLEM

Our client, a provider of consulting services in the energy sector faced challenging scaling their business and growing into new markets.

THE SOLUTION

The client with the help of Optimize, relaunched a software solution, to augment the company’s traditional engineering services. The product included the ability to read sensors in the field, and provide intelligence on the risk of failures in various pipeline systems.

ACTIVITIES

• Optimize lead 4 strategic planning sessions with the company’s management team.
• Optimize lead a market study effort, to better understand customer’s shifting needs and requirements.
• Optimize conducted an evaluation of the company’s internal capabilities so that it could develop the necessary resources (people, processes and technology) to support growth.
• Optimize lead an effort to map and revitalize the company’s product development process.

OUTCOMES

• Through managing business development and mix, the client was able to achieve the targeted blended margin.
• The software created a much-needed reoccurring revenue stream, offering greater revenue predictability (in an extremely cyclical industry).
• The software product grew to more than 50% of revenue, providing much needed revenue diversification.
• The company become more relevant in its core market, attracting several Fortune 500 and reducing its client concentration risk.
• The company expanded, adding a 2^nd international location to manage its business on a regional basis.

The company implemented its first formal product roadmap process.

Case Study: Consumer Goods, Food and Retail

THE PROBLEM

A leading consumer goods manufacturer was struggling for relevancy in a crowded marketplace. Anemic sales growth translated into poor financial performance, impacting the company’s ESOP value and the management team’s bonuses. Further, management was concerned that its brands and products were not resonating as they once did. They felt the company was overexposed to concentration risk with its top customer, a retailer experiencing store declines.

THE SOLUTION

Realizing the importance of reframing its vision, the client engaged Optimize to conduct strategic planning. The focal point of the project was to focus on a few select markets where the company could win. The Optimize consultant facilitated a series of conversations that pinpointed opportunities and gained agreement on strategic objectives, action items, and key performance indicators.

ACTIVITIES

• Researched the company’s industry, competition and customers.
• Conducted a strategy assessment with the management team.
• Assisted the CFO in the formation of financial projections.
• Worked with the sales manager to develop a sales plan.
• Professionally facilitated the strategic planning meeting.
• Published a strategic planning document.
• Published a vision map, action plan and a set of KPIs.

OUTCOMES

In the year following the strategy offsite, the client:

• Won two large contracts with mass merchandisers, dramatically reducing concentration risk.
• Hit top line revenue targets, returned to profitability and paid management team bonuses.
• Implemented a real-time dashboard with meaningful KPIs in management’s view.
• Hired an ecommerce director to focus on ecommerce as articulated in the strategic plan.
• Conducted a SKU rationalization to reduce total number of items.
• Relaunched a dying brand specifically for the ecommerce channel.
• Created a reporting system to regularly update managers on status of key initiatives.
• Re-engaged Optimize to do it again.