Index 2
What WE Do
It has been our privilege to work with dreamers, visionaries and game changers. Over 130 organizations (large and small) have entrusted us to craft their strategic plans. Unlike other firms, we specialize in strategy, not part of the time, all of the time. Yet our ultimate value may not be in the advice that we provide. We are professional facilitators; in the business of asking questions, and inspiring management teams to take the time to think about vision and purpose.
Optimize is a Los Angeles-based management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning. As expert strategy facilitators, over 140 organizations large and small have entrusted us to craft their strategic plans. It has been our privilege to work with dreamers, visionaries and game changers. Yet, our ultimate value may not be in the advice we provide.
Contact the Optimize Team!
PRE-WORK
Research the market and prepare management for strategic thinking
RETREAT
Agree on vision, strategy, objectives, action items, and KPIs
DOCUMENT
Create visuals, including vision map, action plan, and strategic plan
FOLLOW UP
Meet with the management team to ensure execution
Momentum: How Companies Decide What To Do Next
Marc Emmer's new book, Momentum, offers the secrets of high-growth companies and practical techniques that management teams can use to chart their course and seize the opportunities ahead. It offers insight into key trends that will reshape the business climate over the next decade, and the tools required to recognize trends and take advantage of them.
Part strategy manifesto and part how-to guide, Momentum is a must-read for small and mid-sized business owners and their teams trying to separate from the pack. Momentum provides pragmatic advice and templates that can be used in strategic planning and execution.
To order 8 or more copies of Momentum, email us at info@optimizeinc.net
Home test (new- case studies HTML)
What WE Do
It has been our privilege to work with dreamers, visionaries and game changers. Over 130 organizations (large and small) have entrusted us to craft their strategic plans. Unlike other firms, we specialize in strategy, not part of the time, all of the time. Yet our ultimate value may not be in the advice that we provide. We are professional facilitators; in the business of asking questions, and inspiring management teams to take the time to think about vision and purpose.
How we do it
PRE-WORK
Research the market and prepare management for strategic thinking
RETREAT
Agree on vision, strategy, objectives, action items, and KPIs
DOCUMENT
Create visuals, including vision map, action plan, and strategic plan
FOLLOW UP
Meet with the management team to ensure execution
OUR clients
SUCCESS STORIES
BLOG & MEDIA
Case Study: Consumer Packaged Goods
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
- 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
- Achieved record sales and profits
- 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
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: Consumer Packaged Goods
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
- 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
- Achieved record sales and profits
- 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: 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 2nd international location to manage its business on a regional basis.
The company implemented its first formal product roadmap process.
Intended Consequences
In his breakthrough new book, Intended Consequences, Marc Emmer balances the tension between optimizing results today while preparing to seize the opportunities ahead. Intended Consequences is packed with practical and proven methods used in the creation of breakthrough strategies, challenging the underlying assumptions about how strategy is formed and executed. Intended Consequences describes a revolutionary framework for achieving competitive advantage over the next decade.
Manufacturing and Distribution old
Manufacturing And Distribution
As experts in strategic planning facilitation, we have significant experience in the manufacturing sector.
Our company President Marc Emmer facilitates a peer group of precision parts manufacturers in the Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley. We have also had numerous other strategic planning clients in the food manufacturing, aerospace and defense, and medical device sectors.
Our clients supply the world’s largest OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), from Boeing to GE, Boston Scientific, Toyota and BMW. Succeeding in today’s world of professional procurement requires a unique mindset, in which the supplier must provide quality and timeliness (the cost of admission), and have a maniacal focus on continuous improvement, cost reduction and the development of cutting edge products.
These companies must not only out-operate the competition, they must outsmart them through superior business strategy. It is through lessons learned from such leading manufacturers that we have been able to help our clients achieve market leadership.
We have also been successful in helping manufacturers achieve scale (often through acquisition), which is critical in a business with razor thin margins. Most of our manufacturing clients are global, either sourcing materials or selling their finished goods abroad. Business strategy has been critical as they mitigate significant risks (from execution risk to currency risk), while identifying opportunities for growth.
As expert strategic planning facilitators and consultants, we have assisted clients who have achieved extraordinary outcomes. In addition to facilitating strategic planning, we have supported clients by:
- Helping a multi-national wheel supplier make key decisions on their manufacturing footprint, while remaining competitive in Europe and Asia.
- Conducting an analysis on an industry leader’s addressable market, supporting key decisions on investing in core and adjacent markets.
- Conducting an analysis for a California-based company seeking to expand into new markets. The client ultimately concluded that they had adequate runway and did not need to make an investment in additional infrastructure (and boots on the ground), realizing a cost savings of over $1 million.
- Creating a long-term growth plan for an industry-leading ecommerce platform, including expansion throughout the U.S.
- Deploying a full assessment of an aerospace and defense supplier’s internal capabilities, providing recommendations on its management system, sales and marketing process and manufacturing operations.
Marc has also been active as a member of the Vistage Manufacturing affinity group based in Los Angeles.
To learn more about how we can help you, contact us.
Related Content
Manufacturing & Distribution Case Study
Scorecard Guide
Framework for Driving Competitive Advantage
Index (old- removed 9/16/19)
What WE Do
It has been our privilege to work with dreamers, visionaries and game changers. Over 130 organizations (large and small) have entrusted us to craft their strategic plans. Unlike other firms, we specialize in strategy, not part of the time, all of the time. Yet our ultimate value may not be in the advice that we provide. We are professional facilitators; in the business of asking questions, and inspiring management teams to take the time to think about vision and purpose.
Optimize is a Los Angeles-based management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning. As expert strategy facilitators, over 140 organizations large and small have entrusted us to craft their strategic plans. It has been our privilege to work with dreamers, visionaries and game changers. Yet, our ultimate value may not be in the advice we provide.
PRE-WORK
Research the market and prepare management for strategic thinking
RETREAT
Agree on vision, strategy, objectives, action items, and KPIs
DOCUMENT
Create visuals, including vision map, action plan, and strategic plan
FOLLOW UP
Meet with the management team to ensure execution
Momentum: How Companies Decide What To Do Next
Marc Emmer's new book, Momentum, offers the secrets of high-growth companies and practical techniques that management teams can use to chart their course and seize the opportunities ahead. It offers insight into key trends that will reshape the business climate over the next decade, and the tools required to recognize trends and take advantage of them.
Part strategy manifesto and part how-to guide, Momentum is a must-read for small and mid-sized business owners and their teams trying to separate from the pack. Momentum provides pragmatic advice and templates that can be used in strategic planning and execution.
To order 8 or more copies of Momentum, email us at info@optimizeinc.net