Case Study: Company A
Problem Statement
Company A was struggling with anemic top-line growth, less-than-expected margin contribution, and high employee turnover.
Project Details
A detailed assessment revealed the root cause of these three issues was no clear and actionable business strategy. The lack of a clear, easily understood business strategy and associated management process to drive execution is a common and potentially catastrophic problem many businesses face today.
The team focused on solving this problem first spent time defining the actionable and specific outcomes that Company A ultimately needed to achieve. These outcomes were used to develop a clear, pragmatic, focused strategy that would, if cleanly executed, deliver the desired outcomes. Once developed, the strategy required an organizational structure change to align the organization with the strategy, creating clarity of roles and accountability. The final and most important step of the process was to create a management process that highlighted key areas of action, drove results, and reported on progress (or lack thereof).
Results
The results achieved by Company A 12 months post implementation of the strategy and execution process were 2x industry revenue growth, as well as these successes:
- EBITDA contribution improvement 21%
- Reduction in regrettable employee turnover 15%
Case Study: Company B
Problem Statement
Company B was suffering from negative year-over-year revenue growth.
Project Details
A detailed assessment of Company B revealed no clear, communicated differentiation from the competition, lack of a clear and actionable sales strategy, a confused and ill-equipped sales force, and no organization accountable for customer service.
The team focused on solving Company B’s growth problem began with a market assessment and SWOT analysis to better understand Company B’s offering in relation to the market. This exercise allowed the team to develop a clear value proposition and positioning statement to be used with the customer base. They were then able to deeply analyze the sales force, focusing on product knowledge, historical production, and communicated sales force expectations. This work resulted in a re-segmentation of the sales force, separation of the account management function from new customer acquisition, a simpler and more transparent sales compensation model and the creation of a new customer service function.
Results
The results achieved by Company B six months after implementation were improved revenue and gross margin contribution at the individual sales person level, as well as these improvements:
- Improvement in year-over-year revenue growth 7%
- Improvement of sales force retention 17%
Case Study: Company C
Problem Statement
Company C had three consecutive years of declining profitability.
Project Details
A detailed assessment of Company C revealed no processes to manage customer commercials post sale, no clear gross margin expectations of the sales team for new customer business, no clear productivity improvement objectives for the operations team for existing business, and no regular mechanism to review ongoing customer-level profitability.
The team quickly went to work analyzing the profitability of each customer for each division. A management process was created to allow leadership, the sales team and the operations team to do a deep dive into all margin-challenged customers. Out of the review came an agreed plan of action that focused on revenue leakage, pricing, liability and operational efficiency. Action plans were monitored weekly, with individuals accountable for results. In addition, the team developed gross margin thresholds for each division, which was used to develop new customer pricing and the approvals process.
Results
Results for Company C 12 months after this process began was a solid understanding of individual customer profitability, as well as this improvement:
- EBITDA contribution improvement 31%