Minor Steps. Major Impact

Years ago, I was brought in to turn around a company. It once was a thriving firm. But times had changed. The marketplace had evolved. The management team adored and trusted one another. They had built the organization together. But their success had bred complacency. Despite the fact that they had no new business growth in the prior two years, they didn’t realize the magnitude of the problem. Something had to change — fast. Yet major investments were off the table. The CEO turned to me.

We went to work immediately. I met with a select group of key stakeholders. I talked to some customers. I assessed the company’s products, their business development approach, and benchmarked them against their competition. Unfortunately, the company had fallen into a common pattern of touting their talents, as opposed to fixating on their customers and prospects’ needs.

Soon we removed one key member of the management team who was a barrier to change. The rest of the team took notice. We formulated a refined go-to-market strategy and worked together to close their next two contracts. Within 60 days, we had secured $5.1MM in new revenue which provided the means to hire a couple of new players. We handled these new hires with a Moneyball mindset: we focused on who could deliver the most incremental value, cost effectively. Suddenly, as Jim Collins in Good to Great would say, we had more of the “right people on the bus.” We then adopted a continuous innovation philosophy, and the company delivered record revenues and profits for the next eight years.

This swift turnaround all started with a very simple process and the elimination of one staff member. Thereafter, like throwing a pebble into a pond, the ripples spread.

If you wanna have a quick conversation with us about driving your business forward, feel free to email us at Hi@Rung-UP.com.

Lawrence M. Kimmel is CEO of Rung-UP, the first agency custom built for C-Level executives at mid-sized organizations.