Case Studies

#1 – U.S. Software Sales & Support Office

The first was a U.S. start-up of an established European software company.  The U.S. office, a sales and support facility, had been attempting to gain a foothold in the U.S. market starting in 1997.  By 2000, the U.S. office was still non-viable, requiring the European head office to inject $2M annually to keep it afloat.  We evaluated the scene and proposed a series of recommendations based on the above criteria, designed to get all personnel inspired and pulling in the same direction as well as the office standing on its own two feet financially with its backlogged royalties to the head office caught up.  This necessitated a re-design of the organizational structure; ejection of troublesome personnel; implementation of a process-based management system developed by backcasting[1] from head office objectives; identification of administrative and process metrics; establishment of an in-house academy in which all personnel (top to bottom) were retrained on organizational policy, job functions, interpersonal relationships, personal ethics and integrity, and were appropriately assigned per the new organizational structure; installation of a newly developed forward-looking cash financial management system separate from the accrual system needed for tax purposes; installation of a document control system; and implementation of an incentive plan that engaged all personnel with quarterly and annual bonuses based upon their respective individual job metrics.  ISO 9000 guidelines were used as the quality management system.

Weekly staff meetings were conducted in which all personnel reviewed organizational metrics and quotas, with particular attention to the “critical number” for that time period – the number that, if improved, would positively affect all other areas.  With the incentive plan in place, all staff were encourage to originate what they could do from their respective areas to affect the critical number for the week, whereupon the managers coordinated the action items within their respective areas.

Within six months of implementation, the U.S. office had grown from thirteen staff to thirty-five, had repaid its backlogged royalties to the head office, had achieved ISO 9000 registration, and was $5M in the black.

#2 – U.S. Manufacturer

A major U.S. manufacturing company undertook a three-year sustainability initiative requiring a greenfield[2] design of a new product, a new organizational design bolstered by Integrated Product Development[3], new engineering and production tools and software and re-training of the workforce. This initiative had as its basic purpose the production of a product that was capable of being a proud hallmark of American ingenuity globally.

        Six months into the program it became clear that learning the new methods and meeting project deadlines could not be accomplished by the existing workforce on their regular schedule and therefore three shifts around the clock was required of management and production personal.  As the schedule changes were not being well received, a new approach to spiking and maintaining morale was needed.

Knowing that human ingenuity was the key to the programs’ success - morale was spiked by an internal campaign highlighting the environmental and economic goals of the program by the program leadership.  Individuals were surveyed to uncover their basic motivations to excel.  Management was encouraged to utilize the survey data and create an atmosphere in which systems engineers were encouraged to really think outside the box.  Leadership, while receiving daily metrics on progress, led the groups by observing changes in the esprit de corps of the team, validating wins no matter how small, strengthening each success daily and reinforcing alignment of the individual aspirations, the team’s basic purpose and the program’s goal.

A flavor of open book management was employed to balance social, economic and environment capital, resulting in program targets being met, a six month reduction in time to market and a platform for the long-term viability of the product.   Over a one year period, the implementation and investment in aligning individuals’ basic purposes with program goals created a 99.9% systems success in engineering, manufacturing and information technology toward a sustainable outcome.

Testimonials

"I feel much more in control of my finances and am actually digging out of the hole we were in. We are certainly moving in the right direction. Thank you so much for your help with Mach 1!”

Jason Price, Owner, March 1 Aviation

"What you have done with my company in so short a time has been nothing short of miraculous."

                                                            Mikel Urizarbarrena, President & CEO, Panda Distribution, Inc.

“Harrison was brought in to streamline our operations, stabilize financial management, and increase organizational effectiveness. I learned an immense amount from Harrison and the programs he implemented. The areas his programs impacted were multiple - from better internal communications and reporting to more effective financial management brought on primarily by a clear and full understanding of the company's financial situation by all managers. He brought a more enlightened management approach and helped ensure leaders were aligned across the organization. I would absolutely recommend using his services...I know I will again!”

Brian Cotter, VP Partner Development, Quatrro BPO Solutions

“I just wanted to thank you for the excellent job you are doing for us. I wanted to bring you up-to-date on what we are doing. As a result of the surveys you did and the suggestions you made, we are implementing a customer satisfaction/communication campaign within our company. The results you brought back to us confirmed what we always 'knew' but now we have hard evidence to back up our intuition. The response we have received from our customers has been very positive.

“Evidence of the contribution the surveys have made is:

a. We are on target to make our yearly quota, a first in this company history

b. We are experiencing a 20% growth year, in a bad economy year

c. We just had our highest sales month ever.

“I really appreciate the time you took to fully understand our business and what we do. I very much look forward to continuing to work with you in the future.”

Point of Sales Software Company

“We want you to know how extremely pleased we are with the service your company has provided for us. Extremely well done and timely.

“We know from the survey work our market and how to successfully pursue it. Without it, we would only have been shooting in the dark. With it, it allows us to direct our resources at an optimum level.

“I personally have considerable business and marketing background and so does my team. When we first heard of your services, I was somewhat skeptical and had the point of view that we don't need a service like that as we know what we are doing. I now know what we needed a service like that for: without your services we would have spent many hours, days, weeks, months in the wrong direction. We now have many hours in the right direction and it makes a huge difference”

Business Software Development Company