Case Studies

Compete as
1 of 1Make better
decisions fasterAwaken
the troopsBuild meaning,
profitablyStrengthen strategic
leadershipCreate an
authentic brand

Compete as 1 of 1

Some years ago, the founder and CEO of a small custom-engineered structural components company (based around a core technology of precast-prestressed concrete) recognized that his industry was undergoing consolidation. He lacked the capital to acquire other firms and wanted to remain independent. So he approached Plantes Company to help him find a way to become, in his words, “a monopoly.” He wisely recognized the advantages of creating a unique market position: being 1 of 1 instead of 1 of many. Developing a differentiated and hard-to-copy market position could lead to attractive returns, profitable growth opportunities, and freedom to remain independent during industry consolidation.

Kay worked closely with the leadership team to identify current and potential competencies, the benefits they could provide, and which kinds of current or potential customers would most benefit from these competencies. She also helped the leadership team understand that the company’s direct customers — general contractors — were, in fact, competitors. Why? Because they could and often did fill the needs of end customers by backwards-integrating into structural components using cast-in-place concrete, a substitute technology.

Kay recommended the company redesign its business model to become a design-build contractor vertically integrated around the precast-prestressed concrete core technology. Its value promise would be “more building for your dollar, faster, and without schedule and cost overrun risks.” As a general contractor, the firm could control the design of the project and the precast, making this promise feasible and hard for general contractors to copy. Execution required specializing initially in parking decks, where precast is a high percent of cost-of-goods-sold and the company could sell directly to owners who needed new parking decks quickly.

Today, the company, which used to win business on price, does all its work on a negotiated basis. It has also expanded beyond parking structures into markets such as office buildings, dorms, and hotels. Revenue is 50-fold higher and profits increased even more. As a general contractor, the firm has innovated structural approaches and software to deliver yet more hard-to-copy benefits and create a licensing revenue stream.

Concurrently, the rest of the industry did consolidate, many firms went out of business, and others remain competing primarily on price.

Make better decisions faster

A serial entrepreneur approached Plantes Company to help him, and his three principal leaders (of finance/IT, merchandising/creative, and operations), better align their efforts to grow their online catalog company’s revenue and profitably. The CEO recognized that the company needed to add a retail store channel and that making this large change would not be successful if the leaders did not work more closely as a team to better align their teams’ actions.

Kay interviewed leaders and their direct reports to assess areas where the company’s departments were and were not aligned and barriers to alignment. A carefully designed retreat with the CEO and his three leaders led to agreements on the business model, competencies the firm needed to make to build a sustainably differentiated offering, and a shared organizational vision. They developed 3-year shared goals and action plans for each team to guide resource deployments. Leaders left the meeting understanding that their current and continued alignment would be a primary factor in future success.

At the close of the retreat, the CEO commented, “I’d never before gotten so much good work done in so little time. We gained consensus around so many decisions we would not have achieved without Kay’s facilitation.” And the strategic plan led the leadership team to place more emphasis on creating hard-to-copy differentiators, the key to its longer-term success. Kay continued to work with the company facilitating annual planning for the following two years.

The company successfully added one store, then more stores, and continues to create a compelling line of differentiated products. The company recently went public to raise money to build out more “brand destination” stores. The CEO honored Kay’s contributions by inviting her to invest pre-IPO as a “family and friends” investor.

Awaken the troops

The head of an association of local business publications (e.g., Crane’s and Milwaukee Biz Times) feared his members were becoming complacent in their niche media positions. He invited Kay to present a half-day workshop to help the editors and publishers “think outside the box” to surface new growth opportunities.

The evening before her presentation, one owner approached Kay and told her nothing worried him about his business, as the niche was so sound.

Kay’s workshop was designed to help the audience understand why disruption arises and how leaders can protect against it. A series of exercises, which placed the publishers and editors in the shoes of potential disruptors, led to many “aha” moments on the part of participants. These same insights also resulted in the formulation of attractive growth opportunities and must-dos to build defenses against disruption.

The fearless owner greeted Kay after the presentation and said, “My God, you’ve scared me to death. Who knew….” The workshop was so successful Kay was invited to speak to individual publication staffs as well.

Build meaning, profitably

In today’s marketplace, the focus on social responsibility is gaining prominence. Non-profits want to become more profitable so they can expand their mission; for-profit businesses seek to weave an element of social responsibility into their business model to attract and retain talent and customers.

Kay has worked with many non-profits to build earned income streams, as this type of income is far more scalable than relying on donations. She has also helped for-profits carve out social-responsibility agendas that are synergistic with their core business, and, therefore, beneficial to shareholders and the community-at-large. Here are two examples.

Non-profit: A hospital had established a leading non-profit center for the study and treatment of abused children. The Center had strong Intellectual Property that could help state and local child welfare agencies. The Center had created and sold some training products, but higher priority demands on hospital investment funds constrained The Center from making any substantial investments to grow their earned income stream.

A University of Chicago group shared the deeper mission of the non-profit and had competencies that could leverage The Center’s IP. Together, they could better serve more child welfare agencies. Kay designed and facilitated a one-day retreat with the two institutions’ leaders, where they identified areas of collaboration that could lead to new products that leveraged both centers talents and resources. The teams left with a detailed game plan for moving forward when all they had expected out of the meeting was a decision to work together. Kay’s intelligent agenda design, assigned homework, and creative facilitation supported the rapid progress. A new product was introduced early in 2016, just months after the work started.

For-profit: A leading medical equipment company was facing intense competition from a new entrant offering higher-end technology. Following her market research, Kay identified patient safety as a core issue facing hospitals. She helped the company realize that it could both gain market advantage and improve patient results (a social agenda) by rebranding itself from “assured reliability” to “advancing patient safety.”

To fulfill the safety aspect of the new brand, the offering was transformed to include more machine and patient monitors. Also, the sales force was deployed to work with hospital risk management officers and CFOs, as well as the core anesthesiology department customers, to identify safety gaps in older equipment and plan for their replacement.

The company also worked with others in the industry to create an Institute that advanced anesthesia patient safety. The effort started with a national symposium on patient safety that Kay organized with leading anesthesiologists, sponsored by the company.

The replacement rate for machines increased significantly as did their selling prices, leading to record revenue and market share gains for the company. The US National Institutes of Health also recognized the industry’s work as a model for improving the quality of care in a medical specialty.

Strengthen strategic leadership

The co-owner and CEO of a human resource services company approached Plantes Company to help his company create a growth and differentiation strategy. National and global firms like Manpower were moving into his market, and he worried about the sustainability of his business in light of stiffer competition.

Kay conducted internal and external research. Her first advice to the CEO was to get more serious about his business. The risks were high, and the company would require far more dedication than he currently provided, as he was very active in other endeavors. He agreed to the change.

The CEO had run the company as five separate businesses, each serving a different kind of worker and service. Kay advised a strategy whereby the company identify its strategic clients and assist them holistically with bundled solutions, with Human Resource consultants in the lead. The value promise would be “better talent and talent strategies because we know you so well.” The Human Resource consultants would get to know the culture and ambitions of their clients and craft strategies (e.g., whether and when to use temporary workers) to achieve these goals.

Kay convinced the CEO that national competitors could better serve large national company clients, and he should concentrate far more on locally owned regional and mid-size companies. Profits and revenue increased significantly and the company built (and expanded through acquisitions) a very successful firm. Throughout the transformation, Kay worked with the leadership team to improve alignment across the formerly siloed divisions.

Success enabled the CEO, on Kay’s recommendation, to hire a COO/President to manage day-to-day activities. He was then able to return to his many activities outside the company and spend more time engaged in outreach to clients.

Create an authentic brand

The new CEO of a leading window treatment company approached Plantes Company to help him rebrand the company’s offerings and get the team aligned with the new brand. A well-known competitor held the high-end, design-oriented position with one key target market: interior designers. Foreign competition was capturing the rest of the market, one served by home improvement stores. Caught in the middle, retailers and interior designers were squeezing the company’s margins. The CEO worried that his list of productivity improvements would not be enough to sustain profitability.

Kay led extensive internal and external research to identify market opportunities the company could best realize. Her efforts uncovered a significant frustration in the retail space in selling window treatments: consumers and retail sellers found them complicated to measure, choose, and install. The company made a strategic move to rebranded itself around “best experience” for consumers and retail sellers alike. It promised retailers (like Home Depot and Lowe’s) and specialty window shops the support they needed to sell the window treatments effortlessly and reap attractive margins.

Making the “best experience” branding authentic meant internalizing the message as well. Associates would need a supportive work experience if they were to offer gratifying experiences to their customers. All the processes of the company were redesigned to advance “best experience in window treatments,” including internal human resource processes. The CEO and his leadership team were faithful to the brand promise in all their decisions. For example, when handling a plant closure (to centralize production), the company offered strong support to workers.

The company went on to win Best Vendor awards from the most challenging big box customers in retail. It was also able to make inroads against the style leader in specialty stores by closing its style gap. Revenues went from $400M to close to $800M, enabling the parent corporation to spin the company out as a separate entity.