Strategic Growth

Executive summary

Strategic Growth

Strategic Growth is not merely growing the revenues of a company, but rather setting up the company for growth in multiple areas of the company. This requires creating an organization that has sustainable growth. To do so requires an infrastructure of capabilities with technological or creative advantage, manufacturing or resource capacity/efficiency to support the planned growth, and the development of human capital resources both internally and externally to fill future requirements. It also requires addressing natural attrition within an organization by having succession planning in place. Further, it is also creating, developing and nurturing an organizational culture that will support and thrive on growth and can adjust to change and transition. A culture that has shared values and collective beliefs that the growth of the organization serves the overall mission of the company/ division, etc. but also serves them as individuals within this culture and environment.

Most companies want to grow and develop unless they are relatively mature; closely held and find themselves as more of a “life style” business where the annual returns are sustainable, the risks are nominal and the overall internal development is relatively minimal.

Ultimately what this comes down to is what are the overall goals of the organization? Are they to increase market value and be positioned for acquisition, or rather as Mr. Minailo calls it “fattening the mouse or ‘delicious treat’ for the cat”. In other respects, is it related to being a self-sustaining organization where its growth can come either or both organically or through its own acquisition of others. In time to be fattening itself the mouse to the extent that it can then take on and overcome the “cat”. In either goal scenario, there is a strategic element that works through all the businesses, sectors, and functions of the organization. Mr. Minailo works to tie everything together towards making growth a reality and to grow at a rate that is supportable both under current conditions but also the planned future internal and financial resources of the business.

Mr. Minailo in his recent capacity as CEO of three mid-market organizations, and in global executive sales, marketing and business development roles for Fortune 500 and 200 corporations and now in his consultancy practices, has demonstrated the ability, insight and methodologies for analyzing a company, and then systematically developing successful implementable programs for sustainable growth. “Strategic Growth” as a service is a compilation of his experiences and successes with building tier one, class A organizations. Having worked with and consulted for companies in sectors from highly sophisticated medical devices and therapies, national and global product distribution, managing large multi-million dollar DOD based businesses, to developing and implementing nationwide disease state management programs for hospital systems, Mr. Minailo has created a foundation of knowledge that is transferable to your business entity, no matter the size, structure or current state of success.

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Service Methodology

Each company or organization is different. It carries a different or unique set of goals, characteristics, culture and behaviors. To be of assistance to any organization, developing an understanding of key components within a company are crucial. It is one thing to be asked or help define the strategy, goals, mission statement for a company, but it is another thing completely in assisting and creating a pathway for the company itself and for its key players doing so collectively. I believe in asking the questions that are necessary to position a company for Strategic and Sustainable Growth. In every respect, this is a partnership going forward.

In closely held or founder led companies, my role is to work with the key leaders to look at their organization, the organization that they have created, sweated over, nurtured and watched grow and in a sense, their “child”. How does it walk, talk, dress, react to certain scenarios and challenges, and how is that organization establishing habits and behaviors that will help that entity be successful? In Founder Led and closely held corporations this is often a challenge. There is an internal belief that while change will bring about the growth and value necessary to reach targeted financial goals, the prospect and actuality of change is most often extremely difficult. My goal is then to not only coach key players in the organization, but to also help provide organizational support and direction as required and where necessary “hands-on” involvement.

In larger organizations whether matrix driven or more autonomous in their structure, my role is to understand the areas that are working well for the organization and to pinpoint areas that are potential blockages to growth. It requires asking tough questions about current status, challenges the company has or is facing and how it has dealt with or is dealing with them. I work with the executive leaders and Board of Directors (as necessary) to get an overall sense of the company from the “top”. I work with multiple entities within the organization to develop a true understanding of the company. What are the company’s strengths, its areas that need to be addressed, its success in developing a common vision for the company and its people and in doing so, sustaining it? In all, I work with multiple entities within the organization towards creating Strategic Growth. I work with the key leaders and designated team members to develop a road map for growth. Along this path, I work to develop tools and programmatic products that are mutually defined for the on-going check in and monitoring of moving forward. We develop and work on Key Success Factors as defined by the direction we are focused on. I work to help develop a meaningful “dashboard” of how the company is performing based on key criteria towards success and then not only monitoring the results but helping to make and suggest “course corrections” in order to achieve the performance objectives.

Once we have established a beginning point and have at least assimilated a picture of where the overall growth vision of the company is, I work with each entity and functional area of the company to help form a picture and ultimately a combined map of “next steps”. I work with you as a partner towards your success. In each phase, I provide you with feedback, information to make collective decisions on that can be concrete and data based in addition to providing you the company with implementable action plans to do so.

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Service Options

Companies can elect whether they just require Appleton Greene for advice and support with the Bronze Client Service, for research and performance analysis with the Silver Client Service, for facilitating departmental workshops with the Gold Client Service, or for complete process planning, development, implementation, management and review, with the Platinum Client Service. Ultimately, there is a service to suit every situation and every budget and clients can elect to either upgrade or downgrade from one service to another as and when required, providing complete flexibility in order to ensure that the right level of support is available over a sustainable period of time, enabling the organization to compensate for any prescriptive or emergent changes relating to: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Information Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing; or Production.

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Service Mission

My mission is to help create overall dynamic growth for an organization. Growth can be defined in terms of dollars and market value, organizational behavior and culture development, and practice improvement to being aligned with Key Success Factors and Critical Dashboard metrics. It is also an overall movement of the organization towards working through the day to day “morass” of business and empowering itself to taking the necessary steps to grow and be “great” as it defines being great.

Developing concrete metrics and success factors are only as good as creating a culture of action and belief that recognizes the benefit of these tools and works towards overachieving and corrected course when needed to do so. It is said too often, but the reality is that most companies and their leaders spend entirely too much time working “in” the company, rather than “on” the company. My mission is to help aid in focusing on the latter. Initially helping to ensure that the day to day operational structure and actions of the organization is strong enough to move forward without constant day to day oversight. Implementing tools to manage the day to day business, so that efforts and energy can be put into the “bigger picture”.

My role and mission is to be a catalyst for growth of an organization. To stand outside of the internal workings of the organization while at the same time learning and understanding what those internal dynamics are to help effect change where necessary. To help define paths to not only growth, but “Strategic Growth”. Ensuring that all facets of the organization are working in synchrony towards growth. Building an organization that values and thrives on growth by implementing checks and balances to support the growth, plan for future requirements and address weaknesses as they present themselves. All with working with the key leaders and designated influencers to develop an organizational culture in which to do so.

There was once a commercial about business consultants in which the organization “buys into” the proposal presented by the consultants and then the decision maker turns to the consultants and says, “Great, make it happen”. Only to have the consultants laugh and say amongst themselves later “can you believe he wanted us to implement things…is he crazy, doesn’t he know we are consultants”?! My mission is to be the opposite; to work with you collaboratively, to develop programs and tools that can be implemented internally with either my external assistance and/or hands-on involvement. To help create a road map for growth of the organization towards its ultimate goals and to help ensure that the infrastructure and dynamics of the organization are in place to do so, and therefore achieving STRATEGIC GROWTH.

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Service objectives

The following list represents the Key Service Objectives (KSO) for the Appleton Greene Strategic Growth service.

1. RoadMap Creation
   Perhaps the most important and broad aspect of Strategic Growth is in the development of the organization’s RoadMap (RM). The challenge for any organization is in in trying to lay out the “right” RM. How does the organization ultimately get to where it wants to go, to where it envisions being, etc. Many companies work on the practical aspects of the business, the day to day grind of selling more products or services, developing relationships in order to do so, managing developmental or manufacturing costs, creating new products to usurp the competition or at least keep up with the competition, etc. Creating a RoadMap is different. It clearly defines what the end objective is, the route you will take, the conditions that will be required to make the trip successful with consideration to the time frame, cost, risk, resources, tools, skill-sets and capabilities that are critical in doing so. Growth doesn’t happen immediately, but laying the foundation to doing so, can happen quickly. Developing a RM involves understanding the organizational structure, what works and what may impede growth. Competitive awareness; where does the company really align within the marketplace and what will be required to be positioned to where the company will need to be to make the trip and to arrive at its intended destination. Capabilities; what are the current realistic competences, abilities, skills of the organization currently to be able to complete the trip, or does the organization need to consider new or different capabilities and tools in which to do so. For the organization to develop a successful RM it will also require the development of tools to monitor its performance and actions to take to “course-correct” when performance isn’t aligned with goals. To do so, we will define Key Performance Indicators; key components that will be critical metrics for how the company should be performing and then become not only a part of the daily/weekly or monthly monitoring but also a part of the organizational culture. Together with the KPIs we will develop a dashboard of departmental or business sector metrics to look at each area more specifically towards goals and performance on a more focused “day to day” basis. Ultimately, creating the RM will provide an organization with a clearly defined Strategic “end-point” or destination. Together with this, the areas that do and will need to be addressed to get there and the necessary tools to be developed and implemented to support this Strategic Growth journey.
2. B/D Alignment
   Business Development is much more than targeting and selling. It is not only external to the organization in nature but very much internal. Companies can definitely grow through strong business development efforts. However, the key to successful strategic business development is determining the customers and markets that are key to the RM and the necessary support and infrastructure required and crucial to it working properly. In Business Development alignment, I work together with the organization’s key internal leaders to develop a foundation of looking at the entirety of the marketplace and the opportunities presented. A secondary RM is developed to look at new customer, new market and geographical opportunities and determining what will be required to make these opportunities realizable. Are product enhancements, changes or completely new products required? Do the company’s current products and services address the needs of the marketplace that the organization is doing the majority of business in or does it need to adapt to the changes in its customer base, and further to any newly defined customer opportunity or market? The word “alignment” is most critical here. Many companies are excellent at having or are successful at acquiring strong “hunters”, only to find that the hunter is not in alignment with the organizations capabilities, resources, scheduling, and/or ability to adapt to new needs of the marketplace that the hunter(s) has uncovered and potentially has made commitments to. During Business Alignment, I work to help create a system of overall Business Development. This addresses the development of communication and processes that align the external business development and sales aspect with the internal components of engineering (or service development), manufacturing, and financial capabilities and support. It creates a seamless goal-centric model of aligning all functional areas both strategically and procedurally.
3. Cultural Development
   Cultural Development is another way of saying Organizational Development or Organizational Behavior. Each company has its own unique culture. Typically developed over time and led by its founder, or executive leader at the time. If consistent, the company (its people) will mirror the behaviors and beliefs of the leader. However, what is crucial in the next step of Strategic Growth is making sure that the current culture is in sync with the direction of which the company is looking to go. If the culture for example has been risk adverse in the past, then the culture of the company would suggest that aggressive growth will be met with push-back and an discomfort to doing things otherwise. Strategic Growth comes from understanding the culture of the company currently and recognizing if changes to the culture will be required to move the organization in the growth direction that has been set and established as a targeted goal. I work to understand and define the often hidden “mantra” of the organization, its sense of purpose and its alignment with its people towards this sense of purpose. I work to define what the overall belief system is that has been developed within the organization as to its collective understanding of the direction and value that the organization brings to the market/customers and its employees. Through this, I work with key leaders and influencers of the organization to begin to develop a culture that will be required for Strategic Growth to happen. In many cases the foundation is there and just needs reinforcing with tools and programs. In other cases, the company must realize that its current culture is not in alignment with the direction that will need to be taken for it to be successful. We work together to recognize the areas that are inconsistent and develop a Cultural RoadMap for creating beliefs, values and behaviors that are consistent and reinforced throughout the organization. I will work to help “bridge the gap” towards creating organizational behavior that is in alignment with the goals of the organization, that help to grow the organization and create additional value for the organization and help to instill an overall feeling and “reward” of achievement for its people.
4. Change Management
   As organizations grow, they ultimately need to change to some extent. Managing that change or rather preparing the organization for change is imperative to its ability to grow. Most people and organizations resist change, because change is uncomfortable. The imperative to making change work is in addressing operational aspects of the organization that need to re-evaluate how they perform their functions towards growth. I work with all functional areas to determine where “change” will be a barrier to success. Recognizing barriers is in no way an assumption that things are being done wrong currently, but perhaps not what is required to grow strategically. As such, it is important to recognize not only day to day operational procedures and internal systems that may be barriers to change but also to build upon current procedures and systems to augment their foundation into more robust entities. I work to build avenues and RoadMaps for guiding and managing change. Change Management helps organizations recognize the procedural, system and cultural aspects that need to be addressed. It also helps to understand the transitional phases that an organization needs to go through for change and the Situational Leadership required in which to guide the organization through this. Each organization will have a simplified bell curve of 1. Early Adopters; that believe in the new vision (25%), 2. Refusers; that will fight change no matter what (25%) and 3. Fence Sitters; that will go along with change or pay “lip service” to change until it is proven towards one camp or another (50%). It is within this latter segment that the company needs to focus and bring along key employees and influencers towards “change”. During Change Management, I work to help create the communication of the vision that has been defined for the company. Assist leadership in transitioning their teams through the process while also recognizing and working on areas that will be crucial to incorporating an environment of “moving forward”. This incorporates building “wins” for change and determining key influencers within the Refuser category that may need to be brought along to effect overall buy-in to achieving Strategic Growth. Change Management is creating the Vision for the company, detailing a RoadMap to get there, and then developing the necessary tools and consistent behaviors required to help the organization and its people adopt and adapt to working differently than before.
5. Growth Avenues
   Growth is no longer a simple matter of selling more widgets or services, or creating new unique products or services that capitalize on the needs of the market at any given time. Organic Growth as defined here is certainly that. It is critical towards building not only a secure financial platform but also a market presence. Taking and building from the Business Alignment Objective, we will work on developing both internal and external avenues for growth. Internally, I will work with the organization to define growth what markets, products, resources and capabilities will the company need to develop to grow the organization organically. This is both Strategic as well as Operational. For Organic Growth to take place and be a key component to a company’s overall Strategic Growth goals, the organization will need to recognize that its revenue growth be achieved both by its business development activities as well as its internal support mechanisms. Successful organic growth comes from developing clear market needs and targets and then creating an infrastructure that defines these needs, and develops the products or services to meet the market demands. At the same time procedurally developing the financial capability to finance and support new and additional revenue opportunities. It’s all about creating or ensuring that the organizations’ financial structure and tools are in place to do so. Externally, I will work together with both the strategic and financial leaders of the organization to develop plans for growth through acquisition. A common belief of many organizations is that they are too small, not capitalized well enough, don’t have a significant position in their market to acquire a new entity, etc. The reality is that a company with the right infrastructure, the right RoadMap (RM), strong visualization and targeting of who they are and where they want to be can do so. With the development of the right financial tools and relationships, the organization can carve out financial planning around creating avenues for working “on” the company and not just merely “in” the company. From this, the organization can then become the “Cat” to the “Mouse”. I work to develop both Internal and External Strategic Growth Avenues for the organization. In doing so, I help insure that the organization/company is exercising all its strategic options and creating yet another RoadMap (RM) of its financial positioning and capabilities. Definition of candidates for acquisition or strategic alliances/additions is a key component and catalyst for any financial function to either get energized or develop a sense and a role towards Strategic Growth. Ultimately, this helps and challenges the organization’s key financial proprietors with defining and developing tools that can potentially fit with the strategic RoadMap, its overall sense of direction and ultimate end-point.

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