• Latest E-Zine
 • E-Zine Archive
 • Book Recommendations
 • Home

If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.
- J.M. Power


 
Sign up today to receive
our Free Bi-Monthly
Newsletter by E-Mail
    Name:
    Email:


 





Case studies are examples of people facing business barriers that prevent them and the people in their organizations from reaching their maximum potential. Here are examples of how we helped our clients overcome the barriers they faced.

Business Case Studies Personal Case Studies

Facing A Burst of Massive Change

Problem
A thriving family business needed to incorporate a professional management team. The CEO owner, his son who is president, and a vice president were overwhelmed with a tremendous growth spurt. The immediate challenge was how to quickly organize, add to the leadership team and grow with this new level of performance.

What We Did
We did an up-front analysis to determine what positions were needed, and then we defined responsibilities and required skills for these positions. In a strategic execution plan, we facilitated the hiring, development and integration of an expanded management team. We co-developed an action plan to operate at this expanded revenue and operating level. We coached the new leadership team into a cohesive, fully-functioning, efficient team that could manage the company's growth.

Results
The CEO and President successfully built a management team to operate at an increased sales volume of 30%. The expanded, integrated, successful team grew the company further, with two acquisitions in three years. The company continued to grow at a fast rate and became very adaptable, as they added to the leadership team and grew together.


When it's time to sell the company and face the change

Problem
The Chairman of the Board and owner decided to sell his company. The leadership team had to prepare for the challenge of the sale process and eventual personal changes that would occur while they operated the company to the best of their abilities given the overriding distractions.

What We Did
We advised the owner to find an outside arbiter to conduct the actual negotiations. This would at least partially remove the principals from the emotional roller coaster ride that they had embarked on. The negotiations proceeded on a more formal professional manner, while we coached the team and owner through the up and downs of the negotiations. The sale of the company held many issues that they were not prepared to confront, and they needed quick on-the-spot coaching to overcome these issues.

Results
The company was successfully sold. The employees were brought into the process at the appropriate time and worked through the transition. Of the seven original management team members, all but one left within four months. We successfully coached the six new people through the transition. Uncertainty of the sale, the emotional nature of this type of change, and the challenge of keeping it all together was certainly one of the most challenging assignments that we have encountered.


Maximizing Team Performance With a Focused Goal

Problem
A medium-sized company with seven fragmented-yet-related departments in operations all worked and operated independently of each other, with no regard as to how they affected each other. Their actions, communications and individual goals all distracted the company from reaching its objectives.

What We Did
They scheduled a weekly two-hour operations meeting for all seven departments to attend. We worked on team-building skills and a communication process for integrating the various factions. We coached the team into being clear with each other, and increased communication of goals, direction and performance objectives. We co-developed a program named the 30/30 challenge.

The program was to increase capacity by 30 percent while decreasing costs by 30 percent. We helped them to identify the need for a VP of Operations to manage this emerging group. We facilitated the job description, identified the candidates, tested the skills and abilities of potential candidates, and recommended the choice of the person who filled the position. We then coached the new VP and his new team of people into the organization.

Results
The new VP of Operations took his team and accomplished the goals of the 30/30 challenge within nine months of his hiring.


A Professional Overwhelmed With His Practice

Problem
A solo professional was overwhelmed with his successful practice and unable to capture his full potential. He did not hire any staff to help him cover all the bases, which stretched his abilities to the limit.

What We Did
We implemented an up-front analysis to determine the underlying problems that the owner faced. To overcome the problems, we used the coaching process to approach barriers that in his case were self-imposed. The foundation was to focus on the role our client excelled in. Because the client experienced trepidation about changes, we defined small steps that would allow him to grow into the change he faced. We developed a support system to delegate the functions that the client didn't excel in or enjoy.

Results
The client is growing his business at a pace to double his sales within a year. He is re-energized and passionate about his company and his ability to grow his business. He has a staff that now supports his strengths by taking care of the functions that were a previous barrier to his higher level of success.


When You're Ready to Go After What You Truly Want

Problem
A high-performance VP of Sales and Marketing was looking to make a change in his career. He had successfully climbed the corporate ladder in a Fortune 500 company, but he now needed a change to increase his sense of fulfillment…while reducing the fatigue, stress and unhealthy habits he had developed over his career.

What We Did
We coached this client to focus on what he really wanted in his life - to focus on the very core of what was important. We identified previous goals he had set for himself and achieved. We customized a coaching program that explored his needs, goals and retirement objectives.

Results
The client found a position that matched his skills in an environment that provided the challenges he wanted. He lost 45 pounds, re-energized himself and, as he says, "lost all the stress and corporate BS" he resented.


Pulling a U-Turn in Life to Get Back to Where You Want to Go

Problem
Many times, business success or lack thereof can be traced back to a client's personal life. As an individual/personal coach, many of my clients develop a trust in their relationship with me and Discover Solutions…so much so that they want to work on their personal life as well. My business client needed to work on a personal issue because it had affected his business, which had reached a plateau in its growth. He had lived with a partner whose wishes and goals were not compatible with his business and personal goals. He was married before and had a daughter, but he did not want more children.

His partner, however, wanted them to marry, have children and have him become a "stay at home dad." My client felt stuck in a relationship that was not working in conjunction with his personal and business goals, but he did not know how to reclaim his life -- and go through the pain of a break-up -- to get to the life he really wanted.

What We Did
My client expressed that he expected a relationship to be unpassionate after a number of years like his first marriage was. As his coach, I challenged him to truly examine how he got to where he was and how it affected his business success. He reexamined his whole world with the idea that it could all be different. He defined what he really wanted in both his personal and business worlds. We developed a plan of action.

Results
Within a week my client had the real conversation with his partner that he should have had a long time ago. They decided to break up in fairness to both of them. The woman moved out, and she and my client went on their separate ways. My client focused back on his business and resumed growing it at his previous tremendous growth rate. Within six months my client found a personal partner who shared his goals and vision. Six months latter they were married, and he is now successful in both his personal and business life.



 
Copyright © 2004 Discover Solutions | All Rights Reserved. | Designed & Hosted by Eclipsing Technologies | eclipsing.com

[TextCounter Fatal Error: Could Not Write to File _case_studies_html]