Customer
A well established 100 person software products and consulting services firm with operations in multiple countries.
Challenge
The business had reached an inflection point after 14 years in business where future growth was inhibited by business process, organizational design and weakness in some business functions, notably the sales and marketing function. Sticking with the status quo was not going to achieve the growth that the founder and CEO wanted. In order to scale up, fundamental changes needed to be made in the business.
Outcome
CXO Science provided an interim Chief Operating Officer to implement change and serve as an advisor to the CEO. A plan to change the organization was agreed upon by establishing a company operating system based roughly on the Gino Wickman book “Traction”.
- A new organizational design was implemented with strong accountability given for key business functions. Leaders of each business function were nominated and held accountable for outcomes and to each other for internal services. Importantly, both a sales leader and a marketing leader were established where previously no person formally held these roles.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were established for each business function. These were used to evaluate the business and provide more context to business decisions being made.
- A new CRM system was installed, replacing an existing and poorly utilized prior tool. The opportunity pipeline was tracked, new contacts carefully curated and integrated email/social media campaigns were initiated. Note that this new CRM system replaced a much more expensive tool that had not been properly implemented.