Planning & Execution

Industrial Equipment Manufacturer

The Founder of this industrial equipment manufacturer was concerned about what lay ahead for the company as he considered his eventual retirement.  He wanted to be confident that the organization would endure and that the employees that helped build the business with him would be well-taken care of.

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An avid reader, the Founder read about Small Giants, companies whose goals went beyond just growing their revenues year after year but focused on more satisfying goals. Goals like being great at what they do, creating a great place to work, and making significant contributions to their communities. The Founder decided that he wanted to instill these ideals into the company.

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While the focus of our services typically involves improving the financial performance of organizations, we understand that financial performance is just one of the goals that company owners may have. In this case, we were not engaged to provide guidance regarding financial matters. Frankly the Founder was exceptional in his detailed knowledge of the operations and finances of the company such that we would be able to offer little additional insight there.  We, however, were familiar with the Small Giants ideal and were eager to plan and implement these with company.  In a novel twist, we implemented OKR's as a foundational enabler to achieve the Small Giants ideal. We are not aware of these two business concepts being linked before.

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The ideals of Small Giants, to be great at what a company does and a great place to work, requires a high degree of employee engagement and transparency.  A feature of OKR's (when done well) is that teams define and measure their progress toward their own goals.  Goals across teams are widely known and successes and failures are shared as each goal is completed.  The company has even defined and relayed its goals for community involvement and support using OKR's.  

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Benefits of the implementation thus far have been many fold and some even unexpected.  Many more steps and decisions are to be made by the Founder on the path toward retirement.  However, concrete steps toward an enduring legacy have been made.