Gridpoint is a leading cleantech company that provides energy management and sustainability solutions for businesses, utilities, and government agencies.
The Commercial and Industrial (C&I) division, which Gridpoint acquired during the ADMMicro acquisition, was underperforming in sales while expenses were very high and above budgets. I was hired as the EVP of Operations with the challenge to bring expenses down and optimize the operations and performance while enabling rapid sales growth. The targets were set for a 25 percent decrease in expenses and a 20 percent growth in sales by the end of year one.
Executive Vice President, Operations
My specific expertise in operations was the result of over 20 years of operational experience as an operations manager at all levels, across both public and private companies. My specialty is in building operations from the ground up, and/or fixing operations in new business units and subsidiaries of large companies, or in mid-market stage companies. This was always done with a focus on team building and employee buy-in to all changes.
At the one-year target date, the results were a reduction of 45 percent in cost (target was 25 percent) and a 200 percent growth in sales (target was 20 percent). This was achieved by a combination of fixing “low-hanging fruit” items, such as processes and internal team alignment, and some heavy/big tasks, such as implementing a CRM system. These improvements allowed for a streamlined flow: forecasting > sales quote > production alert/forecast > purchase order > account management > production and SW readiness > installation and delivery > rollout > support.
The streamlined process, which was specifically built to include technological tools with alerts and tasks for all relevant parties, allowed the sales team to increase capacity and overall sales while optimizing operational efficiency. The new process and tools allowed the operational team to do a lot more with less effort. We also developed a supply chain that outsourced production and fulfillment, which enabled greater scalability and accounted for 150 percent production growth year-over-year with lower operating costs. The end result was much higher employee engagement and retention, and we moved from operating loss to profit by the second year.
