Articles & Case Studies.

Value Creation Diagram

Value Creation Whitepaper

Whether you've been mulling over offers or just starting to explore the possibilities of an exit, maximizing the value of your company is paramount. This whitepaper is designed to guide you through the intricate process of crafting a value creation strategy. Discover how small investments in time and capital can lead to significant increases in your company's attractiveness to buyers.

We’ve created ten “chapters” of tactical content to help your business become the most valuable version of itself.

Read it here

Go deeper. We invite you to explore our work, research, and ideas:

Case Studies

From VCA (Value Creation Assessment) to Exit, a Fintech Firm Reenvisions Their Go-to-Market Strategy
This financial technology company puts easy-to-use risk management and portfolio analysis tools into the hands of professional investors. Although it had 30,000 customers, its current organizational structure, strategy and growth trajectory were stagnant or declining and threatened to diminish its valuation.
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From VCA to Exponential Revenue Growth, ThumbStopper Increases Market Share and Creates New Revenue Streams
ThumbStopper® is a solution for brands to amplify their content through their retailers’ social media and search destinations at the local level. Their service and proprietary technology enables users to optimize and amplify existing organic content by distributing it to retailers’ social & search presence on the largest digital platforms in the world.ThumbStopper helps connect and amplify brands’ organic content to their independent retailers around the globe.
Pricing & Packaging Revamp for Fortune 500 Cybersecurity Company
As a market leader for cybersecurity and digital risk management solutions, this tech company sought a strategic refresh of pricing and packaging (P&P) for their enterprise-grade Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution.
Cloud Computing Market Research For a $77 Billion Semiconductor Chip Manufacturer
As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of semiconductor chips and computing hardware solutions, this multinational corporation needed to determine how to integrate cloud computing into their strategy to maintain growth and market position.
Xyngular Contact Center Assessment
Health and wellness company Xyngular prides themselves on delivering a personal customer experience. When the organization experienced an unexpected surge of consumer inquiries to their call center, the leadership team recognized a need to improve the customer experience.
Accelerating Results by Repositioning Solutions
Transformed the growth projections of a global systems integrator that was struggling to turn a profit.
Igniting Growth to Achieve Higher Valuation in Exit
Helped a boutique Human Capital Management vendor increase organic growth.
Accelerating Results by Repositioning Solutions
Transformed the growth projections of a global systems integrator that was struggling to turn a profit.
Igniting Growth to Achieve Higher Valuation in Exit
Helped a boutique Human Capital Management vendor increase organic growth.

Articles & White Papers

Whitepaper: Your COO is Your Secret Weapon
Implementing a role that could save your company time and money.
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Mastering Vertical Expansion to Unlock Unprecedented Growth
Read these key principles to understand how you can master vertical expansion.
Customer Success Playbook for Growth Stage Businesses
Three plays from our playbook when you're considering a hail-mary.
Go Beyond IQ—Think EQ
The real benefits of diversity, equality, and inclusion.
White Paper: Clean Tech Electrifies the Future
How green energy has changed since 2008.
White Paper: Get a Plan
Strategic and operational planning.
White Paper: The Democratization of Growth
Leveraging proven models to accelerate value.
White Paper: M&A Like Never Before—Why Business Owners are Rushing to the Finish Line
Accelerated M&A in the post-pandemic environment.
Driving Growth While Enchanting Your Customers
Five steps anyone can follow to R.E.A.C.H that enchanting moment with their customers.
Growth Through SKU Optimization - Part 4 of 4: SKU Your Optimization
Use strategy as a guidepost to align SKUs with operations for winning growth.
Growth Through SKU Optimization - Part 3 of 4: SKU Your Analysis
A good analysis of SKU data can reveal the real story—and make you a rock star.
Growth Through SKU Optimization - Part 2 of 4: SKU Your Rationalization
Nine reasons why SKUS are not sexy...but hot.
Growth Through SKU Optimization - Part 1 of 4: SKU Your Proliferation
SKUs can be like rabbits -- they keep on multiplying.
The Holy Grail of Predictable Revenue
It’s attainable. Here’s how you do it.
Selling SaaS
A SaaS B2B Marketing Playbook.
White Paper: How to Master Product-Led Growth
Leveraging product-led growth to maximize your company value.
How Investors View Strategic Planning
What they want to see—and what they don’t.
The Entrepreneur’s Journey: It’s Personal
How to shape your business’ monomyth and thrive.
The Future of DeFi Beyond Crypto
How decentralized finance is disrupting the financial industry and shaping the future of ‘integrated value exchange.’
Triple Threat
To grow maximum business value, you need to recruit triple threats to your team.
Not Your Grandfather’s Value Creation
Today, maximum value creation means looking beyond EBITDA.
More Alignment, More Value
From assessment to exit, how organizational alignment leads to maximum value.
Beyond the Bot
In the post-pandemic world, Customer Experience drives purchase decisions. AI can power significant market advantage with hyper-personalized experiences.
Gone to Abilene: The Perils of Going Along to Get Along
How the inability to manage productive conflict can defeat innovation.
Both Ends Burning
Avoiding Founder Burnout.

Performance Abstracts

Steven Horwitz: Tech Data
GE determined that their core competence; sales, solution development and services required focus and determined...
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Alex Brodsky: Nielsen
Nielsen’s Enterprise IT division’s Client Portal was 15 years old and had over 150,000 customers accessing the platform...
Barry Saltzman: ENTEX
With the proliferation of personal computers and networking solutions, ENTEX was a billion dollar business...
Bob Caruso: DXC
Digital transformation can be defined in many ways. Our goal was to bring the full power of a digital enterprise...
Bob Caruso: Deloitte
When I was brought on, Deloitte’s performance in the entertainment sector was weak...
Bob Caruso: Endeavor Management
As with every start-up, my partners and I bootstrapped the business from a dead start. The critical challenges were...
Bob Caruso: J.D.Power
I had a significant set of challenges to overcome. I was chartered with spearheading the development of proprietary VOC...
Chris Butlin: Visible Genetics
Based on my reputation for excellence in software management, my mandate at VGI was to improve the organization of the...
Chris Freeman: DDB Worldwide
A significant change in financial and insurance legislation presented State Farm with the opportunity to expand their offer...
Chris Morton: SkyCross
A young company with superior antenna technology and IP that, although experiencing sizable growth, was still lagging in profits...
Craig Potts: CheckFree Corporation
CheckFree was a founder started and led (Pete Kight) company that went public early in 1997 as a Financial Software...
Craig Potts: Navicure
Navicure was a founder-started company with angel investors in 1999 and took its first and only round of minority investment...
David Steen: Food and Beverage Startup
The founder had a vision for an IoT-based coaster device that would alert a bartender when a drink needed to be refilled...
Howard Joyce: Enablon
Enablon was a global software company that became a global leader in their market segment in just 10 years...
Jim Barnish: Florida Funders
A small group of investors required effective, scalable processes to build a true deal pipeline...
Jim Barnish: Racemi
Brought in by the Lead Investor Paladin Capital Group, Company was underperforming due to a dysfunctional GTM strategy...
Jim Barnish: Tradesmith
A B2C fintech firm with $30 million in revenue and 30 thousand customers was poised for growth but the current company...
John Blake: MembersFirst
MembersFirst was a promising young venture just three years into its creation as an angel-backed, early-stage startup SaaS...
John Blake: Ziff-Davis
A once robust and highly profitable publishing division of the company fell victim to a dramatic and unforeseen market shift...
Michelle Westich: Epik Communications
FECI was a transportation, real estate and infrastructure business that created EPIK as a subsidiary with...
Nick Tarsi: Cybersecurity
After leading the market for more than 20 years, this cybersecurity enterprise was looking for a strategic refresh...
Nick Tarsi: KPMG
A state agency was using a large, custom-built system to provide benefits for approximately 1.8 million constituents...
Chris Butlin: Visible Genetics
Based on my reputation for excellence in software management, my mandate at VGI was to improve the organization of the...
Chris Freeman: DDB Worldwide
A significant change in financial and insurance legislation presented State Farm with the opportunity to expand their offer...
Chris Morton: SkyCross
A young company with superior antenna technology and IP that, although experiencing sizable growth, was still lagging in profits...
Craig Potts: CheckFree Corporation
CheckFree was a founder started and led (Pete Kight) company that went public early in 1997 as a Financial Software...
Craig Potts: Navicure
Navicure was a founder-started company with angel investors in 1999 and took its first and only round of minority investment...
David Steen: Food and Beverage Startup
The founder had a vision for an IoT-based coaster device that would alert a bartender when a drink needed to be refilled...
Howard Joyce: Enablon
Enablon was a global software company that became a global leader in their market segment in just 10 years...
Jim Barnish: Florida Funders
A small group of investors required effective, scalable processes to build a true deal pipeline...
Jim Barnish: Racemi
Brought in by the Lead Investor Paladin Capital Group, Company was underperforming due to a dysfunctional GTM strategy...
Jim Barnish: Tradesmith
A B2C fintech firm with $30 million in revenue and 30 thousand customers was poised for growth but the current company...
John Blake: MembersFirst
MembersFirst was a promising young venture just three years into its creation as an angel-backed, early-stage startup SaaS...
John Blake: Ziff-Davis
A once robust and highly profitable publishing division of the company fell victim to a dramatic and unforeseen market shift...
Michelle Westich: Epik Communications
FECI was a transportation, real estate and infrastructure business that created EPIK as a subsidiary with...
Nick Tarsi: Cybersecurity
After leading the market for more than 20 years, this cybersecurity enterprise was looking for a strategic refresh...
Nick Tarsi: KPMG
A state agency was using a large, custom-built system to provide benefits for approximately 1.8 million constituents...
Nicole Lev Ross: Bridgestone
The challenge was to build out a customer profitability performance analysis platform that could be utilized by...
Noel Burkman: Associated Press Institute
The API had commissioned Innosight, the consulting firm founded by Clayton Christianson, to develop a thesis for transformation...
Noel Burkman: Follet
The challenge at hand was to establish a digital presence and e-commerce platform for the legacy company...
Philip Eliot: Unitrends
At the time, Unitrends was an early stage company with a superior technology solution. They unexpectedly hit a revenue...
Ricardo Tavares: SwA
This web app had initially been built as a scheduling platform (at the time, there were virtually no apps on digital devices)...
Robert Nix: USA Funds
On July 1, 2010, the U.S. Department of Education took over 100 percent of the federally guaranteed student loan...
Roy Stein: BabelBark
The pet products and services market is growing rapidly, regardless of macroeconomic conditions...
Roy Stein: Gridpoint
The Commercial and Industrial (C&I) division, which Gridpoint acquired during the ADMMicro acquisition, was underperforming...
Stephen Wolford: Snackwise
After struggling for two years to start their CPG wholesale distribution company, Snackwise was poised for unprecedented...
Stephen Wolford: StubHub
StubHub’s rapid domestic and international growth brought on transaction complexities within their supply and delivery...
Steven Horwitz: Tech Data
GE determined that their core competence; sales, solution development and services required focus and determined...
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