Case Study – Getting Your House In Order

A couple years ago, Creo Quality was engaged with a service provider. The company provides contract manufacturing services and has been in existence for about 10 years. At the time, the company had around 20 employees. Our task: Just help.

Before we could help, we had to understand where the issues were. The results from one activity provided us direction where to help next. Here is a brief recap of our approach:

1. Interviewed all employees–not just management. By doing this, we found that management’s views were VERY different from the employees.
2. Evaluated the company’s sales and marketing processes. We found that the company had little to no process in place but relied exclusively on word of mouth and repeat business.
3. Analyzed the company’s profitability. Management told us their profitability goal on each project was 40% and that most exceeded this target. We found very few projects actually achieved the 40% profitability mark and the company actually lost money on most projects.
4. Reviewed the company’s proposal process. Management had the responsibility for writing project proposals. We found that management’s views and opinions regarding work effort and timeline for projects did not match reality.
5. Evaluated the company’s project management processes. Again, we found the company had lackluster processes in place to manage project. Also we found very few employees with project management capabilities.

Our conclusions which you can also apply to your business:

• Be sure your company vision and direction are clearly articulated and understand by ALL employees.
• Define your sales process. Be sure you identify target markets, companies, geography, etc. Determine how you will generate sales leads and business opportunities.
• Profitability is critical to your business. You need to track actual data and results to determine if you are making money and where you are losing money.
• Your project proposals need to be realistic in terms of your company costs. Be sure the schedule is realistic and achievable. Be sure the schedule has buffer.
• Know and define your processes. Make sure project deliverables are defined and communicated to both customers and employees.
• Assign project management responsibility to capable resources. This is critical for managing day to day project activities and for communicating status to your company management and your customers.