This is an excerpt from Steve Fisher’s interview with Mike O’Neill on the podcast “Trust-Fueled Growth & Delegation: Unlocking Your Business Potential.” Mike and Steve discussed several topics on how business owners and C-suite executives get “unstuck” with strategic thinking, a written structured growth plan and accountability.
Mike O’Neill: Steve, we have had an unscripted conversation about a pretty wide variety of topics, but you have identified fundamentals that transcend companies of all sizes, and I suspect you work in multiple industries. Do you find that what you’re doing applies regardless of the business’s size or industry?
Steve Fisher: Yes, all of our consulting can apply and can scale to all sizes and types of businesses. One of the things that my company takes pride in is offering scalable solutions.
I can guide small or mid-sized business owners as well as larger, multi-location corporations. The solutions are fundamentally the same for me. When clients partner with us, they have access to different thought processes, tactics and methods of execution at varying levels of investment. However, the overall thought process and resources we bring are the same, starting first with creating trust. Our partnership will help the business owner develop and execute a structured growth plan to help them achieve desired outcomes.
Here is an example of where our scalable solutions come into play. Many of our clients are involved in mergers and acquisitions on both the buy and sell sides, which requires rapidly developing trust with new people.
Suppose you are a business owner and part of your growth strategy acquisition. And you end up acquiring a competitor. But you must merge those cultures and all the tangible items, technologies and resources. However, where the deal often falls apart is in the merging of that culture. Everyone involved must learn to develop a level of trust on both sides. A structured growth plan helps facilitate that foundation of trust.
Mike O’Neill: You know, when you mention the merging of the cultures as being often the most challenging, that has been my experience as well. It is hard to put your finger on the term culture and manage it well. But Steve, as you look at what you do and what your organization does, is there a particular type, size organization, or circumstance that is an ideal fit for you and your team at Strategy Partners Group?
Steve Fisher: I get involved mostly when an enterprise has leveled out its revenues. This is when a business has reached a certain revenue level and the owner or owners need help figuring out how to reach the next level. They need help figuring out what is holding them back or breaking through to the next level.
They do know they’ve reached a point where they’ve exhausted all the resources within their four walls. And now they reach out to us and ask, “Why are we stuck?” Let’s say you’re trying to break through to that $5 million a year revenue number or a $10 to $12 million revenue year number. Or a company that wants to grow its revenue to $20 to $25 million a year or even higher, to $75 to $100 million. No matter the target revenue numbers, we start with trust and a structured growth plan. Then within the structured growth plan are essential elements like operational changes and delegation of the action items. Then there is monitoring, measuring and holding people accountable as the plan is executed.
One of the most important things I tell business owners and CEO’s is that as we get unstuck and experience a revenue breakthrough, we will reach a higher level before we reach our end game. The revenue numbers will plateau again. But we’ll review the plan and decide how the plan changes. New resources and a new strategy to break through to the next level will be needed.
