WORK
CROSCON CONSULTING
Croscon is a digital product studio that designs and builds digital businesses. Their clients include Google, NASA, Radical Media and many other industry leaders.
CHALLENGE
Croscon liked to say "yes" first and ask questions about "how" later. This led to unbelievable client experiences and rapid revenue growth, but also less than optimal profitability and regular fire drills. The company also lacked an in-house team member with technical financial skills, leaving a need for accurate financial reporting and analysis.
SOLUTION
Working closely with key team members, we developed a playbook for how the company does and does not do its work, from initial sales outreach to project completion and retrospective. We re-evaluated who was responsible for what and created individual dashboards for each team member to explain exactly what they were responsible for, what success looked like and how they could succeed and advance within the company.
We also cleaned up the company’s accounting records and trained an operations team member to be able to complete 90% of the financial and accounting work needed. We perform the remaining 10% of high-level financial work on an on-going basis and provide continued support as part-time CFO.
RIPCO REAL ESTATE
Ripco provides retailers, landlords and developers with high-quality, customized service in the tri-state retail real estate space. Their clients include Target, TJ Maxx, Panera and several other retail leaders.
CHALLENGE
Since opening their doors in 1991, Ripco has enjoyed exponential growth and success, however their finance and accounting functions have lagged severely behind. Process inefficiencies and outdated technologies resulted in delinquent and inaccurate financial reporting. Additionally, it was unclear what augmentations needed to be made to the department's systems and/or team to help shore up performance.
SOLUTION
If we were to be effective long-term, an upgrade to the department's tech systems was imperative. Key financial data had been stored and manipulated in localized, unsupported databases, making multi-location access and high-speed analysis impossible. We set out to migrate all of the company's financial data to newer, cloud-based tools, which set the table for additional process improvements and better reporting.
From there, we implemented new departmental systems and trained the in-house team to bolster financial transparency and reporting. These improvements allowed management to analyze their business in real-time by location, department, customer, team member or any other metric that would be useful.
Lastly, we helped management interview, hire and train one additional senior hire to augment the finance team. We wrote a detailed job description, posted to job boards and helped conduct technical interviews with candidates to ensure the right hire was made. Finally, we handled all of the on-board training and were then able to roll-off the engagement in full.
IF MANAGEMENT
IF Management is a full-service broadcasting and marketing representation firm. Their clients include high-profile sports and news talent both on television and radio.
CHALLENGE
For 20+ years, IF has succeeded in a highly-competitive market due entirely to the sheer talent and grit of its people. However, a contracting market and increased competition from merged agencies put increased pressure on company efficiency and the intentional management and development of young agents.
SOLUTION
Working with the company’s CEO, we created a more team-centric approach to client service by re-working the company's division of labor. Leveraging the team’s strengths, we created huge operational efficiencies and increased senior leadership’s capacity for developing junior talent and targeting new, innovative revenue streams.
We also created a performance-based compensation structure that would benefit each team member significantly as a result of the company’s collective success.
The result of this work was that everyone in the company knew three things:
How to define their role
What success looked like individually and collectively
What they had to gain if they met their expectations
CLIENTS
