The Business Objective:

To transition a ‘hobby’ Board of directors into a strategy-setting organization willing to make transformative decisions even as the founder and former CEO now directly reported to the new CEO.

The Story:

The Board of a New England, family-led software company knew that the intense competitive environment for their legacy solution required change. The founder/son of the family was unable to set a strategic direction that could navigate the commoditized waters. Therefore, they decided to replace him with an energetic outside executive with significant market experience.

For the CEO, it was her first position as such. Therefore, she needed coaching to determine effective Board dynamics to secure approval for massive change within a short period of time.

James worked with the CEO to: determine management techniques for the Board, create effective management technique for mitigating the founder’s role, and develop an experienced approach

The Outcome:

The newly appointed CEO of this family-owned business completed a two-year, radical transformation of the business by increasing product and revenue mix by 43%, cutting overhead by 30%, and increasing customer satisfaction by 25% with the support of the Board.