Introduction
This paper will review the financial transformation of an Australian electrical services company through a time period from 2014 to 2016. This transformation was achieved as a result of Mission Hiring General Manager appointment, designed to attract normally unattainable candidates who have a track record of creating viability, growth and increased profit, now looking for their next challenge, an objective, a mission. Although the process was not without many challenges, the end result was a specific improvement in revenue, profit and business financial structure.
Background
The company was well-established, with immense focus on delivering a high level of customer service and ensuring that the team achieves the right results for their customers.
The company revenue had grown by over 40% over three years however with increasing overheads, costs had continued to be higher than gross profit margin.
Need
While the business was successful and profitable in its early days, growing revenue and staff number, in later years the continued growth was not profitable. The company management team had appointed several external consultants however none had successfully created a difference.
Solution
The recommended solution was Performia’s Mission Hiring service which started with a detailed Position FactFinder. The Founder’s hopes and dreams for the business were documented and the Mission was created for the future prospective General Manager.
Very quickly, it became obvious that the company was hemorrhaging money on a daily basis and it was therefore clear that a rapid financial recovery was more important than a longer term creative/strategic plan. The new GM would need to be very specific.
While there were some “low-hanging fruit” and easy fixes that would need to be acted upon, it could be seen that this mission required a General Manager who was direct and disciplined to allow for the quick changes required.
The appointed General Manager came through the Performia evaluation process. The candidate’s evaluation scores and motivation were suitable for the specific requirements and contract terms.
Actions
As a “recovery GM”, the General Manager was able to identify key areas where the business was not functioning efficiently and more importantly, he was able to resolve these issues and implement procedures that were practical and now strictly followed.
The Performia service doesn’t end when the candidate starts the job, and Performia follow up to ensure the smooth progress for the business owner and the GM. On one such follow up visit, it was noted that the business was at breakeven and was ready for the step. During the meeting, Gareth who is Performia’s director and quite involved during Mission Hiring processes, recognised that some of the sales systems were not optimised or efficient. He made some suggestions of freely available tools that could be easily implemented into the business that would improve the opportunity pipeline
About six months later, the company landed possibly their largest project
Evaluation/Results
The appointment of the General Manager and Performia partnership with the company resulted in a transformation from a serial loss maker to profit well within the envisioned 12-month period and set the company on a new course for greater growth and success. As the 12-month contract was coming towards its end, it became clear that a different type of General Manager was now required – one who would be focused on above the line results, and focused more on sales, real growth rather than fixing the leaks in the business.
After 12 months, the revenue had risen and profit had crossed the line to be a strong positive. At the same time the staff levels had increased, but more importantly the revenue per Service Technician had increase
Cost/ROI
This story is one of transformation from a serial loss-maker to profitable business in less than 12 months. It has been estimated that return on investment has been at least 5:1 – but more importantly the business is now on a course for 25% profitable growth in it’s following year. At the same time the asset value of the business has more than doubled.