Simple Case Studies

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: Retail

Employees: 16

Client: M&A

Case: We were tasked to do due diligence GRM for a potential business acquisition. We noted that the engagement rates from staff were about 40% below average (usually an indicator of an unhealthy environment). We also noticed a very high degree of psychological stress from the employees that did respond. On review of the employee comments, there were multiple instances of sexual misconduct by the business owner that employees had not felt safe to mention. With a little more investigation, we found that a number of key employees were planning on leaving.

Result: The threat to the business and infrastructure caused the acquiring company to pull out of the deal because of the risk and liability with their plans. The acquiring company made the decision to manage the discussion with the business owner. 

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: Food Service

Employees: 17

Client: Owner

Case: The owner of this business did a great job growing their business to a certain point but wanted to see what they could do to prepare their business for their next phase of growth. We applied a GRM and found that not only did the business have really healthy overall operations, but their team culture was incredibly high and the owner was great at inspiring the team. We also found that the business owner was more advanced in their leadership style than the scale of the company. We did find an issue in their role clarity, workload management and brand management. We made some recommendations that they took almost immediately and implemented the GRM solutions. 

Result: The business sales increased by 50% over the next year and had their most profitable year. Their team cohesion increased and while many businesses in their industry were closing, they were able to adapt and grow despite the economic downturn. We do have to note that the owners willingness to see the GRM data, quickly face their gaps and adapt was the largest contributor to their success. 

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: Construction

Employees: 21

Client: M&A

Case: We were called in for due diligence of a potential acquisition for an M&A company. The owner was selling the company and wanted out but the company had not grown in 15 years and just stagnated at a specific revenue amount and the M&A company wanted to know why. The GRM results revealed that the company had stagnated at the owners competency level. The GRM suggests that different leader styles are effective at different stages and in the case of this business, the business had stopped growth at the exact level of the owners competency. The owner came to the conclusion that they had hit market saturation while the data revealed that was not the reason. Despite the owner suggesting that nobody else could run the company besides him, the report found two other candidates in the company that had the leadership style necessary to lead the company. 

Result: While the M&A company ultimately opted to not move forward with the deal, the GRM positioned the company well to be acquired at a later date. Before that, the owner did promote one of the candidates to take over more day-to-day operations in the company, leading to some small growth.

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: Ecommerce

Employees: 21

Client: Partner

Case: We were brought in to assess an organization that had 3 years of stagnant growth. After running a GRM, we found that the way workload was managed between departments lead to the company slowing down to the pace of its slowest department. This caused a lack of adaptability to the market which decreased their ability to be competitive. The company also had significant workload management deficits that caused a large disparity between team productivity and alignment. Teams were found to be competing with each other for support and buy-in. It also found the company had not created a stable enough Core leadership team to navigate inter-departmental synchronization. The GRM gave targeted solutions on how to fix the communication and helped the organization create an aligned core team. 

Result: A clear core team was established and that team started tackling the growth/alignment deficits in the business. The business had a 20%+ increase in sales the next year due to team alignment being stronger. RPE was increased by 20% and more work was delivered for the same costs as the year before. 

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: Education

Employees: 300

Client: Partner

Case: A GRM was request for an educational organization as an end-of-year review and as a recommendation from the board. Upon mapping, we found that the people in the organization were highly connected to the mission and vision of the organization, along with the sense of teamwork and camaraderie. Again, this sense of connection and impact was the primary reason why staff stayed in the organization. The GRM highlighted pretty significant gaps in their workload management. It also highlighted a high disparity in how differently employees were supported across the company. There was a clear view of favoritism from leadership and a disparity of workload balance. Trust between managers and organization leaders were high but productive level staff had an overarching lack of trust for all leadership. 

Result: As far as we can tell, the report was buried by the leadership of the organization. The sensitivity of information was deemed too high to open up beyond the immediate leadership of the organization.

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: Human Services

Employees: 600

Client: Partner

Case: We were called in to run a GRM for a large organization that was trying to determine the health of its overall operations and systems. We found that the team was deeply connected to the mission of the organization. So much so that it was the main reason why the majority of the staff stayed. We found that employee physiological needs were neglected and their lack of pay produced a very high turnover rate. Their information and process management was very behind the scale leading to very high inefficiency that caused them to hire more people to makeup for the inefficiency. They had a high degree of staff that exhibited fraud risk and low willingness to engage with systemic organizational improvements. The GRM resourced them with a comprehensive roadmap for how to solve some of their deeper challenges. 

Result: The organization completely restructured their leadership team and decision making process. While we don’t have direct financial data to reference, we know that staff moral and trust increased along with organization wide support of building better HR and communication systems. All of these resulted in a net increase in efficiency and inter-departmental communication.

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: eCommerce

Employees: 42

Client: Founder

Case: The COO of the company abruptly quit after an argument and a long standing disagreement with the CEO. The founder got a GRM to assess the condition of their operations and their team climate. After the assessment, we found that their Revenue Per Employee was actually too high, their operation/systems across all but 2 areas were “behind” for their scale and their team felt relatively unsupported in their work. In our followup consultation, we noted that the company revenue goals were not realistic for the condition of their operations/team health. Their Revenue Per Employee being too high was backed up by the workload data suggesting that the teams were under-resourced for how much work was expected from each individual. Between their under-resourced operations and team, we predicted the company would stagnate in the next two quarters If they did not pivot their focus back onto company stability.  We recommended they re-allocate team time from driving revenue goals to focusing on building processes to reduce communication debt, increasing staff and stabilizing their productive ecosystem. They chose not to engage with the recommendations. While we go out of our way to be as objective as possible, there are cases where the individuals may not want to engage with the data. 

Result: The company stagnated as predicted and did not hit their revenue goals. They eventually restructured their leadership team and revenue goals to bring more alignment of their aspirations with their capability. 

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: eCommerce

Employees: 42

Client: Owner

Case: This company had been going through a lot of changes in operations and asked for a GRM to help them see where some of their operations might be falling short. We found that their commitment to supporting their team well-being was actually a huge factor in them keeping their most talented staff through the changes. We did find, however, that there were gaps in their goal and information systems that were causing a higher than average communication debt. We also noted that the leaders in their company weren’t exhibiting any of the “driver” style of leadership that was needed to maintain focus amongst their productive teams. Essentially, the culture and trust was really high but the systems to keep focus and progress needed improvement. We delivered suggestions that they began implementing. 

Result: They adjusted the way they delivered role clarity and goals to their teams along with some HR systems to support employee communication. Currently, they are on track for a 20%+ increase in sales. 

Due to confidentiality, company identity was removed.

Company industry: Marketing

Employees: 21

Client: Partner

Case: A firm requested a GRM as an overall health check of the company. Upon completion, we found that while the company had grown in scale, the leadership team of the company had not grown to meet the challenges. This meant that the leadership team was underqualified to manage the future growth of the company. Many company leaders were reverting back to being technicians rather than effectively supporting productive level staff. We also found the brand development had been ineffective leading to less cohesion in the company brand and a gap in legal management that had left the company exposed in a few areas.

Result: A number of people were laid off and key leaders were asked to grow into more effective roles.