Creating Effective Profit Cultures©

The Kellogg Corporation:

“Kellogg’s” is one of the largest and most respected food products company in America. Their market leading breakfast cereals and snack foods are very familiar household staples. Working together with Results Based Leadership Inc. in the late 90’s, we assisted the President in driving a significant corporate wide business restructuring for cost reduction and productivity improvement. This resulted in a full transformation of Kellogg’s overhead costs. This work also supported the President (now Chairman of the Board), in successfully focusing scarce resources on substantial business building programs that have recently kept Kellogg’s at the forefront of shareholder returns in its industry.

Scott Paper Company:

This manufacturer of “ScotTissue”, Cottonelle, Baby Fresh, etc. was languishing in the early 90’s. Investor dissatisfaction was at an all time high, and whispers of insolvency from an excessive debt burden were everywhere. Working with the new management team (captained by Al Dunlap), we helped transform Scott’s balance sheet and bottom line by identifying & divesting non core assets while dramatically reducing overhead globally. By 1996 Scott was one of the only Fortune 1000 companies with virtually no long term debt, and a stock price reaching unprecedented highs. (Read the summary of tools used in “Teaching Elephants to Dance”)

Papeles San Cristobal:

The second largest paper products company in Mexico was in significant trouble in the mid 80’s. Rampant Peso inflation coupled with a weak relative competitive position drove “Crisoba’s” value on the Bolsa to an all time low. We were brought in to both restructure the financials and to look for ways to strengthen their relative competitive position. Strong measures were taken in cost cutting, site rationalization and negotiating with government bail-out funds (“FICORCA”); while a hugely successful new business was developed (“Sistemas Institucionales”) to refocus existing nonproductive resources into a very productive emerging space. This rapid growth new division was soon recognized by the industry and the press as one of the most successful new enterprises of the decade!

Japanese Management Company:

“JMaC” is one of the largest and most revered process improvement companies in the world. They are the largest consultancy of its type in Japan, with global outposts in all major countries; the originals developers of many of the foundational tools and processes used in “Six Sigma” programs today; and original developers the “Kaizen” process improvement process. We advised the CEO on how to create effective short term and long term management incentives for his organization. The primary challenge was to reward short term profit growth consistent with achieving longer term goals while staying within tight governance standards for “doing the right thing”. We developed a conceptual architecture to help frame their internal development of effective programs that are in use today.

Ford Motor Company:

Ford entered the “dot-com” era (1999) via Jaq Nasser with a vision to become “the largest consumer products company in the automotive industry”; a breakthrough thought that emphasized the consumer over the historically inward focused enterprise. One of the most profitable divisions (FCSD) had decided to surround the consumer with service businesses outside the traditional Dealer network, but was facing very poor results. A spending spree had resulted in acquisitions of large and small businesses in 5 different industries and 13 different countries. We were brought in to lead, organize, assess, weed and drive the surviving acquisitions into a cohesive breakthrough service franchise. We realized early that several acquisitions were wrong for the business, and that others were good if reinforced with significant support. Within 18 months we had shifted revenues and profits from significant losses to significant profitability. In 2001 we recommended Ford divest itself of many of these ventures to raise cash and heal the wounds caused to its Dealers. (Read what Ford’s client remarks say about our work)

PriceWaterhouse Coopers:

In 2003 PWC Leadership reached out to Duke Corporate Education to support their desire to coach & train their Partners to be more productive “rainmakers” (strategic sellers to senior officers of large companies). We were brought in to assist the program development and implementation within PWC. Revenues generated within PWC, among the targeted client list associated with this program, improved significantly, and the “sales productivity” tools and processes have been internalized and transferred within PWC to other clients as well. (Read PWC’s client remarks about our contributions to this initiative)

Bank of America Corporation:

This, one of the largest banks in the world has embarked on a senior level program to accelerate growth without increasing their risk profile in key areas. Working with Mercer Delta Consulting LLC, we were retained to help their top 200 executives understand how to navigate this common strategic paradox (Growth without risk). We tailored a program that explored four business case studies of success and failure, concluding with specific recommendations regarding how to develop a critical few breakthrough platforms on which to build a steady stream of core improvements.

I-trax Health Solutions ("DMX" on AMEX)

I-trax is an emerging leader in the fast moving healthcare field; focused on providing integrated care and wellness solutions to large self insured employers, via onsite health centers. Upon acquiring a leadership position in the industry I-trax was struggling with achieving the proper balance between short term shareholder expectations while building the business of the future. ab3Resources was brought in (3/05) to help Leadership get back on track. Within 6 months I-trax was EBITDA positive. The company grew rapidly at an increasing rate quarterly until it was acquired in in 2005 by Walgreens for more than 50 times earnings.