Consulting

I consult on a regular basis on the topics of Product Strategy, Market Validation, Financing and Growth. All of these topics are interrelated; Product Strategy and Market Validation drive Growth, and Growth brings with it the need for Financing. I have completed many consulting projects on these subjects ranging from Global 1000 companies to start-ups around the world. I am also a partner in a strategy consulting firm and have access to resources for larger projects.

Follow on to these projects leads to serving on company boards of directors, typically as the independent board member, working directly with CEO’s in implementing the plans that are developed, and executive education of senior teams on these issues.

Based on my background I have extensive operating experience dealing with these issues, so my value-added is not just as a consultant who makes recommendations and leaves, but as a seasoned operator who can follow through and help management teams execute on the recommendations. A summary of recent projects is below and numerous references are available on request. If you’d like to more information on this type of work contact me, rob@drrobadams.com.

Strategy Formulation for a Global 1000 Enterprise Software Company: Worked directly with the CEO and his leadership team to define and position the company’s strategy. This included interviewing senior leadership, articulating the strategy, and how it fit within competitor’s strategic frameworks. Follow on work was providing executive education to high potential management talent on using the strategy in running their day to day operations.

Growth Plan for a Life Sciences Services Provider: This established life sciences services operation automated its internal processes and needed to develop a strategy to standardize and expand its offering to other medical practices. This included market validation, a business plan for the new operation, and fund raising. Follow on work included board service, management recruitment and successful funding.

Growth Strategy for a Web-based Manufacturing Company: This organization had established strong web-based distribution in specialized products and wanted to scale their business from their current eight figures of revenue to nine figures. The project focused on working with the senior management team to expand market segments, further automate their existing operations and infrastructure, and expand the management team. The worked focused on development of the expansion strategy followed by helping the CEO and his team in its ongoing execution.

Growth and Exit Strategy for a Software Company: This project involved working with founders who wanted help building their software start-up from idea to viable company. This project involved working directly with the team to develop their product strategy, acquire financing and hiring a seasoned CEO while maintaining the low cash burn of a start-up, and board service. These project goals were successfully met culminating in a successful acquisition three years after the company was founded.

Spin-out of a Specialized Services Company: A team from an east-coast based services company spun out to establish a presence in the Southwest. The team established a client base during the spin-out and wanted assistance in starting the new operation, scaling up their infrastructure, expanding their management team and managing their new client acquisition strategy. This project involved developing their business and expansion plan, board service, and ongoing work with the team to monitor and manage performance against the plan.

Product Strategy for a Web-based Market Maker: A start-up firm wanted a thorough market validation of their proposed target market to confirm that viable markets existed both on the supply and demand side. This was done to help secure financing and confirm that the market not only existed, but was large and robust enough to support the company’s revenue plan. The market validation proved that the market was even larger than originally thought and the company was able to secure financing.

Regional Growth Strategies: There have been a significant number of projects completed and ongoing follow-on work over the last several years with governments to develop funding and education strategies to facilitate early company formation at regional and national levels. Projects have been completed in the states of Kansas and Alabama, the province of Manitoba and the countries of Costa Rica, Chile, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Thailand.

Sales and Marketing Strategy for a Global 1000 Company: This organization had grown by acquisition over the last decade and needed to optimize its mix of products, distribution and sales channels, all while reducing their cost of customer acquisition. The project involved developing a closed loop sales and marketing strategy that encompassed all their current systems and approaches, then working with each of the product, distribution and sales groups to map to and report plans and results based into a system developed from the strategy.