At an Impasse on its Strategic Direction, a Company Needed an Infusion of Expert Insights and Practical Guidance to get it Going on the Right Path.

At A Glance

Company Type: Private, Small

Industry: Networking Solutions

Solution Area: Business Assessment, Strategic Projects

About the Client

This networking startup’s technology serves military clients, and it also has consumer and software-as-a-service products.

Challenge

After two years of senior leadership changes, the company was looking to find its way with limited funding and resources while multiple products pulled everyone's attention in different directions.

Several product roadmaps were drawn up but continued to be in flux-just like leadership- which was not providing clear, consistent guidance on where the focus of the company should be, as the market need for products under development was unclear.

Consequently, the company’s culture was broken, and so was the alignment across the organization. Adding to this turmoil were weak governance practice and financials that were not GAAP compliant. This put the company’s ability to make informed decisions in peril.

Solution

Recognizing the need for a fresh, expert perspective on the company’s future, the board reached out to ZRG for a business assessment and alternative strategic ideas.

These were some of the recommendations made by our assembled team of consultants, who included experts in Technology, finance and Accounting, Marketing and Human Resources:

• While properly searching for the right CEO, focus the interim CEO's attention on setting the strategy in addition to product and marketing definition
• Rightsize the organization to bring focus to its engineering expertise and leadership
• Bring in additional capital to attract a new CEO to be able to develop a new, feasible product to market
• Align the company around one product, one product strategy, and one R&D approach
• Solidify the accounting and finance foundation to produce accurate, GAAP-compliant financial information and reporting

Results

• The interim CEO is providing clear direction on where employees should focus their time and energy, which in effect is aligning the engineering team and the organization as a whole
• Employees are working toward the organizational goal of a singular focus on one product, and properly getting it to market
• Alignment of the financial operations’ strategy with the organization’s strategy has made an organization-wide budget possible

The company has lost its way. By bringing attention to its biggest issues, ZRG’s curated team of Finance, Marketing, Technology and HR experts helped the board decide on the next best steps for the company.

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