Background

• A public company was not achieving its growth objectives despite a hard-working management team.

Problems

• The company's industry was no longer experiencing rapid growth.
  
  
• An economic downturn had forced the company to severely cut costs.
  
  
• The management team had adopted a very conservative approach to increase EPS to meet Wall Street expectations.

Resolutions

• The board felt it needed a strategic planning session to force some "out-of-the-box" thinking.
  
  
• The management team decided to get a broad group of managers involved in the process and held a series of internal planning meetings with an open mind.
  
  
• Some of the younger managers came up with some very creative ideas to grow through acquisitions in complementary industries.
  
  
• The off-site board strategy planning session provided a number of excellent strategic alternatives, with the unexpected benefit of allowing the next generation of management to shine in front of the board of directors.