Case Studies

For the past 30 plus years, we have been working with leaders and teams to achieve their goals in both the public and private sectors. Below, we discuss some of the more common issues facing organizations and the solutions that worked for these leaders. Contact us at 919-261-9850 to discuss how we can help you impact your  company.

Do You Feel Like You Are “Going It Alone” as the Leader?

The owner of a telecommunications contractor in North Carolina felt alone, trying to push a strategy to 130 people.

In this situation, it was left up to the majority owner to drive the business.  The management team focused on tasks and the employees did what they always did.  The results of the company languished as they competed less effectively in an evolving environment where they were not changing themselves.

With a new structure, The Leadership Team designed a clear 5 year business plan – a “map to the destination.”  The plan began to drive new priorities and actions.   Additional leadership and team development allowed the leaders to focus on changing mindsets and attitudes among the employees.  Processes and communication were improved and the team began to enjoy striving towards a better future.   Change management allowed the teams within the company to learn from every interaction.  Profits and cash flow improved.   The owners are now able to “live normal lives” and enjoy the journey.

The owner is not as necessary to the business.   Everyone is engaged and responding, or they are smoothly transitioned elsewhere.   Everyone’s quality of life is better, in addition to the company and individual financial rewards.

Our client says:  “The whole team is now aligned and achieving dramatically more together.”

Lots of Discussion of Strategy and Goals, But No One is Making It Happen
A Director of Fortune 500 Company was frustrated.  There was much discussion about the “strategic plan”, but there will little action to get different results.  Everyone was working on a tactical, short-term view basis as individuals and not as a true team.  The culture was unaware of “where the bus was headed”. To get past the barriers, the Leadership Team was formally created including 3 levels of leadership.  A process identified clear strategies and metrics for each level and functional area.  Formalized Action Plans, a Communication Plan and a Monthly Monitoring Session were built to ensure powerful strategic movement for immediate action, as well as getting of the flight path to achieve the 5 year game changing goals. They have been able to make progress and begin moving forward instead of languishing on the sidelines. This client says: “I’ve done a lot of strategic planning sessions with other professionals and I have to say what they were able to accomplish… was really just pure magic.”
Are Silos and Communication Barriers Making You Stagnant?

The Director of Operations for a 57 location restaurant group was having difficulty engaging his diverse group of employees.  There was very little teamwork and each “silo” did not communicate with the other. The separation of the work force resulted in not carrying the message of what needed to happen between departments to the culture, or getting feedback from the culture.  Each of the 57 locations was slowly sliding into their own processes.  Each department was slowly alienating their internal customers. To effectively re-join the disparate groups back into a “family”, several strategies were utilized.  Monthly activities, practice and homework to get executives and leaders using both strong leadership, teamship and organizational principles broke through the barriers and created a clear need and desire to work as one unit. With their internal issues resolved, they have been able to swiftly grow the company and begin to brand it externally. This restaurant group has become a household name that is also highly respected in their industry with a unique competitive advantage. The takeaway from our client is: “AVW has helped our company at all levels with team building.  They have a special ability to take what you consider complicated issues and situations and make them easily understood in an orderly and simple fashion.   They easily relate and communicate with people at different levels in our company.  The tools and techniques they have developed over the years have proven to help everyone in our organization.  It has also helped our executive team to understand each other better which has led to us working better together as a team.  Their guidance has especially helped me to be a better leader and person not only in business but also in my personal life.  I would recommend Don Hadley and his group to anyone wanting to improve their company and their employees both professionally and personally.”

We Need Leaders to Lead

The President of 19 location multinational manufacturing and distribution organization was frustrated that his second tier leaders were having trouble getting action to occur within the organization. They needed help taking the leaders and the company to the next level.  The goal was to double the size of the company every 5 years through acquisition and organic growth.  However, stagnant growth patterns and mediocre leaders were limiting the possibilities.  In this environment, problems became larger than necessary instead of being prevented or stopped early. Here, a larger group needed to be engaged for maximum impact throughout the organization. We formally put together a multi-cultural, multi-country Leadership Team.  With that team, we build a strategic plan that could be cascaded down to each of the 19 locations with a feedback mechanism to gain front line wisdom back to The Leadership Team.  Executive Coaching, 720 Leadership Assessments, Team and Culture Principles were taught.  These concepts and perspectives were taken from top management through to production floor leadership team members.  Each leader carried the teaching to the rest of the culture. As a result, they doubled in size in 4 years.  This last run, they doubled the organization size in 3 years, exceeding everyone’s expectations. Feedback from this client:  “Applied Vision Works and Don Hadley have provided valuable insight and methodology for the preparation and structure of our strategic plans. The formulated a framework for a sustainable plan which has taken our company to the next level.”



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Making the Dream of Successful Business Ownership a Reality

The current owner of 100+ location franchise group was once an employee of another franchiser.  His dream was to build his own franchise group. In order to be successful, this employee needed to learn what to do to be an owner of a business, as well as a strategy for how to grow while having multiple locations work independently of each other, yet are replicas and follow the exact same processes. To engage the teams at each individual site and the home office, monthly meetings were instituted with the leadership team members to teach “how to build and grow a business”.  Hiring, training, coaching, evaluation and other organizational development processes were taught. The company over 20 years grew to 117 locations.  Recently the bulk of the locations were sold off and the owner is contemplating what to do next. This successful owner says:  “…the team at Applied Vision Works, Inc. have been my business advisers since 1995. We first met when I had only 1 location. AVW has helped me with strategies to help my business grow… they were also involved in the strategic leadership development of my team. Long range planning is their forte…”