Running a company, any company, isn’t easy...

...especially yours! You know for a fact that as leaders, we can easily find ourselves confused by the latest business results, caught off guard by a competitor’s move, perplexed by some complex issue, surprised by some new government regulation, or just find ourselves in uncharted waters uncertain of what course to take. Much like what Winston Churchill said about history, “It’s just one damn thing after another.”

Things like increasing sales and penetrating new markets, dealing with family complexities, building customer retention, planning and anticipating instead of reacting, instilling continuous improvement into the culture, getting buy-in from your management team and employees, increasing efficiencies and effectiveness, getting everyone pulling on the same rope in the same direction, getting people to think, etc., etc..

Which is why as leaders, we need all the help we can get… from our management teams, employees, suppliers, peers and the entire outside world.

The problem is two-fold. First, as the leader, you have to be willing to admit you need help. The second, you have to be willing to open up to someone in complete confidence, who will honor that confidence, who will remain objective, can understand where you are coming from and the pressures your are under, and can truly help you to come to an effective and workable solution.

Chances are that you and your company are being challenged right now to change in a way for which you have no precedent. Your company will either adapt, falter, reinvent itself, or struggle through a painful restructuring, closing or sale.

Let’s face it. You have some difficult questions to ask and some tough decisions to make. You can either play to win, play to play or play to get the hell out. You can either consider yourself the victim of a bad economy, or apply this Four Step Process:


1) Create a culture that promotes and fosters communication, cooperation, and collaboration; gets your employees involved and inspired; and rewards teamwork, accountability, continuous improvement and a commitment to your internal and external customers.

2) Build a strong second tier management team of institutional minded managers and great leaders.

3) Create a top down/bottom up understanding and strategic alignment of where the company is going and what each of your employees need to do and contribute to get it there.

4) Get everyone pulling on the same rope in the same direction and working as one corporate team.


As a consultant, I have been successfully earning the trust and confidence of executives like you for the past twenty-five years. I am not a "blood on the floor" turnaround expert, nor am I foolish enough to make any guarantees regarding the turnaround of any company. What I am is a get it done, hands-on, go-to-guy, dedicated to making the changes and achieving the goals you want to see within your company. I encourage planning and push execution. I utilize a combination of strategic and tactical approaches to help you create a strategically aligned, horizontally integrated, customer focused interdependent company operated by inspired, motivated, and often times self-managed employees. I also come with a variety of experiences, skills, tools, techniques, methodologies, practices, systems, processes and even other consultants’ expertise to create value for a company and push it forward. All told, I work with you and your people to make the company less dependent upon you for its future success, resulting in an increased overall value while you get the freedom and flexibility to do other things and deal with other interests.

One note of warning: You should not rely upon any consultant to do your thinking. You hire a consultant, attorney or accountant to help you to sharpen your thinking not control it. The consultant's role is to augment your thought process through discovery, engagement and dialogue. The consultant's role should never be to take control away from you or anyone else in your business.

To learn more about us, what we do, how we do it and what additional things you need to be thinking about, we greatly encourage you to spend some time on our web site, especially the library. Better yet, call or email me to discuss some of the things you are indignant about within your company; and things you would like to see changed or improved.

Be sure to request a copy of my book, The Owner’s Manual.

Thank you for your time, interest and consideration.

Yours truly,
Jim Altfeld
President