October 15, 2010
Our Business is Changing Again: 4/14/2008
Historically, Crown tends to go through cycles of growth and investment. 2003 was an investment year which kicked off our Software Products business and focused us on becoming a Hybrid company. In return, the years of 2004 and 2005 were both growth years that yielded better than 75% growth each year. This growth, along with an acquisition (Saillant) that opened up the West, lead to a need to re-focus internally and slowed company growth in 2006 to about 25%. During 2006 we focused internally on integrating cultures, focusing on ensuring we were one company (A branded house, vs. a house of brands), scalability, and instating an Executive Team that managed the business (vs. being purely managed by the founders).
As a result, 2007 was again another breakout growth year. We grew the company from ~$12m in revenue to ~17.5m in revenue and the employee base from 60 to 110 and “broke through a glass ceiling” that many small businesses get stuck in (remember “No Man’s Land” from my January company presentation). In the latter half of 2007 we took advantage of this growth to yet again prepare for additional investments. These investments included:
- Platform Dynamics Acquisition: 4 additional products, establish the maturity of our Product business, East coast office, and European expansion.
- Establish Strategic Consulting: positioning Crown higher up the value chain, trusted advisor relationships, Sr. experienced folks to support the “C” offices of our clients.
- Establish Advanced Learning Center: prepare our internal folks for the changes of the business and technology, and provide additional services (learning services) to our clients.
- Essential Analytics: Add Oracle as a Strategic Partner and Hyperion as a new business platform for the company, focus on business intelligence and performance management in anticipation of the eventual consolidation of BI and CM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_information_management).
- Establish a Microsoft SharePoint Practice: Add Microsoft as a Strategic Partner and SharePoint as a new business platform for the company, prepare in the case of a potential shift in the ECM business towards Microsoft.
- Double our Direct Sales and Marketing: Added 4 new direct sales resources and 1 new dedicated Marketing Director. These additions were meant to scale the business to support the necessary revenue sales from our recent investments.
Any one of these investments on their own might merit dedicated focus for a lesser company. We are able to pull them together at the same time because of the momentum we had in 2007, and the preparations we had taken during the previous investment year.
As a final “pull together” of the investments, we just recently finalized a re-organization of the company towards the Value Stack concept put into motion in late 2007. To that end we split up the Sales organization (Software vs. Services) and pulled them together with the Product and Services Divisions. There were relatively few reporting changes throughout the organization from this change, with the notable exception of Malcolm Bliss and Kevin Adkisson together taking responsibility for the Product Organization as Co-Division Heads and Chris Torkelson and John Garvin together taking responsibility for the Services Organization, again, as Co-Division Heads. As a result, both Kevin and Chris were added to the Executive Team. Additionally, we aligned (and renamed) the COEs to align with the Value Stacks.
In addition to the consolidation of Sales and Deliver/Engineering, we identified Value Stack owners and provided them the role of “Business Manager”. Guy Sulzberger, Lynn Fraas and Brad Gingrich now have responsibility for driving the CCS (Critical Communication Solution), DPS (Document Processing Solution) and EPS (Enterprise Performance Solution) businesses externally (respectively). Lead by Mark Kennedy, each of these folks as Business Managers will partner up with the Co-Division heads as they drive further focus of our solutions to our Partners and Clients.
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that there have been some folks let go from Crown. The reasons for these releases generally surround our need to refocus the business on remaining “lean and mean” (to borrow from an appropriate phrase). Throughout company history, we’ve always aimed to hire the best resources, and focus them on providing results, real – measurable results, for the company. In many of these cases either the company wasn’t able to utilize their talents to achieve results, or they weren’t able to leverage the company to achieve results. In any case, it was best that we freed up their future to be successful elsewhere.
Additionally, there is no doubt that the economy has slowed somewhat over the past 2 quarters. In only a few cases, this slowing has resulted in lost deals. Most of the deals that we expected to close still exist and we expect to close them in Q2 of this year (our current software pipeline is $13m and we expect to close as much in April as we did in Q1 and double it again in May/June; our services pipeline is currently $17m for a total company sales pipeline – deals identified to be closed – of $30m). Crown is not the only company experiencing some pressure from the economy. Many of our competitors are also feeling the effects. It is my personal belief that recessions are good for the economy and at the same time, good for Great companies. It high times, companies that don’t belong competing in an industry will still “give it the old college try”. In doing so, some of them succeed until times get tough. It is in these tough times that Great companies shine. Great companies are able to adapt to the environment and make the necessary changes to affect their own change which will help them not only to survive but thrive. I believe that Crown is a Great company, and is making the changes that get us to the other side. In doing so, we’ll arrive with fewer competitors, a much more refined organization and strategy, and ultimately with a business that will come out on top.
This email was meant to communicate my views of what is happening and where it all fits in the “grand scheme of things”. To that end, I’ve included some PowerPoints that support it. Please feel free to send me an email or drop me a line to discuss. I’m happy to take your call.
“No obstacle will ever leave you the way it found you”
-- Anonymous
As a result, 2007 was again another breakout growth year. We grew the company from ~$12m in revenue to ~17.5m in revenue and the employee base from 60 to 110 and “broke through a glass ceiling” that many small businesses get stuck in (remember “No Man’s Land” from my January company presentation). In the latter half of 2007 we took advantage of this growth to yet again prepare for additional investments. These investments included:
- Platform Dynamics Acquisition: 4 additional products, establish the maturity of our Product business, East coast office, and European expansion.
- Establish Strategic Consulting: positioning Crown higher up the value chain, trusted advisor relationships, Sr. experienced folks to support the “C” offices of our clients.
- Establish Advanced Learning Center: prepare our internal folks for the changes of the business and technology, and provide additional services (learning services) to our clients.
- Essential Analytics: Add Oracle as a Strategic Partner and Hyperion as a new business platform for the company, focus on business intelligence and performance management in anticipation of the eventual consolidation of BI and CM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_information_management).
- Establish a Microsoft SharePoint Practice: Add Microsoft as a Strategic Partner and SharePoint as a new business platform for the company, prepare in the case of a potential shift in the ECM business towards Microsoft.
- Double our Direct Sales and Marketing: Added 4 new direct sales resources and 1 new dedicated Marketing Director. These additions were meant to scale the business to support the necessary revenue sales from our recent investments.
Any one of these investments on their own might merit dedicated focus for a lesser company. We are able to pull them together at the same time because of the momentum we had in 2007, and the preparations we had taken during the previous investment year.
As a final “pull together” of the investments, we just recently finalized a re-organization of the company towards the Value Stack concept put into motion in late 2007. To that end we split up the Sales organization (Software vs. Services) and pulled them together with the Product and Services Divisions. There were relatively few reporting changes throughout the organization from this change, with the notable exception of Malcolm Bliss and Kevin Adkisson together taking responsibility for the Product Organization as Co-Division Heads and Chris Torkelson and John Garvin together taking responsibility for the Services Organization, again, as Co-Division Heads. As a result, both Kevin and Chris were added to the Executive Team. Additionally, we aligned (and renamed) the COEs to align with the Value Stacks.
In addition to the consolidation of Sales and Deliver/Engineering, we identified Value Stack owners and provided them the role of “Business Manager”. Guy Sulzberger, Lynn Fraas and Brad Gingrich now have responsibility for driving the CCS (Critical Communication Solution), DPS (Document Processing Solution) and EPS (Enterprise Performance Solution) businesses externally (respectively). Lead by Mark Kennedy, each of these folks as Business Managers will partner up with the Co-Division heads as they drive further focus of our solutions to our Partners and Clients.
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that there have been some folks let go from Crown. The reasons for these releases generally surround our need to refocus the business on remaining “lean and mean” (to borrow from an appropriate phrase). Throughout company history, we’ve always aimed to hire the best resources, and focus them on providing results, real – measurable results, for the company. In many of these cases either the company wasn’t able to utilize their talents to achieve results, or they weren’t able to leverage the company to achieve results. In any case, it was best that we freed up their future to be successful elsewhere.
Additionally, there is no doubt that the economy has slowed somewhat over the past 2 quarters. In only a few cases, this slowing has resulted in lost deals. Most of the deals that we expected to close still exist and we expect to close them in Q2 of this year (our current software pipeline is $13m and we expect to close as much in April as we did in Q1 and double it again in May/June; our services pipeline is currently $17m for a total company sales pipeline – deals identified to be closed – of $30m). Crown is not the only company experiencing some pressure from the economy. Many of our competitors are also feeling the effects. It is my personal belief that recessions are good for the economy and at the same time, good for Great companies. It high times, companies that don’t belong competing in an industry will still “give it the old college try”. In doing so, some of them succeed until times get tough. It is in these tough times that Great companies shine. Great companies are able to adapt to the environment and make the necessary changes to affect their own change which will help them not only to survive but thrive. I believe that Crown is a Great company, and is making the changes that get us to the other side. In doing so, we’ll arrive with fewer competitors, a much more refined organization and strategy, and ultimately with a business that will come out on top.
This email was meant to communicate my views of what is happening and where it all fits in the “grand scheme of things”. To that end, I’ve included some PowerPoints that support it. Please feel free to send me an email or drop me a line to discuss. I’m happy to take your call.
“No obstacle will ever leave you the way it found you”
-- Anonymous