"John was instrumental during a period of rapid expansion. He quickly identified core issues and initiated corrective action at senior management levels. I enjoyed working with John and valued his counsel."
Dr. Craig Barratt, CEO
Atheros Communications, Inc.
"I have enlisted John's services on two
occasions for two different companies. His
recommendations and insight were invaluable to the
success of each enterprise, both operationally and
strategically."
Rishabh Mehrotra, CEO
SHPS, Inc.
"John is very good at understanding how
people operate and he gives straightforward
feedback that people find accurate and helpful."
George Pavlov,
GP
Tallwood Venture Capital
Problem: First-time CEO desiring guidance through growth and development of the exec team, planning processes and cross-functional root-cause analysis.
foreAction Solution: Coached CEO, CTO and the exec team to engage in productive conversations; attended/facilitated standing executive meetings, as well as planning meetings; provided performance review of CEO; dug into operational problems with root cause analysis; advised CEO on organizational structure and personnel matters.
Results: Senior team in place to execute, C level executives synched and providing enhanced leadership to the enterprise, support capability strengthened. Company on track to profitability.
Problem: Rapid growth and new multiple programs causing missed dates and conflict on senior team.
foreAction Solution: Coached executive management through a process of installing program management, upgrading the resource allocation processes, redesigning the organizational structure, and creating uniform product design and go-to-market processes. Coached CEO in role and organization issues as well as senior management relationships and new hires. Improved standing meeting practices.
Results: First product to go through the new program management processes on time and within budget with required quality measures; company successfully increased in size by 150%.
Problem: Wanted to improve their investment and board practices inside their portfolio companies.
foreAction Solution: Interviewed board members from portfolio companies to get feedback and then coached partners with the results of the study.
Results: Changes of behavior noted and appreciated in follow-up survey.
Problem: Needed to increase margins through new business opportunities and fully integrate with new product activities in other business units.
foreAction Solution: Coached executive management through a process of identifying new business opportunities, writing and evaluating business plans and selecting for implementation those plans that most closely matched the goals of the organization. Guided management through internal selling process for gaining organizational buy-in for the new business.
Results: Successfully launched two new businesses and increased margins to desired levels.
Problem: Company had negative gross margins resulting from rapid scale-up and inefficient use of resources.
foreAction Solution: Coached senior managers to create customer service processes and reorganize the client facing group into customer centric-pods equipped with all resources necessary to effectively support customers. This new structure and process allowed more clients to be served with the same resources, allowed P&L responsibility and decision-making to be pushed to lower levels and facilitated better client-by-client profit visibility.
Results: Company reached positive gross margins and increased up-selling to current clients.
Problem: Company missed 2 OEM release cycles for new chip designs resulting in a substantial reduction of projected revenue.
foreAction Solution: Coached executive management though the process of installing core team methodology to ensure cross-functional communication. Enhanced capacity management and program planning.
Results: Met next two cycles of OEM release dates; realized projected revenue for new chips.
Problem: Product not gaining traction with user population and management unable to agree on and implement critical decisions.
foreAction Solution: Took operating role as COO of the company, established product feature hypotheses to test in the market, created a quick release capability in engineering and tested the new features. Restructured company and modified business model.
Results: Company life increased by one year.