Incrementa (un)consulting

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

When I was the president of BM&M Screening Solutions, I worked with Incrementa (un)consulting. I’ve since retired.

Our company manufactured machines that screen things by size. We had machines that cleaned the dirt out of greens or lumps out of sugar.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?

Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor) helped me make our corporation more corporate. We had a few business plans, but I was having trouble getting people to engage with the bigger company philosophy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mike came in to help develop a strategy for my plans for future direction. He provided tactics to move forward with my management team and then to roll out in our factories.

The biggest part was establishing our culture. We had to set up measurements to gain traction to the business plan so that it would be executed on the plant floor and by the management team. We put together tactics to lay out all of the KPI measurements and deliverables.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Mike, but he did bring in others on an ad hoc basis. He brought in a few people for training and to write the content we needed.

How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?

I found them through my networking group. Mike presented to our group, and some of my peers were using him. After his chat, I was interested in him, so I brought him in.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from late 2017–late 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Their services assisted with us selling the business to a large American conglomerate. Mike was very good, and his deliverables and metrics were set up very quickly. The more challenging part The most challenging part was getting the culture shift. Mike did a really nice job of being the sunshine when he needed to be and being the hammer when he needed to be. They were very strategic in their delivery of the culture piece.

How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, Mike did better than we did. He actually brought some tools into the company that we ended up using more globally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mike is an A-to-Z type of guy. He can help with the basement or the penthouse. He was able to present on the shop floor, but he also was able to be a peer of mine. We were able to sit down and be present with one another.

He’s good at executing at all levels of the organization. His energy is boundless. He’s great at selling his message because of that high energy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Mike needs to clone himself. He has extremely high standards for his own people and clients. Everyone has to run pretty fast to keep up with him.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start very high. Make sure Mike understands the long-range plan and the execution roadblocks. Make sure he understands the big picture.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of client services and administration for a collection service. We’re a financial arm company that has a BPO and purchase division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?

We brought them on for several projects. Most recently, we were trying to take the nature of our business and obtain some current certifications; for example, ISO and PCI. We wanted to move forward and restructure our business in order to obtain those certifications.

For another project, we had to look at our structure, strategic planning, and goals for the course of the next five years. We needed assistance in shaping that to make them tangible, attainable goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The ISO project involved a lot of different aspects. We needed our company to have a certain certification with the ISO. First, we had to understand the philosophy and have the company’s leadership adopt the new philosophy on how we looked at risk and managed process.

The second objective was to look at all of the items that were deficient in the company in order to identify and gauge what needed to change. It was a gap analysis to understand what it took to get there. The third piece of it was the implementation and rollout on how to make those changes over the course of time.

The fourth and last piece was going through the process and assisting with the auditing certifications and getting us to the final issue. The project lasted over a year. We were changing the company philosophy on many items right down to implementing the new processes and new ways to handle data and everything.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor). Over the course of the engagement, we’ve worked with 4–5 members of his team.

How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?

Someone in our internal team had some dealings with Mike and his team so that team member brought them in.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $60,000–$70,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

This specific ISO project was from January 2016–January 2018 but we’ve had an ongoing engagement with them since January 2009.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Having the education point of Mike's team to accurately articulate to our team why the philosophy change was required and where the benefits were was excellent. Once the buy-in was there from the entire team and we could move forward, that was a measure of success.

How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Incrementa did not miss deadlines. They reached out and followed up with us continuously. They provided a lot of communication while we approached deadlines. Their team had the foresight to see when a deadline wouldn’t be met. Incrementa has a wonderful ability to predict when something isn’t going to happen weeks before it’s due. They were stellar.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have great attention to detail and an understanding of our business. Our business is unique so the ability for them to understand the impact of how making a change in one area would affect the other one was spectacular. Their team was constantly able to come up with little pieces that we found to be very valuable. This showed their great attention to detail because they picked up on things that not everyone would.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re in high demand so sometimes their availability was limited. However, once they committed, they never faltered.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to the questions they ask and explore all aspects of your business. They’ll be very detailed in the beginning so give them your time because that’ll set you up for success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a small business called Kobalt Security. We provide security as a service for small and midsize technology companies, so cybersecurity services primarily across North America. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?

Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor) has been providing business coaching. As we have naturally encountered various challenges and problems to solve as our business grows, Mike has been providing ongoing advice, suggestions, and strategy to help us overcome those challenges. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our engagement for the most port has been relatively simple. We do bi-weekly calls which we refer to as a ‘walking call’. I typically come with 3–4 topics to discuss and run with Mike who will then have specific suggestions. They suggest what books we can consider reading and the people we should talk to. Mike takes note during our meetings and he’ll follow up with specific topics that we’ve discussed. So far, they’ve provided us assistance on a number of strategic items, but mostly on a simple advice basis.

I’ve also engaged Mike with some process design work. He uses a tool called Nero which we’ve started using ourselves internally to help design and identify a process around opportunity nurturing within our sales process. He has worked with a cross-section of my team to identify the process and document it so that it could be executed.

What is the team composition?

We only work with Mike.

How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?

I had a previous relationship with Mike. I’ve known him for a few years and as their company has shifted towards business strategy, I had an opportunity to start engaging with him on that basis. Additionally, since I worked with him previously, I liked his principles and ethics, and I thought it would be good to work with him in this area. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’d say we’ve probably spent $5,000–$6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve started working in June 2020, and it’s ongoing. We have a monthly agreement in place, and we’re expecting to continue both use their advisory services through coaching calls and on tactical projects on an as-needed basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I mostly base their impact on the value that I’ve been receiving from the engagement, and I’ve been absolutely satisfied with their services. He always has some really thoughtful and insightful contributions to make to my thinking on the process — and that’s been very consistent through our partnership. However, I don’t have any specific metrics to evaluate its impact. 

How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t typically establish deadlines because of the nature of the project, but their communication has been open and transparent. As I’ve said, Mike is good with follow-ups. For the one project that we’ve had a fixed scope, it was delivered in a timely fashion. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I really like about Mike is it doesn’t really matter what business problem I bring to him. He is drawing on a wealth of experience in conversations and connections from a variety of different businesses he’s worked with. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would probably be helpful if Mike actually came with a little bit more structure with our weekly and bi-weekly calls. That way we could have a better sense of continuity as we were progressing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come prepared with specific questions or problems and be fairly open in terms of the scope of problems that Incrementa (un)consulting can work on. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager for Great Little Box Company, a packaging and distribution company. We produce and sell corrugated folding cartons, stickers, protective packaging, and shipping supplies. Our company is modeled as a one-stop-shop for all packaging needs. We have different sites on the West Coast and in mid-Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?

We were looking for consulting services to help us with our transition project from ERP to the EFI Radius program.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Incrementa (un)consulting provided business consulting services for us. Mike (Strategic Planning & Execution) was the consultant for the project. We had weekly core team meetings with Mike to align with the executive team on project status, action items, strategy, and think tanks. Incrementa (un)consulting is my personal soundboard and coach as I’ve never had experience implementing ERP.

We were getting insights from Mike's previous experience on how to manage risk and change an organization from one program to another. Mike’s role is more of a strategic partner and mentorship. He helped qualify our current IT manager when we were going through a change with our IT management. Mike sits in our meetings and provided guidance, but sometimes his assistance is not needed.

Incrementa (un)consulting also provided consulting when we were undergoing a change of management for the organization and this was a pretty big part of the project. They helped with transitioning our employees who were used to using our old program for the past 20 years to a new data loading and data entry program.

They also gave me advice on the best way to manage a project and proposed a couple of tools that I used for a long time to stay organized. Our ERP project was delayed multiple times. Mike provided strategies on how to communicate this message across the company without negative connotations or implications.

Incrementa (un)consulting understood how to manage upwards and how to manage the executive team. They provided me with advice on how to correctly communicate with the executive team in terms of accountability.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Mike.

How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?

We had a previous project manager for about four months before she went on maternity leave. When I took over, Incrementa (un)consulting was already onboard. Incrementa (un)consulting was referred to our president when he was leading the project at the time.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent $15,000–$17,000.
 
What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with Incrementa (un)consulting from October 2017–April 2020. They were on board at least 6–10 months prior. We stopped working with them in April 2020 because of COVID-19 and the project went live again in August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

With Incrementa (un)consulting, we weren't tracking metrics, it was about coming to a common understanding between me and my president. Mike is here as a soundboard and my mentor. As long as I found value by having him onboard, that was enough.

How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Incrementa (un)consulting was consistent. There wasn’t a time when Mike couldn’t make it to a meeting without a heads up. It was reasonable that it only happened on a couple of occasions during the two and a half year period. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mike’s positive attitude impressed us, he always worked to instill fun into a project that could be daunting or painful. He displayed transparency and candidness throughout the project. I found it refreshing that Mike had this positive demeanor in our meetings. The technical aptitude of Incrementa (un)consulting was outstanding. The trust and confidence we had in Mike is something I found valuable.
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

No, Mike’s mentorship has been fantastic.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s helpful to understand and establish the scope of the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a custom ski and snowboard boot liner manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Incrementa (un)consulting?

We hired them to increase our productivity and process within our Vancouver office.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, they helped us brainstorm our shipping process and implementing new computer programs. We ended up signing onto their leadership program.

What is the team composition?

We work with Mike (Business Growth Coach & Advisor).

How did you come to work with Incrementa (un)consulting?

They were recommended to us by our IT team. We started out with a small plan and now we’ve committed to them for the year.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I can see the success in our team and what they’re learning. The staff is really happy, too. We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s had a big impact for us already.

How did Incrementa (un)consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re amazing. Now we even use Asana for our own team management and projects. It brings a lot of structure and organization to our company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their personalities are great. The team is flexible and we all get along well with Mike. We’re all very comfortable working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. They’re like our role models in a way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Good communication is key. It’s important to follow through, too.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the president and the majority shareholder of a company that produces digital curricula for institutions worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Incrementa (un)consulting?

Team Building and preparing the corporate structure for rapid growth.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Referral and his online bio, experience and reviews.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Meeting with the management team as a group, one to one, and modifying behaviours to create a new more effective company culture. Regular meetings for a year to keep the process on track.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Only Mike

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

More ownership by staff. Lots more reporting and planning. Accountability. Recognition.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their earnest desire to help us reach our goals impress us.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not yet