Our company has grown dramatically over the past ten years. Sounds like great news and in many ways it has been great. But what we realized was that while the revenue grew the profit margins slumped. We were great at growing revenue, but we were horrible at building profitability. We knew we needed some help.
In the spring of 2021, heading toward a record revenue year with still marginal profits, our ongoing conversations with Cogent Analytics heated up. We were ready to do something dramatic for the company, so we were searching for the best fit.
We engaged Cogent for a week-long visit from one of their analysists, which in our case was Merlin VanGerpin. Merlin identified several “leaks” where our margin was slipping away and, with hard data in hand – and without any “selling” – he convinced us to pursue a full engagement with the Cogent team. Two weeks later Sean Robertson and Gregg Jones, our Project Directors, came to see us. We are now in week 16, our final week of the engagement.
With Sean at the lead and Gregg’s understanding of the distributorship model, they started the process by building leaders. All of the managers within the company have gone through a “level-set”, which is a starting over with a 100% forward look. All of the managers within the company have gone through an extremely intense schedule of leadership training. Now, all of the managers within the company are much better leaders, better equipped to lead their areas of responsibility with a keen focus on maintaining our culture while “leading with a purpose” toward profitability. Everything we did as a company was challenged and most things we did changed. We were a 1990’s – type of company; now we are a 2020’s company with endless possibilities. Cogent changed our company from the inside-out.
Without drilling into each of our lines of business, I’ll just report that with the help of the Cogent team we have already seen lower costs of business and dramatic improvements in margin in all of them. We are clicking on all cylinders for the first time, maybe ever.
Our experience with the Cogent Team, and in particular Sean and Gregg, has been nothing short of exceptional. We have all been transformed as leaders and we now, all of us, are equipped to lead the company to much-improved profitability results all the while maintaining our DNA and improving our culture. Heavy Machines will never be the same.
So, my suggestion to any readers of this letter is to learn about Cogent Analytics and engage them. They have the ability to change your company forever.
Jay Nelson
