I was initially contacted by Griffin Roberts with Cogent Analytics as what I would describe as a “cold call” to come in and discuss our business operations and whether we felt Cogent could assist in getting us back on track to becoming profitable. I decided to move forward with utilizing Cogent’s services, and this has been one of the best business decisions I have made.
We agreed to a “Discovery” with Merlin VanGerpen who spent 3 days analyzing our current business structure and helping me as the owner, understand where we needed to make some changes in order to accomplish this. One of the biggest changes he emphasized was the fact that as the owner of the business, I needed to move away from owning the “job” and to begin to “own the business” as well as to reinforce the fact that “hope is NOT a strategy.”
I have found that working with Cogent Analytics has been a very informative and rewarding experience for not only myself, but also my leadership team. We had the opportunity of working with John McNichols as the Project Manager and he has helped in a number of ways including excellent training to the leadership team as well as front line staff to ensure my business will be poised for sale when that time comes.
As the engagement is coming to a close, I can confirm that Cogent has provided great value to the organization. We now have a detailed plan of how to move towards and achieve the goals we all agreed on. These plans include developing Roles & Responsibilities for not only our leadership team, but also for all employees. These Roles/Responsibilities included developing Key Performance Indicators to offer clear and defined accountability for our staff and we are all excited about utilizing these.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience working with Cogent Analytics. It has been a pleasure watching the leadership teamwork work so closely with John and embrace the idea of running the company as a team and not as individuals running departments.
I can say with confidence that the entire team will miss John once the engagement concludes and we will look forward to his weekly virtual visits and his quarterly on-site visits during the Lifecycle Relationship phase.
I look forward to moving my business ahead with the transparency of the path and plan that will take us to where we want to be. Thank you to Merlin, Chris, John, Harrison and the entire Cogent team for all of the work that has already been done as well as looking forward to what we have yet to do!
