Thoughts on ERD’s Projects with Cogent. From the first meeting with Merlin, it was obvious that some people fit their names, and he did perform quick magic on many aspects within a few hours of analyzing our company.

We had a previous project with Cogent in late 2021, and based on those changes and our seemingly daunting task of instantly growing over 500% within 6 months, we desired a more thorough look, which could enable ERD to transition to a bigger and better company. Merlin listened to our specific needs and tailored a path of success that we could clearly follow and simultaneously buy into, since, in the end, any plan can only be successful if everyone believes.

This early work by Merlin led him to advocate for us to have Jim as a project manager for our transition. Jim is an example of a guy who knows accounting but doesn’t let it be the only thing to focus on (he’s a numbers guy, but understands that the true power of the numbers lies in benefiting all aspects of a thriving business). He and Cogent have taken the time and effort to guide us on the journey of improvement, which a 27-year-old company needs in order to be fully competitive and successful in the current economic environment.

Jim has identified a large area of improvement in terms of KPIs and has structured a path that achieves measurable progress but also takes into account the softer side of how to get people to actively participate.

The management team and workforce have fully embraced our mission, and we look forward to our future success in both the implementation of our action plan and in how we have enabled true change in our culture that allows us to be the best organization we can be.

Glenn Flaherty
Owner
ERD, Ltd.