Overview
Direct marketer of computer products and services.

Opportunity / Threat
Founded in 1988 by two entrepreneurs, by 1993 the company was listed by Inc. magazine as the fourth fastest-growing company in America. In 1995, the company went public.
Management recognized a need to clarify the company's values, define its strategic direction, and create detailed operational plans in order to sustain the company's growth curve and protect and expand its market share.

Action / Result
Strategic Advantage, Inc., led the company's top managers through a strategic planning process to consolidate their thoughts and articulate the vision of the company. After defining the baselines, the team drafted a document containing the company's three-year strategic overview. Finally, they translated the document into a summary of core values and company goals that was used for recruiting new employees and guiding the actions of the existing staff.

Client Comments
"Dr. Gooding helped us find clarity and define our vision and history. He really took a young company - he came to us when we were a company of 400 employees: now we have about 1000 - and helped us grow."
"He taught us the tools to allow us to use strategic planning more than we did before. Prior to his coming, we didn't worry about the future because we were dealing with today. He channeled all the ideas, energies, and thoughts, the 50 different paths the company could possibly take; he forced us to make the selection, taught us the process to keep us on track."
"He was able to reign in a bunch of very aggressive entrepreneurs. When he worked with the more junior people, they felt comfortable enough that they could sit down and talk to him. And with the more senior people, he could step up to their level and talk about more strategic business issues."
"We still use a lot of the tools he taught us. We're now focusing more on strategy, and less on operational details."

-- Eric Crown, CEO