Addition or Replacement?

8/10/2018 by Bailey

 

A privately-held industry had organically tripled revenues over the past decade primarily due to expansion into additional market channels. The CEO had a tenured senior leadership team. The business model was at one time a vertical manufacturer and over the years had outsourced 90% of their machining to contract manufacturers. Over last six months profitability was down and revenues had flatlined due to challenges on meeting customer expectations and deliverability.

B&B met with the CEO. The original thought was to add on a Supply Chain Manager to report to the VP Manufacturing. The goal was to improve purchasing, order management, material deliverability from contract manufacturers, and better accountability to customers. OTD was declining. B&B had a detailed conversation on the business evolution, current business model, existing challenges, going forward strategy, and culture. In a very candid conversation B&B brought to the attention of the CEO that as the company had transitioned from a vertical manufacturer to primarily an assembly operation, the need for strength in leadership shifted from manufacturing to supply chain.

B&B looked at the organization chart and discussed the key employees and roles. The VP Manufacturing was underperforming and adverse to change. The manufacturing operation was being run by a manager that upside potential. B&B made the suggestion to promote the Assembly Manager to Manufacturing Director, eliminate the VP Manufacturing role, and create a VP Operations position that would be responsible for all order management, supply chain, and assembly operations.

B&B teamed with the CEO to define short and long term goals for the new role, create a search and evaluation process, and establish a fair and attractive compensation package. B&B evaluated 83 local candidates, presented a slate of four, collaborated on the interviewing process, and concluded the search from original conversation to acceptance in 39 days.