Manufacturing Company

Case Study:

Chief Executive Officer

Manufacturing Industry

Leadership Transition

The Company:  Family owned manufacturing and installation company employing approximately 165 employees in Austin Texas.  Serving residential and commercial customers in Central Texas, the company is a market-leader for manufactured cultured marble, and fabricated solid surface and laminate building products.

The Challenge:  The Company was founded in 1971 by a hard working, fair minded business man who successfully led and managed all aspects of the family business with his wife and business partner.  When health concerns forced the founder to step back from daily operations and move toward active retirement, the family faced the serious decision to either sell the company or accept the challenge of promptly and successfully transitioning control from a family operated business to a transparent and controlled executive management operating environment. 

The Solution:  The Company initially engaged Doug Simpson CPA to assist the owners determine next steps for the business.  The company was a valued acquisition in the marketplace, but the founders chose to retain and grow their investment for their family and to move forward with a planned executive leadership transition process.

The company contracted with Doug Simpson CPA to serve as Chief Executive Officer.  Doug joined the company for the express purpose of building a quality framework of controls to safeguard the founders assets and to manage financial reporting, operating, and compliance risks; and at the same time to work with the founders, their employed family members, and their loyal long term managers to move through the difficult challenge of effectively transitioning to a different leadership environment.

The Results: Reporting to the Founders, Doug took responsibility for the leadership and assumed responsibility and accountability for the overall financial and operational success of the company. Listed below are achievements experienced during this twelve month engagement:

• Working with company managers and staff members, improved accountability and key-decision maker confidence by implementing management controls for the core functions of the business. Together, completed risk assessments, wrote policies and procedures, wrote job descriptions, completed training, developed management reports, and then affected management controls to ensure ongoing compliance.
• Built an ad-hoc, job cost accounting system to manage labor and material costs and to monitor pricing strategies by product line.
• During a period of price increases, improved the business’ competitive edge by leveraging the company’s market position to negotiate a price reduction for solid surface material, and held pricing for laminate material and cultured marble material.  Improved market-share, was profitable, and performed without a serious work-place incident.
• Without experiencing a disruption to operations, managed the settlement of a pre-existing, adversarial workplace injury lawsuit involving the company and a key-manager to the satisfaction of both parties.  

The Outcome:  The Company successfully transitioned to permanent executive management leadership, both founders have now fully retired, and the company remains a market-leader in Central Texas.