July 2010, Cover Stories
Courage that counts
CC&N connects process improvement and marketing initiatives to grow in troubled economy
Two things stand out in CC&N president Lisa Reardon’s office: The book John Wooden on Leadership and a large whiteboard with writing all over it.
The book is one Reardon recently read that she says she cannot bring herself to put away because its lessons on leadership are tremendously valuable in the position she’s held for nearly two years. The whiteboard is something she says she cannot live without because she uses it every day as she strategizes how to position the company for today and for the future.
The tools and experiences Reardon brought with her are among those that helped her face off against some very real challenges during her first year as president. Wisconsin’s largest provider of cabling and connectivity solutions, with more than 600 clients in southeastern Wisconsin alone, anticipated a 23 percent reduction in sales as 2009 opened. Though the company projected $25 million in revenue in 2009 and was in a better position than the industry as a whole, which was down approximately 35 percent, Reardon knew tough decisions and difficult changes were essential to turning a profit during the recession.
No company ever hopes for an economic slowdown, but Reardon says 2009’s troubled economy provided the executive team with both time and opportunity to focus inward and fashion changes that positioned the company for a solid year and a better future.
“Company-wide initiatives and process improvements became key to maintaining profitability,” she says. CC&N executives spent the bulk of 2009 improving critical processes, developing consistent marketing messages, establishing solid sales and marketing initiatives, and fashioning a five-year strategic plan to help CC&N navigate the economic storm.
As a result, CC&N closed 2009 with a 3-percent increase in profits over 2009 projections and, in early 2010, nabbed the prestigious ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) Company of the Year award from the Wisconsin Chapter of The ESOP Association.
“Really looking at cost, process and waste helped us deliver above expectations,” she says.
Getting smart about spending
When times are tough, companies first look to cost reductions. Often that means reducing headcount. Like many companies, 2009’s troubled economy forced CC&N to trim its work force.
Hoping to minimize impact to regular employees, Reardon first eliminated temporary positions. Over the remainder of 2009, the company allowed employees to take voluntary layoffs between peak work cycles, eliminated redundant positions and laid-off some of its technicians, most of which the company was later able to recall.
Being smart about spending also helped CC&N close out the downturn on an upswing. The Pewaukee-headquartered company reduced expenses by 8.1 percent. While Reardon calls these cuts “substantial,” she notes CC&N made them without laying off regular employees or missing key deliveries, and while enhancing its market presence.
Building market clarity
“One of the most difficult things for a telecommunications organization to do is to put clarity around your product,” says Reardon. “We are what you call a ‘behind the scenes’ company. In many cases our employees work in challenging situations, such as in ceilings, within walls, in data closets or under the ground as they lay cable or install wireless infrastructure that supports everything from phone systems and data servers to high-tech medical equipment and life-critical devices.”
For example, CC&N recently completed one of Wisconsin’s largest new building projects for Aurora Healthcare at its new Aurora Medical Center in Summit. During the two-year project, CC&N designed and installed a cable “highway” to support all of the hospital’s IT and medical systems needs. The average cable budget for a large new construction project represents five percent of the total project cost, but the business performance of the entire communication system relies on that five percent to be done right the first time.
Communicating CC&N’s expertise quickly emerged as a top priority in 2009. Reardon brought out her trusty whiteboard and brainstormed with executive leaders to identify CC&N’s vision and map out the changes needed to attain these goals. The management team developed four business priorities that now guide all decision-making within the organization — Service Excellence, Employee Owners, Financial Safety and Growth.
“Throughout the organization we’re bringing these priorities into the culture of CC&N,” she says. “Any management decision, coworker collaboration or client project should support or positively impact our service excellence, our employee owners, our bottom line or the company’s growth.”
Company leaders then broke down CC&N’s capabilities into eight centers of expertise that include: Cabling infrastructure, security access and surveillance, mobile device management, voice and data, network monitoring and management, and managed staffing. The company can design, implement and manage technology in all eight areas.
“We have some customers who use every one of our eight centers of expertise, and others that only use bits and pieces,” says Reardon. “No matter which product lines the customer uses, they have the assurance that CC&N is not only going to provide a turnkey solution but is going to be there from the very start to the long term, managing that technology well into the future.”
Follow the map
With a roadmap in place, Reardon took the wheel on a new sales and marketing strategy. She explains the company had traditionally been very operations-driven. CC&N’s customer base, which includes clients such as Harley-Davidson USA, American Family Insurance, Tower Automotive Group and more, continued to buy from the company again and again. The company’s elite group of 11 RCDD (Registered Communication Distribution Design) engineers and talented voice engineers managed the existing customer base with measurable success.
“The company continued to grow and had consistent delivery on sales without a real sales force,” she says, explaining that CC&N employed a single person to prospect new business at the time.
But in order to position CC&N for future growth, Reardon knew that had to change. She hired a seasoned director of sales and marketing, experienced sales engineers and four sales professionals to sell the company’s product lines and services to new clients.
“My goal was to change the company’s focus from just getting the job done to selling, managing and completing the project with an eye toward future relationships,” she says. “Instead of being an operations-driven organization, I wanted us to be sales-driven with superior operations delivery.”
This strategy already landed $1.5 million in new business from a single partnership and has filled the company’s prospect pipeline with more than $6 million in potential business.
LEANing the way
Reardon implemented a LEAN Office approach, which applies principals from LEAN Manufacturing to office operations, to further improve efficiencies and reduce waste in 2009. She sent four key managers through the LEAN Office certification process.
Many employees had been using their own systems to sell, track and manage processes, which created inconsistencies and duplication in the information stored throughout the company. As part of CC&N’s LEAN Office strategy, Reardon invested in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool from Microsoft to help improve the organization’s recordkeeping. This software/database tool tracks customers, projects, new business leads and marketing opportunities throughout the organization.
“Though CC&N ran just fine and was successful, some processes were lacking and in many areas there was no uniformity,” she says. “Now we have a common database that allows us to track opportunities, successes, wins and losses in real-time, so all employees know where we are, at any time, 365 days a year.”
Planning for the future
Reardon realizes it is as important to look to the future as it is to look to today. But she knows planning for the future requires common goals.
Yet, when she asked employees, “What is CC&N’s common goal?” she received disparate answers — all key deliverables, but all different.
CC&N launched a strategic planning process, involving employee owners at every level, to develop a five-year strategic plan. This effort led to a 25-page strategic document and the creation of a common goal called Plan 855. Simply put, Plan 855 is 8 percent compounded growth year after year to the top line and 5 percent growth to the bottom line for five years.
“Now you can ask every employee what CC&N’s goal is and their answer is uniformly: ‘Plan 855,’ ” says Reardon.
The common objective is easy to remember and stretches company muscle while remaining attainable. “We hope through strategic planning and acquisition, we can overachieve this,” she adds. “But what I hold myself and the entire organization accountable for is that over the next five years, no matter what happens to the economy, we will meet the expectations of Plan 855.”
It certainly looks like CC&N will deliver to Plan 855 in 2010. The company has a number of significant projects scheduled throughout the year including the design and implementation of the cabling infrastructure for Aurora’s new Aurora Medical Center in Grafton and Reardon sees several areas for growth. While cabling infrastructure is CC&N’s largest revenue source, she predicts the greatest growth may actually come from two other products, a voice communications solution and network monitoring products.
“The cabling infrastructure is a solid product offering for us, but these other two areas have a lot of growth opportunity,”
she says. “And that is something every company needs.”
To learn more from Lisa Reardon on what it’s like to manage an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) corporation, click here.