Entries by Cindy Praeger

Learn the 5Cs to drive change and alignment successfully in your organization. (55 minute webinar)

Need inspiration? Learn top ideas to create your go-forward plan. (1hr 3 minute webinar)

Learn how the Rhythm platform keeps remote teams focused on the work that matters all year long (53 minute webinar)

In an era of rapid and continuous disruption, the old ways are not agile enough to keep up. CEOs need something new to move their companies faster and win. Companies that correctly implement Intelligent Work Platforms have seen revenues grow over 100% year over year. Since this top-line growth comes primarily as a result of better execution of an already good strategy, these companies saw proportionate increases in their bottom lines as well.

Scaling a company is one of the greatest challenges a CEO faces. You are likely no exception. CEOs find they can no longer directly manage all of their employees, so they start organizing their companies into departments and assigning department managers. Then the culture begins to shift and change and silos begin to form. 

A better way to scale a family-owned business

How Master Electronics grew from 160 to 450 people by empowering them to make decisions without family input

Riad Nizam is the President of Master Electronics, a leading authorized distributor of electronic components. When Master Electronics became our client over six years ago, they were doing well as a company but it was hard to scale. Without a tool like Rhythm, they would start with a plan but four weeks later, lose momentum. 

In order to scale, Master Electronics had to:

• Build a culture of trust to empower their employees to make decisions without having the family last name
• Track their plan and stay focused on the activities that drove their growth initiatives

A Better Way to Forecast Customer Growth

How a manufacturing company improved their ability to forecast when production needed to ramp up to meet customer demand

As a provider of custom-built machines that help food processing companies load frankfurters, sausages, cheese sticks and other products, Drake has to forecast when customer demand arises so they can have all of the appropriate teams and resources in place (engineering, welder, machinists, etc.) in order to meet their deadlines.

George Reed, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, shared that sales forecasts, expenses and hiring plans were historically determined once a year during their annual budgeting and forecasting process.

Written by Cindy Praeger and Eskinder Assefa

Departmental silos in business are organizational units that should operate as specialized components of the proverbial ‘well-oiled machine’ but, unfortunately, almost always wind up operating increasingly in isolation of the rest of the company and will often end up in turf wars.

Organizational units created to provide excellence in some functional area inevitably grow to the point that they become more or less independent of the rest of the company. That, in turn, leads to fragmentation, destroying synergy with the rest of the organization and, at the same time, wasting resources by replicating expertise and data found elsewhere in the company choking the flow of information and making most cross departmental projects failures.

Written by Cindy Praeger and Eskinder Assefa

A fairly significant body of research now clearly shows that the reason why a number of mid-to-large companies face is not that their strategies were not sound, but because they were unable to create a culture of strategy execution to perform well on those otherwise sound strategies.  Successful teams bridge the strategy to execution gap through Intelligent Work.  

Blog written by Cindy Praeger & Guest Blogger, Eskinder Assefa

It was my pleasure to present a webinar last week with our partners, ACG, SunTrust, and the National Center for the Middle Market, on a topic that keeps many of our clients up at night - how to maximize M&A as a growth strategy. As the exclusive research report provided by the National Center for the Middle Market shows, for many executives, M&A feels like a big risk. Few have experience acquiring a business or selling off part of their business, and the statistics are against them - depending on which study you read, somewhere between 50-90% of acquisitions fail. So, if you are considering mergers and acquisitions as part of your growth strategy, you have good reason to be cautious.  

However, there are some proven ways to increase your chances of success. We’ve seen these patterns play out several times with our clients over the last decade, and we want to share the National Center for Middle Market’s research and our insights into how you can beat the odds and succeed with your acquisition.

According to Fortune, “The Kauffman Foundation and Inc. Magazine conducted a follow-up study of companies five to eight years after they had appeared on the magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies. What they found was startling: about two-thirds of the companies that made the list had shrunk in size, gone out of business, or been disadvantageously sold."

If your business is growing rapidly, you might feel as though you are losing control of steering the ship.

We are incredibly excited to announce Rhythm 4.0! Rhythm 4.0 is designed for flawless execution. It is built specifically for the challenges mid-market companies face in this ever-changing business landscape.

Recently, we held a webinar with VitalSmarts about Crucial Conversations and its effect in the workplace. I was astonished to learn about the staggering cost of silence in an organization. As Chase McMillan pointed out, there are two immediate responses to conversations involving high stakes, strong emotions, and opposing views: violence and silence. "Silence starves the discussion; it decreases the collectively IQ of the group. There is less buy-in for the discussion,“ Chase noted.

According to a VitalSmarts survey, the problem is much more pervasive than one would think. 72% of workers fail to speak up when a fellow worker fails to pull their weight. 68% don't speak up when they see someone disrespected, and 55% fail to speak up when there is confusion about decision rights. Silence is not only pervasive, but it's also extremely costly. Each failed conversation costs an average of $7500 in time and resources , and employees waste seven days or more.

I was ecstatic when I learned that Rhythm Systems was being recognized as one of the best places to work in Charlotte. I would also love to congratulate all the other winners, including our long-time client, AvidXchange. Our team ranked 7th in the Charlotte Business Journal Best Places to Work Program this year! In my mind, this award has been a long time coming. When Patrick Thean and I started this company ten years ago, we made a conscious effort to make our workplace inviting and fun!

Clearly, you love your clients, but do they love you back?

If you're like me, you really enjoy working with your clients. You may even feel like you have developed personal relationships with them. But, when it comes to how your clients feel about you, your team and your company, you need data, not just a gut feeling.

There is a major difference between having a relationship with a client and having a client who is satisfied with the work your company is providing.

When storms blew through San Antonio on April 12, baseball-size hail smashed homes,
businesses—and cars. Lots of cars. 

As the storm blew in, the service team of Principle Auto Group was away from the business—on a leadership retreat at a ranch with no cell service. About 10:30pm, the team walked to their cabins and into an area with cell coverage.

As the NFL draft approaches later this month, you might take some time to consider your own team. Do you have the right team in place to produce legendary results? High performance teams start with careful planning - as a leader, you must figure out how to bring your strategy, execution and players' skills together to win.

Bringing in a new team member successfully can be tricky. After all the time and resources you spent hiring the right person, be sure to invest in creating the right onboarding experience for your new hire.

Doing this right is good for everyone - it helps you retain the new person, maintain good team health, and prevent increased stress of bringing a new hire up to speed.