case | study

CASE STUDY_VISION REALIZATION™
CASE | STUDY
BRAMBLE BERRY, INC.
Fast-growing Bramble Berry, Inc. is a Bellingham,
Washington provider of high quality soap-making and
cosmetics ingredients to thousands of customers,
nationwide. The firm recently recognized new and
secondary opportunities outside of their immediate
industry and wanted to expand into new markets.
However, the firm’s implementation plan ran a little slower
than expected. Managing execution of a growth strategy
requires a high degree of coordination and focus.
02
ACHIEVING
ORGANIZATIONAL
TRANSFORMATION
EXPANDING
INTO NEW
MARKETS
BACKGROUND
Bramble Berry, Inc. was founded in 1998 in the living room of its founder, Anne-Marie Faiola, with the
goal of providing
the highest quality soap-making ingredients and the best possible customer support
BACKGROUND
to soap makers around the country.
Over the last few years, the NGO landscape has evolved rapidly. Many
international NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) have shifted their
The company
has grown
rapidly over
the past
sixteen years
and now
thousands
customers,
geographic
locations
to reduce
operational
costs
and serves
some have
shut of
down
coast-to-coast,
from
their
16,000
square
foot
warehouse
in
Bellingham,
Washington.
Bramble
altogether. This is partly due to financial constraints caused by fewer public Berry
offers more
than 2,500
soap-making
fragranceauthorities
oils, soap molds,
packaging, soap
donations
and
increased products,
pressureincluding
from legislative
requesting
financial
transparency.
making kits,
essential
oils, nourishing oils, clays, and botanicals as well as all of the supplies necessary
to make lip butters, candles, room diffusers, lotions, body butters, bath bombs, cosmetics and much
Bramble
Berry, Incorporated
Many
international
NGO’s have
is a highly
successful
supplier
shifted
geographic
location
and
of high-quality
some
have shut soap-making
down altogether
ingredients and customer
support
for soap
makers
NPHI
wanted
to stay
aheadacross
of the
the U.S.
curve.
Bramble
Berry offers was
more than
NPHI’s
transformation
2,500 soap-making
products,
achieved
in 20 months
versus the
more.
THE NEED
Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International (NPHI), a Mexico-based NGO,
operating in nine different locations across South America and the Caribbean,
THE NEED
with a thousand plus employees, faced similar challenges. The changing
Bramble Berry recently recognized new secondary opportunities outside of their immediate industry
environment increased NPHI’s need to more closely monitor the flow of
and wanted
to expand
their
market presence
accordingly.
Theiracross
goal is various
to double
their revenue using a
funds,
to better
orchestrate
fundraising
activities
geographies,
disciplined
expansion
However, the data
firm’s for
plan
implementation
little slower than expected.
and
to track plan.
its organizational
reporting
and forran
keya marketing
Managing
the execution of such a growth strategy requires a high degree of coordination and focus
activities.
while maintaining stable and predictable operations.
cosmeticswas
andable
much
more. on
“Everyone
to focus
Driven by the passing of its founder, more and more feedback from
regulatory bodies and key fundraising offices as well as added pressure from
THE SOLUTION
other external factors, this committed organization of 60 years found itself in
need of an organizational transformation.
the change process while never
Up” methodology (http://www.gazelles.com) as well as using a sound strategic planning process in
Bramble
Berry
losing
heart
thatrecently
the change was
collaboration with Ron Huntington, their Gazelles coaching consultant for the past 14 years. The company
decided
to expand
the
right thing
to do.”their market
™
wasn’t seeking
approach
or methodology
to planRealization
their future;
rather, they recognized
the need to
In 2014,anNPHI
tasked
adaQuest’s Vision
consultants
with helping
as well
as supplies
used towere
usual
3 years
and initiatives
make lipfrom
balms,
room
reduced
20 candles,
down to 12.
diffusers, lotions, body butters,
presence to secondary markets
with a goal to double revenue
through a disciplined expansion
plan. However, implementation
ran a little slower than expected.
Prior to the initiation of their expansion plan, Bramble Berry had already been leveraging Gazelles’ “Scaling
THE SOLUTION
monitor and
manage
theiranew
plan, drive accountability
and
achieve execution
excellence.
them
develop
transformation
strategy and
implementation
plan,
using their
proprietary Think. Act. Deliver.™ methodology and TAD™ software to:
The company leadership realized they needed to find a tool that would enable their company and
• Drive the strategic planning process with a diverse, fifteen-member
management teams with the automation, reliability and flexibility required to run such a demanding plan.
Board of Directors
As a specialist certified in Gazelles’ “Scaling Up” methodology as well as adaQuest’s Think.Act.Deliver.©
• Ron
Co-develope
a transformational
strategy
and a
three-year
roadmap solution
framework,
Huntington
recommended that
they look
into
using theimplementation
TAD® Vision Realization
for the organization
together with Scaling Up and a TAD-customized version of Gazelles’ One-Page Strategic Plan (OPSP).
• Focus and align resource investments to the most impactful
strategic initiatives and imperatives
During the first six months of leveraging TAD, Bramble Berry executives began to recognize the value
• Drive
communication
data reporting
of employing
an automated
visionand
management
tool.transparency
Using the TAD software integrated with Gazelles’
• Lead
re-alignment
rolemanagement
clarity within the
organizational
structure at all levels of the
applications
helped
Bramble and
Berry’s
teams
drive accountability
to
achieve
a
scalable
governance
structure
operation – from planning to manufacturing to logistics. The cloud-based TAD software was robust,
easy to understand
and customize.
The
company’s
executives
wereand
duly
impressed with the enhanced
• Refine growth
strategies,
supporting
process
re-design
performance
improvement activities
effectiveness.
• Provide leadership coaching as well as specific learning programs for management
The value of(i.e.
TAD
became
most apparent
in their marketing
where
roles and responsibilities
time
management
and effectively
conductingoperations,
development
conversations)
were better
simplify
current
processes.
program
management
necessary to manage
• clarified
Provide to
support
and
development
forThe
program
management
andskills
business
customer expectations
were
significantly enhanced. Customer feedback was overwhelmingly positive,
management
functions
and their success rate meeting milestones and KPIs was substantially increased.
Nuestros Pequeños
International (NPHI)
Bramble Hermanos
Berry
03
THE RESULTS
THE
RESULTS
adaQuest,
Inc. has supported Bramble Berry in their journey by:
the course of 20 months, adaQuest’s helped NPHI transform their organization by:
Over
•
•
Prioritizing their strategic themes (aka key thrust) against their 3-5 year vision
Developing
a clear strategy,
includingthat
prioritized
strategic
themes
•
Rationalizing
the initiatives
will have
the biggest
ROI to deliver on their strategy
•
Creating
board-approved
three-year
roadmap/plan
aligned
with SMART
the strategy
• aMaking
sure that all
initiativesinitiative
and ROCKS
have action
plans and
goalstoassociated
facilitate
organizational
transition
and
sustain
the new
strategies
• the
Aligning
the leadership
team
and
initiative
owners
around(Including
the “why” atoreduction
maintain from
focus
20
down toaccess
12 for the
roadmap)
initiatives
•
Providing
to a3-year
live strategic
dashboard to measure the progress of their strategy
•
Establishing
a new set
ofexecutive
organizational
goals
dashboard
tracking
•
Enabling
their
coach
and with
leadership
teamstatus
to follow
progress from any geographic •
location
Build
a new
organizational structure with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and
operating principles
•
Refining of key internal people processes
As a result of Bramble Berry’s support relationship with adaQuest and the use of TAD software, the
Building processes and skills for initiative execution
firm was able to realize the following benefits in less than a year’s time:
Developing
a detailed communication plan and business rhythm calendar
•
•
•
Alignment around the firm’s growth strategy and goals: Company COO, Norm The level of change required for an organization of this size would typically entail three
Vigre commented, “TAD not only brought everyone together on our vision, it also or more years of change management planning, coordination, and operationalization.
allowed us to track and monitor our data more effectively on an on-going basis.” As a result of the Think. Act. Deliver methodology and software, the process was
streamlined to produce an actionable program in less than two years. Benefits already
•
Efficiency Gain: Bramble Berry achieved a 20% improvement in hitting their realized include:
quarterly goal target rates. The firm also experienced labor savings of 45 hours a •
month
at the manager
level.
Increased
understanding
of the organization’s
vision, mission, values and principles
•
New capability to set and track goals and execute on strategic initiatives
•
Increased
project
management
capability: With TAD, the program management Increased
transparency
across
the organization
•
•
teams
the opportunity
to benchmarkdecision
their skills,
and enhance
their
ability to Increased
clarity had
concerning
roles, responsibilities,
making,
escalation
paths,
meet project timelines and scope more effectively. The ability to stay current on and
accountability
•
objectives
began driving
culture ofwith
improved
accountability
within the
company.
Improved
internal collaboration
andaalignment
the organization’s
business
rhythm
to ensure a more effective meeting schedule and improved information flow
•
•
Increased
capacity forsoftware
future planning:
functionality
enables
the
Implementation
of user-friendly
used to TAD
monitor
and trackthat
ongoing
progress
simultaneous, multi-level monitoring and tracking of objectives enabled the
executive and management teams to better focus their time and efforts. They
could use TAD’s real-time program status visibility features to more sharply focus THE
IMPACTtheir time, and then anticipate and mitigate potential risks accordingly.
The client credits adaQuest’s transformational implementation with providing “…a model
that helped us organize our strategic thinking and actions into manageable units. Without
THE IMPACT
TAD, we wouldn’t have achieved the results and current progress on our strategic plan.
Bramble Berry executives credit adaQuest’s TAD methodology and software for driving accountability,
With adaQuest’s consulting services support, everyone was able to focus on the change
thanks its ease of automation, customization flexibility and multi-featured robustness. As company
process while never losing heart that the change was the right thing to do. Without
COO, Norm Vigre said, “it can only get better from here.” Vigre highly recommends TAD for companies
their help,
there would have been more resistance to the change process.”
with rigorous growth strategies.
GROW | SMART™
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growing companies
companies adapt
adapt to
to challenges
challenges
For more
more than
than 15
15 years,
years, adaQuest
adaQuest has
has been
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helping growing
by providing
intelligent
services
that deliver
consistent
results.
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us the
of talking
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2016 adaQuest
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