2. Profitable and sustainable results are achieved
through a winning combination of efforts — the
right approach, effective execution, and an
energized team.
Perhaps you look proudly upon your accomplishments, believe
everything is under control, and feel good about the future. If you
are like most, however, you are concerned about the future and
perplexed about maintaining growth and profit.
Cutting-edge leaders look back, analyzing actions and decisions
that could or should have been more effective.These leaders realize
that improvements would deliver more profitable results if all areas
of the business were truly scrutinized, not just those assumed to
be problematic by management. An outside-in perspective helps
leaders balance the information received.
If you find yourself thinking about how to grow revenue, now is the
time to look for a trusted third party with the knowledge, resources
and expertise to guide you through the rough times and lead you
to top-notch business practices with sustainable growth and profit.
Experience the Northpoint Results
Northpoint can align your entire organization for sustainable growth,
vertically from the executive team through to the customer-facing
ranks, and horizontally across the functions that create and sustain
value for your customers.
Our projects range from small to large. We analyze your entire
organizational structure top-to-bottom and functions right-to-
left. We learn your business, absorb your culture, appreciate your
values and augment your direction and implementation. During the
engagement process, we adapt our style to meet your unique and
specific needs.
We typically enter a company at the leadership level. However,
we’re proud of the strong relationships and respect that we
foster at all layers within the organization. The engagement
process is something we do day-in and day-out, year-after-year,
and have consistently helped our clients find new sources of
sustainable growth.
Having Northpoint on board to help
drive our major change program
made the initiative a lot easier. I
found it tremendously helpful to
rely on a senior consultant to guide
us through the process. It enabled
my team to stay focused on the
day-to-day issues. Northpoint
delivered tenfold .
“
“
Northpoint’s ability to work with
many team players proved critical.
Richard (Dick) Van Belzen,
Northpoint Managing Director,
provided great oversight.
“
“
Northpoint managed our internal
project traffic, ensuring our
planning and strategic focus were
synchronized. Everyone was on the
same page. Northpoint became a
major part of it and meshed very
well with our management team.
“
“
3. The Northpoint Approach
Many consultants are narrowly focused on one specific area of your
business, such as pricing. Our perspective is broader, our approach
is systematic, our goal is to drive top-line growth and our results are
improved gross profit.
Many Northpoint clients view us as “Revenue Growth Coaches” —
experts at diagnosing the root causes of revenue shortfalls,
developing a path through the challenges and guiding our clients to
sustained growth. Because we find that 75% of growth projects fail
due to an inaccurate identification of the real problem, we pay close
attention to getting the diagnosis right. We understand the costs
and risks of change,therefore making prescriptive recommendations
and we are surgical at making the needed changes. We implement
practical, achievable programs that leverage your strengths and only
set out to fix the core drivers of growth.
We have the framework, skills, and experience to analyze your
system for growth and make sound, fact-based recommendations
for change. Simply put, after implementing our recommendations,
our clients are more successful and perform at the top of their peer
group. Our clients view Northpoint engagements as a high-yielding
investment, not an expense.
We research your industry inside and out, understand your products
and utilize the best minds in the industry to determine the best
results. Northpoint explores all possible drivers for revenue growth,
organic and inorganic.
Organic Growth: We are experienced in all elements of organic
growth and capable of supporting all that apply, or diving into the
one specific area that requires the most help for your organization.
Key organic growth areas include the following:
• Innovation strategy and product / offering management
• Value proposition development and market segmentation
• Market attack strategy
• Market access and sales channel strategy
If we had tried to change our brand-
ing and go-to-market strategy on
our own, we would have struggled to
deliver on time ... Northpoint is a key
reason we were successful.
“
“
Northpoint approached our
Strategic Plan with a specific
understanding of our company.
They told us exactly what the plan
would look like, and delivered. They
did their homework and really
understood our industry model.
“
“
The benefit we found working with
Northpoint was their ability to help
us reframe our original request
before launching headlong into
the project. They had the breadth
and depth we needed. We thought
we had a channels problem, when
in reality, several of our offerings
weren’t resonating with our
customers.
“
“
4. Inorganic Growth projects help you access new markets, identify
and evaluate market-entry strategies, and select and engage
prospective targets. Once a merger or acquisition is executed,
Northpoint helps orchestrate the on-boarding and integration
process to drive full realization of the potential value. Key inorganic
growth areas include the following:
• Value chain assessment
• Identification of market adjacency
• Targeting acquisitions of companies, technology, and
channels
• Development of business alliances
Invest in the Value Stack™
Northpoint helps clients grow by improving their ability to create
value.We use the Value Stack as our guidepost to the key drivers for
value creation. The Value Stack is Northpoint’s unique and proven
approach for focusing on and framing value-driven practices that
propel revenue growth.
Most companies are familiar with the concept of a “technology
stack” or the layered set of technology capabilities: applications
sit on top, followed by software services and operating systems in
the middle, and hardware at the bottom.
Northpoint’s research indicates a
number of factors with a primary
cost stack orientation:
• The cost stack receives 10 times
the human resources of the value
stack
• Utilizes more of the fact-based
analytical talent
• Obtains the bulk of investments
made with consultants
• The cost stack takes the front seat
while the value stack offers more
opportunity for sustainable
growth.
The Cost and Value Stacks
CostStack ValueStack
Northpoint has the knowledge,
expertise,and resources needed in
every layer of the Value Stack.They
have helped us balance our cost and
value investments with dynamic
results.
“
“
5. Many companies emphasize the “cost stack” in managing their
enterprises — that is, they focus on understanding and tightly
managing the activities that reduce the cost of delivering products
or services in an attempt to maintain a competitive advantage.
Often neglected, however, is the “value stack”. A value-based
management approach aims for the maximum price-value for
offerings and intends to gain market share by providing
confidence and establishing a difference to valued customers.
Value-focused management helps companies connect with
customers, understand core product and service value, increase
market share, and build a competitive advantage based on
differentiation and loyalty rather than one-dimensional cost
savings. In essence, value stack components help to build
sustainable engines of growth. Northpoint has the tools, framework,
experience and success with every layer of the Value Stack.
Accelerate your business with QuickLift™
Value creation does not need to be a long-term, capital-intensive
activity. Northpoint can help drive sustainable growth in short
periods of time by deploying tested value-creation tools and
methodologies.
QuickLift is our business acceleration practice that provides fresh
ideas and perspectives through rigorous market research and Voice
of the Customer investigations.QuickLift implementations focus on
delivering practical, actionable solutions with immediate results.
In challenging economic times, nimble companies that focus on
business intensification — even with a limited time-line — can
realize an immediate revenue lift.
The ingredients to drive rapid-response growth in a challenging
business environment include the following:
1. Deep experience in managing through downturns and
crisis. The project leader must be able to make sense of
problems quantitatively and creatively, and possess the vision
to focus solely on activities that deliver the largest and fastest
return on investment.
Northpoint knew just how to reach
all the key stakeholders in our
business — and make each one
feel that they were a major part of
the process.
“
“
With Northpoint’s help we learned
that 87% of our spending was
directed at a low growth business
area.We realigned the R&D
spending to realize double-digit
growth markets ...Thank you
Northpoint.
“
“
I have worked with a lot of
consultants, and many of them
design very intelligent but
ultimately impractical solutions —
I don’t have to worry about that
with Northpoint.
“
“
Northpoint was integral to our
study of market adjacencies. We
trusted their well-developed
insights.Their ability to dig deep
and provide insights, not easily
found is unique to them vs. the
other firms we had do similar
work.
“
“
6. 2. A well-tested portfolio of investigative tools and
methodologies. Driving immediate business growth
requires a highly-tuned set of tools to uncover hidden
opportunities and value.
3. A balance of creative and quantitative skills. Value
creation is too often assigned to creative marketing roles, when,
in fact, deep quantitative and analytical skills are needed to
drive decision-making.
4. A commitment to rapid deployment. Too many market
investigations fail to limit focus to the most critical and
effective activities. Business acceleration activities should
drive results in as soon as 90 days.
5. Entrepreneurial energy and a commitment to drive change.
More often than not, an objective, skilled, and trusted third
party is needed to refocus energy and drive change. Very few
management positions are accountable for growth, and
many managers don’t have the attention or bandwidth to
contribute substantially to a growth initiative.
Shifting From Short- to Long-Term Value Creation
Opportunities for short-term revenue growth exist for companies
with the right skills and approaches. This is accomplished by
investing in the value stack and staffing it with analytical/quantitative
talent. For organizations that compete through customer intimacy
or product leadership, value stacks are a key method to achieving
a leadership position. For companies that compete through
operational excellence, value stacks are essential in holding and
realizing excellent margins.
Companies that invest in value creation — especially in challenging
economies — are realizing significant levels of growth in revenue
and profit.
I didn’t have to touch 70% of the
items that came across my desk
because Northpoint was able to
manage them for me. Having them
here allowed me to do my job and
actually gave me more bandwidth.
“
“
Simply put, they are smart, have
the best insights, offer great advice
and are really easy to have around.
Nobody ever asks me why I brought
them on board.
“
“
They are unassuming game-
changers. Just don’t tell my
competitors.
““
As the CTO, I needed to conduct
a stealth study of various
technology acquisition options to
enhance our platform. Northpoint
was able to identify several hard-
to-find opportunities from around
the world and were instrumental in
bringing a winning technology to
our corporation.
“
“
7. Typical Projects
• Develop Strategic Planning
processes that enable growth.
• Turbocharged a business unit,
accelerating growth from 12% to
40% over five years.
• Built a new channel to increase
market access.
• Used “Simulated Sales Call” on a
medical device to test pricing,
positioning, and value proposition.
• Revised the business model and
market approach plan for a solar
company.
• Studied market adjacency in the
water infrastructure market.
• Supported CEO during a strategic
planning process.
• Successfully on-boarded an
acquisition, beating the expected
profit plan by 8%.
• Drove a plan to achieve a high ROI
yield from R&D in a life sciences
company.
• Developed competitive intelligence
for a medical device company that
yielded key insights.
• Conducted a sense check of an
internal study for an electronics
company.
• Led branding exercise and
developed a go-to market plan for
a security systems provider.
The Northpoint Advantage
Northpoint has fresh ideas, perspectives, and history with tribal
knowledge. We inject energy and support your teams, set you on
the right path, and have a history of successful results.
When should you invest in a Growth Coach?
You have a great team and a solid approach for the future, but the
current approach isn’t delivering what you need to grow revenue
and profit. Now is the time to look to a third party that will examine
every aspect of your business,and design a change program that will
deliver an architecture for sustainable growth.
We’ve worked with Northpoint for several years
and I’m constantly impressed with their ability to
diagnose problem areas and offer fresh ideas.Their
knowledge of all areas affecting my top-line and
level of acceptance within my organization are
equally impressive.With Northpoint, I see an
excellent balance between the art and science of
business practices — a value we’ve found extremely
successful.
“
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8. 19 Sylvan Glen, Suite 300 Fairport, NY 14450 585.233.6707
Web: www.northpointadvisors.com Blog: www.fearlessgrowth.biz
About Northpoint
Northpoint’s expertise is in varied markets including, but not limited to, medical devices,
building systems, high-tech manufacturing, water and energy infrastructure, and renewable
energy.
We are lean and agile, and experts at creating high-performance, on-demand teams. Once
your project needs are identified, we’ll deploy a crew of professionals with the highest level
of experience. Our company is made up of direct employees, dozens of associates, and over
50 top-level authorities in varying business fields. This offers you a focused, high-value,
high-performing group dedicated to your specific needs.
Northpoint maintains close ties with thought leaders, industry analysts, technologists,
researchers, regulators, and key executives at leading market firms. We ramp-up quickly and
get expert answers and insights fast. Our “outside-in” perspective extends beyond our
organization to assure all perspectives are vetted and sound before they reach your team.
The Northpoint Commitment
You may be concerned about group think and need a fresh set of eyes to look at your project.
Maybe you have a critical project but don’t have enough bandwidth on your team to get
started. Or maybe you’re stuck on a tough problem and can’t sort it out. In any case, Northpoint
can help. We can be your trusted advisor, and help you and your team achieve successful
results ... fast. That is the Northpoint promise.
experience the results
