”Overall Maven’s involvement was a great value and we believe the project was a big success.”

-Drew Clancy

Drew Clancy is the President of Publishing Concepts (PCI). After acquiring one of its biggest competitors, the PCI team was not done. It needed to streamline the two businesses as well as continue the total company growth trajectory. 

Having met Mark during a Stagen event, and keeping in touch, Drew was aware of Maven’s capabilities and the value of partnering with a consultant specialized in the mid-market.  The two had discussed various projects over the years, and following a particularly successful year Drew felt it was time to invest in his business’ strategy. With aggressive growth objectives, he knew that the investment would give him the unbiased insights he and his management team needed to reach the next level. 

Drew elected to combine the cost containment/profit hunt project with the strategy project for two reasons.  By starting with the cost containment project, the Maven team would be immersed quickly within the business and gain a deeper understanding of how it worked and what was important. And secondly, the expectation was that the first project would generate unrealized profit that could then fund the strategic initiatives. 

What Drew found to be most valuable about the project was an outside, unbiased opinion of which projects NOT to explore. Often times, companies have many options on the table for growth, and attempt to tackle them all. Maven was able to identify where PCI should place its bets for the greatest return. 

Maven delivered several insights and paths forward of which PCI is working towards. The quickest to implement was a new “Oral Project” product that has generated an incremental $4M. In addition, PCI is working on a digital marketing program that includes segmentation and is still a work in progress. Finally, Maven identified efficiency potential for the inside sales group, and PCI is working on call smoothing – matching forecasted inbound calls with available associates. 

One recommendation that Drew has for other companies looking to embark on this sort of project, is to be prepared to take the reins once the Maven team hands over the reports. He says that the Maven team does a remarkable job at providing detailed reports, road map and a clear path forward, so it is on the company to dedicate resources to execute on those ideas to properly capitalize on the insights. 

“We’ve implemented the road map to a good extent, but it is a 2-3 year plan, so we continue to work on all of the recommendations,” comments Drew.