Thought Leadership
Improving Business Strategy for Growth and Scale with AI
The rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have created significant opportunities for mid-market companies to improve their business strategies for growth and scale. By leveraging AI, mid-market companies can enhance their decision-making processes, increase efficiency, enhance customer experience, and become more agile. In this white paper, we will explore the impact of AI on mid-market […]
Maven Founder Spotlight: Mark Hess
Mark Hess is not reinventing the wheel, yet his approach to mid-market consulting is undoubtedly innovative. After studying economics and mechanical engineering, earning an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth, and working for Bain & Company, he began his own entrepreneurial venture, which “hatched over beer and pool,” as many great ideas are. Mark […]
Scaling Your Business
As your business grows, your profit margins increase automatically – it’s a pervasive myth that could not be farther from reality. In most cases, your margins will shrink alongside business expansion for a variety of reasons. It takes a conscious and proactive approach to combat cost increases and reap the rewards of your growth. Here’s […]
A Client’s Perspective: Danai Brooks
Danai Brooks studied engineering at Cornell and held several engineering and operations roles before earning an MBA at Kellogg. Post business school Danai joined JP Morgan’s Mergers and Acquisitions team. He then stepped out of advisory to run a small public industrial enzymes company. After the business was successfully sold to DuPont, he craved something […]
A Client’s Perspective: Rand Stagen
Entrepreneurs Rand Stagen and Mark Hess Shape Purpose-Driven Businesses from the Inside In 1999, Rand Stagen launched the Stagen Leadership Academy to help mid-market companies grow their positive impact in the world. Within a few years, he and his partners had what they termed a “peanut butter and chocolate moment.” They envisioned a future which […]
A Client’s Perspective: Sunny Vanderbeck
When Texas-based multi-strategy investment firm Satori Capital enlisted mid-market consultants Maven Associates to undertake due diligence projects concerning potential investments, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Sunny Vanderbeck found immediate value in Maven’s unique approach. “Sometimes, what clients want to buy is a paper to reinforce their existing beliefs,” said Vanderbeck. “I don’t have any use for […]
Time to Refresh Your Strategy
Are You (and your team) Prepared for What Comes Next? The pandemic has brought changes to virtually every business and industry. Some of the changes have been small, but many are significant. Some are positive changes, some are negative. These changes happened in a relatively short period of time. It is a tribute to business […]
Principles of Strategy
In broad strokes, strategy is decision making—but not in the way one might think. The most important part of your strategy is deciding what you’re not going to do. What is Strategy? Strategy, simply stated, is how you get from Point A (where you are now) to Point B (where you want to be). You […]
Maximize Your Exit Valuation Multiple
Co-authored with @StenningSchueppert. Successful private equity (“PE”) firms generally execute well in the three commonly accepted phases of portfolio company value creation: 1) Buy right, 2) Grow EBITDA, and 3) Sell that EBITDA at highest multiple possible. In our experience, many PE firms are missing critical low-hanging fruit by not maximizing their exit multiples because they […]
5 Approaches to Profitability
With the economy slowing, many companies will shift their focus to improving their profitability. Is your management team prepared to take a fresh look at how to grow profit margins? In our work with mid-market companies over the last decade, we have helped uncover many different ways to improve profits. Here are our Top 5 approaches to improving […]