A Single Graphic Clarifies The Path Forward During Explosive Growth
Introduction
Between 2004 and 2008, I was the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for Sigue Corporation, a money transfer company based in Los Angeles. In my role, I was in charge of 10,000 agents scattered across the United States, and an international network throughout the Latin American areas we serviced. Originating agents accepted the cash for transfer; terminating agents handled the actual transfer of cash to the receiver. These agents were serviced by 150 salespeople.
Situation
At that time, Sigue Corporation was experiencing explosive growth and facing a wide range of growth opportunities. The challenge was to be very effective in managing this growth. Our core market was Hispanics, the largest money transfer audience in the United States. They send home $50 billion annually. This is a very unique market, and big companies were entering the market with competing strategies.
We wanted to expand our reach through potential strategic alliances. That meant that we had to assess the feasibility and profitability of integrating our products into the offerings of other companies. Making the right choices and pursuing the right strategies were critical to long-term growth and maintaining market share.
Our CEO had a clear vision of where we wanted to be in five years. His 5 year plan called for Sigue to be a $1 Billion a year company. This meant that SIGUE would have to triple in size. This was the task that Jim and I decided to tackle.
Jim Wilson was introduced to us by a friend of our CEO. At the time Jim was working with Farmers on their Hispanic marketing strategy. We started asking, “How can we dovetail our services with the offerings of other companies? What synergies can we create by integrating our services with what others are doing?”
Solution
We hired Jim to help us develop a strategic plan that would ensure we could manage the growth and opportunities. Jim and I plunged in to align our core business strategies, reorganize reporting structures in the various regions and states, and develop new products and services.
When we started, I feared that it was growth that was managing us. We had many growth inefficiencies, and were not doing risk management. There was no way to manage multiple opportunities. With 10,000 agents in 40 states and 20 territories, we seriously needed to consolidate our strategic thinking and allocate resources wisely.
With Jim’s help, we moved to where we were managing growth. From the existing 12 regions we created five stronger and better managed regional organizations and restructured weekly and monthly reporting. We developed weekly agendas to check up on results and monthly Vital Factors Meetings. Through the course of the engagement, we dissected the whole organization and put it back together so it could be managed.
One of the things I really enjoy the most in working with Jim is his quick ability to understand the company, issues and deliverables. Even more remarkable, he’s able to map things out in such a way that we could sell our concepts to our stakeholders.
This project had so many moving parts that it would have required 40 PowerPoint slides to explain it. The most remarkable thing Jim did was to illustrate the entire project on 7’ x 4’ poster which we used to present our findings and recommendations to stakeholders. It eventually ended up on my office wall. He’s got a fantastic gift of being able to break down multiple complexities into something that can be easily understood.
We were able to go to a board meeting and, within 10 minutes, walk members through the map of what we were going to accomplish. The board members, and later other stakeholders, quickly understood the plan, the realignments, and the benefits. In such a fast growth environment, quickly communicating and getting buy-in is critical to the success of objectives. If we’d used 40 slides, questions and concerns would have led to a three-hour meeting and slowed our progress.
With this single map, stakeholders quickly understood changes in reporting and internal structure. This led to dialog over the picture of what we were trying to accomplish. Jim has a rare and unique skill of assimilating and processing massive amounts of information and translating it into usable form.
Results
- As a result of Jim’s engagement, the company realized very tangible results in performance. We used his strategies to manage growth, extend reach, and develop new money transfer “corridors”. We were doing very well as a result of his work.
- The company was growing by 20 % a year, and we were managing that growth smartly within the context of this plan. Because of Jim’s work, we were able to understand how to more efficiently and effectively deploy our assets. We reorganized internal reporting to better focus our endeavors.
- Jim is gifted at creating alignment through feedback and dialog. He gets people to understand the relationship of their functions to the overall goal.
- He helped us to streamline and actually understand the connections between and among all the moving parts. His work allowed us to see the new connections among marketing, sales, and finance. We made many changes in how we were doing business to increase efficiency.
- One thing remarkable about Jim is that he positions the stakeholder within the company to really shine. He’s all about making people and things work together. He will not be the quarterback. He will be the special assistant mapping the plays on his tablet with the coach and planning the next strategic moves. You won’t have a “battle of the egos” with him.
- We developed a strategic map for the whole corporation. We illustrated the linkage between macro vital factors and micro vital factors in one comprehensible image. Deliverables within the company became crystal clear. The engagement was delivered and the vision was synthesized. This work changed the mindframe of the entire organization.
- On the personal side, Jim is a delightful person and we became good friends. He has a “university professor” persona at times, and I see that as a strength. He can map complexities for the understanding of others. We are both very futuristic in our approach. I needed a thinker to help me with a very complex business and unique environment.
Subsequently, I left Sigue Corporation. However, I trusted Jim so much that I brought him into another engagement in a new company. If you’re in the position of needing to create, plan and sell a complicated new vision of your business, he’s the guy you want to have working next to you during the process.” Gaston Pereira
Where To Next?
Now you’ve read a case study of one of Jim Wilson’s clients, go to the Ty Vukelich Case Study to read another.