Unlock Growth with Tailored Business Strategy Solutions

Lay the groundwork for success by developing a comprehensive business strategy

Executive Performance On Demand.

When We’re Needed.
For As Long As We’re Needed.

The pandemic forced many executives to re-think every aspect of their business. In some cases, it meant pivoting away from historic core business activities. In other cases, it simply meant there was no time to conduct business as usual and processes were streamlined and re-engineered. Other companies thrived with existing strategies.

Whatever your pandemic strategy, where do you go from here?

We can help you develop and select from various strategic options to find your best opportunities to grow revenue and add to your company’s bottom line.

Each Osborne Group principal has held senior leadership positions throughout their career. They have the wisdom built from decades of experience to help guide others to similar levels of success.

Our principals have worked in a broad range of organizations, sectors and functional areas holding positions including CEO, COO, CFO, SVP, EVP, executive director and general manager in small and medium enterprises (SME) as well as large multi-national companies. Their roles have included responsibility for governance, strategic planning, finance, operations, human resources, procurement/supply chain, capital projects, information technologys, marketing and communications, sales management and training, organizational design and development and succession planning.

One of the strengths of the Osborne Group is, that in addition to providing strong leadership as individuals, our principals can come together in multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary teams to focus on developing and delivering comprehensive business strategies.

The Osborne Group, a dynamic team of highly experienced executives, has been helping organizations succeed since 1993. We provide a wide range of professional interim management, consulting, planning, and project management services. Our clients are small, medium size and multinational companies in for profit, not-for-profit and government agencies.

We have experience across many business sectors, including:

Consumer packaged goods
Digital marketing/sales
Healthcare
Finance and banking
Insurance
Manufacturing
Technology
Telecommunications
First Nations

Our principals have leadership experience and in-depth knowledge in all areas of business. We get to work quickly and get the job done to the highest standards.

On every assignment we:

Focus on our client’s needs first
Collaborate to develop the best solutions
Work with integrity
Provide excellent quality service
Commit to outstanding results

Considering the changes forced upon us by the pandemic, many businesses are rethinking their existing plans. Others are now realizing they need to have a simple, actionable plan to help them navigate through a changing world. In either case, business planning approaches of the past 20 years are seen as lacking flexibility, being too static and overly time-consuming.

Osborne Group Principal Garry Wood explains how to prevent getting discouraged or bogged down in the complexity of building a business plan.

For more on how to approach strategic planning in your business, reach out to us today.

Osborne principals have worked on many succession planning initiatives that have led to management buyouts. In these cases, the key to success for both the current owner and the new owner is the ongoing prosperity of the business. The emphasis should always be on a transparent and workable process with well-defined expectations of both parties.

Providing Guidance Through a Management Buyout

We recently worked with a small business owner to help define the strategic direction for the company and lead them through the implementation of the plan. This included reviewing the ownership structure, financing options, restructuring the management team and taking on the role of COO for a short time, all with the goal of maximizing returns to the majority shareholder. This culminated in implementing an exit strategy for the owner, including entertaining a buy-out initiative from the new management group.

The work included:

The development and completion of an initial non-binding buy-out proposal detailing price, terms, and conditions. This allowed both parties to understand/negotiate the transition elements and costs before engaging expensive legal and accounting services to execute a binding agreement and a buy/sell agreement. It addressed timing to transition from the current owner’s management control to the new owners.
The development of a timetable to set up “Newco” with various ownership/management terms. During this step, we helped the Newco participants define their operating and governance structure.
We provided documentation of a set of business results, expectations and responsibilities during the period of management and ownership transition to avoid any transition surprises.
In addition to structuring the management buyout, we reviewed the existing legal structure of the initial and proposed companies and provided recommendations to simplify the conveyance of equity of the overall business in a workable and tax-effective way.

As a result of the time spent as COO, the Osborne principal was able to review the responsibilities of key personnel, particularly with respect to current responsibilities and how these would change and when.

Contact The Osborne Group if you are considering selling your business.

Osborne principals have deep experience managing multi-faceted sales and marketing programs that have achieved aggressive sales and revenue targets. They can help you analyze who your best customers are from a revenue perspective and how to prioritize those clients to drive your bottom line.

Are you ready to pivot to new target markets or is it time to re-prioritize among existing customers? We will look at all aspects of your business lines to help find new revenue sources and improve your margins.

We know what questions to ask to help guide you to better sales and marketing results.

Is your brand resonating and are your products well-positioned for growth?
What is the contribution margin from your best performers?
Is your growth coming from high yield margin items or other products?
How do you know your marketing programs are succeeding?
Are they generating real leads for your sales funnel?
Can your sales growth be easily attributed to leads generated from marketing programs?
Is your sales model fully aligned with the markets you are pursuing?
Which platforms are contributing to your KPI’s?
Which are converting to signed contracts?

Osborne principals have helped increase sales and bottom-line revenue growth for Canadian companies in a variety of sectors. Whether your business requires repositioning with a new brand identity or a new sales strategy, we can help.

Contact The Osborne Group to discuss how to spark sales and revenue growth.

Get in Touch

Our Clients Say It Best

Our organization needed a strategic plan to enhance our professionalism, establish clear direction, and define our goals. The Osborne Group guided us in creating this plan. Their approach was professional, organized, and structured, enabling full team participation. As a result, we now have dynamic policies, procedures, and sub-committees in place, allowing us to take a proactive approach.

Doug Morrison

President, Board Member, The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation

Faced with potential operational funding cuts, our not-for-profit organization recognized the urgent need to consider various scenarios to plan for financial change. We were looking for structure and experience to help us think through some difficult questions. The Osborne Group facilitated a workshop with our board and using our current strategic plan, they developed three financial scenarios for the organization to explore. The Osborne Group was very thorough and provided the external perspective needed to ask hard questions that led to in-depth conversations and great engagement from the board. We can now step back and look at our organization from a wider lens and we have a plan to best move forward. Overall, The Osborne Group provided incredible value and we are very pleased with the outcome.

Wendy Rading

Executive Director, Arts Etobicoke

Working as a small team had become insular and repetitive, and the challenges of dealing with a tight budget meant we had to be creative to make the most of the available funds. We worked with The Osborne Group to create our new strategic plan because they had experience working with family health teams. They facilitated thoughtful and inclusive discussions with our team which allowed us to generate new ideas, gain a fresh perspective, and get out of our comfort zone. It was all very worthwhile because we now have a realistic plan that includes actionable items that we can work towards to reach the end goals and help drive us forward. The new plan is useful and understandable across sectors and allows the funders to see the challenges that lie ahead but also future success.

Kate Malisani

Executive Director, Crosstown Family Health Team

We were working with a team that had grown dissatisfied and was facing a lot of changes which resulted in low engagement scores. The Osborne Group was able to provide an HR advisor who facilitated sessions to talk with the group about the changes and expectations, new ways of measuring performance, explained the policies and processes and helped them explore career opportunities. After the sessions with the team, we could tell that the team was opening up to new ways of working and realize the benefits of the changes. We feel that overall, the sessions had a positive effect and that we are now on the right path forward.

Marcel Badertscher, CHRE

Vice President, Human Resources, Heartland Mutual Insurance

Our agency was going through a period of major transition, and we lacked bench strength on our team to help assess what was going on and provide top level leadership. The Osborne Group provided an interim executive leader who listened and quickly assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. The ED made recommendations for new staff, restructuring and provided solid solutions that laid the groundwork for us to execute new initiatives and have long-term growth. We now have a stronger organization that’s armed with a strategic plan for a way forward.

Cindy Blakely

Founder, New Circles