Case Study - Devising a Strategy

Our business grew much faster than me or my two partners ever expected explains Darragh Cullan, Managing Director of KMC Engineering. Apart from focusing on getting jobs right, spending time with customers, and making sure we had cash, we had time for nothing else.

My job was to deal with the customers, all the suppliers, make sure we had all the materials and components, plan the production and delivery dates and manage the books making sure the finances were always in the black. My partners, who made sure things got made properly, called it being the MD.
We only started our business in 2000. We, that is the three of us, had a sort of a plan then, but soon found we were on a treadmill – with no strategy for the future. Then I went on Excelus.

The first session concentrated on me and the other participants from a personal point of view - nothing about the business. From session two onwards that changed.
Excelus started to impact on my thinking right from the start. The programme very quickly made me realize the importance of devising a strategy that would ensure the future success of the company.

Arguably the best feature of Excelus is its constant focus on learning, not on what it had to teach. That learning enabled us to focus on the future and shape our businesses to take advantage of the opportunities that the future might provide. Excelus exposed me to current and future global trends, challenged my thinking in terms of how to create advantage in the company to maximise the growth and profit potential that exists in the market place.

The Excelus Leaders Programme has equipped me with practical, easy to use, effective tools with which to devise the strategy for the future of my business. These have been invaluable. But another great feature of the programme is the assistance and encouragement, from personal coaches and colleagues, to effect changes.
Our strategy for the future is now in place but it is being revisited monthly and continues to evolve. It is a dynamic thing. At the same time, just like the recent Olympians, we all know what the finishing line is for this dynamic strategy of ours. It was important for us not to stray too far from what all of us in the company know and do best. We also made a point of collecting the views and opinions of everyone in the firm. That was invaluable.
Had we not set ourselves some clearly defined goals and made them known throughout the company, I believe we could have become very complacent. It’s such an easy thing to do when things seem to be going well. And that could have considerably impacted on us achieving the success we want for the future.

Darragh Cullen
Managing Director
KMC Engineering Ltd