Client: Association for Corporate Growth, New England Chapter

“We had grown so quickly that we didn’t have the infrastructure to handle the size that ACG had become… Susan is incredibly talented and ran strategy sessions that equally balanced control with leadership over the process, while at the same time making sure everybody was heard, and that all ideas were valued, and taken to their appropriate next step. This balance is rare in facilitators. She’s strategic, very capable, and very good at prioritizing things” - Elliot Williams, President

Business Challenge
The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) is a non-profit trade group for providers of services in the mergers and acquisition space. The organization had outgrown the business model and needed a new strategy and direction.

The Approach
Susan used her facilitation skills to run high-level strategy sessions, and elicit actionable ideas.

The Work
She helped create a growth model by facilitating a multi-part strategy process with key members of the Board of Directors, comprised of C-level executives from investment banks in Boston. The goal of the meetings was to lay out new goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. She helped the incoming president to plan the agendas, facilitated the meetings, helped prioritize the ideas and pull together actionable summaries that drove the agenda for the next meeting. She drew upon the strategies and priorities coming out of the meetings to lay out high-level tactics needed to make those things happen.

The Results
Based upon those sessions, the organization grew from a one person corporate part-time administrator to five full-time people with very distinct jobs. The operation is much more efficient, and the strategy sessions were instrumental in getting the organization to the next level. The direction coming from the meetings also helped ACG make the transition from manufacturing-focused mergers and acquisitions to technology-focused mergers and acquisitions.