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Strategic Planning Project for Transformational Client: Progressive Industries
With the help of: West Virginia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WVMEP)
About
Progressive Industries, Precision Tool, Performance Hydraulic, and Phoenix Trucking are four companies owned and operated from Morgantown, West Virginia, by the same leadership team. In total the organizations employ approximately 75 people in a family-run business with deep ties in the community. Progressive Industries is a machine and fabrication shop that rebuilds underground mobile equipment for the mining and oil/gas industries. Precision Tool is a CNC machine shop with the ability to weld and has strong capabilities in reverse engineering. Performance Hydraulic is an inventory replenishment business and Phoenix Trucking is a transportation service that supports the four businesses in addition to transport for external customers.
The Challenge
Progressive Industries relies on the mining and oil and gas industry and the organization’s success is fully depending upon the markets that they serve. Precision Tool adds a diversification to the business but supports one large customer for 80% of their business while the remaining 20% is made up of small, more transient customers. The other business entities are stable and self-sufficient.
Given the ever-changing fuel industry and the reliance on one large customer for Progressive and Precision’s business, the leadership team needed to prepare business continuity plans to identify new markets and new customers to diversity all aspects of the businesses.
While business plans were developed in the past and informal strategic plans were in place, there was no formal structure for identifying the companies’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). Being ISO 9001 certified, there were processes for focused risk identification and mitigation, but there was no formal process for identification and control of business risk that impacted the four entities overall and the company as a whole.
We had a relationship with WVMEP and they assisted in building our ISO 9001 system. They understood our struggles and our aspirations and had an objective perspective on our strengths and weaknesses. We knew they could provide us with the objective assessment of our team, our operations, and our ideas to develop a strategic plan that would help us logically identify and prioritize our next steps. Since completion of the project, we have hired them for three more projects that support our strategic plan and we truly consider them an extension of our team.
MEP's Role
The leadership team contacted WVMEP, a member of the MEP National Network, to provide assistance facilitating a SWOT Analysis to identify short term goals to support a formal strategic plan to guide the leadership team to identify new markets, products, services, and opportunities for diversification.
The project included four strategic planning sessions to conduct the SWOT Analysis, build a strategic plan, identify organizational goals, create job descriptions for leaders, establish employee level goals, and serve as an on-going facilitator for monthly progress meetings. This project was completed over nine months.