Billable Consultants: 35
Offices: 2
The first thing visitors notice when stepping into the headquarters of Strategic Business Partners (SBP) is the letters.
Framed testimonials from satisfied customers line the entrance to the consulting firm, which provides a large collection of services to companies with annual revenues of up to about $50 million. If SBP, which quickly outgrew President Chuck Orabutt's Illinois home (where it was launched in August 2003), continues on its current growth curve, the entire office building will soon be wallpapered with thank-you notes.
Orabutt and his cofounders, COO Dan Hostetler and Bill Ben, who heads the firm's analysis group, are firm believers in documentation. The firm takes pride in the guiding principles, authored by the founders, which are featured prominently on the Web site and in SBP's marketing materials.
Consultants are graded on the service they deliver to clients. And the firm will even unearth old documentation clients have received from previous consulting engagements to determine if the plans contain valuable guidance that can be dusted off and implemented.
The fact that the firm has revived many dormant client projects that have been paid for but not satisfactorily completed confirmed to Orabutt, Hostetler, and Ben, who possess more than 70 years of combined consulting experience, that their evaluation of the smaller market as underserved was right on the money.
Smaller organizations face a unique crush of challenges, notes Hostetler. Leaders of small enterprises are often too immersed in the day-to-day challenges of driving their companies to the next level to step back and gain a clear view of where the business stands and what nagging or hidden problems are holding it back. Few small-company executives can afford that time and reflection for a very good reason, Orabutt emphasizes.
"Competition is no longer limited to the business down the street," he explains. "It has become regional, national, and even international in nature."
Strategic Business Partners maintains headquarters in Arlington Heights, IL, and has another office in Phoenix, but it serves clients throughout most of the U.S. It is exploring the idea of expanding internationally within the next three to five years. (Hostetler previously served as the president of the 300-consultant Italian division of a large consulting firm.)
The services offered by its 35 consultants, all of whom are Certified Management Consultants (CMC) or are currently completing the work necessary for that designation, are diverse: cash flow, productivity, pricing, and workflow analysis, measurement, and improvement; employee assessment and development; executive training; market penetration and development services; valuation; tax advisory services; and funded capital recovery, to name a few.
The firm is also a big believer in process; its "upfront analysis" is designed to identify the root cause of problems that stymie everyone from painting contractors to hot-air balloon manufacturers to civil engineering firms and other small businesses.
All of the firm's interaction with prospects and clients flows in accordance with well-documented processes. After a project concludes, for example, the business development professional who secured the deal returns to the "closing ceremony" to listen to clients share their assessment of the work and to discuss ways to extend the relationship. The firm also includes as part of its fees six months of postproject monitoring that evaluates the client's progress after SBP steps back.
The small market appears highly receptive to such hands-on guidance. The firm's revenues are expected to grow from $4 million in 2004 to an estimated $12 million for 2005.
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