Sparks - Clients

Success Stories

Although our work is always highly confidential, we are happy to share a few of our favorite success stories, albeit anonymously. These, we hope, will give you a sense of the powerful forward motion that organizations of all sizes can attain, (with the right tools!).

Growth and Profit
A design/build firm in the Pacific Northwest suffered from low profitability and very tough competition. Through strategic planning, they prioritized 44 widely dispersed markets into six, and poured their energies into building notable positions in each. They created clear leaders for each market as well as each corporate function, including a clarified CEO role and a new COO position.

Creating a New Identity
A West Coast architectural firm, known for its vanilla work and aggressive marketing, aspired to be a fine design firm. Through strategic planning, they reinvented the firm with aggressive pursuit of design competitions, hiring design-oriented graduate architects, and an office re-design. As of today, the firm has won ten international design competitions, including a new airport in the Far East.

The Entrepreneurial Culture
A Midwestern civil engineering firm had lapsed into a tired bureaucratic culture through its practice of hiring former state agency staffers. To infuse entrepreneurial spirit, the strategic plan called for a visionary principal in the president’s role, an aggressive hiring initiative, a targeted acquisitions program, and a new compensation structure. Today they are a national player in transportation engineering.

Smooth Ownership Transition
An East Coast landscape, planning, and urban design firm saw trouble when the CEO announced his future retirement plans. Of the eight second-tier managers, none was prepared for the top role. Through strategic planning, the firm created a set of “mini-firm” studio teams with assigned principals, performance goals, incentive compensation programs, and training for those leaders. Two excellent candidates for president emerged. Using a co-leadership strategy, one was selected for the top strategic-external job, and the other for the top internal-operations job.

Getting Focused
A West-coast high-tech engineering firm was threatened by the stronghold design/build was taking in the water and wastewater industries. The firm employed a number of Ph.Ds, however they were deployed to production work. The president held a number of patents, but was managing the corporate office. By reclaiming their passion for new water technologies, the firm attracted top talent as well as cutting-edge projects. And their clients view them as the must-have gurus on the team.

Carving a Niche
A Southeast interior design firm competed poorly as a local, generalist practice. With good planning, the firm chose to focus on one clear niche that they loved: resorts. By hiring strategically, including economic and operations experts, and launching a creative positioning campaign, they now enjoy a thriving niche practice with clients around the country.