The Strategy Page

We are excited to mark our twentieth year in business as a consulting firm. It is estimated that only 30% of businesses make it to ten years. We are grateful to the clients and friends who got us here. As they say on Law & Order, here are their stories:

A Multi-Generational Family Business Story

Dan Kravitz emerged as the successor to his father around the time of the 2008 liquidity crisis. As third-party administrators of retirement plans, Kravitz had a strong reputation, in part because Dan’s father Lou was active in writing the very regulations that governed their industry.

In Dan’s first strategy planning session with Optimize, the management team agreed on a sea change within the organization. They would specialize in a very specific niche within the retirement plan industry--selling cash balance plans. It took Kravitz about five years to achieve market leadership, becoming the largest independent provider of cash balance plans in the U.S. at that time. 

Kravitz was an innovative company, holding an Innovation Day every year and incentivizing employees to bring new ideas to the management team. Kravitz offered training and a certification for a fee to other TPAs to sell cash balance plans, and offered to be their back office. Dan co-authored a book with one of his salespeople so either could speak at numerous trade conferences. The company adopted a hybrid work environment years before the pandemic. It added an investment advisory arm, and created its own mutual funds for vertical integration.

In 2017, Kravitz was sold to a public company who wanted to enter the cash balance space. Kravitz, the market leader, had grown well beyond Lou’s wildest dreams.

A Revenue Diversification Story

Dale Van Dellen started from humble beginnings, working in his father’s collection business. He later branched off on his own, founding Account Control Technology as a revenue cycle management company. Focusing on the student loan industry, ACT became one of the largest providers to the U.S. government.

Optimize, first retained in 2008, held five cycles of strategic planning, created a Board of Advisors, and a fiduciary Board of Directors. Optimize and other advisors encouraged Dale and his management team to diversify outside student loans.

In 2014, ACT purchased Convergent, a company with 3,900 employees, and expanded into telecommunications and healthcare. The company went deeper into the revenue cycle, providing various customer support services. As the U.S. Department of Education revamped its student loan program, ACT was shut out from a contract that had once comprised nearly all its revenue and profit. Companies must work continuously to balance revenue by sector and product line.

Dale sold ACT in 2021.

A Market Dynamics Story

One of our favorite clients was the Deschutes Brewery based in Bend, Oregon, the eleventh-largest craft brewing brand in America, and the largest in the beer-crazed Pacific Northwest. The story of the craft beer offers a case study in strategy. 

For a decade, craft breweries grew by double digits. But in 2018, beer consumption eroded because of the adoption of cannabis, seltzers, and spirits at a time when there was a proliferation of over 5,000 local breweries.

Around the same time, large regional brewers were expanding capacity. Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Stone all built East Coast breweries, only for the bottom to fall out of the market. At this time, we were engaging in long-range capacity planning, and Deschutes made the critical decision not to overstep on its footprint. To this day, Deschutes makes some of the best beer in America, including Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Fresh Squeezed IPA, and Black Butte Porter.

A Gothic Story

Upon the passing of her husband, Judy Georgio founded Gothic Landscape out of her family's garage in 1968. Today, her sons Jon and Ron Georgio embody the family values with an unrelenting commitment to excellence, and the mantra “The Family You Trust."

Optimize has taken on various support roles in advisory, strategic planning facilitation, and employee engagement since 2008. Today, Gothic is the largest independent landscaper in the U.S., and fifth-largest overall.

Like many of our clients, Gothic Landscape is an extremely well-run business because of the intentionality of the Georgios, who demand results while also treating everyone like family. We certainly consider our partners at Gothic to be part of our own family.

A Sustainability Story

Rio Tinto is a public company and one of the largest mining concerns in the world. Mining has an impact on the planet, and we were honored when asked to help Rio Tinto reduce its water consumption in North America. This required coordination across multiple divisions and departments, and input from external stakeholders such as government agencies.

Rio Tinto was the first major company to publish site-by-site water consumption as part of its stewardship statement. To solve big problems requires divergent thinking, and in this case, we are certain that Optimize made an impact on our environment.

A Story of Thanks

In April of 2004, just one year after the birth of our business, Vistage Chair Mitch Pearlman asked Marc Emmer to be a guest speaker to his Vistage group. Of all places, Marc and Mitch met playing basketball. Marc joined Vistage a few months later.

Since then, Marc has delivered over 450 keynotes to various organizations including the Association for Corporate Growth, Executive Fuel, Starbucks, Panda Express, and many trade associations.

The number of Vistage chairs and members that have become friends and supporters are too many to name. But we would like to acknowledge the Los Angeles Vistage community and chairs for their ongoing support, including Mitch, Gary Brennglass, Don Riddell, Nora Paller, Jed Daly, Bonita Inza, and Gail Schaper-Gordon.

Truly remarkable advisors and clients who have engaged us for multiple years include Alan Sobel, Bill Hawfield, Bob Bender, Celeste Porter, Chris Braun, Chris Lindsay, Dan Goetz, Dan Harding, Dave Nelson, David Fisher, David Lewis, Doug DeClusin, Greg Wood, Jerry Witkow, Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Jon Georgio, Kathleen Quinn Votaw, Larry Comp, Larry Dutra, Laurie Sewell, Lonnie Trujillo, Mark Lindgren, Michael LaLonde, Mitzi Like, Peter Skrbek, Richard Brent, Rick Dawson, Robert McCarthy, Rodney Sandmeyer, Ron Georgio, Ron Sandmeyer, Scott Acton, Scott Wilson, Sean McCarthy, Sherwood Egbert, Ted Allred, Tim Davis, Tim Gaspar, Tim Toomey, Tom Schurman, Tracey Carpentier, Uri Thatcher, and my Vistage group (you all know who you are).

We also want to thank our team members over the years including Janell Watts, Shannon Hoofman, Kim Stroh, Kerri Emmer, and John Morris for their tremendous dedication and support to our clients.

Don't miss our free webinar where we will share insights on The Hybrid Gap. Click the link below to claim your spot.

Free webinar: June 9th at 11 a.m. PST

Marc Emmer and the brilliant Kathleen Quinn Votaw joined forces to write The Hybrid Gap: How to Create the Ideal Work Environment.

According to Gallup, there has been a steady decline in employee engagement over the last year, right around the time many companies brought their employees back into the office. How will you retain employees while unemployment remains low, and wage inflation remains high? How are employers to compete?

We answer these questions in The Hybrid Gap white paper, which you can view here. 

Featured Video: Business Development During a Downturn

Recommended Podcast: Adding Ten Healthy Years To Your Life

Physician Peter Attia returns to the show to talk about the science of longevity – which focuses not only on extending life but on maintaining good health into old age.

Listen to the episode 

Our Strategy Experts

Marc Emmer is President and Chief Strategist & Facilitator at Optimize Inc. He is an author, speaker and consultant recognized as a thought leader throughout North America as an expert in strategic planning.

John Morris is a Senior Strategist & Facilitator at Optimize. He brings experience in venture capital, executive coaching, angel investing, investment banking and financial management to his strategy consulting role.

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