Page 25 - MS Perspectives 2014 YIR

2. The business was naively set up as a 50-50 partnership which inevitably lead
to ego clashes and disagreements on virtually every issue. The more the
company succeeded, the more acute these disagreements became and
"deadlock votes" on important issues became common.

3. Since we weren't professional managers, we only had a rudimentary
organizational structure, and it was based more on our own impressions of
what we were good at or maybe even just what we liked, and was not based
on our actual talents or skills.

4. There were no written procedures for important procedures (no employee
manual, no formal organization chart) and little operational coordination
between departments within the company, leaving the company extremely
"segmented".

5. Employees began to rally around their "boss" and so there became a "camp"
for each partner. Employee morale was adversely affected by this.

There were other challenges but these were the most significant.

How did Management Systems help you and your team?

There were concrete steps taken and progress made in working with Management
Systems.

First, they explained what "Growing Pains" were. We learned that "Growing Pains"
were a normal and predictable result of entrepreneurial growth, and that there were
effective solutions that could be implemented.

Second, they met individually with my partner and myself and were able to gain the
full trust and commitment from each of us in order to have our full and complete
cooperation. At this time, things had become so strained between me and my
partner that we were barely speaking and we disagreed on almost every issue.

This presented a significant challenge to Eric and Yvonne, but by gaining our trust
completely, they were able to provide us with very blunt, very constructive, and
much needed analysis of what the issues were in our relationship dynamic. They
provided insight on our problems as partners, and what potential solutions could be
explored. To their credit, they did not pull any punches and each of us had to hear
about areas of our own performance that we were lacking in some instances. It is
always tough to hear that you are actually the root of the problem in some
instances. To our credit, we listened and accepted their comments with trust and
admiration. We knew it was hard to hear, but we also knew they were there to help
us in this process.

Third, they interviewed the other managers and employees extensively. This
resulted in a very accurate picture of what was happening within the organization.
We saw what was working, what was not working, and what the most significant

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