I. TAKING A COMPANY SUCCESSFULLY THROUGH AN ACQUISITION

Tigon, a voice messaging service company, was acquired by Octel, taking sales from $20 million to $150 million. George Ritcheske was called in to help the leadership and employees of Tigon make a smooth transition into the new parent company.

The Tigon sales groups had been involved in direct sales. They now were going to be sales support to the Octel sales team. For the Tigon sales force, this entailed a significant change in job description.

George Ritcheske came in to deliver a career development process helping each sales person discover which career path would be best for them. The process included testing each one and also assessing his or her existing career history. Thus informed, each sales person was then asked what he or she would like to do: stay as part of the sales support team, seek a new position in the company, or leave to work for another company.

THE RESULTS: 80% of the employees filled existing roles in the new company, and the remaining 20% were outplaced.

The resulting transition was very smooth, because the company had opted to allow their employees to research their own job situations first. The company retained a majority of individuals who were well placed and had an existing knowledge of the company's history, a plus for the company. Those who left were able to present themselves effectively in the marketplace and could only have good feelings about the caring approach utilized by Tigon.

II. EXECUTIVE COACHING

When Tigon became Octel Network Services (a division of Octel), Tigon's president Bruce Simpson continued as president at ONS. George Ritcheske was asked to help Mr. Simpson be more effective with the new parent company (Octel), where he was not yet an integral member of the executive leadership team.

Through a series of coaching sessions, Mr. Ritcheske helped Mr. Simpson clarify the desired outcome, and they collaboratively built a strategic action plan to achieve it. Mr. Ritcheske also coached the ONS executive team as they supported Bruce Simpson's efforts.

THE RESULTS: Eighteen months later, Bruce Simpson was named an executive vice president in the parent company, Octel.

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The vice president of engineering was promoted to chief operating officer within Octel Network Services. Mr. Ritcheske was engaged to work with him during this transition to a general management role, which included responsibilities for customer service and project management as well as operations, all critical in this voice messaging outsourcing company.

THE RESULTS: The transition went exceptionally well, and George Ritcheske was asked to work in building the COO's leadership team. The COO of Octel Network Services was eventually promoted to a leadership role within Octel, the parent company.

III. TAKING A COMPANY SUCCESSFULLY THROUGH A MERGER BY
BUILDING THE NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM

Chateaux Properties and ROC Communities, both owners and developers of manufactured home communities, merged to become Chateau Communities, the largest company in their industry.

Mr. Ritcheske was called in before the merger date to build the combined management group into a high performance leadership team. He tested individuals to raise self-awareness, shared patterns of behavior to create team awareness, and coached members of the team on their overall impact on the organization. During a series of retreats, he guided the leadership team as they created a unifying mission statement as well as principles for working together, all of which formed the framework for the new company's future success.

In all, Mr. Ritcheske met with the leadership team in quarterly retreats over a period of two-and-a-half years, also helping them through a series of acquisitions and keeping the committed leadership focused on the right things to strengthen the organization.

RESULTS: George Ritcheske helped the leadership team of Chateau Communities address integration issues within 18 months, a process which ordinarily takes three years. Chateau Communities won numerous awards within its industry and was greatly admired by its competitors.

IV. REDUCE LENGTH OF TIME FOR SERVICE TO NEW CUSTOMERS

Octel Network Services faced a major challenge: the length of time from the contract signing to the implementation of the company's services, providing outsourced management of voice messaging systems, was taking too long¾approximately 90 to 120 days or more. These contracts often took two years to be negotiated, and the new customer expected a quick transition once the decision was reached. The complexity of taking over the voice messaging systems of Fortune 500 companies is daunting.

George Ritcheske brought 40 people together, all of whom were identified as key in the process of bringing the company's service to the customer. Through a series of meetings, the group redesigned their approach to new customer implementation.

Under Mr. Ritcheske's guidance, the group formulated a design, development and delivery model. A system was designed and the necessary infrastructure was developed to implement the system, so that the service could then be delivered to the client more quickly.

THE RESULTS: The original lead time of 90 to 120 days was reduced to 30 to 45 days, from the contract signing to the implementation of the service. Not only did this accelerate the revenue, but it also enabled the company to add multiple clients at the same time.