It’s no secret that private equity and venture capital firms face increased pressure to drive profitability.  At SSA & Company, we’ve proven that among the most reliable tools PE firms can bring to their efforts to do so is a fierce and deliberate focus on operations; embracing some of the newest approaches to process management, private equity and venture capital firms have been able to streamline the processes within their portfolio companies to ensure a robust and realistic growth model. With these types of improvements, today’s fledgling companies will be in the best possible position to not only survive the downturn, but come out much more attractive at the other end.

Case in point: over the last year, a venture backed start-up insurance services company in Silicon Valley that matched consumers with the best health care plans based on their health care needs was on a great growth trajectory. Conceptually, the company had attracted attention and praise from veterans in the healthcare market, but operationally the company struggled with customer acquisition and service.  Its customer satisfaction rates were frighteningly low, and the company projected it was losing millions in sales due to customers abandoning calls and going elsewhere to find coverage.

Under the direction of SSA & Co, the company began fixing its execution woes through SSA & Co.’s proprietary methodology, Strategic Process Management.  Under SPM, the company:

• Uncovered more than 100 opportunities across its value chain, prioritized them, and began executing a cluster of improvement projects within 2 months

• Projects are regaining $5 million of excessive waste while delivering happier customers –  and the company is embracing process improvement with entrepreneurial passion