Case Study: Designing Strategic Growth for an Executive Coaching Firm

Consultant: Fritz Porter

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Client Profile

 

A solo-founder executive coaching firm seeking sustainable, intentional growth beyond its current client-driven operations.

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• Industry: Executive Coaching & Consulting
   

• Company Size: Founder-led, small team
   

• Engagement Focus: Strategic Planning, Revenue Growth, Operational Efficiency, and Market Expansion
   

 

The Challenge: Stuck in the Business — No Time for Strategic Thinking

Initial Pain Points:

 

Before working with Fritz Porter, the founder of this executive coaching firm was overwhelmed by the operational demands of the business:

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• Constantly reacting to daily fires rather than building long-term plans.
   

• Lack of a clear vision for what success looked like 3-5 years down the road.
   

• No roadmap to move from "keeping the lights on" to building a scalable company.
   

• Sales efforts were focused on accepting any client available rather than targeting ideal clients or sectors.
   

"The pain point was being too stuck in the business, working every day, putting out fires...not having the time to step back and look five years into the future." — Fritz Porter​

 

The Stakes: Without a Strategy, Growth Would Be Random or Stalled

 

If left unresolved, the firm faced:

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• Strategic stagnation — growth happening sporadically, without direction or control.
   

• Operational inefficiencies — lack of process clarity and bandwidth.
   

• Vulnerability — no pipeline diversity to weather economic shifts or industry changes.
   

"In the absence of good strategy, you still have bad strategy. You make choices — but you don’t make the right ones." — Fritz Porter​

 

The Solution: Facilitation-Driven Strategic Planning

 

Approach & Methodology:

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Fritz employed a multi-phase strategic planning engagement, anchored in facilitation (not just consulting advice):

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1. Deep-Dive Discovery Session:
    

   • A structured 2-hour working session to uncover the founder’s vision.
      

   • Facilitated questions to clarify values, growth aspirations, and operational challenges.
      

2. Online Strategic Planning Platform:
    

   • Captured the entire strategy in a digital format to track progress in real time.
      

   • Structured around Google’s OKR framework: Objectives & Key Results.
      

3. Strategic Roadmap Creation:
    

   • Identified specific objectives for growth.
      

   • Mapped out measurable inputs and projects tied to revenue, operational excellence, and market expansion.
      

4. Operational Optimization:
    

   • Evaluated existing processes for automation or outsourcing to free up bandwidth.
      

   • Helped refocus the founder on high-value, strategic tasks.
      

5. Market Diversification Plan:
    

   • Developed three distinct client funnels across sectors.
      

   • Added two new client acquisition channels beyond the local market to hedge against risk.
      

"Adding more diverse sales channels, offering different products, packaging things differently — all helped increase that sales revenue." — Fritz Porter​

 

The Unexpected Insight: Rediscovering Purpose Beyond Profit

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During strategic sessions, an unexpected goal surfaced — the founder’s desire to have a broader impact beyond just revenue growth:

• Support small businesses in her local community.
   

• Drive positive social impact while building a profitable company.
   

"Sometimes when you step back... you come up with altruistic goals on top of normal business goals." — Fritz Porter​

 

Results & ROI: Revenue Growth, Efficiency Gains & Pipeline Diversity

 

Measurable Outcomes:

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Result Area                                               Impact Achieved

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Revenue Growth Target                              Plan in place to 3x Revenue in 2 years

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Operational Efficiency                                 Process Automation & Outsourcing unlocked bandwidth

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Market Expansion                                       3 sector-based pipelines + 2 new regional / industry funnels

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Team Engagement                                     Clarity on how daily work ties to long-term goals

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Impact: Short-Term Clarity → Long-Term Transformation

 

Short-Term Impact:

• Created organizational clarity.
   

• Connected team roles directly to long-term strategic outcomes.
   

• Unlocked additional team capacity.
   

Long-Term Impact:

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• Positioned for sustainable, resilient growth.
   

• Diversified client acquisition protects against market shifts.
   

• Built internal capability to execute strategy moving forward.

 

Cost of Inaction: Missed Growth & Poorer Growth Quality

 

Without external help, the firm risked:

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• Slower growth trajectory.
   

• Less intelligent, reactionary scaling.
   

• Missed opportunities for impact and financial performance.
   

"They wouldn’t have grown as fast, and they wouldn’t have grown as well." — Fritz Porter​

 

Conclusion: Strategic Facilitation That Drives Action

This case study highlights the power of facilitated strategy for founder-led firms. It’s not just about having a plan — it’s about having a living strategy that connects vision to execution, fuels growth, and empowers the team.