When companies hire an independent business consultant, they’re often looking for a fresh perspective as much as guidance. With CrossGen Solutions, they get both in spades, due in large part to CrossGen’s unique business model of pairing more seasoned senior consultants with bright-eyed junior consultants to offer a well-rounded take on just about any business problem.
Madison-based CrossGen was founded in March 2017 as a joint venture between the mother-and-son team of Tammy and Jonathan Taylor.
“I always knew I wanted my own business but never had an idea that sparked my passion enough to take that leap,” says Tammy, the company’s president and CEO. “Early in 2017, Jon had an idea that sparked that interest, and we spent a weekend brainstorming and researching.”
“I was really concerned with how organizations were downsizing, and the older, more experienced staff were leaving,” explains Jonathan, the firm’s business manager. “In addition, a number of peers had concerns that they wouldn’t find employment after graduation. So I was wondering if there was some way we could build an organization that tapped into the knowledge and skill sets of both groups.”
“And I was frustrated with the number of times I’d encountered the large consulting firms bringing in out-of-state talent at outrageous rates but delivering service no better than what local consultants could do at much more reasonable costs,” adds Tammy. “From these discussions, as well as market research, we decided to leverage the outstanding talent already present in the Madison area to serve local clients by forming cross-generational teams to solve tough business challenges. In this way, we pair the knowledge and experience of our senior consultants with the passion, drive, and fresh ideas of our junior consultants.”
In Tammy’s case, that means leveraging her 20-year career as an executive at Electronic Data Systems (EDS)/ Hewlett-Packard (HP), along with nine years of contract consulting work primarily in the Greater Madison area. Though less experienced, Jonathan is no slouch. He holds a Bachelor and Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, and before he helped form CrossGen Solutions, he also held three different intern positions with American Family Insurance.
Family appeal
For some, the idea of working with your mom might be a nonstarter. Not so for Jonathan.
“For me, running the business as a family has provided all of us the opportunity to work together and come closer,” he says. “It also provides us with a diversity of perspectives, which was the whole idea behind CrossGen and our cross-generational approach to consulting. Each member of the family has their own background and skill set, which allows us to look at problems from perspectives that we otherwise would not have.”
“Although my husband has been a stay-at-home dad for more than 20 years, I worked hard to maintain a close relationship with all four of my boys,” notes Tammy. “I marveled at how each one could be so talented and knowledgeable in completely different areas. I was also struck by the innovative way they thought about and used technology compared to me.
“As Jon and I met and discussed the ideas about the business, we found other family members putting forward some great ideas, too,” continues Tammy. “The more we talked and worked on the concepts over the first few weeks, the more the family came together providing whatever time or talent they could offer. For example, my mother wanted to pitch in, too, so she does most of the administrative and bookkeeping work.”
Tammy’s husband, Dan, is another part of the CrossGen team, though not in the full-time role the family initially envisioned. Dan’s earlier career was in sales and he was very good at what he did, says Tammy. Prior to starting CrossGen, she and Dan discussed whether he should return to work and, if so, what he might like to do.
“When we started CrossGen, assigning him as our sales lead was the perfect fit,” remarks Tammy. “What we did not consider was the enormous amount of work required to start a company and there was no way I would be able to pick up more responsibility at home to free his time to work full-time in sales. We decided that it would be better for him to continue to manage our very busy household so I could continue to focus all my time and energy on the business.”
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Keeping it local
One of the selling points of CrossGen Solutions is that its consultants are all local — either based in the Dane County area or from elsewhere in Wisconsin — so not only can the company keep its fees down, all of the money earned by the independent consultants it employs stays right here in the local economy.
Besides Jonathan and Tammy, CrossGen currently has two part-time staffers. Once the company obtains some longer-term contracts, they plan to bring on additional full-time consultants, according to Tammy. “In the meantime, a big part of our business model is to utilize local independent consultants that have a track record of delivering successful results. We’ve spent many hours in our first year to find and cultivate relationships with these independent consultants and to meet with people who are interested in independent consulting. We have also spent time developing relationships with other local consulting firms that have access to specialized talent such as project managers or developers. Building these relationships enables us to quickly tap a large resource pool when we have client demand.”
For the time being, Tammy says CrossGen is still small enough that she works with each client directly to understand their issues and to develop the approach and solution unique to that client. “In some cases, I also lead execution of the plan. In others, another senior consultant takes over or in simpler cases a junior consultant leads execution but with close oversight by myself or another senior consultant.”
CrossGen Solutions offers the following consulting services: management consulting, business transformation, process improvement, change management, strategic planning and execution, and project/program management. According to Jonathan, most of their consulting engagements rely on a combination of service offerings.
“At the beginning of a recent engagement, the client requested assistance completing and stabilizing a new vendor technology implementation; specifically, they requested our help project managing the process,” says Tammy. “However, because we also had experience in other areas, we identified one of their biggest issues was the result of an unsustainable business process attempting to utilize the new technology. To make the business successful, we worked with our client to majorly transform this unsustainable business process. Ultimately, the overall engagement utilized all but one of our service offerings.”
For another client who was a more experienced business owner, CrossGen was able to save them more than $700,000 by replacing a large international consulting firm that was providing a senior consultant from out-of-state. “The international consulting firm was flying this senior consultant in each week and was also working with an offshore, mid-level consultant,” notes Tammy. “We provided six local consultants and the client stated we provided the same or better level of service in addition to saving them money. From our perspective, the success was greater than this when you factor in that all the salaries and taxes stayed local to Dane County or Wisconsin.”
Helping hands
Problems can arise just as often at established companies as they do at new businesses, and in-house expertise isn’t a luxury every business has.
“For many of our clients, working with an outside consultant is invaluable,” states Tammy. “Often, there are challenges that businesses may not fully understand, or of which they might not be fully aware. We work with leadership to analyze their organization, [looking at] business plans, strategic objectives, financials, business processes, etc. to find ways to optimize their organization to ensure they have a firm foundation upon which to launch their growth initiatives. That is, basically, we work with them to dig deeper into their business than they likely would on their own, and we develop a strategy and a plan of action to help them grow.”
“We do work with newer but rapidly growing organizations, but most of our clients are established companies,” notes Jonathan. “There are several free or low-cost resources and organizations to assist startups, and I recommend utilizing them first. However, if those startups or small businesses aren’t receiving the more in-depth knowledge and expertise they need, and their gut is telling them to dig deeper, that’s where CrossGen may be able to help.”
Sometimes, even the consultants themselves need some outside assistance.
“Although Jon and I have different strengths that complement the other, we found that sales and marketing are weaknesses for both of us,” says Tammy. “To counter this, we hired an [outside] marketing firm, Strategic Partners Marketing. They have the marketing expertise that we lack, and they have been an awesome partner.
“No matter how good someone is at business, they will either be weak in one or more areas, or have insufficient time to do it right themselves,” she adds. “I’ve found that the fees to pay for these support services have a great ROI as long as you select the right firms.”
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