Board Notes

Board Notes — Real Results. No Names. Just Outcomes.

Board note #1

Private Equity Portfolio: Cash Flow/EBITDA Hidden in the Workflow

Situation - A $700M manufacturer under private equity ownership hit revenue targets, yet missed EBITDA expectations. Despite strong demand, conversion costs were rising faster than output.

Constraint - Production and finance operated from disconnected systems, hiding true losses. The board was approving capital for automation without visibility into line-level constraints, or ROI impact. Leadership assumed “more capacity” would solve it.

Intervention - Schimpf Group ran a 60-day “throughput diagnostic” using Toyota Production System logic. We traced time-to-value by product family, linked it to labor allocation and cost of delay, and re-framed automation projects, ROI gates—funded only if yield per hour increased.

Outcome - Eliminated 11 % of non-value based activity, freed 9k labor hours annually, and elevated EBITDA by 3.8 points—without adding capex. The board replaced blanket cap-spend with a rolling ROI review cadence, now embedded in desicisions.

Board note #2

Federal Executive Government Officer: Cyber as Capital Allocation

Situation - The Federal Officer overseeing multi-agency risk management faced rising a ROI risk, costs with uncertain returns. Annual spend exceeded $600M, yet the oversight body couldn’t quantify whether risk was actually decreasing.

Constraint - Programs measures focused on flashy tech, not holistic risk . Security investments were justified by trends and status quo, not capital efficiency.

Intervention - Schimpf Group advised the Fed to reframe cyber not as a narrow focus, but as risk capital. We provided a Value-at-Risk framework mapping threat surfaces, mission impact, and investment elasticity. Each control recast as a financial instrument—what risk, at what cost.

Outcome - The client ran with the new ROI holistic risk viewpoint, disseminating to other Federal Officers down the chain. Client satisfied.

Board note #3

Succession Through Systems - Leadership by Design

Situation - A $180 M second-generation logistics company was paralyzed by founder dependency. All pricing, hiring, and strategy flowed through one person nearing retirement. The board feared value erosion during transition.

Constraint - No operating cadence or decision authority existed below the founder. Middle management executed reactively; board oversight focused on symptoms, not systems.

Intervention - Schimpf Group facilitated a “succession architecture sprint.” We mapped all decision choke points, codified them into three recurring governance layers (Daily Ops, Weekly Performance, Monthly Board), and instituted a 90-day leadership shadow rotation with real P&L accountability.

Outcome - Transition completed on schedule. The next-gen CEO inherited a stable run-rate, profit improved 12 % YoY, and the board re-framed its oversight to system metrics instead of personality confidence. The founder now serves as chair—by choice, not necessity.

“When decisions move from emotion to evidence, value accelerates.

That’s not consulting — it’s architecture”

— Dustin Schimpf

Start Your Value Discovery