30 Years and Counting: Transitioning Leadership, Evolving Business Structure, Stewarding Expansion

Client: Supplier of Freight Forwarding

Truck carrying forty-foot container leaving port terminal with ship and quay crane on the background. Seaport operation activities, container shipping, and logistics.

How it Started

doodle spyglass

Anchoring the Past while Charting a New Vision

After years of running a business and almost a decade working with Schneider Downs, the owner of one of our clients was ready to plan for a leadership transition. Since we had been established business partners for years, the owner trusted us to handle the transition as much as he trusted his son to manage the business. And a successful succession was just the beginning.

His legacy was impressive: his son stood to inherit a profitable professional service company boasting clients among the Fortune 1000. We began working with his son to explore a new organizational structure. The business had outgrown the one-person entrepreneur model that had served it so well, and a new model would better position the company for growth. Working together, we created a more formalized corporate structure, creating additional companies and an expansion-focused management team. Our client was poised for exponential growth.

Through It All

Delivering Tailored Solutions for the Long Haul

As the client expanded, so did our service offerings. We weren’t just there to steward them through a transition, we were in it for the long haul of their developing needs.

After years of performing their audit and tax work, our knowledge of the business and its culture was unmatched. We were committed to providing the experts they needed for every obstacle and opportunity they would encounter.

When we began our Credits and Incentives practice, we immediately knew which credits were most appropriate and realistic. And, when they first needed a SOC 2 report, we had the experts in-house to perform it for them. When they brought on a new CFO to help facilitate their growth, he leaned on us to provide the resources to support their operations and execute his vision. With each new acquisition, we helped with valuations and profitability calculations. Further, when they began to expand their borders internationally, we connected them to our Prime Global partners to help structure their foreign offices. Through our partnership, the client knew they had access not only to our experts but to all our connections as well.

How it's Going

continuous line drawing of handshake business agreement. handshake out line illustration.

A Lasting Partnership Founded on Trust

Our relationship has continued for almost 30 years. Beyond the traditional client/firm relationship, we remain good partners and good friends. There is no “business as usual,” in our approach: we continue to be committed to evaluating how we can serve them better each year.

Recently, these efforts have culminated in a forensic accounting engagement for which we were their first and only phone call. They’re our first phone call as well: they have become as much our advocate as we are theirs—they’re always ready to provide a reference and have played prominent roles in our internal programming. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to the next 30 years.

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