Loichinger Advantage

QWANtify Grows Through Intention and Insight

I often hear business leaders explaining how they feel caught between the preverbal rock and a hard place.  I not only understand, but feel their pain, as I am helping organizations with this dilemma, and have my own consulting firms to manage.  As our colleagues have said, these are interesting times.

At the same time, I indicated earlier that I would like to help your understand the world and the path forward by sharing the perspective of other area business owners.  Today’s column features the insight of Tammy Adler, President/CEO of QWANtify.  Since their launch in 2005, QWANtify has grown to be a leading information technology professional services organization specializing in delivering and integrating custom business software.

Please join me as I ask Tammy about the relevance and use of strategic & organizational planning in her company’s growth.

Tell me a bit about your company and how it has grown since you formed.

After spending several years managing large software projects for organizations, I chose to launch my own firm in January of 2005.  By leveraging technology, methodology and great team members, we have grown substantially over the past 5 years.  In addition to a range of great clients, I work with very talented people.

It seems like there is a lot of IT and software companies for businesses to choose from.  How does planning help you separate yourself from competititors?

I am a planner by nature, so I have always leveraged planning to achieve greater levels of success.  QWANtify emphasizes client project plans and strives to have them in place before starting work.  In addition, involving key project team members in our business planning has allowed us to engage them in a meaningful way, and broaden the perspective in which business plans are developed.  As a small company, I stay current and involve my entire team when needed.  Finally, forming an advisory board as our company began, provided a level of insight I may never have enjoyed being on my own.

A lot of business owners tell me they don’t have time to plan, or that the world changes too quickly to plan.  What is your perspective on that issue?

I agree we live in turbulent times.  Still, without a formal way to gather information to make plans and strategic decisions, we’d be increasing the velocity of company drift and hasten our demise.  In fact, we started with a formal process, loosened up a bit, and recognize the need to continuously improve our strategic planning process. 

How has QWANtify benefited from using strategic and operationally planning?

Strategic and operational planning has helped us chart our future direction.  In addition, it has been a significant factor in our ability to attract experienced team members, open doors more quickly and also adapt quickly to unforeseen market forces.  We are all managing risk in a very challenging economy.  While we have made small adjustments, we are faring as well as our peers.

What does the future look like for QWANtify?

I believe our future remains bright as we continue to plan and accomplish even more milestones.  We are considering some new and exciting markets, and will continue to grow through an emphasis on hiring the best team members, sustaining our open corporate culture and providing the very best customer service.

My special thanks to Tammy for her opinions and insights.  Join me in the next two issues as we feature perspectives and practices for strategic and operational planning in the new economy.

Tags: Advisory Board, business ownership, competition, Entrepreneurship, Managing Risk, Market Forces, Organizational Leadership, strategic planning

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Organizational Leadership, Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.