When I joined the company as COO, it operated as two distinct businesses under one entity: a professional services arm specializing in Salesforce implementations (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Experience Cloud) and a portfolio of niche, service-focused SaaS solutions. The company was at a critical turning point. The founder, deeply entrenched in daily operations, was burned out and struggling to maintain focus. This became evident during our initial meeting over dinner when, after I asked how his day had gone, he paused and admitted he couldn’t remember what he had done. In that moment, I made one of my goals to free him from having to work around the clock and to enable him to take real vacations.

Turnover was alarmingly high at 60%, and the organization faced significant bottlenecks in approvals and client work, both of which were dependent on the founder. Recognizing the urgent need for change, the Directors encouraged him to bring in a COO to stabilize operations and address these pressing challenges.

Challenges Identified

1. Revenue Stagnation: Growth across both the SaaS and professional services lines of business was constrained, with app renewals undervalued and services revenue struggling to scale.

2. High Turnover: The 60% turnover rate caused constant talent churn and disrupted team performance.

3. Operational Bottlenecks: The founder’s role as the central decision-maker delayed progress and approvals for both businesses.

Solutions Implemented

1. Breaking Bottlenecks and Empowering Employees

The founder’s heavy involvement in day-to-day operations had created bottlenecks across both lines of business. Approvals and key decisions were reliant on him, delaying progress and hindering scalability. To address this, I worked to delegate responsibilities to Directors and newly empowered managers, equipping them with the tools and authority needed to take ownership. This shift not only freed the founder to reclaim balance in his life but also enabled him to take a multi-year sabbatical to reflect on his next steps.

One key challenge was overcoming resistance to introducing an organizational framework. Leadership feared alignment sessions and guidance might feel restrictive, akin to the bureaucracy they sought to avoid at large corporations. To address this, I prioritized simplicity and practicality, ensuring that the framework—including the company’s first vision, mission, strategy, plan, policies, metrics, and annual budget—felt empowering rather than burdensome. Alignment sessions were carefully structured to be time-efficient and results-oriented, focusing on creating clarity and ownership, eliminating redundant discussions rather than adding to workloads. This approach ultimately helped employees make better decisions while preserving their sense of autonomy.

By building a more structured and confident team, I instilled trust and clarity across the organization. This transformation not only empowered both the professional services and SaaS teams to operate with greater autonomy but also freed up valuable time for employees and leadership alike. The result was an organization that ran more efficiently while maintaining the agility and culture of a smaller, mission-driven business.

2. Building Confidence to Unlock App Revenue Growth

To unlock the apps portoliof’s potential, I worked closely with the sales and marketing teams to build confidence in pricing and value propositions. For the SaaS portfolio, a decision had been made prior to my joining to increase the price 50% across the board. This was a huge price increase, especially since it applied to existing customers, and Sales did not know how to approach renewals. I met with Sales, asked questions, and reassured them they weren’t alone and that we would all support. Together with Marketing, we developed clear messaging and sales enablement materials to support these increases. I also introduced a management support system on renewal calls, alleviating pressure on Sales and ensuring smoother client conversations. These efforts, as well as one change noted in the next section, boosted annual recurring revenue (ARR) for the SaaS portfolio by 52%.

3. Transforming Professional Services Operations

The professional services arm required a strategic overhaul to become scalable and profitable. Many team members lacked a professional services (PS) background and needed clarity about improvement priorities. Given high customer satisfaction scores and other considerations, it was evident that billability was the immediate lever to address a negative profit margin. I communicated this focused objective to the team while ensuring management monitored other key metrics to avoid unintended consequences. I also revamped the bonus program, aligning it with billability goals, and supported a broader initiative to overhaul onboarding and training programs, accelerating ramp-up time for new hires.

While working on PS improvements, I noticed that developers on the SaaS team were regularly pulled into projects for the services arm, often incentivized to do so. This distraction caused roadmap delays, with product releases consistently arriving late or not at all. I collaborated with department heads to realign developer resources, transitioning some to the PS team permanently while keeping others focused on product development. To gain buy-in, we involved the developers directly, considering their preferences for which line of business to support. Although the PS team initially expressed concern about losing access to all developers, they were reassured by having a dedicated group aligned to their needs. This shift allowed the SaaS team to increase roadmap delivery while ensuring PS projects had consistent support.

By the end of the first year, these initiatives enabled the professional services arm to achieve significant improvements, contributing to a 31% overall revenue growth for the company.

Results Achieved

1. Revenue Growth:

• Overall revenue growth accelerated from 13% to 31%.

• SaaS portfolio ARR increased by 52%.

• PS revenue growth increased from 3.5% to 13%.

2. Team Morale and Retention:

• Turnover significantly reduced, improving stability and morale, and reducing costs by $200k annually.

3. Empowered Leadership:

• Delegation and team empowerment resolved bottlenecks, enabling smoother operations and strategic focus.

Key Takeaways

This transformation demonstrates the power of a unified strategic approach, even in a business operating across two distinct lines. By developing an operational framework, addressing bottlenecks, empowering teams, and implementing scalable practices, the company moved from stagnation to sustainable growth. The experience underscored the importance of aligning leadership, operational strategy, and cultural health to achieve lasting success.