Tennant, a world leader in cleaning equipment and services, needed to profitably grow its business in a difficult economic environment.

Working in 2002 with a relatively new senior leadership team and a broader upper management group, we guided Tennant in developing its first Global Strategic Vision. This included creating a detailed profile of all aspects of the company, including: customers, products and services, channels, brands, geography, culture, competitors, alliances, organizational structure, financial performance, etc. Finally, we identified the Critical Issues on which the company must focus to achieve the Strategic Vision.

We then led a similar engagement in Belgium in order to operationalize the vision for the European market.

Our next engagement was to lead development of the Tennant Brand Strategy. As a part of this, we directed a groundbreaking customer study of the cleaning and environmental maintenance market that helped Tennant understand the unique needs and motivations of various market segments. We then guided the creation of a compelling Brand Promise that would drive top-line growth, and continued to work with senior management to ensure the Business and Brand Strategies were being implemented into the business.

In 2009, following 6 years of significant growth for Tennant, the global economy experienced a severe downturn. At this time we were engaged again to set a new Strategic Vision, which included introducing disruptive technology and products into the marketplace.

In 2012 we were engaged once again to refresh the Global Strategic Vision. This included a specific focus on Global Market Assessment, Channel Strategy, and the future role of its disruptive technology brand, Orbio.

Engaged with:

Initially engaged with:

• Janet Dolan, Chief Executive Officer
• Chris Killingstad, Vice President, North America
• Anthony Lenders, Managing Director, European Operations

2009 and 2012 engagements with:

• Chris Killingstad, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Tom Paulson, VP, Chief Financial Officer
• Karel Huijser, VP International
• Tom Dybsky, VP, Administration
• Mike Schaefer, VP, Chief Technical Officer
• Andy Eckert, VP, Americas
• Don Westman, VP, Global Operations
• Heidi Hoard, VP, General Counsel and Secretary
• Rusty Zay, VP, Global Marketing
• Patrick O’Neill, Treasurer
• Karla Leis, GM, Orbio Technologies Group