LeTourneau, Inc

To Prospective Clients of Bryan Merritt

I am pleased to recommend the consulting services offered by Bryan Merritt. I make this recommendation with thirty years of personal experience in various industries at various locations while performing in various management assignments. More importantly, I make this recommendation based upon personal, hands-on experience at LeTourneau, Inc. during recent times in working with Bryan Merritt.

It is appropriate to confess that the managing team of LeTourneau, Inc. historically operated with the somewhat typical skepticism toward business consultants. After building substantial complications into our business practices during many years, our operating efficiencies had degraded to the point of losing competitiveness. It was through the proactiveness of several key managers that we finally decided to take a chance on utilizing the services of a business consultant to address these problems within our Company. In fact, we encountered Bryan Merritt, somewhat by chance.

Bryan's role in helping return LeTourneau, Inc. to consistent profitability has been clear, deliberate, and strong. There is no question that his role is making a difference. Admittedly, our business case is severe and challenging because it goes beyond mere streamlining. Some stages of our improvement process were better characterized as classic turnaround work. Though our improvement path is now clear (after only a few months of intensive work by Bryan and many at LeTourneau), we still have substantial execution work before us. Nonetheless, confidence has already grown strong among many of us that our Company will perform strong again.

With that backdrop of real, actual personal experience, I will comment specifically on some of Bryan’s attributes:

Integrity - it does not get any better

Candor - be ready for directness

Proactiveness - he practices an undying bias for action, now and always

Decision-making - always forcing to do the "most right" thing, now

Reliability - when requested, we have had his total and undivided attention

Relationships within our Company - amazingly strong, particularly when considering the difficult business improvement agenda

Respectfully, 

Dan C. Eckermann

President and CEO

Mr. Merritt joined Miller Fluid Power as the interim President with the intent of facilitating his USA, business streamlining process with the goal of positioning the Company for an exit strategy. We had slipped behind industry expectations with both our production and delivery cycle times.

Our Goal was to begin the process and to sell the business within twelve months. Merritt jumped in facilitating a business diagnostic process that quickly identified the areas that needed our immediate attention. We developed a strategy for addressing these 80/20 activities which had an immediate impact on our cycle times.  Not only did our delivery times improve, but our revenues and net margins jumped drastically during the process. We not only focused on production, but redesigned order entry, engineering, and QC certification processes to radically improve the overall Company performance.

Having been personally involved throughout this entire process, I would recommend Mr. Merritt and his proven process to any organization looking to increase the value of their enterprise in preparation for an exit. His assistance not only prepared the Company for the exit, but increased the value of the Company by twenty percent within the twelve months. We successfully sold the company and were extremely satisfied with the result.

Regards,

Go Segura

CEO Miller Fluid Power

You are pushy, dogmatic, direct, and challenging. All have been great traits to help MTI get better. I have become better over the last year because of your drive and support. 

As a bonus prize, you are one of only a few consultants I know willing to come in and roll up your sleeves. I appreciate your support.

Doug Wait

COO

Manufacturing Technologies Inc.

 Bryan was the President & GM at SCS Interactive, a division of Whitewater West Industries Ltd while I was employed by Whitewater. Bryan was responsible for the entire SCS Operations, including P&L.  I worked with Bryan as part of the Senior Management Team, and I was always impressed at what a strong and effective leader he was. 

Bryan was a key leader on the Team, and he always put the best interests of the company above his own. I have seen him hold firm on his opinion when he believed strongly in a viewpoint that he held, but he always did this in a respectful way. He was honest and stuck his neck out even when it wasn't always the politically correct thing to do. That is true leadership!  

Bryan is to the point, and has a common sense approach to business, which was respected by the other members of the team. When he provided input into a business decision, others always listened and his contributions were greatly respected.  I would not hesitate to recommend Bryan for any senior level Operations or Management position. He would be an asset to any company. 

Sandra Keyton

Vice President, HR

Whitewater, Inc

Bryan, thanks for your guidance over the recent 6 months and guiding CCC through growing pains of a start-up business, hiccups, and unpredictable drama!  You provide a great road map and offer procedures for company executives to see through immediate confusion.  Your step-by-step guidance, books and materials gave us a lot to work on as a group.  Your building blocks and tools help us measure company progress and create a fined tuned focus and strategy.  You helped us form a clear vision statement and set the company on a path of positive growth for years to come.  Your program influenced better communication among its members, developed clear messaging for the public, and helped us build strong company leadership.  You empowered the company and its members to build a successful vision that is now measurable and accountable for its future growth. By learning and implementing your simplified system, we can now claim our future!

Jonathan Wells

CFO

Chrysalis Continuing Care, LLC.