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As we celebrate our second year in business, we have a lot to be proud of at Spaulding Ridge. We are well over 150 bandmates and counting, and their dedication continues to amaze me. We had the privilege to support over 100 clients in 2019 across our various offerings and are grateful for the trust they have put in our team and approach. We opened in Europe and are preparing to expand into Asia in the near future. We are ecstatic about the performance of our alliance partners: Anaplan, Salesforce, OneStream, NetSuite, MuleSoft and DocuSign. We are constantly on the lookout for adding to our portfolio of services to better complement our existing offerings while exploring means to add additional value to our clients.

We attribute our continued success in the market by using these fundamentals:

1. Best in Cloud is the Best Strategy

The pace of innovation in the software world is incredible. Amazing developments are coming from everywhere ” from the enterprise players to start-ups and everywhere in between. As recently as five years ago, I had advised clients to standardize on a single platform (or two). How things have changed! The mix of a CFO’s tech stack is completely different. Some of the enterprise players have accelerated in the cloud while some have struggled. Many new players stepping up into the enterprise market proving their tech belongs with the established players. We even see more recently funded ventures filling gaps in the enterprise players offerings ” and they are doing it from a trusted adviser position. At Spaulding Ridge, we have focused on a holistic approach to implementing technology for the office of the CFO. We have avoided the traditional blueprint to consulting of building an “Oracle Shop” (or pick your single vendor). Instead, we have focused on evaluating the best cloud options for our clients, bringing forward integrated solutions to our clients while leveraging the appropriate technology and integration strategies.

2. Stay Entrepreneurial, Always

We place a premium on running an entrepreneurial firm. In a project-based business, you are only as good as your last project. It is much easier to jump on the bandwagon of a vendor and let them dictate your professional services strategy and ” in turn ” your client’s strategy. It is much harder to be continually developing innovative approaches to add value to your clients, leveraging all their platforms while evaluating new ones.

Reflecting on Year Two, I think about how our partnership with DocuSign accelerated. We started the year opportunistically doing Contract Life Cycle Management work. Through those early stages learned that many of our clients were trying to add automation to the CFO’s office to improve cash flow ” at the same time DocuSign’s Agreement Cloud offering was evolving ” providing us the opportunity to identify and address this gap.

Streamlining the contract process is something much bigger than the GC’s office, especially for B2B businesses. We made a significant investment in this area of our business, and we ended the year being recognized as one of only a handful of DocuSign Platinum Partners. We are always on the lookout for adding breadth to our solutions to drive more value with our clients.

3. Efficient Execution in Everything We Do

We decided in our early days to be relentless in driving efficient execution at all times. This is both in running our own business as well as how we approach our clients. In Q4, we completely blew up our org chart and started over to better line up our offerings to how our clients wanted to work with us. We also asked our leaders to shuffle responsibilities regardless of politicking and empire building, which when dealing with consultants is much easier said than done. I recognize this level of change is not for everyone, but we have decided that is OK. The right people will opt into this operational model while those interested in building their own brand will find other places to ply their trade, and we decided that is OK. We are about our team and providing maximum value to our clients.

We are also in the middle of implementing internally many of the same tools we implement for our clients putting a premium on seamless integration and automation. The more time we save our consultants and back office on administrative tasks, the more time we can be adding value to our clients or investing in our skill development.

4. Think Global

As we live our value of thinking with a global mindset and the positive impact we want to make ” not only on our fellow employees, clients and technology alliances ” but in our communities and the world, we’ve amplified our commitment to working towards a more diverse workforce while sustaining and enhancing an inclusive career development model. We continue to rely on our talent to drive our impact both within and outside of our firm. We know it’s key to our success to have diverse voices guiding our way.

In closing, we are thankful for a wonderful year. Leading such a fantastic team is a privilege and a humbling experience. The sacrifice our road warriors make for the firm and their clients daily is incredible. A deep thank you to our clients for the confidence and support of our business. I am very excited to get started on Year Three!

Founded in 2018, Spaulding Ridge is a top management consulting firm, dedicated to client success and helping organizations implement and adopt best-in-cloud technology to solve their most pressing challenges. We provide the office of the CFO financial clarity to Sales and Operational complexity by integrating financial and sales SaaS Platforms.

We help:
• Finance gain control ” Increasing financial effectiveness, insight and impact
• Sales increase Productivity ” Hitting quota more quickly, consistently and efficiently
• Operations increase Competitiveness ” Through productivity rates, customer service outcomes, and efficiency

Spaulding Ridge
About the Author

Spaulding Ridge is a leading Advisory and Technology implementation firm. We are passionate about helping business leaders use technology and data to make better, faster decisions.