A Message From Our Founder

If I’m being completely honest, like most entrepreneurs, I wasn’t thinking 25 years in the future when I started Transforming Solutions, Inc., back in 1995. But here we are, celebrating our 25th anniversary! After working at one of the largest consulting firms in the world, and two mid-sized firms, I felt that there was an unmet need to serve clients differently. I wanted to focus on the challenges they encountered as they were striving to grow, adapt and transform.

Now the problem is I’ve never started a company before. I knew that 20% of companies fail in the first year and 50% don’t make it to five years. So, for me, if I made it past five years, I would take that as a morale victory. 

So, in April of 1995, I launched TSI. I was soon joined by several other consultants that worked with me at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). We landed our first client, Rand McNally, which was the world’s leader in maps in the mid-1990’s (before Google maps was born). Our first consulting project was to help them integrate a few acquisitions and streamline their processes in Human Resources, Payroll and Benefit operations and select a new HR system as well.

We were fortunate and able to land several large corporations as clients- such as SBC/Ameritech, Motorola and Kemper Insurance- and lead various transformation, change management, process improvement and technology selection efforts.  However, only four years into our growth, with “Year 2000” on the horizon, nearly all efforts at our clients were being diverted from projects like ours to other efforts to ensure their systems would survive Y2K.  All of the sudden that five-year hurdle was becoming a bit more ominous.

Consequently, we quickly began to shift our focus away from large corporations to growth-oriented, mid-market companies and landed our first mid-market client, LifeFitness, and helped them optimize their supply chain and many other processes.

We thought this is where we would stay – focused on mid-market, growth-oriented companies -and we did just that. Sort of. At least for a while, our focus was on consulting with this part of the market and we did that through the “dot com” days of the early 2000’s and then the “dot bomb” days that followed. 

Shortly thereafter, I got more involved with my alma mater, Northern Illinois University, and a wonderful organization for giving back and networking, called the NIU Executive Club. I got to see firsthand how a university and an affinity group worked, and ended up serving as President for about four years.

As fate would have it, this experience opened up the door for us to begin pursuing some consulting work; at first, in the Advancement area of Higher Education. Our first higher education client was the University of Illinois and things took off from there as we successfully completed a variety of projects at Illinois State, NIU, Georgia Tech, University of Chicago, Cal State University at San Luis Obispo and many others.

And of course, we are still helping some of the “fastest growing companies” get to that next level, by helping them to define and improve more efficient processes, select more scalable software and manage change.

As I reflect on the two and a half decades, the relationships that we have made with our clients and those that we have made internally to TSI are among my favorite memories.  We have brought on many awesome consultants who have worked as a team and supported each other, without the cut-throat culture filled with politics that exists in so many consulting firms. We evolve each year and continue to learn from each other. I can honestly say that all of those who have come to TSI have taught me a thing or two, and each has left their mark on us, as an organization, and with our clients.

The relationships that we build with our clients are special. We take on some of our client’s burdens as they are often leading the charge of transformation at their organization. And since we are in this together, we worry, collaborate and figure things out together.

Fortunately, we do this successfully and we really try to have some fun along the way too, thus the introduction of rainbows and unicorns and other fun ideas that my creative team members have devised. We often include important topics such as “the beverage fund” to add a spirit of fun while we strive to make change, often in environments where change has not come easily. I want to close with a profound thank you to my family who has been with me for a good part of this journey, my team whose hard work and dedication I cherish, and our clients who have trusted and believed in us from the beginning.

Join us in Celebrating our Anniversary by Supporting Our Community

While we continue to strive to be the best in our industry, our intention is to not only serve our clients, but our surrounding communities as well. TSI has been proud to call Chicago home for the last 25 years and to work with non-profit organizations like the Northern Illinois Food Bank, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and Feeding America who continue to serve those in need. If you find yourself looking to help those less fortunate than us, we hope you will consider joining our team and supporting these incredible organizations.