If I’m being completely honest, like most entrepreneurs, I wasn’t thinking 29 years in the future when I started Transforming Solutions, Inc., back in 1995. But here we are, celebrating our 29th 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, 50% don’t make it to five years, and 80% don’t make it past 20 years. So, for me, if I made it past 5 years, I would take that as a moral 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, who 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, Buzzfeed, and Groupon – 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, Life Fitness, 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 this affinity group worked with the College of Business and other parts of the university. I was nominated to serve this organization as President for about four years.
As fate would have it, this experience opened the door for us to begin pursuing some consulting work in higher education. First, in the Advancement area of Higher Education with our first higher education client being the University of Illinois. Our higher education work 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, Ole Miss, University of Rhode Island, and many others.
And of course, we are still helping some of the “fastest growing companies” get to that next level, by helping them get clear on the strategies they want to pursue and then to define and improve more efficient processes, select more scalable software, and manage change.
As I reflect on nearly 3 decades, the relationships that we have made with our clients and those that we have made internally within 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 clients’ 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 did this successfully and we really tried 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 does not come easily. I want to close with a profound thank you to my family who have 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.
Dan Feely
President
Transforming Solutions, Inc.
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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 29 years and to work with non-profit organizations like the NIU Foundation, Northern Illinois Food Bank, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and Feeding America who continue to serve those in need.
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