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Company: Minacs Worldwide, Inc., Toronto, Ontario
Company Description: Minacs provides business process outsourcing solutions focused on contact center solutions, integrated marketing services, and back office administration. With 4500 employees in Canada, the United States, and Europe, Minacs has established successful industry practices with clients in the automotive, financial, telecom, technology, public sector and consumer products verticals.
Nomination Category: Company, Office & Product Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Business Turnaround
Nomination Title: Minacs Worldwide, Inc.
1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
After seven consecutive quarters of profit losses, Minacs Worldwide posted a
CDN$1.8 million profit in Q2 2004, a CDN$819,000 profit in Q3, and will be
profitable for 2004. After having posted a CDN$9.9 million loss in 2003, to then
have a profitable year for 2004, is a substantial swing. While the financial
turnaround is self-evident, how Minacs rallied its employees and set the bar high
by externally communicating ten benchmarks is the real story of Minacs’ 2004
turnaround.
In January 2004, after a financially disappointing 2003, Minacs developed an
aggressive strategy aimed at every level of the business to enable the Company’s
financial turnaround and position Minacs for future growth. To communicate the
strategy, the management team decided to execute an internal and external
communication program based on the over-arching theme of a “100 Day Plan.”
Through the dedication, commitment and focus of all employees, by September
30th – day 100 – Minacs had made significant progress toward achieving each
benchmark. The Company was operating at a level of sustainable profitability.
Minacs’ balance sheet was being refinanced to be growth-friendly. Business units
were more efficient and profitable. SG&A percentage was among the best in the
business process outsourcing space – 25% of Revenue. Minacs returned to an
industry leadership position for retention rates while reducing attrition costs
by $1 million. Furthermore, capacity utilization of our contact center facilities had
dramatically improved and was tracking to be even better.
CEO Elaine Minacs would have been unable to announce the Company’s dramatic
turnaround had it not been for an equally aggressive internal plan.
Minacs’ internal 100-day plan was launched concurrently with the external plan.
For the first time, Minacs assembled cross-functional teams,
nicknamed “Mastermind Groups,” that comprised employees from a variety of
levels across the Company who were led by an executive team member. Minacs’
management discovered that these motivated mastermind groups pushed their
peers to better align themselves with management’s strategic direction and
inspired them to overcome their narrow perspective of their role at Minacs.
Specific accomplishments of the internal 100-day plan included reducing month-
end reporting from 20 days to 5 days, saving half a million dollars through the IT
department developing a process to ensure Minacs was not being overcharged by
its voice and data suppliers, formalizing the Company’s sales process enterprise-
wide, implementing a new sales pipeline lead-generation tool,” creating a value-
review board process for all sales opportunities and reducing attrition costs by
$1million dollars through various internal communications initiatives.
During the 100 days, Minacs also launched two new internal communications
programs. In “Back-to-Reality,” executives spend an hour with employees, in the
contact centers, listening to their calls and answering any questions. For
“Project Starbucks,” executives push a coffee cart around the floor serving coffee and interfacing with employees. Both programs have substantially increased
employee interaction with executives.
2004 was Minacs’ turnaround year both financially and in employee satisfaction.
The Company’s innovative 100-day plan created a singular focus within in the
organization that led to a unified organization and to dramatic internal and
external results.
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Annual Reports 2001, 2002, 2003: http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/financial/annual/
Quarterly results releases and 100-Day Plan release: http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=235 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=244 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=250 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=255
New contracts and facilities:
http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=231 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=239 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=246 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=251 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=252
Awards:
http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=229 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=236 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=238 http://www.minacs.com/en/investors/press/press_release_detail.cfm?id=253 http://www.profitguide.com/w100/
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:
Elaine Minacs is the CEO of Minacs Worldwide, a company she founded in 1981.
Best known for her unfaltering spirit and entrepreneurial drive, Elaine started her
company as a temporary staffing agency, then further evolved Minacs’ market
definition to a business process outsourcing company.
Elaine took the company from a privately-held corporation reporting revenues of
$35.9 million in 1998, to a publicly-traded company with recorded revenues of
$260.6 million in 2003.
Elaine’s entrepreneurial skills have been nationally recognized at both the
corporate and personal level. She faces challenges head-on, and welcomes new
opportunities to take Minacs into uncharted territory.
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