Cymax Group Technologies
Cymax Group Technologies is a leading eCommerce technology and services platform for furniture vendors and retailers. It is also an online furniture e-commerce marketplace that competes with the likes of Wayfair and Amazon.
We helped the Cymax senior leadership team align on a hyper-growth strategy to accomplish the CEO’s ambitious goal of doubling profitable revenue within three years, without losing the young company’s agile and engaging startup culture.
The client
Since 2004, Cymax has been designing complete eCommerce solutions that enable ease, scale and certainty for clients. The company’s suite of powerful tools, analytics, and Web channels help vendors optimize how they market, sell, and deliver their products to customers.
Cymax leverages data, technology, expert teams, and two decades of industry experience to create a better eCommerce and freight experience for furniture manufacturers across North America. Their vision is to transform eCommerce by democratizing the technology and services that drive success for our clients from design to delivery.
Cymax serves more than 400 vendors in North America with more than 500,000 products across multiple online marketplaces linked to more than 30 transportation carriers in both the US and Canada — all happening in real-time, 24/7, 365 days per year.
Through its two boutique marketplaces, Homesquare and Cymax Business, Cymax offers exclusive access to new markets and consumers; Channel Gate delivers integrated tech and services across leading marketplaces, and Freight Club is an end-to-end freight shipping platform, giving retailers access to an expanded carrier network and enterprise rates through its logistics tech platform.
The challenge
Soon after he become CEO in 2019, Rizwan Somji set an ambitious goal for the company, a goal that would pave the way for a potential initial public offering. That goal was “hyper-growth” – specifically, doubling profitable revenue within three years.
Many CEOs have set ambitious goals which they failed to accomplish. Somji knew that to succeed he had to bring his senior leadership team along with him and together they needed to fully understand the issues and opportunities facing the company.
Like many executive teams, they needed to align on the company’s mission and identity, which had become somewhat fragmented since the company was founded in 2004.
Leaders also needed to articulate clear purpose and value proposition for employees, innovation order to ensure their continued engagement on this ambitious three-year journey. Somji knew that the company’s culture and people strategies could make or break his goal, so these needed to be aligned as well.
The solution
Many CEOs would have tried to develop a strategy on their own or hire a traditional consulting firm to provide “the answer.” Instead, Somji preference for teamwork and understanding challenges in all of their detail led him to work with Mind Meeting Group.
We helped the CEO and his executive team frame the challenge and then divide it into five topics or variables. Over a long weekend, the executive team systematically worked through each of these variables, processing iteratively from analysis to brainstorming to decision making. All the while, the group kept their eyes on the 3-year goal, as well as how each of the five variables interacted.
At the end of this weekend workshop, Somji had his strategy. Just as importantly, the rest of the executive team unanimously supported it. (To protect client confidentiality, we do not share any strategy details).
One executive who initially thought the CEO’s goal was too ambitious completely reversed his position after seeing the hyper-growth strategy emerge. (He suggested that the company might even have aimed higher).
Three years later, we checked in with Somji and found that they were close to doubling profitable revenue. They already were up 82% since the Mind Meeting workshop.
Testimonial
