about stu wolff
Hi, my name is Stu Wolff - I’m a seasoned entrepreneur turned business coach. I successfully sold my business, The Wolff Group, to the multi-billion-dollar industry leader Acosta Sales & Marketing, after growing my company to more than 160 employees and managing over $1 Billion in sales covering a ten-state area in the Midwest.
I, like many entrepreneurs, grew my business year after year, and then “hit a ceiling.”, I could not get my business to grow - we were stuck! I was a member of the Chief Executive Forum Group, a local Entrepreneur peer group, where one of my fellow peer group members suggested my solution was to call Gino Wickman-to learn about EOS, The Entrepreneurial Operating System, which he founded and developed. It literally took me three months to pick up the phone, call Gino, and admit that I needed help to run my business.
At that first 90 minute meeting with Gino, he explained to me and my now ex-business partner what EOS was all about. I was literally shaking in my seat- it was exactly what I needed and was looking for. I was in need of a simple but effective system to help me get my Leadership Team on the same page.
EOS is a holistic operating system that helped to get us truly better at three important things:
Vision: get our Wolff Group leadership team on the same page as to where we are going & how we are going to get there. We had several versions of this going on prior.
Traction: help to instill discipline & accountability so that everyone is executing on the vision every-day. Accountability was a scary word that our team at Wolff Group was not very comfortable with.
Healthy: help to create a highly functional, open, honest and fun-loving leadership team, which we were far from.
Gino helped to implement EOS with our leadership team by teaching, facilitating and coaching us, we then eventually migrated the learnings, tools, disciplines and accountability throughout our entire organization. Having Gino as that neutral third party Business Coach, helped me to get my Leadership Team all on the same page-much quicker.
When we started with Gino and the EOS Process, we were primarily providing sales & marketing services in one state-Michigan, with 42 employees managing $140 M in sales. Through the EOS process, it created a tremendous amount of transparency within the first to second year, in which I came to the realization that the main cause of our “hitting the ceiling” issue was that my ex-business partner and I could not continue as business partners. That was a huge, risky and serious realization. My ex-business partner and I were not aligned from a Core Value stand point nor did we share a common Vision for the company.
Without these two basic and critically important key components out of alignment, we were destined to fail. Based upon that clarity, I reconnected with a previous business partner that I completely trusted, we were fully aligned on our Core Values and shared a common Vision for Wolff Group. We ultimately bought out my ex-business partner and a new Wolff Group emerged with a solid foundation built on; strong Core Values, a clear Vision, a simple/clean Core Focus, a long term 10 year Target and a Marketing Strategy identifying our three- unique’s. We now knew who we were; what our sweet spot was; where we are going long term; and how we were going to get there. Having this clear vision helped us to consistently execute on our Three Year Picture and our One Year plan, thanks to the clarity and transparency that the EOS process provided. I was then able to focus my time & unique abilities toward 10 strategic acquisitions with organizations that aligned with our Core Values. In the end, Wolff Group became a premier Midwest Region Sales & Marketing Agency managing over $1 Billion in sales with over 160 right people in the right seats.
Let me help you maximize your business - let’s talk so we can determine if taking the next step toward success with the EOS process is right for you.
