Who We Are

Catalyft, LLC | a boutique business transformation consulting and advisory services firm.


WE ARE YOUR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION CATALYST. 

OUR FOCUS:

We help firms gain a deeper understanding of their own performance capabilities, provide organizational change expertise, build up new business capabilities, and accelerate EBITDA growth.  Catalyft partners with Private Equity, top-performing companies looking for their next areas of growth, organizations facing operational and financial adversity, and firms in merger transition.  We’re a navigator and an accelerant.

OUR ORIGIN:

Disheartened by management consulting’s bad habits and wasted energy (such as recycling generalized solutions, emphasizing theoretical guidance over practical implementation, focusing on invoicing rather than solving problems, gazing myopically inward, pushing organizations down untested rabbit holes, crewing inexperienced staff with limited support…feel free to add your own personal fave), Catalyft’s founder, Dean Lampman, was inspired to hang out a shingle of his own and create a flexible, practitioner-led consulting firm – designed around each clients’ unique, complex requirements. 

Catalyft’s model is built around customizing every partnership to fit client needs.  By infusing flexibility in every collaboration, ensuring only relevant technology applications and subject matter experts are brought to bear on business needs, and emphasizing tangible results over internal politics, Catalyft sidesteps the consulting industry’s expensive bad habits.  All for the benefit of our clients.  

What We Do

We help organizations make more meaningful and sustainable performance improvements with far greater magnitude, speed, and certainty than could be achieved through internal efforts alone.


OUR PARTNERSHIPS FOCUS ON CRITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS WITH QUANTIFIED RIGOR, CREATIVE ENERGY, AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL.  

We work with you to:

» Identify, qualify, and quantify improvement opportunities considering all trapped value

» Design practical solutions capturing those opportunities releasing the trapped value

» Implement solutions to realize tangible benefits showing up in operational metrics, cultural assessments, and financial statements

Together, we define shared operational and financial targets, calibrate our ambitious approach with a strong cultural fit to get your team actively involved in the transformation, and allow freshly-visible data analytics to guide us through all the inherent trials and exciting breakthroughs along the way.  Preparing for your bright future, we ensure your team is empowered with the capacity, know-how, and data-backed confidence to keep the improvements moving onward and upward.

Our Results-Oriented Culture

Our Aspiration: bring a fresh, agile culture to consulting that pays off royally for our clients and practitioners.


NEW FIRM, VETERAN PRACTITIONERS:

While our firm may be young and enthusiastic, the collective experience of our team is best measured in decades.  In fact, most of us have worked together for years.  The core team’s time together as colleagues has outlasted most of our business cards.  Our trust in each other pays off for our clients by ensuring we build the best team for each engagement –  customized specifically to our clients’ needs – rather than naively applying the same skill sets for every situation.

HARNESS PAST EXPERIENCES, FIND NOVEL SOLUTIONS:

Our success depends upon leveraging collective strengths, accurately assessing new risks, and thoughtfully applying individual expertise to our clients’ most pressing opportunities.  We are dedicated to creating a collegial environment –  built upon respect for our clients and for our own professionals.  We know supporting each other in an open, collaborative manner pays off in several ways:  the daily spark of a job well-done, the lingering satisfaction of building new business capabilities, and the definitive sense of accomplishment from seeing improvements translate into EBITDA and cash upside for our clients.

MEASURE EVERYTHING (NUMBERS PROVIDE CLARITY):

While perspectives may initially vary, rigorous measurement of progress must be in place during every Catalyft engagement.  “Let the numbers do the talking” is a hallmark of our culture.  We know the numbers will confirm our chosen approach is paying off.  They will also provide early warning when we need to make adjustments.  We know the numbers will provide objective assurance to our clients – who have so graciously entrusted us to be part of their firm’s complex transformation.  It’s a universal language we speak early and often.

Our Values

At Catalyft, we hold our core values in the highest regard.


CATALYFT’S MINDSET, WE SERVE OUR CLIENTS, IS FUNDAMENTAL TO OUR CORE VALUES. 

We know if we take care of our clients, then everything else falls beautifully into place.  We’ve experienced it.  We embrace the fact that our success is solely contingent upon our clients’ success.  Everything else is a means to that end.

Clients tell us our dedication to their daily needs and alignment with their long-term goals set us apart from other more internally-focused firms they’ve worked with in the past.  Thankfully, our clients show us our values are aimed correctly by continuing to partner with us on additional opportunities.

Our values provide the foundation for the way we conduct ourselves both personally and professionally. We embrace meritocracy, encourage active debate, and cultivate self-development. These values, added to our out-sized entrepreneurial spirit, make working with Catalyft a rewarding experience.

Integrity:

the quality of being honest and maintaining a firm adherence to a code of moral and ethical principles: incorruptibility; an unimpaired condition: soundness; the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: completeness.

The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions.
— Junius

Wisdom:

the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.
— Daniel J. Boorstin

Courage:

the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation; the demonstration of the ability to be brave in facing possible danger and hardship by drawing upon an inner strength of character to stand firm on matters of personal principles and conviction.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
— Winston Churchill

Heart:

the center of the total personality, especially with reference to intuition, feeling, or emotion; the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially love, compassion, or enthusiasm.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Working at Catalyft

Our philosophy: hire professionals who are talented, experienced, diligent, collaborative and, most importantly, of high character – all necessary qualities when overcoming tough business challenges our clients encounter.

 

GETTING STARTED:

We have an extensive interview and vetting process to ensure the people we hire are the right fit for us and we’re a great fit for their professional needs.

ALWAYS LEARNING:

Our working environment is challenging – but exciting. Team members enjoy an entrepreneurial culture, individualized career development opportunities, and a cross-training philosophy to build skills and broaden strengths.  We are very proud of our collaborative working relationships at every level of our organization.

CLIENT-CENTERED:

Working with us, you will be immersed in demanding, creative work that produces tangible results.  Unlike traditional consulting firms, we work shoulder-to-shoulder with our clients to implement the very solutions we propose rather than just providing the framework. If you want to see your efforts come to life, Catalyft just might be for you.

CARROT OVER STICK:

To attract and retain the best professionals in the marketplace, we offer a highly competitive compensation package.

EXCELLENCE OF CHARACTER:

We provide unmatched service by only hiring people with proven character, business acumen, and work ethic, and by providing the team with supportive leadership, tools, and encouragement to thrive.

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT:

You’re the driver of your own career with us.  To support you, we offer a robust, non-traditional career development planning process, regular opportunities for performance feedback, and a pragmatic performance review process designed to help you succeed.

ENGAGEMENT IN THE NOW:

No such monster as “The Daily Grind” here.  Working side-by-side with incredibly smart clients and highly-experienced teammates on innovative solutions,  we are confident even our most seasoned veterans will learn something new.

We Are Different

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein

Our clients are everything to us - the very spark to Catalyft's existence.
Bringing a creative and agile team to our partnership, we are comprised of consulting veterans, subject matter experts, and industry executives energized by developing innovative solutions to your business challenges and new opportunities.


CATALYFT’S SIXTEEN POINTS OF DISTINCTION.

  • SPEAK WITH STRAIGHT-TALK.  You aren’t going to need an interpreter to translate what we just said.  We find management speak just as frustrating as you do.
  • DELIVER RESULTS.  We work shoulder-to-shoulder until improvements are realized. Theories don’t hit the P&L, Statement of Cash Flow, and Balance Sheet.
  • APPLY CREATIVITY.  We develop bespoke solutions that fit your organization’s needs, not sell you a clumsy solution-from-a-box.
  • VALUE RELATIONSHIPS.  We don’t vanish at the end of an engagement just because fees have been collected. Also, we require client satisfaction at all levels.
  • FOCUS ON ENGAGEMENT.  We don’t build solutions to keep our people around on retainer like an annuity.
  • PARTNER WITH PRACTITIONERS.  We don’t pass you around various members of our organization through each step in the process like we’re speed dating.
  • EMPLOY A SENIOR MODEL.  You won’t be paying for the training and development of a cast of newly-minted MBAs lacking practical experience. 
  • MAINTAIN CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY.  We keep client names unpublished.  However, you will certainly be speaking with references before we work together.
  • DEDICATE OUR ACTIONS TO OUR CLIENTS.  We invest our time in improvements for our clients’ business rather than internally-focused empire-building.
  • ELEVATE LOGO AS MORE THAN A MARK.  We drive toward at least a five to one return on our clients’ investments; thus, the $5 bill’s purple and green serve as a constant reminder of our yardstick for success.
  • PRACTICE WHAT WE PREACH.  Our lean back-office enables us to double the value put into our delivery team compared to other firms, and at a lower cost.
  • DRIVE RAPID TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMS.  Our engagements are designed to be completed in weeks or months – not years.
  • COLLABORATE SIDE-BY-SIDE.  We don’t implement through edict or email but by collaboratively working with our clients’ people until results are realized.
  • IMPLEMENT SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS.  We harness the latest technologies to benefit your business; our implemented systems won’t be a compilation of miscellaneous spreadsheets.
  • ENCOURAGE AGILITY.  Responsive and Nimble didn’t keep working on making better buggy whips once the automobile was introduced. When our clients’ needs change, we adjust in real time.
  • REVERE NUMBERS.  We know data analysis will guide us – from structuring an engagement approach, to testing business models, to ensuring new business capabilities translate into financial results for our clients.

Leadership

Dean W. Lampman – Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Catalyft, LLC.

Build-up, Turnaround, and Organizational Excellence Experience: For 33 years and counting, Dean has led significant performance gains partnering with 310+ organizations.  With every collaboration, he has shared his ability to quickly interpret complex issues, develop comprehensive improvement strategies, design innovative business models, and implement dramatic changes.  To date, his teams have delivered $2.5+ billion in annualized client benefits across 14+ sectors.

While ultimately focusing on EBITDA and cash flow, Dean’s experience has shown all engagements must also embed leadership development and change management programs along the path to financial results.  He is often requested to provide insight on organizational readiness for upcoming market challenges, assess trapped value levels in existing models, and participate in mergers & acquisitions activities.  His experience spans across complex turnaround collaborations as well.

Life Before Catalyft: Dean held multiple executive positions in Management Consulting and Global Transportation Services – including 10 years as Senior Partner, Executive Vice President of Logistics, Director of Operations, and Lead Analyst (Americas).

Professional Organizations: Active member of Turnaround Management Association (TMA), Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), and The OSU Department of Mathematics Advisory Board. OSU Dept. of Mathematics Link

Education: The Ohio State University.

Interests Outside Of Catalyft: Any activity involving outdoor adventures and college football.

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