Client Context
A Canadian fertility clinic network had grown rapidly through acquisition — four locations, $5.7M in revenue, 45 employees, and 46,000 patient files — but was running in founder-led mode without a formal strategy. Each clinic operated independently with inconsistent protocols. The CEO had ambitions to scale to 20 locations and raise growth capital, but couldn't articulate a coherent strategy to investors, the leadership team, or employees.
The underlying challenges were structural, not just operational. There was no strategic framework connecting growth, utilization, service expansion, and digitization. No risk management program existed despite operating in a regulated medical environment. Leadership had no shared language for decision-making, and new hires at the management level had no playbook for how the organization intended to grow.
Then COVID-19 hit — three months into the engagement — threatening to derail everything.
What We Did
— Conducted a time-boxed diagnostic phase: 28 interviews across clinical, administrative, and leadership staff, combined with multi-site observation and financial analysis, producing a hypothesis-driven assessment within 6 working days
— Facilitated two-day strategy workshops with the executive team: established a shared 2022 vision, SWOT analysis, market sizing, and competitive positioning — producing the organization's first formal corporate strategy document
— Designed a 5-pillar strategic framework: Expand Clinic Network, Maximize Utilization, Increase Share of Wallet, Automate & Digitize, and Build Organizational Capability — each with measurable KPIs, initiative owners, and quarterly milestones
— Built a strategic project portfolio of 30+ initiatives with ownership, effort estimates, budget requirements, and RAG status tracking — establishing the discipline of portfolio-level project governance for the first time
— Developed a comprehensive risk management framework covering 7 risk categories (externality, compliance, security/fraud, financial, reputation, operational, competition) with specific mitigation actions, insurance requirements, and long-term best practices for a regulated healthcare environment
— Designed and launched a COVID-19 response strategy within weeks: telemedicine implementation, remote workforce protocols, scheduling optimization for in-clinic procedures only, and patient communication frameworks — converting a crisis into a proof-of-concept for remote care delivery
— Created the organizational values framework (5 core values anchored to the brand) and facilitated a company-wide strategy launch including job aids, posters, and team activation activities
— Recruited and onboarded specialized consultants for operational playbook development, SOP creation, and training program design — building execution capacity beyond the core engagement
Outcomes
- 38% year-over-year revenue growth sustained through a pandemic year, driven by strategic focus on utilization optimization and service line expansion
- 30+ strategic initiatives launched with formal project governance, replacing ad-hoc decision-making with portfolio-level discipline
- 2 new clinic locations brought online with a repeatable acquisition playbook, reducing onboarding time by 40%
- Telemedicine capability launched in under 4 weeks during COVID-19, later becoming a permanent service offering that expanded the addressable patient population to remote communities
- Risk management program established covering regulatory compliance, malpractice, cyber security, and business continuity — a prerequisite for institutional investor due diligence
- Investor-ready strategic narrative produced, with a documented growth plan, financial projections, and governance framework that supported subsequent capital raise conversations
"We had the ambition but not the structure. The engagement gave us a strategy our entire team could rally behind, the governance to execute it, and the resilience to grow through COVID. For the first time, we could articulate exactly how we were going to scale — and prove we had the discipline to do it." — CEO, Multi-Clinic Healthcare Network