Group O grows bigger and better in Texas

As an organization grows, whether through acquisitions or pure organics, the exercise affords the firm the ability to provide its client base the best service. However, determining when and where it is appropriate to expand is often a delicate and strategicdecision, one related directly to customer satisfaction. And, as many business owners know, this satisfaction is not only the result of putting forth a solid offering, but it is equally representative of the organization’s ability to maintain a working culture.

Take for example, Milan, Ill.-based Group O. When the national products and services provider marked its expansion into the Texas market with the opening of a new office in San Antonio, the company’s management team performed its due diligence on the community priorto making a final decision. Expanding operations into San Antonio made sense for the growing company, explained Founder and Chairman Bob Ontiveros.

“San Antonio is a terrific city with an upbeat environment and a noticeable can-do attitude - both of which blend well with our organization,” he said. “We are looking forward to meeting new clients and growing along with the San Antonio business community. It is wonderful to see that Group O is expanding nationally, especially with the next generation at the helm.

“The fact that southern Texas offers a fantastic business environment and the type of climate that is conducive to accelerated growth onlyadded to the attraction, explained Murad Velani, Group O president and chief operating officer. “The community as a whole is very friendly and fits well with the way we do business,” he said. “There is a noticeablecommitment to expand the infrastructure, including the airport, roads,sports franchises, etc., which simply makes this an attractive area tooperate and expand our business.”

Offerings a la carte

A key component of Group O’s sustainable success is its diverse offering. While the mix of services has changed over the years, the current portfolio succeeds through offering a complex cart of supply chain, packaging and marketing solutions to a broad range of industries,including food and beverage, telecommunications, manufacturing, CPG,financial services, pharmaceutical and technology.

Within the supply chain solutions realm, Group O is a Six Sigma organization supporting some of the world’s leading and largest high- growth manufacturing brands such as John Deere and Caterpillar.

“In this capacity, we are assuming the responsibility and assets that are non-core to our client’s operations,” Velani said. “We have the people, processes and technologies infused directly into our client’s workflow. Our supply chain solutions include providing subassembly services, order fulfillment [and] other value engineering services toenhance the supply chain.”

In the packaging space, Group O provides an extensive nationwidenetwork of solutions. “The key is to analyze clients’ packaging needs and provide precision calibrated practices that improve the sourcing, useand reuse,” Velani explained. In this arena, Group O works for industry-leading firms like PepsiCo, Kraft and Procter& Gamble.

Currently, marketing solutions is the highestgrowth area for Group O.

“We have a comprehensive suiteof offerings to help our clients retain their existingcustomers and develoployal relationships,”Velani said. “Many of these clients are faced with the dual challenge ofdriving both efficiencyand effectiveness in their marketing programs.

These challenges can be leveraged through targeted, personalized, relevant marketing campaigns and tactics across multi-media andmarketing channels.”

Velani continued, “Group O provides a deep branch of decision science capabilities that include data modeling, intelligent and predictiveanalytics to optimize our clients’ marketing programs. We have a full portfolio of services that fall under the O2 Optimization Suitethat enables our clients to dramatically increase the yield on theirmarketing spend.”

One of the key factors within the marketing solutions realm rests with Group O’s ability to provide feedback to analyze the

effectiveness of a marketing campaign. “We help our clients rapidly evaluate and dynamically migrate their efforts and resources to achieve optimized results,” he said.

Capital investments
One of the key differentiating factors contributing to Group O’s success in each of its core competencies has been its ability to attract
and retain a highly skilled and motivated team. As a result, the firm has a growing technical bench comprised of personnel who hold doctorate and master’s degrees in various decision and technical sciences.

“We deploy these individuals within our clients’ environments under the decision sciences umbrella. The objective is to assist our
clients in the development of complex models that optimize key aspects of their business operations including: customer satisfaction, competitive intelligence and product and market penetration,” Velani said. “The San Antonio area provides firms with access to a highly educated, productive and available workforce. When taking all this into consideration, it is easy to see the outstanding growth opportunities with existing and new clients.”

CEO Gregg Ontiveros echoed these sentiments.
“Being able to attract, include and retain this level of personnel is a true strength in providing value to our client base. The availability of human resources and intellectual capital in this region is an enormous positive,” he said. “This is also an area where we have an existing customer base. We know it is not possible to substitute face time, and we put a high priority on being able to provide our clients with the service they deserve. We are moving onward and upward with exciting plans, new technology offerings and a true
decision-management platform.”