The client (the “College”) is an international medical society designed to advance patient outcomes through innovative respiratory medicine education, clinical research and team-based care.  The society is a not-for-profit corporation with more than 18,500 members representing over 100 countries.

The College began to incur operating losses while constructing a new $24 million corporate office facility and beginning implementation of a systemwide IT upgrade requiring a mid-seven figure investment.  

The new corporate office facility was 100% financed while the IT upgrade was partially financed.  

Fort Dearborn was retained to review management’s operating plan with the goal of improving profitability.  Our work included:

–Interviewing all senior management and certain members of the Board of Regents;

–Assessing corporate governance procedures;

–Analyzing revenue sources and identifying where the College could increase fees;

–Performing detailed analyses of all expense categories and identifying several areas for expense reduction, resulting in increased profitability; 

–Evaluating the organizational and reporting structure and recommending changes that improved communications and decision making; and

–Analyzing sources and uses of cash related to the construction and financing of the new corporate office.

Fort Dearborn identified over $3.0 million in profit improvements in the form of increased revenue initiatives and expense reductions.

FDP also recommended elimination of non-strategic programs, reduction of the number of board meetings from 6 to 4, and elimination of certain committees.

After reviewing the organizational structure, FDP proposed several changes to enhance decision making throughout the College.