Why JDR?

Ready to try something different?

Your business deserves more than quick-fix bandaids that don’t solve root causes or overly complex plans that fall apart when executed.

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Empower and enable your people

We don’t just come in and tell you what you need to do to be successful.

We engage your leaders and difference-makers to keep them fully invested and engaged long-term.

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A balanced approach

We don’t simply analyze your business and prescribe a plan to solve problems.

We help your team align on a collective vision of longer-term success, build a plan to achieve your full potential, and execute the plan.

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A proven method tailored to you

We don’t believe in one size fits all.

Our flexible framework is customized to your unique values, strengths, and the challenges you face.

A strategic growth partner delivering lasting value

There IS a Better Way

Other Consultants

JDR Growth Partners

Professional consultants who have not held the industry roles they are serving

Decades of experience at top US companies, startups, and family-owned enterprises in executive leadership and board roles

Armchair quarterbacks focused on weaknesses and selling you more

Player-coach focused on leveraging your strengths for profitable, sustainable growth

Shapes the solution to fit the work

Shapes the work to create strategies, goals, and improved execution for profitable growth

Develops strategy without the context or responsibility for execution

Long-term strategic partner helping to guide and evolve your growing business

Minimal experience growing future business leaders

A proven track record developing emerging leaders who bring out the best in others

Who Jude Rake Isn't

He has successfully built his own family business and has helped over four dozen others prosper.

“I understand the issues you’re facing and have dedicated myself to helping family businesses thrive.”

And he’s not going to leave you to execute on your own.

“I compliment your expertise by equipping you and your team with the intelligence and skills they need for continued and ongoing success far into the future.”

Our JDR SMART Growth Strategic Planning process has been carefully honed over four decades.

“My flexible framework utilizes proven methods – customized to your specific situation – that have brought success to dozens of family-owned businesses like yours.”

“JDR helped us craft a simplified new direction over a series of work sessions. They engaged ownership as well as our board and leadership team to build innovative approaches to our significant market challenges.

I would recommend JDR to any CEO or owner looking for help with strategy and/or leadership development and coaching, including helping owners simplify and clarify their vision.“

Andrew Warrington
President, UCC Environmental

Real Results

United Conveyor Corporation

Given the decline of the coal power generation industry, UCC sought strategic guidance to ensure the long-term health of their company. 

Great Plains Manufacturing

The founder, owner and leader of this first-generation business was nearing retirement and wrestling with family and leadership succession challenges.

Miramar
Services

The board of directors wanted to align the broader family on a shared vision for the family office in a way that satisfied their increasingly diverse range of clients most efficiently.

Helping You Beat the Odds

Start planning now for generations of success

The average lifespan of a family-owned business is only 24 years

While non-family-owned business typically last for generations.

Source: The Family Business Center

70% of family-owned businesses do not survive beyond the first generation

And only 10% remain active into the third generation.

Source: Harvard Business Review

30% of family business owners have no plans to retire ever.

Yet in nearly half of all family-owned business collapses, the failure was precipitated by the founder’s death.

Source: Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

What's Stopping You?

Founding principle Jude Rake addresses common concerns

As a business owner myself, I know that you can’t afford to have your workflow disrupted. The JDR process integrates seamlessly into your day-to-day, often leading to a more invested, more productive team even before the process is complete.

I won’t leave you with a lengthy plan and unwieldy list of to-dos. I work WITH your team to coach them through implementation, insuring your plan is executed and your team is aligned on a collective vision of success and committed to executing it with excellence.

Nobody understands your business better than you. That’s why I work with you, your leadership team, and your people to pinpoint areas for improvement, and then coach them toward the solution. I don’t want to run your business for you. I want to give you the knowledge and tools to drive continued success far after our engagement has ended.

JDR might not have the size of bigger more well-known consultants, but there are some compelling advantages to working with a smaller firm.

You won’t meet with experienced folks for the sales pitch and then be assigned junior team members for your project. You’ll be working with me – founding principle Jude Rake – from the first meeting all the way through execution. And you’ll have my undivided attention because I prefer to focus on just a few clients at a time.
 
Don’t let our small size be mistaken for lack of capability. I’ve created growth strategies while working for large world-class companies and have ALSO successfully built, grown, and sold my own businesses. My unique experiences let me bring you the best of BOTH worlds.

I understand the need to be frugal in your business, and my experience over countless engagements is that clients see significant returns on their investments in our work together.

What is the cost of NOT taking action? Let me show you how JDR solutions create meaningful change for your leadership, company fundamentals, and employees.

>> Click here to read about the value I’ve brought to just some of my clients

Is JDR Growth Partners right for you?

No two companies are exactly the same. That’s just one of the things we love about the work we do.

Just schedule some time to tell us about yourselves and decide if our flexible framework is right for you.