How We Help

Testimonials

“Neville was hired to primarily help our law firm build a recognizable and sustainable brand, and to install a professional marketing capability. Neville achieved both those goals for our firm many times over. He is knowledgeable, helpful, forward thinking and is not afraid to roll up his sleeves to get the work done. This is very unique for someone who has been brought on as a consultant.

Personally, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Neville. He has helped me learn and grow in all aspects of marketing including digital marketing. He has always been professional no matter what we have thrown at him.

I would highly recommend Neville to any business or business team”.

Frances Wales – Chief Operating Officer, Pallett Valo LLP

“It’s a great privilege to do a testimonial for Mastermind Solutions who have been a great help to our business. Mastermind Solutions is the leader in developing strategy – they helped me with my business plan and helped me create a strategic plan.

Mastermind Solutions, led by Neville Pokroy, is a team of very gentle and experienced professionals, they did not rush the process and most importantly they let you lead it and I think that’s the most important thing because they bring their skill set and then they infuse it with yours. They were even able to source a professional from the community to bring additional knowledge to my strategic plan development.

I can confidently say that these guys are the leaders – if you’re looking to work with somebody who understands business, different business models, and has a great financial team to really help you understand your numbers, they’re the organization to go to. For anybody who’s looking for support and building and growing their business, I think they’re a great organization to work with. For individuals and businesses of all sizes, whether you’re in the beginning stage of your business or you’re trying to scale it, or you’re a larger organization, they’re great and they have a lot of resources to access”. View the Video Testimonial

Michael Assiamah, CEO and Founder, Support & Growth

“I have worked with James Phillipson for about eight years now. James has been our facilitator for the past eight years and brings with him a wide range of business expertise and business experience. Whatever the topic that we’re discussing he’s able to bring relevant and insightful observations to the conversation….. We usually do a deep dive on one or two topics as well as do a status update of what’s happening with each company…. we’ve been able to flush out a lot of insights and observations that people could take away…. covering off things like what types of insurance we purchase and how much we pay, benefits and who our partners are and how much we pay, staffing and various HR issues within our departments, KPI’s and accounting treatment for various things that are happening to our company, cyber insurance and the increasing risk of cyber attacks and ransomware. We have actually received feedback from our Presidents that our finance group is the most well run group out of all of the groups.

To conclude, I just wanted to say that I have no hesitation at all in recommending James … he would be very helpful to whatever Finance project you’re working on”.

Tony Hum, VP Finance, Reinhart Foods

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it” – Albert Einstein.

“Based on that premise, we engaged the services of Mastermind Solutions Inc (Neville Pokroy) to help Kinsip House of Fine Spirits do a couple of things. First, Neville helped clarify the goals and vision the four founders had for Kinsip into a unified plan that listed out our priorities. Second, we created a strategic organizational chart, not only for today but for what we look like in 3 years. Role assignments helped delineate executive functions from management from day to day work. This simple yet powerful exercise created clarity around responsibilities, reporting and hierarchy. Neville made it very clear for us to see that what a business owner believes to be at the root cause of an issue, in many cases is not in fact the problem. His unbiased, thoughtful and experienced approach to management consulting gave him the ability to parachute into our situation, analyze quickly and help the team arrive at a conclusion that left us with actionable deliverables that will have positive and immediate implications for our business. We will certainly call upon Neville in the future”.

Jeremiah Soucie, Part-Owner, Kinsip House of Fine Spirits

“Neville was instrumental in helping us develop our marketing strategy, but was also extremely helpful in holding us accountable for the implementation of various marketing programs, most notably our social media initiative. All of this has helped to dramatically increase our sales and market share, which was the primary goal of our marketing strategy. Most important was the effect that this has had on our customer base who have become really engaged with our company, and advocates of the products and services that we bring to this market. Thank you for your involvement Neville – your management of this process helped us to continue the implementation in a truly meaningful and organized way and has motivated me to make more than one referral.”

Jeremiah Soucie, Part-Owner, Kinsip House of Fine Spirits

Our Clients

Results & Case Studies

Medical Clinic

Challenge: Clinic wanted to increase the number of referrals from General Practitioners in their geographic region.
Solution: Mastermind developed a comprehensive direct marketing campaign aimed at educating GP’s about the clinic, the services they offered, and why they should refer patients. In addition, the campaign tested various media options in order to maximize the effectiveness of future tactics.
Results: In the months after the campaign, referrals from the targeted GP are increased by an average of 160%. In addition, 28% of all referrals in the first three months of the campaign were from GP’s that had never referred patients to the clinic before. A final outcome of the campaign was that the test segments provided definitive results, which will enable future campaigns to be designed to maximize the medical clinic’s future marketing expenditure.

Software Developer

Challenge: Company was seen as a small business that could not possibly supply the expertise, service and support that was demanded in this industry.
Solution: Mastermind developed a full, professional-looking sales kit that positioned the company as “much larger than it really was”. Client was coached on presentation skills and the result was a more formal, professional sales presentation that met the needs of prospective clients.
Results: Client was able to close deals easier and this created triple-digit growth over a two-year period.

Clothing retailer

Challenge: Launch of a third-party credit card.
Solution: Mastermind developed and implemented a twenty-two piece campaign for the retailer in support of new store openings in a test scenario. This test launch was completed within a six week period and within budget.
Results: Store sales were well beyond expectation and customer acceptance of new credit card service was huge. Retailer rolled out the card to all 80+ stores over the next six months.

Financial services

Challenge: Company had stagnant growth in a very competitive market.
Solution: Mastermind developed a new marketing strategy that focused on key client service issues, advertising, and the development of important referral business. Unique tactics were tested and adopted where appropriate.
Results: Company has become the market leader in its segment and continues to close in on national firms. Sales growth over the last two years has exceeded 15%.

Photofinishing retailer

Challenge: Re-position the chain to differentiate it from competitors, and develop a new photofinishing strategy that maximizes company assets.
Solution: Total new positioning and branding was developed in conjunction with a revamped photofinishing strategy.
Results: Customer and Sales $ growth turned around dramatically:from -25% year-on-year to +5% in the six months following relaunch.

A project merging two former healthcare competitors into one new entity. The project included the designing a new organizational structure and advising on the merging of the two organizations. Prior to the merger combined revenue for the 2 companies was $40 M and two years following the merger revenue leap to $110 M.
The restructuring and infusion of new talent at a manufacturer contributed to making the client the largest appliance company in Canada by overcoming a $150 M. sales shortfall and internally growing the company by 33% in 2 years in a flat market. Click here to read The Inglis Story
Restructuring a large auto parts plant resulting in cost savings in excess of 20%.
The restructuring of an international high tech company to counter cash flow short falls, high product costs and technical performance difficulties resulting in schedule delivery problems. The restructuring resulted in the reorganization of the company into three separate divisions, creating a corporate organization with a focus beyond 10 years. The organizational levels were flattened from nine to five levels, the management group was shrunk by 32% and project management was streamlined. Also redundant positions and superfluous work activities were eliminated for an annual payroll reduction of $4.8 M.
A restructuring project for a large multi-billion-dollar bottler based in Chicago achieved increased productivity levels of 20%.

For the Director of Finance who headed up the Finance function of a large food processing company, Mastermind refocused his direction to reorganize the accounting function so that he could take a more strategic position in the development of this very rapidly growing manufacturer.
Coaching the Director, Finance of a large professional services firm enabled him to elevate his profile and the perception of the Finance Function in the firm, from one that was purely responsible for the accounting to a much greater involvement in strategic issues and enhancing the value of the firm.
In a due diligence review for an acquisition we found so many issues within the first half of the review that it became apparent that the client/purchaser would likely lose his entire investment and that no amount of additional comfort could compensate for the potential risk. The client and Mastermind agreed to abort the due diligence review and declined to proceed with the acquisition.
For an importer and distributor, assisted the client in defining the needs of their Finance/Accounting function so that they could appropriately assign work to the staff, according to their skills and then recruited a Controller that was a good fit for the role and effective support for the President.
In the role of interim, part-time CFO for a charity and NFP (not for profit) group, revamped the accounting department, completed the year-end several months ahead of that achieved the previous year, supported the CEO with many strategic projects and assisted in the recruitment of a full-time successor.
Developed a comprehensive Business Plan for a foreign company to facilitate entrance to Canada by establishing a large, technology driven, unique manufacturing facility. The plan was designed to establish the capital and resources that were required and to provide a base for applications for grants and financing.
Provide an office in Canada for the Canadian subsidiary of foreign companies with support appropriate to the needs of the company, including a seat on the Board of Directors (several clients, each with slightly different needs).
Provided an assessment of the skills and suitability of a Controller with recommendations on changes required so that he could be much more effective.
Assisted an importer and distributor in the recruitment of a Controller and the transition from a Bookkeeper who was not able to meet the Company’s needs
For a company with a Controller who was not performing to meet managements expectations, Mastermind mentored and coached the Controller to elevate her skills enabling the Company to obtain the performance required from its senior financial staff;
During a due diligence review for a proposed acquisition, Mastermind discovered an undisclosed flaw in the business revenue model that caused our client to cancel the acquisition, thereby saving the inevitable loss of the entire purchase price, had the acquisition closed;
For a high tech business Mastermind set up the accounting, control and administrative systems of a new venture and hired a Controller to take over the ongoing financial administration, thereby saving the Company the cost of an over-qualified person, whose skills were not required in the long-term;
For a company whose bankers would not continue providing a facility, Mastermind negotiated a continuation of the bank relationship enabling the client to continue operations until an alternative $2 million financing facility was obtained;
For a manufacturing client with employee performance measurement challenges, Mastermind developed a program based on key productivity metrics of the business so as to reward employees according to their productivity. This had the effect of transferring fixed costs to variable costs thereby lowering the risk profile of the business;
Mastermind was the right hand of the President of a Company in all aspects of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and the subsequent Reverse take-over (RTO) of a TSX Venture Exchange listed company, providing the role of the Chief Financial Officer and a Director of the Company;
Prepared documentation of accounting processes and internal controls for a public company to ensure that the CEO and CFO could certify the accuracy of the Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting that is (and will be) required for compliance with securities regulations;
We reviewed the accounting processes and systems that were in place for a family business and implemented improvements that facilitated management’s information and control requirements as the company grew;
Developed a detailed financial forecast and model for a new business with aggressive growth plans, including cash flow and balance sheet forecasts, that were used to convince a merchant bank to arrange a $1.2 million financing facility.