It is considered received wisdom in the
boardrooms and conference chambers of companies scattered throughout the world,
that for a modern business leader nothing is more important than being able to
shape and progress the interests of a business. It is no easy task to be able
to make your mark on an already large company. For entrepreneur and sales
management expert Dan Westra, being able to implement whole-scale change
- and contribute to the growth of business success - is the most satisfying
reward for any kind of work. He has built a highly-regarded career of having
introduced success into struggling businesses. There is no greater sign of this
success than in the concrete achievements a business leader manages to accrue.
Early on in his career, Dan Westra became
the founder of Lake Union Capital Partners. LUCP was a “private equity” firm
established to acquire transitional middle market companies, where he was
responsible for Business Development (acquisition search), due diligence,
acquisition negotiation and internal post acquisition sales development. Here
they acquired the clients Celerity Energy. Upon acquisition he re-positioned
stalled sales process with San Diego Gas and Electric resulting in a $26 million,
10-year Networked Distributed Resource contract. Aero-Union was another big
catch. With them, he stubbornly pursued negotiations with his partners and
company CEO, which resulted in their largest acquisition valued at over $30
million.
As the managing business director of Endeavor
Technical consulting he also achieved similar success. Endeavor was established
to acquire the assets of a nearly bankrupt technical staffing firm. Dan
Westra was recruited as a partner to lead and manage Business Development
and Recruiting. His initial sales efforts created the cash-flow necessary to
recruit and build the core of both the Business Development and Recruiting
teams. Sales rose from less than $1 million in 2001 to over $2.5 million in
2002 - exceeding goals by over 25%, and ultimately generating revenues in
excess of $14 million. During this time, Endeavor grew from 10 to over 120
employees.
His role at Hall Kinion also saw success. Hall
Kinion was the largest publicly traded staffing firm during the time when Dan
Westra was responsible for business development and recruiting to fill
senior positions in high-tech firms. He managed to exceed sales goal by over
50% for three straight years, becoming one of the top 5% of more than 350
recruiters worldwide (1999, 2000). He was also the first of two people ever to
exceed $100 thousand revenue in one month of three Seattle offices, where he
was the ''Royal" Award winner for revenue exceeding $600,thousand. What Dan
Westra's career has shown is that business excellence can be measured by
figures highlighting business growth and increased reputation. The future looks
bright for ambitious and driven individuals and entrepreneurs like Dan
Westra.
