About Dando

kirk-dandoOur philosophy is fairly simple and straightforward: We put our money where our mouth is. If our clients do not feel we have provided significant value, they do not pay. End of story!

Kirk Dando
CEO, Dando Advisors

The Key Obstacles to Business Survival and Growth — Recognizing the Warning Signs of Success™ and Responding Effectively

I’ve been there
I spent years working as a C-level executive in a company we took to $1 billion in annual sales. I loved the job, but I found truth in the old adage: “It’s lonely at the top.” It would have been great to have an advisor who shared my perspective and who was willing to help me learn from his or her experience – someone who would enable me to succeed without learning everything the hard way. When we sold that business, I decided to become that kind of advisor.  Now Dando Advisors works one-on-one with CEOs and entrepreneurs who lead some of the best companies in the nation.

It’s about results

As founder and CEO of Dando Advisors, I have had the good fortune to work with exceptional clients over the past 20 years. Thanks to these clients, Dando Advisors has built a national reputation for creating breakthrough results in companies that face problems stemming from their own growth. Dando Advisors has helped them make the transition from an entrepreneurial environment to a mature, financially stable, professionally managed and led businesses.

“The results of Dando’s process allowed us to take positive steps to implement the changes necessary to take our company to the next level. I can without hesitation recommend Dando Advisors and look forward to a long term relationship with Kirk Dando”.

Neel White
Austin, TX

Who can you turn to?
When your business comes to a strategic or organizational crossroads due to shifts in the market, rapid growth, or changes in management – to whom do you turn  for help? Our experience and twenty years of research into what it takes to succeed in business, has given us what our clients call “uncommon insight.” We can help you see into the core of your business – to find and resolve the problems you’ll face as your company navigates its way through difficult markets and strives to survive and grow.

Tell us about you and your company
We work with CEOs, Presidents, entrepreneurs, business owners, and other top-level executives who are passionate about taking their company to the next level. Far more than an executive coach, we work with the entire organization – usually those with annual revenues of $5 to $250 million. If you are ready to become the leader your company really needs and are determined to take your business to the next level, we can help.

On-going Relationships that Work

“Kirk has had a tremendous, positive impact on every aspect of our company operations. We are a much better company because of his guidance.”

Rocky Turner
Founder and President, LPR Construction, Loveland, CO

“Dando’s advice helped us remain profitable despite a 50% sales decline in the last year. Dando’s broad and practical experience with evolving organizations adds tremendous value to our strategic planning process.”

Tim Self
President, Applied Mechanical, Austin, TX

Dando’s  12 Warning Signs of Success™

Are any of these common Warning Signs of Success™ holding your company back?

  1. Unqualified People in Key Positions: Friends, family members, partners or long-term loyal employees — who are not qualified for the job — fill key positions.
  2. Careless Growth: Diversification into products or new business which does not fit the company’s expertise and market experience. Sometime acquisitions are made before the company is properly structured to integrate them.
  3. Leadership Void: The leader’s role has become inappropriately defined for the challenges ahead.  The differences between a business owner and a business leader have become blurred.
  4. Decaying Financial Performance: Data needed to make critical decisions is either not available, appropriately gathered, easily accessible or properly analyzed.  The data is not considered as important as an individual’s personal sense of what is right.
  5. Bloated Hierarchy: Too many people report to the CEO or other senior staffers.
  6. Management Deficiency: The executive leadership and management team spend far too much time” working in the business” instead of “working on the business.”
  7. Imprecise Accountability: Clarity is lacking in management accountability and in designing and using the data needed for creating accountability.
  8. Non-Motivating Rewards: The middle and senior management compensation process is not tied to accountability and results of the metrics do not drive the right behaviors. 
  9. Systems Outgrown or Obsolete: Accounting, financial performance reporting, and control systems and processes are obsolete for the size and complexity of the company.
  10. Poor Communications: Senior managers lack direct contact with day-to-day operations and are losing control.  Problem solving meetings can be awkward, time consuming and, at times, ineffective.
  11. Strategic Anemia: The Company lacks a strategic plan that gets and keeps the proper focus and/or the plan never really gets implemented. What is called a strategic plan is really a short term operational plan on how to make more money.
  12. Cultural Decay: The corporate culture comes under attack.  What was once considered an absolute and non-negotiable starts to get compromised due to growth and success.

The Results Speak for Themselves – Whatever the Industry

A representative list of clients:

Four Hands

  • Import/Wholesale in Austin, TX
  • $25 – $35 million in annual sales
  • “Fastest Growing Companies in the USA,” Inc. Magazine

LPR Construction

  • Industrial and Commercial Construction
  • Loveland, Colorado
  • $50 – $75 million in annual sales
  • “Largest Subcontractors,” ENR

TST, Inc.

  • Civil Engineering, Fort Collins, CO
  • $4-8 million in annual sales
  • Business Leader of the Year

Bazaarvoice

  • Social Commerce Technology, Austin, Texas
  • $15 – $25 million in annual sales

Bury + Partners

  • Civil Engineering in Austin, TX
  • $30 – $40 million in annual sales
  • “Top Largest Engineering Firms,” Engineering News Record (ENR)

Grande Communications

  • High Tech business in Austin, TX
  • $190 – $200 million in annual sales
  • “Largest Private Company in Austin,” Austin Business Journal

Central Market

  • Retail Grocer in Austin, TX
  • $250 – $300 million in annual sales
  • Considered by many as a “tourist attraction” in Texas

STG Architects

  • Professional Services in Austin, TX
  • $15 – $25 million in annual sales
  • “Largest Architectural Firm in Austin,” Austin Business Journal

White Construction

  • General Contractor in Austin, TX
  • $250 – $300 million in annual sales
  • “Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies in Austin,” Austin Business Journal
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