Bio
Short Bio/Intro
Andy Birol helps driven business owners create profitable growth. He has helped more than 430 businesses increase their sales by more than $400 million. Andy's is quoted in the WSJ and NYT, author of five books and a frequent expert on news magazine shows. He facilitates and presents workshops worldwide on profitable growth for small business owners and has traveled and worked in 59 countries and all seven continents.
Long Bio
Andy Birol, owner of Birol Growth Consulting (BGC), is an international business growth consultant, author, keynote speaker and business coach. Andy focuses on helping small and mid-sized businesses and their owners create profitable growth. Known for his creativity and his candor, Andy's approach, which is based on empowering an owner's Best and Highest Use®, provides clients and audiences with renewed passion, new potential and profitable results.
Andy's business consulting philosophy is to passionately understand his client’s condition and aspirations and then bring as much in-depth influence, external objectivity and breakthrough thinking to help them "Get ThereTM." With twenty years of management experience, Andy started BGC in 1997, helping over 450 firms introduce new products, enter markets and develop new distribution channels. Andy has also designed new pricing, compensation and sales incentive plans as well as restructured and staffed marketing, sales and customer service organizations.
Throughout his employment, Andy was rewarded for discovering and implementing new ways to target and grow markets profitably. Fourteen years ago, when Andy realized his calling was helping owners "Get There" by aligning their skills, confidence and mission with that of their companies, he established his own consulting firm and since then has advised over 450 business owners. On average, Andy has grown his clients by $100,000, thus having a $450 million impact on the economy.
Andy's professional career began in 1977 during his first year at Boston University where he was selected as a Kemper Foundation Scholar and worked for the Kemper Group Insurance companies in marketing, customer relations and public affairs roles in Boston, Chicago and New York's World Trade Center. In 1981, Andy graduated summa cum laude from Boston University and was awarded The Scarlet Key, the university's highest honor for academics and leadership.
Deferring his admission to Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Andy went to work for Union Camp (known today as International Paper, the second largest pulp and paper company in the world) as a Marketing Analyst. He developed the firm's strategy to replace the US dairy industry's plastic shipping case with the Uni-Trip® corrugated packaging system that generated $2 million in sales. During his time at Union Camp, Andy trained 25 box factories across the country in just 30 days for which he was promoted to Manager, New Product Planning and became the youngest manager in the corporation.
In 1984, Andy began his accelerated four-quarter MBA program at Northwestern's Kellogg School. After earning his MBA degree in marketing and finance, Andy took the less traveled path. He interned with the United States Association of International Development (USAID) who sent Andy to Nairobi, Kenya where he helped a wire and nail factory reduce material loss. Andy's Kenya experience was a practical complement to his academic training. He learned that before success can be realized, survival must be assured.
Andy's Kenya experience reignited his passion for international travel which was born during his six years of living in Istanbul, Turkey where his father was an executive for Pan American Airlines. Since then, Andy has traveled, lived or spoken in 59 countries and protectorates, and has been to all seven continents and 46 states.
Following his MBA and Kenya experiences, Andy joined Management Analysis Center/CAP Gemini where he consulted with Harvard Business School's leading experts on such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Union Mutual and Hutchinson Group. Andy then worked for Bank of Boston (now part of Bank of America) where he developed relationship banking products sold through direct and database marketing which generated $2 billion of new deposits.
From Bank of Boston, Andy was recruited as Market Manager for New England Business Service (now a division of Deluxe, Inc.) of Groton, MA to assume P & L and staff management responsibilities for their $40 million Retail Market. During his time with NEBS, Andy increased the profitability of his market by reducing NEBS' customer acquisition, retention and development costs while developing the Fresh Impressions® floral product line. In 1990, Andy was promoted to Director where he was further responsible for advertising, direct mail, product development, prospecting, and database management development.
After NEBS, Andy followed his wife, Joan, to Cleveland, OH when she was recruited as an executive for National City Bank. During this transition, Andy consulted with organizations including IBM Corp., Staples, Inc. and Keithley Corp and then joined Voice-Tel Enterprises, a franchisor of telecommunication services for small business (acquired by Premier Technologies Inc.). Andy joined as Market Manager, was promoted to Product Marketing Manager and later named Senior Marketing Manager.
During his time at Voice-Tel, Andy developed and introduced his PACER® process, an integrated lead generation and sales management system on Windows-based software. DM News and TeleProfessional featured Andy and the success his PACER process created for Voice-Tel's 200 franchisees.
In 1996, Harris InfoSource, now a part of D&B, recruited Andy as their Vice President, Sales and Marketing. Andy grew sales by 10% and restructured and rebuilt the marketing department but developed a different business vision from that of the firm's owners who ultimately sold the business.
Andy's defining point came as he left Harris. Joan called to tell him that their daughter, Margo, was being rushed to the hospital. Margo, born with cystic fibrosis, had contracted a severe lung infection and was fighting for her life. As Andy headed to the hospital, he knew this was his time to fight for his business beliefs and for his family. Throughout Margo's three-week stay at the hospital, her strength and focus inspired Andy. So Andy put his Best & Highest Use® to work and founded Birol Growth Consulting to help business owners create profitable growth.
Since 1997, Andy has taught, consulted and coached business owners all over the world. Andy has a knack for empowering the optimism of business owners and their firms to help them discover and arrive at their desired outcomes. Andy's roster of clients consists of every kind of family and entrepreneurial business including manufacturers, distributors, contractors, and service companies. In addition to consulting with businesses and coaching their owners, Andy also speaks and holds workshops for various associations and organizations such as PPAI (Promotional Products Association International), Microsoft, The National Paint & Coatings Association and international groups such as Turkey's KALDER and Australia's NRSA. Andy's topics include: Profitable Growth in the New Economy, Refining & Exploiting Your Best & Highest Use, and The 5 Catalysts of 7 Figure Growth: Propel Your Business to the Next Level.
The media has turned to Andy for his expertise in small business growth. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN's Dollar Signs, Entrepreneur, Business Week, and Inc. Magazine. He has published over 300 articles and is the author of the following five books, The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth (CareerPress, 2006), Accelerating Your Growth; Growing Your Business During Succession or Transition; Returning Your Business to Growth; and Focus. Accomplish. Grow. Active on his blog profitablegrowth.com and website, www.andybirol.com Andy is a prolific writer of articles which are republished internationally.
Birol Growth Consulting has won four Weatherhead 100 Awards as Northeast Ohio's fastest growing single-employee business and 34th fastest growing company of any size and was also recognized by Inside Business Magazine, and Team NEO which awarded him the NEO Success Award in 2005, 2007 and 2008.
Andy continues to bring his drive and passion to all aspects of his practice (consulting, coaching, speaking and writing) and continues to develop and publish articles, books and programs. Andy, Joan and Margo have lived in Solon, just southeast of downtown Cleveland. In November, 2007 Andy’s firm, Birol Growth Consulting, won MSN/StartupNation's Top Ten Home-Based Businesses Award and in 2009 the Cleveland Council of Small Enterprises (America’s second largest Chamber of Commerce) awarded Andy its 10 Under 10 Award as one of Cleveland’s most successful small businesses. This July 2010, Andy and his family move to Shadyside, PA where Joan assumes her new SVP role with PNC Bank and their Margo can begin high school at the Ellis School. Andy will continue to live the "American Dream" by practicing his Best & Highest Use®.