Case Study – LSES

Company Overview

LS Energy Solutions (LSES), formerly known as the Energy Grid Tie Division of Parker Hannifin, was acquired by LS ELECTRIC in 2018, and is now part of the $25 billion-strong LS Group. Both LS Energy Solutions and LS ELECTRIC have extensive experience in energy storage and related technologies with a global installed base of over 900MWs.

The Challenge

LS ELECTRIC was having trouble integrating LS Energy Solutions into their overall organization and contacted Richard Chleboski, Managing Director of Savvy Growth and noted clean tech veteran to help. LSES was struggling.  It was losing market share, missing its plans and missing product release dates.  Thoughtful analysis and dramatic changes to turnaround the business were needed.

Savvy Solution

Phase 1 and 2: Deep Dive & Discovery and Management Retreat

The leadership of LS ELECTRIC engaged Savvy Growth to conduct a comprehensive strategic review of the LSES business. The Savvy team, Rich Chleboski and Grace Ueng, experienced operators as in-house technology executives, began with a “Deep Dive” that included a detailed review of the entire business including markets, customers, business plans, financials, technology, product roadmap, vision and mission.  

They then conducted in depth interviews with employees, customers, lost deals and the key members of the LS ELECTRIC team in Korea.  They integrated their findings into a detailed set of recommendations that they shared at a 2-day management retreat.  

Phase 3 and 4: Interim Leadership & Placement of President and VP Marketing and Strategy

Based on those recommendations, LS ELECTRIC hired Rich to be LSES’s interim President and to  execute a full business restructuring. Over the course of just four months, Rich led the business restructuring that included a change strategy and approach to the market, development of a full 5-year business and financial plan and the sourcing, recruitment, and on boarding of a permanent President along with a new VP of Marketing and Strategy.   

In parallel, Grace led the team through the development of a new vision, mission and core values for the restructured company as well as new key messaging including a new tagline.  She partnered closely with Marketing to bring in the needed resources to develop the look and feel for the refreshed brand including launching a new website and corporate marketing materials within a very tight timeframe in order to unveil at the annual ESA Energy Storage Conference and Expo.

Results

Savvy acted as advisor to LS ELECTRIC as well as interim President of their subsidiary,  LS Energy Solutions. They put in place a new plan that set the strategic direction, rationalized product lines between the U.S. and Korea and established a path to enhanced market share and profitability.