CASSINI LABS / EXPERIMENTAL DEPARTMENT Explore Labs
Northline Strategy GroupNorthline Strategy Group — Operating-model & margin consulting
00Thesis

Margin-recovery and operating-model consulting for mid-market manufacturers.

We work with mid-market manufacturers and industrial distributors whose margins have compressed — from input costs, ownership transitions, or operations that outgrew the systems running them. We diagnose first, in a bounded fixed-fee engagement, then help you fix it.

Book a diagnostic callSee our method
019Diagnostic engagements closed since 2025
026–12Typical margin points recovered per engagement
034–6 wksFixed-fee diagnostic phase
044Active engagements this quarter
01What changed?

Every engagement starts with a specific trigger, not a general strategy review. Open a card for the response plan we'd run.

Input costs and freight are up double digits while list prices moved once. Gross margin has slipped three points over three years and nobody can say which product lines are still profitable.

Response plan — Margin recovery

  1. Run cost-to-serve by product line and account
  2. Identify negative-margin SKUs and accounts
  3. Rebuild pricing guardrails with the sales team
  4. Set a 90-day margin recovery target

A financial sponsor or a founder successor is asking questions the org has never had to answer in writing: what's the real operating model, who actually owns which decision, what's the run-rate without the founder in the room.

Headcount and SKU count doubled in three years; the planning and fulfillment process didn't. Decisions that used to happen in a hallway now take two weeks and three meetings.

02Expertise matrix

Six capabilities, mapped against the three service lines that use them. Not a general practice — a specific set of tools applied to a specific trigger.

Click a service line to filter the matrix
Capability
Cost-to-serve analysisProduct- and account-level margin bridge, rebuilt from ERP + freight data.
Pricing architectureGuardrails and approval thresholds sales can apply without a call to finance.
Decision-rights mappingWho decides what, at what threshold, documented once and referenced after.
Planning & fulfillment redesignCadence, inputs, and escalation paths rebuilt for current scale.
Governance & reporting readinessReporting a buyer, lender, or board can rely on without a founder explaining it.
Diligence-standard financial packagingNumbers presented the way a QoE review or lender underwriting expects to see them.
03How we work

The same four phases every time, scoped differently by trigger. Scroll to move through an engagement and watch the operating model change underneath it.

A consultant leading a workshop, mapping findings on sticky notes on a whiteboard while the team reviews laptops at the table

Findings workshop, redesign phase — fictional engagement, illustrative only.

01

Diagnostic

4–6 weeks, fixed fee

A bounded review of the specific trigger — not an open-ended assessment of everything.

  • Confirm the trigger and scope in writing
  • Pull and reconcile the underlying data
  • Interview the people who actually run the process

02

Findings & business case

1 readout

A quantified business case presented to the executive sponsor before any redesign work is scoped.

  • Size the opportunity in dollars, not slides
  • Name the two or three root causes, not twenty symptoms
  • Get an explicit go/no-go on redesign scope

03

Redesign & roadmap

6–10 weeks

The target operating model and a sequenced roadmap, built with the client's own team so it survives after we leave.

  • Redraw decision rights and process flow
  • Sequence changes so operations don't stop
  • Build the roadmap with the team that will run it

04

Implementation support

Two quarters, time-boxed

Time-boxed support through the first two quarters of execution, with a formal handoff at the end.

  • Weekly checkpoint against the roadmap
  • Coach the internal owner of each workstream
  • Formal handoff memo — no lingering dependency on us

Operating model — as-is vs. target

As-is

  • Founder/GM decides most things ad hoc
  • Planning team reacts week to week
  • Fulfillment escalates exceptions upward
  • Reporting compiled by hand before board meetings

Target

  • Decision rights assigned by decision type
  • Planning runs on a fixed cadence with clear inputs
  • Exceptions resolved at the level closest to the work
  • Reporting rolls up automatically to a standing review
04Selected engagements

Signed engagements in flight, with phase and executive-visible health. Open a row for the sponsor and next milestone.

  1. Executive sponsor: T. Cantwell, CEO

    Next milestone: Findings readout — 2026-09-25

Perspectives

2026-02

Why cost-to-serve beats a blanket price increase

A flat price increase punishes your best accounts along with your worst ones. Cost-to-serve tells you which is which before you touch pricing.

2025-11

The real cost of a hallway decision

Undocumented decision rights don't just slow things down — they make the same decision get re-litigated every time the person who made it is out of the room.

2026-05

What a diligence team actually checks before close

Fewer adjusted-EBITDA arguments and more 'can this reporting survive without the founder narrating it.' Most operating models can't, yet.

05Talk to a principal

A diagnostic call is scoping, not a sales pitch. Fifteen minutes with a principal to confirm the trigger is real and that a bounded diagnostic is worth running — you'll leave knowing whether this is worth pursuing, even if the answer is no.

Request a diagnostic call

M. Okafor

Principal — Operating Model & Margin

Runs diagnostics on margin compression and outgrown operating models.

R. Halvorsen

Principal — Ownership Transition

Leads governance and reporting readiness ahead of a sale or succession.

Northline Strategy Group is a fictional consultancy created by CASSINI to demonstrate a consulting pipeline and delivery system. No real engagements or clients are represented.