Snapshot: Mercury Payment Systems
Mercury has consistently posted triple-digit revenue growth and now has more than 12,000 customers. Working with The Jana Matthews Group has helped Mercury improve profitability and sustain growth
Five years ago, Jeff and Marc Katz founded Mercury Payment Systems in Durango, Colorado. Mercury has consistently posted triple-digit revenue growth and now has more than 12,000 customers. In 2004, Jeff and Marc came to The Jana Matthews Group with a simple request: "Help us sustain this high level of growth without stumbling."
Mercury specializes in integrated payment processing solutions that are embedded in a variety of point-of-sale systems. They process several billion dollars of credit card, debit card, and other financial transactions each year for restaurants, retailers and supermarkets. While Marc and Jeff knew how to meet their customers’ need for secure, hassle-free, and faster transactions, the founders had never grown a company larger than 20 people. The two brothers were not sure they knew how to build an organization that could sustain the kind of rapid growth they envisioned. After conducting an initial assessment, we found a company with explosive growth potential, a wealth of potential markets and customers, great employees, and two partners with a difference of opinion about what was needed to sustain rapid growth!
We worked with Mercury’s leadership team to create a clear mission, identify a shared set of values and vision for the future, set goals, define strategies, develop plans, and measure progress. We first led a Planning Retreat for Mercury’s Executive Team and Department Heads, helped each department develop plans to achieve the company's goals and strategies, and then met with the group on a quarterly basis to measure progress, identify deviations from the plan, and make changes or reallocate resources, as needed.
We also focused on developing an organization that could sustain rapid growth. All employees took the Building the Awesome Organization Quiz every year. Through the Quiz we were able to identify problems that were impeding growth. We analyzed responses and then met with small groups of employees to understand why certain scores were higher or lower than last year. Based on the results of the Quiz, the senior executives made changes. Programs were developed to address the problems identified in the Quiz: new communications strategies, new performance appraisal programs, training programs for new managers, and so forth. Finally, we had monthly tele-coaching sessions with each member of the Executive Team, and coached department heads, as requested, to develop their leadership skills.
Jeff Katz has left day-to-day involvement with Mercury to start a new company. He has already called The Jana Matthews Group to ask for help with the development of a plan and the creation of an organization that can accelerate growth.
Meanwhile, The Jana Matthews Group continues to work closely with Marc Katz and his team at Mercury. We have become trusted advisors and "partners" in the company’s ongoing success. In late 2006, Colorado Business Magazine named Marc Katz CEO of the Year.