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Meet Alex Devereux of The Devereux Group in Biltmore

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Devereux.

Alex, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It seems like a life time ago now when I received my first consulting opportunity, thanks to my wife. One of her clients had a relative who owned a small tool and die shop that was on the verge of bankruptcy. At first, when she asked me to help him, I thought what do I know about consulting. I studied drafting and architecture in high school, received my bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, worked on the F16 program for General Dynamics, and was currently an applications engineer designing high temperature systems in a marketing department for Sohio. How can I help him?

It wasn’t long before she reminded me that in college, I had an interest in Entrepreneurship way before it was popular and that I did know enough about business to help him. True, I have always been good at problem-solving and critical thinking and I thought this could be a first step towards starting my own company. So, I jumped in.

I started to study strategic business management and marketing planning concepts on my own. I applied what I learned and helped him recover, market, and maintain key accounts. Within the first two months, I was able to triple his sales, which allowed him to pay off all his outstanding debts and avoid bankruptcy.

After saving his business, he offered me a partnership role. I accepted while I was still working and traveling full-time. At the same time the business grew, the industry was changing. NAFTA was signed, competitors were offering cheaper labor pricing in Canada, and we began to struggle. Unfortunately, it came time for us to part ways. I became a Sales Engineer handling product distributors, major OEMs, and Petro-Chemical accounts Internationally, and he left for Las Vegas to pursue another dream.

This first consulting gig was a great experience because I learned that not all business owners are fully prepared to run a business successfully. It was then that my entrepreneurial spirit kicked in full tilt and I knew I could consult with and train business owners to become successful.

At the time, my wife had already started her business as an executive consultant who had a unique approach to advising executives, business owners, and entertainment performers who had personal challenges. She referred clients to me whose businesses had unique problems and situations where my skillset could resolve their bottlenecks and help them make breakthroughs.

I soon became known for “solving the unusual”. It was more important to find a solution that worked for their business and marketing issues no matter what industry. I handled problems that were sports-related, industrial, service-related, food-related, and media-oriented. Clients were in catering, the garment industry, printing, entertainment and licensing, publishing, advertising, digital media, construction and engineering, education, nonprofit and more.

With all these opportunities, I provided performance-related consulting and soft skills training which enabled clients to become more self-sufficient. Even though our clients were succeeding in their careers, my wife and I felt we needed to offer more in order for them to stay successful, longer.

During the mid-80’s “Pop Psychology” was just becoming popular. That’s when our research led us to introduce what we called “Business Psychology”. The concept was embraced with open arms by those who wanted more personal leadership development in business and their personal lives.

However, at the same time, those that wanted only hard skills development as the solution to achieve profitability and business improvement did not embrace the thought of “Business Psychology”.

As the business climate changed from the Industrial “Smokestack” Age into the Computer Age in the early 90’s, we continued to develop our concepts and transitioned them into the new era where they were widely sought after and accepted. It was then that we chose to work with only select individuals and groups because we found that effective results-oriented development is an intimate, individual and behaviorally-associated process.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Business was not a smooth ride because I worked as a young, full-time engineer and consulted part-time using my personal resources to support my efforts. My wife was a huge supporter and mentor, which really helped me cross what was considered a large divide between my established financial corporate security and that entrepreneurial insecurity right in the middle of what was the most tumultuous mergers and acquisitions time in corporate America.

Two major obstacles cropped up during this time period in corporate America:
1) During the 90’s as Information Technology started to reshape the corporate landscape, there was a scramble to figure out what worked and what didn’t. With Moore’s Law influencing the emergence of Information Technology, all businesses were adversely affected by the use of technology whether they wanted to adopt or not.

2) At the same time, banks were not entrepreneurial or small business friendly. Anyone interested in leaving the safe corporate environment and entering the small business and entrepreneurial community was considered high risk. Individuals and small businesses had to be funded through creative and cottage-based means.

The good news was that I was fortunate enough to have clients who too were interested in crossing this divide of uncharted territory from certainty and security, to uncertainty and the desire to be free from corporate constraints with the promise of financial abundance and security. Together, we made the jump.

The Devereux Group – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
As a boutique consulting firm, The Devereux Group is in the Transformation business. To us, every client is unique. We customize a platform that pushes them through their self-imposed glass ceilings to reach their desired outcomes.

Having clients for over 30 years, we know that CEO’s, Boards, managers, and leaders want similar outcomes. Most want more sales and profits, they want their employees to be more engaged and productive, and they want to eventually place themselves into a position where they can grow exponentially, go public, be acquired, or successfully sell the business. The question is how do they want to get there… easily or painstakingly?

As Performance Transformation Strategists, we align companies and people to become
Revenue-Producing Performers. Our Approach has been designed to generate results quickly.

Initially, we gather data about the company, its people and process and then through a two and a half day Intensive off-site, we demonstrate to them how to leverage existing resources, provide exceptional service to their clients/customers, and increase their revenue while providing massive, sustainable value for their company.

The Devereux Approach integrates opposing ideas, resolves a conflict among teams, effectively processes complex ideas that challenge core beliefs and turns all that energy into positive outcomes for the business.

We are proud of the results we’ve attained for our clients. In one situation, our process and tools helped them recover $43M in lost revenue that would have impacted their P/E ratio for the quarter. Another client built a million-dollar pipeline in 30-days after the two and a half day Intensive, and a nonprofit organization increased both their membership and donor base by 25% in just nine months.

The Devereux Group has a US and International client base that is size and industry agnostic. Our customized tools and process were designed to focus on people, process and profitability so that CEOs, owners, managers, and leaders can effectively and efficiently have more time to “Mind Their Own Business”.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
While running my consulting practice, I ended up becoming a Chair at a technology-based career college. It was done unexpectedly but I’m not sure who benefitted more, them or me.

During the downturn between 2008 to 2012, I was able to help adult students transform their lives. I witnessed students endure bankruptcies, separations, divorces, technology-related challenges, and job rejections. Fast-forward to today, and these adults are solid employees and managers working for some of the most respected companies locally and nationally.

I fondly look back at those times being Chair of the School of Drafting and Design, Construction Management, and Business, and an Instructor for Project Management and Game Design. Watching my students transform themselves into more productive, desirable citizens when others tried to reject and attempt to discourage them, gave me a sense of accomplishment knowing that I was a good steward for their education.

A proud memory for me was student graduation. When it was my turn to speak about my graduates, I would acknowledge student workers and talk about their accomplishments with the story of the V-formation of a flock of geese. The story goes, as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front. When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing formation and another goose flies point. When a goose gets sick or is wounded, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection.

To me, this story reflected how collectively supporting each other as a team, sharing and caring, increased our travel distance throughout the journey. I always smile when I think about student graduation.

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