Press Release
Personnel Decisions International Acquires Consulting Firm That Specializes in Improving Companies' Sales Force Effectiveness
Move Aimed to Build PDI's Organizational Effectiveness Practice
MINNEAPOLIS - (March 2, 1998) - Personnel Decisions International (PDI) announced today that it has acquired QI International (QI), a Minnesota-based consulting and research firm that specializes in improving sales force effectiveness.
QI has helped the likes of 3M, IBM, and Tenneco to aggressively, deliberately and more effectively manage their long-term relationships with key customers. The firm has 45 people in its St. Paul office.
QI's Customer Review process-which makes up 80 percent of its annual revenue-is a research-based process for managing long-term customer relationships. It helps organizations to identify key customers to interview, train employees to conduct the interviews, and then use the information collected to improve the relationships with and the products and services provided to all customers. The process is primarily used in sales and marketing departments as a key account management tool.
The acquisition will bring more cohesiveness to PDI's burgeoning organizational effectiveness (OE) practice, according to Lowell Hellervik, chief executive officer for PDI.
"We see lots of synergy between PDI and QI," Hellervik said. "For years, PDI has been working with companies around the world on organizational effectiveness issues. Much of our work, however, has been with human resource departments and less often with business units that have to deal with profit-and-loss statements. We expect this strategic acquisition will help us generate growth in the sales and marketing organizations of our clients. It will allow us to 'package up the OE process,' essentially to round out our position in the marketplace by reaching more people and more departments within our client companies."
Dee Gaeddert, who will continue as president of QI, said QI's products and services have been developed on the premise that achieving customer satisfaction is no longer enough in today's business environment. "Relationships with customers are the only true source of competitive advantage," she said. "Most companies place emphasis on customer satisfaction - focusing on meeting customer requirements and even exceeding their expectations. But in order to outdistance the competition and gain customer commitment, an organization must become so customer focused that it begins to anticipate its customers' needs. Anticipation is only possible through fostering excellent customer relationships and using customer information to drive organizational improvement."
Founded in 1967, Personnel Decisions International (PDI) is a global consulting firm based in organizational psychology that specializes in assessment-based selection and development of managers and organizations. Headquartered in Minneapolis, PDI serves clients worldwide. Operating offices include Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. (North America), Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Geneva, London, Paris, Prosetjov, Stockholm, Tübingen (Europe), Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo (Asia), Melbourne and Sydney (Australia).