Company Perspective

Consulting is one of the fastest growing business sectors in the world today. Rapid growth allows for widely divergent types of consulting options. Small firms may draw on the expertise of a small number of individuals, while larger firms may be national in scope or even subsidiaries of larger organizations with hosts of "extremely bright" analysts. Finding a firm to meet your needs is a challenge we understand.

The CREST Company recommends that you consider the following factors in evaluating the qualifications of consulting firms:

• Amount of "management experience" the consultant brings to the assignment. Relevant experience forms the basis for bringing value-added to the consulting engagement.
• Amount of industry and product experience that the consultant brings to your business area. Specialization is not just preferable, it is essential in today's business environment.
• Expertise of the individual consultant in the practice of consulting. Your consultant should have the vision to understand all aspects of a business issue while tapping a wealth of relevant skills and experience in developing specific recommendations.

The CREST Company was organized in January of 1989 to offer natural resource, manufacturing, distribution and service industry companies a unique management advisory service, which capitalizes on both our line management experience and our analytical capabilities. Our management experience in both a Fortune 100 environment and in a London based conglomerate provides both a world view and a special sensitivity to the practical issues associated with implementing change. Our extensive consulting experience since 1989 has included both recommendation and implementation engagements including providing investment oversight services for private equity funds.

Our policy and practice for engaging new accounts is to be selective and offer our services where we can directly benefit clients through long term business partnerships. Most of our clients have been with us more than 10 years. It has also been our practice to act as project coordinators where an engagement requires a variety of consulting disciplines.

We deliver a high quality consulting service targeted to clients in the $20MM to $200MM sales or asset range. All engagements with The CREST Company are handled by the Principal of the firm, Donald J. Hoffman.