Real Business Challenges. Practical Solutions. Measurable Results.
Every business faces different challenges, from entering unfamiliar markets and managing financial uncertainty to attracting customers and improving operational performance.
We invite you to explore our work. Our case studies demonstrate how we turn complex business challenges into practical actions and measurable outcomes. Each case shows how one of our solutions works in practice: the problem, what we built, and what changed. Client names are withheld for confidentiality.
Client: Finnish construction company, about €1M annual revenue, subcontractor-based model
Duration: 5 weeks
Case 1: Financial Intelligence & Cash-Flow Planning
A profitable construction company that kept running short of cash
What we did:
Connected to the accounting system. We pulled sales, purchases, payments, customers and the balance sheet from Passeli Merit through the API.
Cleaned and reconciled. We removed internal transfers and noise and anchored everything to the balance sheet, so every number matched the books.
Analysed the business. Monthly margin, cash position, receivables and payables ageing, how each customer actually pays, and where the costs sit.
Built a 13-week liquidity forecast. The first weeks came from real invoices and bills. After that, we ran 5,000 scenarios to show a realistic range instead of a single line.
Back-tested the model against six past months, so we know what it can and cannot predict.
What we found:
The 11.9% margin came from two or three exceptional months. The typical month earned only about 3.5%, and five of thirteen months were loss-making.
Receivables stood at €47.1k (of which €18.7k overdue) against €79.2k payables, with only €8.4k in the bank. Available funds covered just 70 cents for every euro owed.
68% of payables were subcontracting and payroll that cannot wait. Only about €25k (32%) could realistically be delayed.
Customers were generally excellent payers, with a median payment 13 days before the due date. The overdue amount came from a few specific accounts.
The forecast showed a cash gap from week one. In the typical scenario, the lowest cash point reached about –€57.6k, and in the worst 10% of cases about –€126k. The company had no credit line.
What changed:
We handed management a short list of priorities: collect the largest overdue invoices first, secure the payment from the biggest customer, put an overdraft facility in place, keep a tight watch on non-core spending, and tighten credit checks for new customers. The facility size was based on the forecast range, not on guesswork.
Honest about accuracy:
Back-testing showed the model estimates how low cash can fall far better than a simple assumption (average error about €7.1k vs €17.7k). It cannot predict the exact balance on a given date, so we report ranges and reasons, not false precision.
Results at a glance:
13-week forecast with best, typical and worst cases
Financing need sized at about €58k (typical) to €126k (worst case)
€18.7k of overdue receivables put on a priority collection list
A live model connected to the accounting system, reusable every month
Tools: Passeli Merit API, Python, scenario simulation, dashboards
The challenge:
On paper the company was doing well, with an annual margin of 11.9%. But the bank balance told a different story. Cash jumped between roughly €7,000 and €40,000 within weeks, and the management could not tell how much of it was really free money. Customer prepayments made the balance look healthy until subcontractors had to be paid.
Client: Finnish construction company, operating in Finland and Spain
Duration: 4 months
Case 2: Growth Engine: Promotion & Sales
119 leads from €1,460: building a lead machine across two markets
What we did:
Launched paid ads in both markets. Meta and Google Ads with separate campaigns, landing pages and messages for Finland and Spain.
Optimised every day. We checked the numbers daily, paused weak campaigns and moved budget to the best-performing market. The Tenerife campaign became the main lead source.
Built the web presence. More than 10 landing pages and two websites with SEO and GEO foundations, so the company is found in Google and in AI search. We reworked pages based on Microsoft Clarity heatmaps and session recordings.
Automated lead handling. Every lead goes straight into Pipedrive, the right sales team gets a WhatsApp alert, and the customer receives an automatic first message in their own language within minutes. No lead is lost, even if an integration fails.
Added an AI qualification agent. It follows up, asks the key questions and passes only warm leads to sales, so salespeople spend their time on people ready to talk.
Grew social media from zero. We planned, filmed and edited short videos for Instagram and TikTok.
Results in four months:
119 leads from €1,460 ad spend (about €12 per lead across all campaigns)
105 leads at €5.26 each from the best campaign
20 effective meetings with qualified prospects
88% of all leads came from 38% of the budget after reallocation
30,000+ views on Instagram and TikTok, starting from zero
Every lead answered automatically, with warm leads routed to the right team in each country
What changed:
Lead generation: from no structured paid campaigns to separate Meta and Google campaigns for Finland and Spain, optimised daily.
Budget decisions: from no data on which market or message works to budget moved to the best performer. The Tenerife campaign became the main lead source.
Website: from no pages built for ads to 10+ landing pages and two websites, improved with real visitor behaviour data and visible in both Google and AI search.
Lead handling: from enquiries that depended on someone noticing them to every lead entering the CRM instantly, with the customer getting a reply in their own language within minutes.
Sales team: from time spent on every enquiry, ready or not, to an AI agent that qualifies leads so salespeople only talk to warm ones.
Team alerts: from no routing between countries to the right team in each country getting a WhatsApp alert for its own leads.
Social media: from no audience to 30,000+ views on Instagram and TikTok, with a steady content routine.
Reliability: from leads that could be lost to a fallback that keeps every lead safe, even if an integration fails.
The challenge:
The company wanted a steady flow of enquiries in two countries, with different languages, customers and sales teams. It had no social media following, no landing pages built for ads, and no system for handling leads, so enquiries risked being answered late or lost.
Why it worked:
Two things made the difference: fast decisions on the budget and a system that responds to every lead in minutes. Money moved to what worked, and sales time moved to the people most likely to buy.
Tools: Meta Ads, Google Ads, Pipedrive, WhatsApp Cloud API, Claude Code with MCP, Microsoft Clarity, landing pages, SEO/GEO
Client: New table-booking platform planning to launch in Finland
Duration: 8 weeks
Case 3: Go-to-Market Kit
Testing the Finnish market for a table-booking platform, and knowing when not to launch
What we did:
Collected primary data. We designed and ran an initial survey of 15 restaurants across Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, and Turku, covering booking habits, pain points, tools in use and willingness to pay.
Collected secondary data. We designed and ran a call survey of 50 restaurants across Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa, covering in detail their needs, pain points, tools in use and willingness to pay.
Interpreted and validated the results. We segmented all venues by type and size and tested the findings against interviews and competitor offers, so the strategy rested on evidence, not assumptions.
Built the market-entry strategy. Target segments, value proposition, pricing, and a phased launch plan.
Designed the outreach structure. Call and email scripts, a lead database template, an onboarding checklist and clear targets for each stage.
Ran the first outreach. We contacted 700 restaurants by phone and email, tracked every response and refined the message weekly.
What we found:
700 restaurants contacted in 8 weeks, but only 3% showed real interest in a demo
Most venues were committed to established booking providers and had little reason to switch to a new platform
The Finnish market proved slow to adopt new services and closed to newcomers, with high competition from local and established international players
At the price level required to make the platform profitable, fewer than 1 in 10 interested restaurants were willing to pay
Estimated time and cost to reach a sustainable customer base were far beyond the client’s budget
The decision:
Based on this evidence, the client decided not to proceed with the market entry. This was a deliberate, data-backed no-go, made after a few weeks of low-cost testing instead of after a costly launch with a local team, marketing budget and months of trial and error.
Results:
A validated picture of the Finnish restaurant market, based on 65 surveyed venues and 700 real conversations
A clear go / no-go decision, made before major investment
An estimated €6,000 in launch costs avoided
A database of 700 interested restaurants and a tested outreach process, ready to reuse if market conditions change
Insights on competitors, pricing and buyer behaviour that the client can apply to other markets
The challenge:
The client had a working booking product but no knowledge of the Finnish restaurant market. The market gap appeared as one of the biggest service providers, Quandoo, was shutting down.
Although the service had a clear business concept, entering a new market required a deeper understanding of local customer behaviour, restaurant operations, competing solutions, and potential adoption barriers. The company needed to determine whether Finnish restaurants would be interested in adopting the platform, which customer segments offered the strongest opportunities, and how to approach potential business partners effectively.
Rather than relying on assumptions, the objective was to validate market demand and develop a practical market entry strategy supported by research.
Why this matters:
A good market-entry process does not only lead to launches. Sometimes the most valuable result is learning early and cheaply that a market is not ready, so that time and money go to better opportunities.
Tools: online surveys, market and competitor analysis, CRM, phone and email outreach
Client: Small Finnish manufacturer of plastic glazing, with growing exports to North America and the EU
Duration: 4 months
Case 4: Advanced Operations Research
How a Finnish manufacturer survived a supply-chain shock, and what it takes to make that resilience last
What we did:
On-site research. We interviewed the CEO and six employees across sales, logistics and production, each for 45–55 minutes. The group included people who joined before, during and after the crisis, so we could compare how leadership and staff each experienced the same events.
Structured analysis. All interviews were coded and grouped into themes, then compared level by level. We looked for where the CEO’s picture and the shop-floor picture matched, and where they didn’t.
Tailored theoretical framework. We combined models of organisational adaptability, change management and SME internationalisation. This let us test the company against proven practice instead of relying on opinion.
Operational diagnosis. We assessed current capabilities and structural bottlenecks across operations, from decision-making and communication to roles and infrastructure.
Recommendations. We turned the findings into practical actions the company can start with its existing team.
What we found:
Leadership drove the recovery. The CEO’s hands-on, honest and trusting style created fast decisions, strong morale and a culture where employees could suggest improvements. Small ideas such as reorganising storage, changing packaging methods or adjusting work processes were tested and adopted quickly.
The adaptability sat with one person. The CEO saw his decisions as deliberate experimentation. Employees experienced the same period as improvisation and unclear instructions. The capability existed at management level but was not yet part of routines or systems.
Trust was high, but direction was unclear. Staff trusted the CEO and valued his openness, yet found it hard to connect daily tasks to the company’s long-term goals. Motivation stayed high while alignment weakened over time.
Structure lagged behind growth. Roles, decision rights and preventive systems were still informal. This is acceptable for survival, but it becomes a bottleneck when the company scales to international markets.
Results:
We delivered a full practice-oriented report that included:
A diagnosis of current capabilities and structural bottlenecks across operations
A comparison of leadership and employee perspectives, showing exactly where the gaps are
12 actionable recommendations, grouped into four priorities:
Formulate a clear vision and break it into a few measurable goals
Turn successful improvisations into standard procedures
Invest in infrastructure and preventive systems that reduce reliance on improvisation
Clarify roles and decision-making rights
Concrete instructions for embedding adaptability into organisational processes, so it no longer depends on individual leadership
The challenge:
In 2022, new sanctions cut off the company’s main import channel. The polymer raw material for its core product, and the building materials it had traded for years, could no longer be sourced as before. The company had to rebuild its supply chain and restructure its operations quickly.
It succeeded. Turnover grew from about €2,000 in 2020 to almost a million in 2024, the company found new suppliers in several countries, and it began expanding abroad. However, the owner needed to know whether this success was repeatable or simply the result of one leader’s fast decisions. International growth needs processes that work without the founder in every decision, so we were asked to answer three questions:
How did the company get through the crisis?
Where are the structural bottlenecks in its operations now?
What must change for expansion to be sustainable?
What changed:
The company now has a clear view of its position. It knows which strengths to protect (speed, trust, openness) and which gaps to close before international growth puts more pressure on the organisation. The aim is not to add bureaucracy. It is to make adaptability a shared, repeatable habit instead of a heroic response to a crisis, and to support sustainable international expansion.
Why it matters for your business:
Many growing SMEs depend on one decisive leader. That works until the company gets bigger, enters new markets or faces the next disruption. Advanced Operations Research finds where your operations rely on people instead of processes, and gives you a practical plan to fix it without losing the speed that got you here.
Methods: on-site interviews, qualitative content analysis, leadership vs. employee perspective comparison, organisational capability assessment, change-management frameworks