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Today's Growth Partners
Real-World Visibility for Leaders Making High-Stakes Decisons
External, field-based clarity for regional and multi-location leaders.
Experience Operations Strategist
The Moment Were In
Most businesses don’t fail suddenly. They drift.
Execution degrades.
Standards quietly lower.
Teams normalize workarounds.
Dashboards lag reality.
Leadership senses something is off — but can’t locate it clearly enough to act. This is where expensive decisions get made with incomplete information.
WHAT WE DO
External, Field-Based Decision Clarity
Most leaders receive a curated version of reality — filtered through internal reporting, incentives, habits, and organizational politics.
Today’s Growth Partners provides an external, on-the-ground assessment of how your business is actually performing — relative to your market, your competitors, and current operating conditions.
We enter the field, observe execution in real time, and translate what we see into clear intelligence that leaders can act on immediately.
What this looks like in practice
Competitive reality — not assumed positioning.
We assess your business against the strongest operators in your region, store by store and location by location. Not theoretically.
Not based on brand narratives.
You gain clarity on:
- where you outperform
- where execution is slipping
- how customers experience you versus alternatives
- what excellence looks like within your actual price point and footprint
- what is quietly costing loyalty, velocity, and margin
This establishes an accurate competitive baseline — not an internal assumption.
Performance inside your actual operating environment
Businesses don’t compete in a vacuum. They compete inside neighborhoods, trade areas, and local ecosystems.
We evaluate:
- customer behavior patterns shaping your region
- price positioning across nearby competitors
- execution consistency across locations
- which operators are gaining momentum — and why
- how your business feels to customers compared to others they frequent
This level of insight does not show up in reports — but it determines outcomes.
Brand performance inside retail environments (when applicable)
For product-based brands operating inside retailers, we identify why performance varies by location.
We assess:
- why some stores drive velocity while others stall
- differences between independents, co-ops, and chains
- how store teams actually treat your brand
- where SKUs are supported, ignored, or mis-set
- how store culture impacts sales outcomes
You receive location-specific clarity — the real reason one store performs and another doesn’t.
Execution and experience breakdowns leadership never sees
We identify where customer experience and execution quietly erode trust and repeat business, including:
- layouts that create friction
- environments that push customers away
- automation that replaces human presence
- inconsistent service standards
- small failures that compound over time
These issues rarely appear in KPIs — but customers respond to them immediately.
Decision-grade clarity
At the end of the engagement, leadership receives a clear assessment of:
- what is working
- what is broken
- what is no longer worth fixing
- where investment still makes sense
- where to stop spending time, money, or effort
This work is field-based intelligence designed to reduce uncertainty and prevent costly mistakes before the next decision is made.
How engagements begin
Every engagement starts with a 30-Day Field Diagnostic.
This provides leadership with the clarity needed to decide:
- what to correct
- what to elevate
- and what to exit cleanly
The Decision-Clarity Practice
Today’s Growth Partners operates as an external decision-clarity practice for leaders operating in complex, human-dependent businesses.
This work exists to answer one question before critical decisions are made:
What is actually happening — and what does it mean?
Through direct, in-field observation, I surface blind spots, distortions, and early signs of drift that internal reporting, dashboards, and well-intended teams often miss.
The goal is not improvement theater or positive framing — it is accurate judgment before the cost of being wrong compounds.
This practice is designed for moments of consequence: expansion, investment, correction, restructuring, or uncertainty about the next move.
AI, Automation, and Operational Reality
Most businesses are adopting AI and automation faster than they understand the consequences.
Systems are being implemented to improve efficiency, visibility, and scale — but in many cases they are quietly reducing clarity, accountability, and trust.
The issue is not whether to use AI.
The issue is where it belongs, where it doesn’t, and what it is actually doing to performance on the ground.
The blind spot
AI and automation reshape the back end first — reporting, scheduling, ordering, routing, communication, and decision support.
The front end remains human far longer than most leaders expect.
This creates risk.
When automation is misapplied:
- early warning signs are hidden instead of surfaced
- frontline teams disengage rather than improve
- customers feel friction that they can’t articulate
- leadership loses signal while believing they have more data
Dashboards improve. Reality degrades.
Where Today’s Growth Partners comes in, I assess how automation and AI are interacting with your real operating environment — not how they are supposed to work, but how they are actually being used.
Specifically, I evaluate:
- whether technology is improving execution or masking breakdowns
- where automation supports judgment — and where it replaces it prematurely
- how systems affect staff behavior, accountability, and attention
- how customers experience the result, not the intent
- whether leadership still has early visibility into decline or drift
This is not a technology audit. It is an operational reality check.
FOR PRODUCT - BASED BRANDS (CPG)
Field Intelligence That Explains Real Performance. Most founders never see how their product actually performs inside stores. Distributors report movement. Internal dashboards show averages.
Neither shows why the velocity rises or stalls at the shelf.
Today’s Growth Partners provides direct, in-store field intelligence so founders can understand what is truly driving — or suppressing — performance, without distortion.
What we assess in the field
- Shelf presence & discoverability
Where the product sits, how it’s presented, and whether customers can actually find it. - Set integrity
Mis-sets, missing items, discontinued SKUs, and gaps that quietly kill movement. - Competitive positioning
Who the product sits next to, how space is being gained or lost, and where authority is eroding. - Pricing reality
Accuracy, competitive gaps, and misalignment that suppresses volume without being flagged. - Store-level advocacy
What staff believe about the brand — and how that belief shapes customer behavior. - Customer interaction
Where customers hesitate, engage, ignore, or abandon — and why - Environmental friction
Layout, flow, signage, and operational details that suppress velocity without being noticed. - Regional comparison
How performance varies store by store and how the brand compares to the strongest operators in the region.
What founders receive
Clear, actionable intelligence they can use immediately — not reports, not theory, but field-verified insight that explains performance and informs next decisions.
FOR SERVICE And EXPERIENCE - DRIVEN BUSINESSES
Execution and Experience as They Actually Exist
Customers decide whether they trust a business before a word is spoken.
Most leaders never see that moment — because it happens in real time, on the floor, not in reports.
Today’s Growth Partners identifies where execution and experience quietly diverge from intent — and where trust, loyalty, and repeat business are being lost.
What we identify on site
- Experience flow
How customers move through the space — where friction, hesitation, or disengagement occurs. - Staff presence & engagement
Whether teams are attentive, rushed, distracted, disengaged, or inconsistent. - Environmental tone
The immediate feel of the space — inviting, flat, tense, cold, or incoherent. - Silent breakdowns
Operational failures (check-in, signage, systems, cleanliness cues) that quietly erode trust. - Loyalty drivers
What brings customers back — and what makes them leave without returning. - Consistency gaps
Where experience varies by time, team, or location — and why.
The outcome
A clear diagnosis of where customer trust is leaking and what must change for the business to deliver the experience leadership believes it’s offering — not the one happening by default.
ABOUT MARY Douglas
Experience Operations Strategist, Today’s Growth Partners
Mary Douglas brings over 30 years of hands-on experience working inside customer-facing businesses — from frontline operations to executive leadership.
Her work is grounded in direct, in-field observation. She enters real operating environments, watches how people, systems, and customers actually interact, and translates what she sees into clear, decision-grade insight leaders can act on immediately.
Mary is brought in when:
- internal reporting no longer reflects reality
- performance varies across locations without clear explanation
- leadership senses drift but can’t see the cause
- the next decision carries real financial or operational risk
Her role is to provide external, unbiased field clarity — identifying what still works, what no longer does, and where effort or investment should stop before mistakes compound.
Mary’s experience spans grocery, retail, hospitality, healthcare services, distribution, and other field-dependent environments where execution and human behavior determine outcomes.
In addition to commercial and operational work, Mary also supports mission-driven and faith-based organizations seeking clarity around leadership stewardship, internal coherence, and sustainability. This work is approached with the same external, observational discipline — translated for environments where care, responsibility, and meaning intersect.
She is based in Northern California and works with regional and multi-location leaders across the West Coast.
Success Stories
Mary discovered me and my business at a trade show, and everything changed from there. She saw me. Since working together, my business has taken off. We now have solid plans to expand into multiple new locations. Mary helped us redesign our logo and implement grassroots marketing that’s truly expanded our reach. She’s not just a consultant; she’s become my new best friend. Thank you, Mary. You are incredibly gifted—and now I understand exactly why.
- Founder & Business Owner
Mary brought a different approach she helped me get out of my own way. Processes really don't change in business. It's how you do those processes that makes a difference. I was selling a product and Mary showed me a way to sell a service. She developed a CSR program for us and began to synergize us in the community. Customer service improved and sales went through the roof.
- CMO
Mary opened my eyes. She helped me realize that all the reasons I was holding myself back were just excuses. Her insights around money and mindset completely shifted how I think—and as a result, how I operate. At first, I thought she might be a bit too 'woo-woo' for me, but she challenged me in all the right ways. It was exactly what I needed. Thank you for an incredible month of transformation.
- CEO & Founder
Mary told me from the jump what was going on and I refused to see past my ego. I lost my startup and looking back I know why. I was not honest with myself. I will always be grateful for my coaching calls with Mary.
- CEO
I worked with Mary on several Leadership projects. We came together in such a light of newness and love for others in the communities we served. I was elevated, I grew , and I became a better leader because of Mary.
- CEO & Founder
Mary started with our Fortune 500 retail organization and quickly became sought after. She managed people, operations and sales like a champ. Her teams' results were consistently above expectations. I flew her out to our corporate offices to get to know her and how she was so successful. I learned all the different things she had implemented. They became company directives.
- CEO
Mary brought the word focus to another level. When the entire project was in full swing and we had so many moving parts to manage Mary was the go-to-person for facts, figures and details. She led my executive leaders through a praise training and the shift was outstanding.
- President
Mary pulled me in, coached me and listened. She really heard me. Someone finally saw me. Thank you for leading our Bee Hive of Consultants to an amazing level during Covid. Without your guidance I would have given up on my dreams.
- Mother and CEO
Mary brings it. She give 100% and receives 100% back from her teams. She showed seasoned leaders how to pivot, grow, and deep dive their "whys". She rallies people and people respect her unique way of being with them. Mary doesn't play. But she sure does care. Her results and metrics were always something to chase after.
A true Leader in the business.
- VP Operations
Mary hired an entire team and trained all my leaders how to manage all HR processes. She set our business up for success. Mary has a way to bring the unexpected hire onboard that is the perfect fit. She sees things in people that I would have overlooked. A top notch consultant.
- CEO
No one on our executive team ever thought of turning our bike shops into indoor cycling studios using our own equipment. Mary did. Her vision transformed our slowest season into one of our most profitable. In some locations, winter now outperforms summer. She didn’t just improve the business. She saw what it could be.
— East Coast, Executive Team Member
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