How to leverage founders' years of expertise to improve their business.
Growth in 10 years
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Head count in 5 years
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Corset Daum
Founded by Reuwen and Sarah Daum, Corset DAUM® has evolved from a modest family venture into a leading medical innovator, always maintaining the company’s cherished family values at its core.
Their groundbreaking orthopaedic brace, featuring a unique dynamic piston system, effectively treats various back pain conditions by redistributing body weight and enabling vertebral decompression.
The aim here: restoring patients’ freedom of movement and helping them rebuild muscle strength. In short, it’s the first brace that doesn’t hinder any movement, but also treats a wide variety of low back pain injuries.
Reuwen Daum is a Belgian Master in Ortopædics behind the creation of the Corset Daum® in 1993, drawing from his experience in Switzerland and Germany in spinal medicinal studies. On the other hand, his wife Sarah is the dynamic spirit drives the company’s commercial success as CEO.
Sarah and Reuwen both work at the Brussels-based practice Orthopédie Lucas, initially founded in 1933, which they took over shortly before filing the patent for the Daum® brace.
The Challenge
A strong growth will, held back by the current market.
When we first met the founders, they were at a crucial turning point. Despite having a revolutionary product, they were seeking ways to scale their impact, with a simple question : “Our product is groundbreaking, so why can’t we go further?“.
So after a round of discussions with them, as well as understanding their business and how they were running it, we quickly found out that:
- Much of their business knowledge resided solely in the founders’ heads, without proper documentation or systems in place.
- Their appointment scheduling software tool was a Windows-based with an 80s-style interface which didn’t feature all the bricks they needed for their business to grow.
- They had few marketing and prospecting initiatives in place, mostly relying on lengthy emails and paper-based tracking.
- The whole production was constrained by their small workshop location in Brussels.
After a few, long discussions on their plan, we concluded that the most strategic decision would be to transform the company into an attractive acquisition target
The plan would focus on two key objectives:
- Improve solution adoption for doctors and medical professionals (which would guide patients to Orthopédie Lucas to use the Corset Daum® for treatment)
- Reducing the business’s dependency on its founders, therefore implementing a comprehensive system for everyone in the company to fully understand and act when needed.
Business coaching
Restructuring the business to support future growth initiatives
“The idea was to take a blank sheet of paper, redefine the processes and people of the company, and point out what input can an external eye offer about different organisational aspects. Very quickly, we found a human resource challenge.”
One of our first actions with Corset DAUM® was establishing a management committee and taking a strategic role in helping structure their processes. Although the founders were brilliant at their core business, they needed support with financial analysis.
This is why we undertook a comprehensive review of their financial statements across multiple companies, analyzing and modeling salary costs to gain clear visibility of each business unit’s economic performance. This analysis revealed that the corset business was incredibly profitable, beyond everyone’s expectations.
Firstly, we’ve identified a sales challenge, consisting on discovering new markets in need of a solution like the Corset Daum. This is why in co-creation with them, we’ve identified new markets, such as public sector and corporate clients. While these haven’t been pursued yet, they form part of our fundraising strategy. Our approach focuses on maximizing company valuation based on both current performance and future potential, working to achieve the highest possible multiple on both metrics.
The second challenge was about production rate. This was complex due to some initial stakeholder resistance to change, their workshop being in a small townhouse in Brussels, limiting the number of workers and corsets they could produce. We managed to convince the committee that outsourcing the corset production outside of Brussels would be a great starting point in growing the business. Corset Daum then opened two new centers in Liège and Namur.
ERP Implementation
Creating the system that will fuel growth
Our second achievement was implementing a modern ERP system to replace their outdated Windows-based business software. The legacy system, with its 80s-style interface and lack of connectivity, was definitely holding back their growth potential.
We started by implementing a CRM module focused on physician relationship management – a crucial aspect since doctors are the primary source of patient referrals. This streamlined their prospecting process, replacing time-consuming manual tasks like lengthy emails and paper-based tracking with automated workflows.
Building on this success, we expanded the system to include comprehensive business management features. The new ERP system, built on top of Monday, now tracks key metrics such as corset prescriptions per doctor and provides valuable business insights. Most importantly, we successfully integrated their proprietary manufacturing processes into the software, effectively transferring critical knowledge from the founders’ expertise into systematic, scalable operations.
Prospection tracking
Stock management
Production tracking
KPI monitoring
Operational coordination
Marketing Strategy
Positioning the business as an authoritative organization
The third pillar of our collaboration focused on external communication and improving commercial conversions. We developed a comprehensive visibility and marketing strategy to support their sales process.
Instead of hiring an in-house marketing team, which wouldn’t have been cost-effective for their needs, we became their marketing department.
They gained access to professional marketing expertise and achieved excellent visibility – a solution far more efficient than hiring and managing a full-time employee.
- Website development and technical audit for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Thorough SEO Strategy and content writing on their website to ensure maximum authority for the belgian market.
- Updates on branding (existing materials, print, screens, …)
- Regular Doctor nurturing campaigns
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Results
Fast forward to...
Since these actions, Sarah could fully embrace her role as CEO which was determining for the future of her company. Previously operating more in the shadow of her husband’s visionary expertise, she has now stepped into her leadership position with more confidence, leading decisions while keeping her sharp sales experience to bring even more doctors and medical professionals on board. This transformation was supported through ongoing sales training and strategic guidance.
Helping them crack the growth model by establishing new expansion initiatives, such as production centers beyond Brussels, despite initial reluctance, also opened new perspectives they didn’t think about before.
Furthermore, through the implementation of modern systems and processes, particularly the new ERP software, we’ve significantly increased the company’s operational independence and overall value. This has positioned the business as an attractive acquisition target, while ensuring operational excellence.
Testimonial
"Une équipe incroyable qui nous a permis d'affiner nos process au maximum".
Arthur Brami, CEO at E-MAPROD, nous a accordé une interview pour reprendre les points principaux de notre
Our thoughts
Working with companies with a clear sense of purpose is what drives us (and you) forward.
Having Corset Daum as one of our pioneering clients proved our mission to be the right one. All the team is made of hard working people that want to do the right things, and to do them right. They’re smart, resilient entrepreneurs with strong growth mindset.
It’s essentially led to the creation of 26lights: helping entrepreneurs with a clear sense of purpose. And for that, clear processes are as important as culture.
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“Our collaboration with E-MAPROD consisted of a shared responsibility to ensure all numbers are correct. That’s why, from the choice of the ERP to its maintenance today, we have always paid an utmost attention to the quality of the delivery.” – Alicia Dahan, Manager, 26lights