Willie Hyland founded Midland Escape in 2022 out of his love for empowering people and his conviction that both individuals and organisations must take care of their health and wellbeing. While showcasing the best Laois has to offer, one of the organisation’s key selling points is its ability to organise wellness events anywhere in the country.
Willie combined his business expertise with his experience as a top GAA athlete to launch a successful company. With corporate clients like Grant Thornton and Bank of Ireland, as well as sports teams, schools, not-for-profit organisations, and individuals, Midland Escape has experienced phenomenal growth over the past three years. Activities offered include hiking, paddleboarding, yoga, meditation, forest bathing, and motivational speakers.
Although Midland Escape were in demand and expanding, they realised they needed to streamline business development processes to ensure a consistent pipeline of customers and meet their organisation goals, while eliminating wasteful demands on time and resources.
Willie chose the Lean for Micro programme with Laois Local Enterprise Office and Iregan Advisors to get the right support that the organisation needed.
Working with Willie and the team, Iregan Advisors established a clear business development action plan, identifying key processes to link brand strategy, marketing, sales and customer and stakeholder partnerships. Lean Management tools including the DMAIC framework and Value Stream Mapping were utilised, along with the development of a KPI dashboard. To ensure that the work continued after the project was completed, we established key actions, owners, and timelines within the plan. In addition, we provided a library of content, templates, how-to videos, and industry insights for Midland Escape to use moving forward.
The Midland Escape team invested a lot of time, effort, and energy into this project, as is customary for them. They provided thoughtful feedback on the challenges and suggested changes presented to them, with a little bit of fun mixed into the project reflecting how they interact with customers and why they are the success they are.
When asked about working with us, Willie and the team had this to say: “Mary and Alan from Iregan are a brilliant combination. Their expertise blew us away. We would have no hesitation in recommending them to any other businesses. Without a doubt the best help we have got from LEO”.
To read more about Iregan Advisors and the support we can give your business click here.
To read more about Midland Escape, book their service or hire bikes/paddleboards click here.
To read more about the supports available from your Local Enterprise Office click here.
