The Stick Group had its humble beginnings in March, 1995 with 3 people who had a vision on how consultants should operate – focus on helping the client and not about billable hours and unneeded upgrades. The company grew rapidly to 66 employees in 6 months. In late 1998, 2 of the principles elected to retire and the decision was made to end it. After making sure each employee had secured a new job, Mark set out on his own.

Mark S. Stickel learned business from the ground floor up—literally. His 1st job was sweeping the floors and bagging ice in his Father’s grocery store at age 7. From that early beginning, Mark learned the value of good work ethic and dedication. Recognized as a leader in the field of advanced metric analytics, Mark has consulted with Fortune 100 companies as well as small owner-operated businesses. Mark has seen first-hand the struggles, difficulties and challenges facing small businesses today. It is this in-depth knowledge of the problems facing businesses that propelled Mark to develop the systems and programs that take businesses to the next level….and beyond.




• Designed and implemented marketing plan for book/gift store chain resulting in 88% increase in sales in 1 year.
• Developed and taught employee personal development, team building and maintenance seminars for vacation club.
• Develop strategic profitability modules for same vacation club resulting in 27% increase in profits.
• Set up customer service education program and self funded employee profit sharing program for car care franchise resulting in 23% increase in profits and reduced employee turnover from 20% to >3%.
• Wrote personnel manual, set up hiring guidelines, sales training programs, employee benefits and incentive based bonuses for timeshare sales organization resulting in 30% increase in sales and 21% increase in profits.
• Decentralized operations and set up supervisor training programs resulting in a 60% increase in production, a 40% decrease in cost per unit and an increase in profits of 47% .
• Implemented profitability program for office supply wholesaler resulting in a profit increase of 14%.
• Performed complete management audit for restaurant chain including marketing plan, profit-first budget and feasibility study on expansion resulting in an increase profit of 17%.
• Performed complete production analysis, product flow and supply chain analysis for distribution facility resulting in an increase in production efficiency of 77% and increase in profits of 18%.
• Wrote strategic business plans, set up profitability modules, wrote TI Manual, developed strategic marketing plans, wrote and implemented staff training manual, manager’s handbook and ongoing coaching program for 75+ franchisee’s in 8 different franchises resulting in profit increases of 2-15%.

Over the past 25+ years, Mark has successfully consulted with over 500 companies in 18 fields. A master innovator, Mark has developed scores of new paradigms and processes never imagined in certain sectors. Many of the new processes developed by Mark are now ‘standards’ in that particular industry. Markus uses a complex set of algorithms and spreadsheets to create an analytics dashboard for the business owner so he/she can focus on the truly critical drivers of revenue and profitability. He supplements the analysis with intensive training on high-performance mastery for both owners and employees.

Now, 50+ years later, Mark still applies those early lessons to every endeavor.