iiGrowth LLC, an international strategy and management consulting firm, today announced that it has partnered with Leap Technologies, the leading provider of Rapid Lean Six Sigma (RLSS) consulting and training services. The partnership will bring a combined offering of world-class RLSS services and strategy driven program management consulting to corporations and enterprises in the Baltic Region. Through the strategic alliance, iiGrowth LLC will introduce its clients to Leap Technologies’ unique and innovative RLSS transformation model for enterprises.

iiGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato stated, “I have worked with Leap and their CEO Rick Tucci in the past.  They are results driven and collaborative and bring a fresh perspective to business transformation.  They engage leaders at all levels of the organization from the outset of a collaboration, which means that results are achieved faster and are sustainable. We are looking forward to working together again in the Baltic Region.”

It is now clear what a Rock Band goes through by playing in a new city every night. Our group was in four cities in four days. It was a whirlwind tour, but one that provided the seeds of great opportunity.

During the Baltic Tour, there were many highlights.  The Department of Commerce and the US State Department were outstanding in helping to arrange meetings, providing deep insights into each country visited, and just made the trip very pleasant.

The Baltic countries including the government ministries we visited (i.e. economics, foreign ministries, and transporation) were equally hospitable and insightful.  In addition, the private sector industry associations and firms we visited were open, very excited about the opportunities for cooperation on both sides of the Atlantic, and looking forward to accelerated collaboration in 2009.

Of the many highlights, one of them was the opportunity to meet with Kaspars Gerhards, the Minister of Economics, for the Republic of Latvia. It was special in that it was an opportunity to invite Minister Gerhards to join the Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas.

ii Growth CEO Gustav Plato Present LatCham Honorary Membership to Latvian Economics Minister, Kaspars Gerhards

Gustav sees LatCham as looking forward to a very active year in 2009. In particular, given the economic downturn across the globe, it is critical to focus on fundamentals. This requires breaking down economic sectors and sub-sectors and looking for areas of opportunity, building business alliances, and elevating internal business maturity.

iiGrowth’s recent trip to the Baltics (Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia) provided an opportunity to seek out and understand US opportunities in the Baltic markets and vice versa.  This trip proved very fruitful to the notion of strong economic growth opportunities between the US and the Baltics.

The transportation and Information Technology sectors were two areas of focus in the Baltic tour.  In summary, there are opportunities for economic development and fairly large infrastructure projects in aviation, highways, ports, and rail transportation.  Information technology and innovation also highlighted the high level of capability in Baltic IT firms.  The Baltic firms are ready for the US market and have a desire to seek out business partners in the United States.  More about each of the sectors in the coming week.