When Keith Van Scotter set out to solve problems relating to two of his company's staple products, a high-quality paper used to print business-reply cards and a type of tissue paper sold at party stores for gift wrap, he eschewed the idea of hiring a big-name consulting firm like McKinsey or Accenture. "Conventional wisdom told me I'd have to spend millions of dollars, but we didn't have that money to invest," says Van Scotter, CEO of Lincoln Paper & Tissue, a manufacturer based in Lincoln, Me. "So I turned to QualPro."

Based in Knoxville, Tenn., QualPro differs from conventional consulting firms in that it doesn't rely on subject-matter experts, the high-priced professionals whom firms traditionally employ to instruct clients on how to improve their business. Instead, QualPro mines hundreds of ideas that mostly come from its clients' own employees -- everyone from the janitor to the CEO. Then it throws away any ideas that fail to meet three criteria. "They must be cost-free, easy to try out with current resources, and capable of being implemented immediately," says David Cochran, president and CEO of QualPro. "That way you don't have to wait six months or a year to try them out." The company also uses Multivariable Testing [MVT], a trademarked method of experimenting with different combinations of the gratis ideas.

With its lower-fee price structure, QualPro may be poised for growth, even amid economic conditions that suggest a slowdown for the $350 billion global consulting industry. According to Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory, based in Peterborough, N.H., revenue increases for the industry as a whole dropped by 50 percent in 2008 from the previous year, and 2009 may see no growth or negative growth.

Multivariable Testing at Work

QualPro, which was founded in 1982 and whose roster of past clients includes DuPont, Williams-Sonoma, and Saint...