Posted on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 @ 03:49 PM
Industry: Automotive Service
Function: Business Development
Location: Domestic
The owner of an independent retail automotive-service business had growth aspirations - and needed help to think through how best to achieve them for his business. We joined him to:
- clarify/ set the core value proposition,
- differentiate his business and offerings from the major chain-store competitor just up the street,
- identify the key customers needed to grow (based on data/ analytical assessment),
- target and message to those key customers, and
- refine the business plan, including the expansion plan to double the size of the facilities.
This work led to a structured approach for engaging customers, clear sales and marketing campaigns, and consistent messages that clearly differentiated this business from local competitors. Following through on execution, this business has seen new customer contacts almost triple in number within the last 12 months - and is on track to achieve 60-70% revenue growth this fiscal year. based on successful execution of the plan.
Posted on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 @ 04:23 PM
Industry: Hospitality (Accommodations & Food Services)
Function: Executive
Location: Domestic
The client had built a boutique high-end hospitality business which included a top Zagat-rated restaurant, unique luxury lodging and a complete destination wedding business. A private school on a large adjacent property closed and the property including a unique but dilapidated country manor house and gymnasium- class room building was to be put on the market.
The entrepreneurial owner both saw opportunity in the unique country manor house and the potential risk associated with the development of this adjacent property which might be contrary to his property's ambience. To mitigate this risk, he opportunistically and defensively purchased the adjacent property and began to develop it, but was struggling with the debt load.
The acquisition and renovation of the country manor added considerable guest room capacity - as well as substantial debt. Both the regional tourist season and the wedding business combined to accentuate seasonal cyclicality which capped the business' peak profitability and depressed the off-season cash flow.
Working with the owner and general manager, we explored the owner's vision and risk profile to guide market research and alternative solutions. MMG's business growth management consulting supported extensive market research into new services and amenities that would complement the existing business and its clientele, utilize newly created excess housing capacity and ameliorate the cyclicality of the current business model. Finally, we developed a range of scenarios, at different risk and debt levels, including general business plans and full pro formas.
The down stream implications of the work included:
- Refinancing debt and adding a full service spa as destination amenity
- Creating new products & services, including counter cyclical spa-based packages
- Identifying spa services and pricing profile
- Targeting incremental sales of services for traditional guests, non-guest visitors to the area and local resident population
- Selling the restaurant and non-strategic portion of housing to a strategic partner
Based on this work, the owner created a more profitable business venture and increased asset value - while restructuring debt to levels more in line with the business' cash generation capabilities.
Posted on Wed, Oct 14, 2009 @ 09:19 PM
Industry: Medical Software
Function: Executive
Location: Domestic
A venture-backed medical software company has grown over several years, reaching several hundred employees, tens of thousands of "users", and dozens of customers. The first-time CEO inherited a senior team - and with them needed to articulate a compelling vision and strategy for the organization, board and other key stakeholders - as well as implement to achieve needed growth results.
The company is a "market leader" in its (relatively new) space - with substantial market opportunity. The pace of change is high due to shifting government-industry dynamics, and competition in the space is intensifying. The organization is experiencing deterioration in execution capability, distractions and lack of focus, and increasing urgency as the issues reach employees and customers.
Working with the senior team and individual leaders, we're working to create multiples of increase in the realizable value of the enterprise as a strategic acquisition in the next few years by clarifying strategy, building leadership and organizational capabilities, addressing current execution issues and fixing long-term issues related to new-product development and market penetration.
The likely implications of the work will include:
- Clear and compelling strategies - translated into effective operating plans
- Effective personal and group abilities to make difficult trade-off decisions regarding what will and won't be done
- Changes in executive behavior and in culture
- Dramatic improvements in senior team capabilities
- Improved execution and business results
- Successful value realization
Posted on Thu, May 14, 2009 @ 07:22 PM
Industry: Global Industrial Equipment Manufacturer
Function: Finance
Location: Global
A
$4.5B multinational industrial automation company had grown organically
over many years, leading to widely decentralized functions, a heavy
overhead burden and slow execution performance. The firm had sold off
pieces of its business portfolio, but had not reduced staff functions
and corporate overhead commensurately.
We joined an effort in
progress to remake the Finance organization, to create a single global
function—and to help reshape the other corporate functions (HR,
Marketing, Quality, MIS, Logistics, etc.) in a similar manner.
Working
with the internal senior executive sponsor, we developed and introduced
a range of tools and approaches to help cross-functional and
cross-business stakeholders develop and decide on how to achieve
effective functional governance and “execution”—in ways that worked to
meet performance demands, and fit with company culture. We supported
selected functions outside of Finance and geographic regions outside of
North America to achieve improved productivity and business growth.
Finally, we facilitated senior Finance management strategy development,
coordinated “calls to action”, and helped manage overall program and
communications.
Net project results - Year 1: $20MM bottom line
improvement in Europe, $100MM opportunity identified overall. Financial
monthly reporting cycle time performance improved by 35-50%. Overall
process headcount declined 25%.
Posted on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:40 PM
Industry: Global Industrial Equipment Manufacturer
Function: Process Improvement
Location: Global
The President and Board of a multi billion
Japanese company decided that the future growth of the overall business
depends on the growth of the international businesses. Through a
combination of market analysis and meeting facilitation, we worked with
the CEO to create greater alignment and coordination among the senior
management team, the leaders of each of the international businesses
and the critical functional heads for R&D and manufacturing in
Japan.
The key result of the work thus far has been
greater consensus between Japan and the businesses in North America,
South America, and Europe regarding required product and market
development investments in each region and line of business. The
businesses are achieving short-term sales and profit objectives and
investing substantially in the product development essential for
continued growth.
Posted on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:29 PM
Industry: European Luxuary Automotive Sales/ Distribution
Function: Sales
Location: Domestic US
Our client had an aggressive three-year goal:
increase sales in a franchise distribution channel by 40% without
adding dealers or hiring more sales people. Only one approach could
achieve that outcome: make the existing sales force more effective and
productive.
In this case, “more productive” means taking a
group of already-high achievers at the retail outlet and individual
level, and making them better.
We have helped our client to profile, replicate
and recruit the objective metrics among retail locations, and the
elusive professional and personal traits among individual sales
performers, that define "Top 10%" - and help our client to develop the
people, processes, tools and support, and working environments that
help them to thrive at these dramatically higher levels of performance.
The goal was ambitious - to infuse “top
performer” attributes throughout the retail channel, creating a culture
populated by top-performing stores and people. Early-stage results for
this program and related initiatives showed an effective double-digit
productivity increase in sales.
Posted on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:26 PM
Industry: Medical Devices
Function: Marketing & Sales
Location: Domestic
A
$100MM business unit of a global medical device/ pharmaceutical giant
was a newcomer to a market segment dominated by entrenched,
deep-pocketed global competitors such as Johnson & Johnson and
Bayer.
Working with our client’s marketing department and
marketing/technology services providers, we designed, implemented and
managed integrated marketing programs, a CRM system and a series of
targeted marketing projects. To make these programs successful, we
worked with our client to:
- Identify priority marketing objectives, and key customer needs, in their “complex sale” retail environment;
- Aggressively develop new product and services offerings, designed
to deliver information, influence, and leverage for our clients sales
force with regard to their target customers;
- Design structured processes to collect more market intelligence,
convert this market intelligence into meaningful management
information, and use it to develop subsequent programs; and
- Managed the cross-organizational business team, covering sales and
marketing, IT, finance, vendor-partners, and IT/ systems development.
The goal was daunting—carve market share directly from the segment
leaders in a flat market—and our client realized steep gains by taking
share from market leaders over a three-year period, using the key
programs we worked with them to design and implement.
Posted on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:24 PM
Industry: Specialty Chemicals
Function: Executive Management, Commercial Operations
Location: Global
A
$2.5B global chemical company was formed by spin-off/ sale from GE to
private equity in 2006 – selling three "pieces" of GE's Advanced
Materials business. The PE firm "bought out" the existing joint venture
partners, combined them with the wholly owned subsidiary, and sought to
create "one" global company - with one rationalized supply chain, a
strategy for marketing and customer engagement, and an integrated set
of global corporate functions.
We worked with the CEO. exec team and other "insiders" to put in place a global management structure for
this firm--its first--and to manage the project plan to achieve key
results:
- Deliver the short-term productivity improvements (about $10MM) from functional, geographical, and resource consolidation,
- Design and implement a new business-planning and follow-up performance-management approach for business leaders;
- Spec new roles, and organize existing talent to locate the right talent in key positions,
- Build a strong global marketing function (for the first time) and
- Communicate the process, plan and outcomes to the company.
After delivering the productivity improvements, the team has followed up to help the newly formed marketing groups outline their
plan for growth, and get started on effective execution to achieve
needed growth outcomes. In addition, the business will be focusing on the
processes and “new behaviors” to drive successful profitable growth, at
the global “corporate-optimal” level.
Posted on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:18 PM
Industry: Commercial Insurance
Function: Business Management, Operations
Location: Domestic
Facing
a business imperative to grow, our client (the US division of an
international commercial insurance giant) discovered that
administrative inefficiencies, poorly integrated systems, and
organizational breakdowns were limiting client-facing time for
underwriters and account development staff. These labyrinthine and
performance-sapping processes had arisen as “work around solutions”
generated by unintegrated acquisitions and multiple legacy systems.
Working
with the business head and his key staff, we developed and led an
approach, using a GE-style “Work-Out”, to help the executive team
identify back-office servicing and support issues constraining sales
productivity, and develop an effective, high-engagement approach. We
worked side-by-side with the client steering team, sponsor and team
leaders subsequently to roll out the approach to the organization,
starting with the Work-Out event, and unfolding over the ensuing 120
days, to deliver key performance results. The initial efforts rapidly
identified root causes and developed draft solutions. To confirm
effective execution of identified opportunities, we shadowed and
supported project team leaders in key areas for the ensuing 12 weeks.
The
50 people involved used the framework to develop creative and effective
staffing, process, work design, and error-reduction solutions and
responses, cutting errors and wasted time in key metrics by 25-40% -
and freeing up critical time for customer-facing account managers to
focus on their primary function. As a result of this project, the
client dramatically reduced the administrative burden on its front-line
staff (for example, reducing the number of administrative inquiries
sent to underwriters by about 90%)—and enabled a greater focus on its
“go to market” efforts.
Posted on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:42 AM
Industry: Transportation Equipment
Function: Design/ Engineering/ Marketing/ Sales/ Customer Service
Location: Domestic US
One of the major global vehicle providers of distribution and logistics equipment needed to defend its slim lead with regard to its information-management products – products that make the vehicles themselves more valuable to its customers, help customers to eliminate waste in their operations, and justify the “premium brand” image (and higher purchase prices) of our client’s equipment. In addition, it needed to take rear-guard actions to prevent current-customer dissatisfaction with the base-level first-generation product – and quell risks of defection.
In a dramatic shift in our client’s new product development approach, we supported the key business functions in rethinking their competitive position, product positioning, and key feature set – as well as driving ideas for changing their process for product development, launch, and post-sales support. We designed and facilitated strategic conversations that brought together disparate functions within the company, earlier than ever before in their history, to share their perspectives on customer needs – and helped the group to determine collectively what its first-best next steps might be to both defend the current business, and stake out exciting new territory for the future.
While the follow-up work for this client is still in process, early reports suggest fundamental changes in collaboration and engagement across key players and functional silos – and the promise of exciting new prospects for business innovation, and product design and development processes for the company.