Estratégia por dentro, com ótimos resultados

Nosso cliente foi um faturamento de 1 bilhão de libras Aluguel de têxteis e negócios de serviços de higiene | O CEO estava procurando uma mudança de etapa no desempenho e nos pediu para ajudar a desenvolver uma nova estratégia corporativa mais focada.  operating across 15 European countries. The CEO was looking for a step change in performance and asked us to help develop a new, more focused corporate strategy. 

Como em muitas empresas, os negócios tinham muitas pessoas excelentes com muito know-how e comprometimento. Também tinha um tremendo potencial. Simplesmente fornecemos a facilitação, o incentivo e a orientação para ajudar seu pessoal a se unir e desenvolver o seu próprio Estratégia altamente eficaz - desbloqueando o potencial nos negócios e garantindo um aumento impressionante no desempenho e no valor. Nos três anos subsequentes, a capitalização de mercado passou de £ 750m para mais de £ 1,7 bilhão.

Identifying the best way forward

When the new Chief Executive took the helm of business, he inherited an organization in which recent performance was solid but unexciting, with almost zero organic growth and declining Retornos. Bastando negócios e dispersão.

Making the most of in-house skills and know-how

The group had a range of business services including renting and maintaining flat linen (for example, for hotels and hospitals, workwear (such as overalls or chefs’ uniforms), doormats, washroom and cleanroom services. It also had a business selling workwear direct. It operated with over nine brands across 15 European countries – so it was a fairly diverse and dispersed business. Neveretheless, there were some common qualities in terms of logistics, service and managing portfolios of contracts, and a great deal of operational strength and market know-how within the individual businesses.

No entanto, o grupo não estava funcionando tão bem quanto poderia. Embora o clima econômico fosse difícil, o CEO sentiu que, com maior foco e coesão, os negócios poderiam alcançar muito mais. Havia pouco compartilhamento de idéias ou conhecimentos entre marcas ou países, por exemplo, e nenhum critério compartilhado para decisões estratégicas de investimento. A contribuição era ser um toque leve - apoiando a equipe interna na criação e avaliação de novas idéias, em vez de fazê -lo. Nosso estilo de trabalho foi a combinação perfeita nesta frente. de dois de nossos consultores para uma série de sessões intensivas de construção de estratégia, duas a três semanas por vez. Cada membro da equipe entrou em contato com a organização para fazer a análise estratégica. Isso incluiu a avaliação dos pontos fortes e fracos internos, analisando a atratividade de vários mercados e a identificação de possíveis sinergias. Eles também consideraram opções de crescimento orgânico e não orgânico. 

Looking for the right light touch

The Chief Executive was looking for consultants who could work with his executive team and with key people from the different areas of the business to help them create a new strategy. The contribution was to be light touch – supporting the internal team in coming up with and evaluating new ideas, rather than doing it for them. Our style of working was the perfect match on this front.

Gathering the core in-house team

We quickly set to work, bringing together eight managers from various parts of the business in the UK, Scandinavia and elsewhere - to form the team that would do the bulk of the fact finding and analysis in creating the strategy.

We set up a team room at our offices in London so they could all work together with the help of two of our consultants for a series of intensive strategy-building sessions, two to three weeks at a time.

Organizing the team

We helped organize the team, dividing up the responsibilities and work. Each team member reached out into the organization to do the strategic analysis. This included assessing the internal strengths and weaknesses, analyzing the attractiveness of various markets and identifying potential synergies.

The team looked at all the possible opportunities: growing or improving performance in their existing markets, filling the white spots (existing services not yet offered in some countries), extending into new, related service lines and extending into new geographies (both close to home and further afield). They also considered both organic and non-organic growth options. 

No total, eles desenvolveram casos de negócios para cerca de 69 opções estratégicas diferentes. Portanto, a empresa tinha uma clareza real sobre onde concentrar o investimento para o crescimento, gerenciando as empresas restantes para valor e desinvestir os negócios escandinavos que vendem roupas de trabalho diretamente. Para que isso aconteça, isso exigiu uma grande quantidade de mudanças organizacionais, à medida que os negócios passaram de estruturar regionalmente para serem organizados em torno das linhas de negócios transfronteiriças. Após a corrida, todo fluxo de trabalho realizado pela equipe de estratégia tinha um patrocinador individual do Conselho Executivo, para reforçar a propriedade e ajudar a conectar a estratégia aos negócios. Então, quando se tratava da reunião do conselho, foram os patrocinadores executivos que apresentaram sua estratégia - nossos consultores simplesmente compareceram. Nós separamos a empresa neste momento, com o nosso cliente definido em um caminho claro e focado em fazer as alterações acontecerem. Dois anos depois, e o preço das ações superou a média do setor em mais de 30%, equivalente a cerca de £ 275 milhões de valor agregado. É justo dizer que esse desempenho externo substancial caiu em grande parte à implementação bem-sucedida de uma estratégia muito sólida e eficaz. Eles são uma organização focada mais coerente. Eles têm clareza real sobre sua estratégia e compromisso real de oferecer contra ela. Agenda e desenvolver uma estratégia acionável que não apenas os encantou, mas finalmente entregou resultados impressionantes.

Focusing on core growth businesses

Ultimately the strategy zeroed in on five businesses to drive growth: workwear, mats, washroom, cleanroom, and the UK flat linen business. So the company had real clarity on where to focus investment for growth, while managing the remaining businesses for value and divesting the Scandinavian business selling workwear direct.

Making the most of synergies

The strategy also identified huge opportunities for synergies along business lines, for example by sharing best practice across marketing, sales, operations, commercial terms and pricing. To make this happen required a great deal of organizational change, as the business moved from being structured regionally to being organized around cross-border business lines.

Involving the Board and gaining approval

The first full Board meeting on the new strategy was held just three months after we started working. In the run up, every work stream carried out by the strategy team had an individual sponsor from the Executive Board, to reinforce ownership and help connect the strategy to the business. So when it came to the Board meeting, it was the Executive sponsors who presented their strategy – our consultants simply attended.

Board approval for the strategy was secured just two months later. We parted company at this point, with our client set on a clear path and focused on making the changes happen.

A step change in value

Our client completed the changes and began operating under the new organization structure. Two years on and their share price had outperformed the sector average by over 30%, equivalent to some £275m of value added. It’s fair to say that this substantial out-performance is down in large part to the successful implementation of a very sound and effective strategy.

Real coherence and clarity

Our client made the most of their strengths and synergies to grow the business and its value. They are a more coherent focused organization. They have real clarity on their strategy and real commitment to deliver against it.

Enhanced careers

What’s more, the members of the core strategy team that we worked with have all moved on to great new roles, mostly promotions, following their involvement in the process.

Delivering impressive results

Overall, we’re proud of the part we played in helping our client create a common agenda and develop an actionable strategy that not only delighted them but ultimately delivered impressive results.