Case Studies
The following case studies summarises recent work of Global Studio TCA:
Strategic advice for global growth and developing business abroad
Background
- A very high-quality environmental and engineering company specialising in road, rail and dam structures
- Privately owned
- 100 employees
- A variety of half-built companies within Group as a legacy of international and specialist projects
- Remediation
The Challenge
- Being pulled in different directions chasing projects and services in different countries
- After the first few successes, the cost of this scatter-gun approach becomes unsustainable and unaffordable
- Risk of being pulled on business ethics
- Improving profitability
- A desire to diversify by sector areas and service
- Long term planning of the business including succession planning
What We Did
- Strategic advice as Non-Executive Board Director
- Overhaul of processes for selection of countries, clients, services and opportunities
- Lead the development of the strategic growth plan for the next five years
- Re-organised the Group of Companies to form one Board of Directors with oversight of all operating companies
- Assessed staff and expenses cost; assessed currency costs; assessed H&S costs; assessed business ethics and established operating framework
- Advised on operational difficulties
- Ran risk assessment based on real experiences (not a model) to help draw lessons from specific experiences
The Results
- Improved opportunity assessment processes that maximised the existing resources against priority zones
- Five-year programme of priority geographical expansion into three countries and one region
- Improved response times and efficiencies to business development opportunities
- Increased win rate in numbers and in value
- Increased staff engagement regarding the growth of the business and career planning resulting in increased employee satisfaction and retention levels
- Helped the business to help themselves
Expansion into the UK
Background
- International engineering and environmental services company looking to establish in the UK
- High-quality reputation in Europe and Canada, but unknown in UK
- UK identified as priority for diversification and expansion as part of global expansion growth plan (advised by Global Studio TCA)
The Challenge
- To establish a permanent business in the UK to become a sustainable business unit within a globalising business
- No UK experience or presence
- Identifying the right opportunities vs any opportunity and how to deliver
What We Did
- Recruited a UK representative with knowledge and understanding of the UK market
- Made a series of presentations of the UK market to the senior leadership team on strategy and investments
- Developed a detailed ten-year business development growth plan for the UK with interim review periods at one, three, five and ten years that included:
- Vision and objectives for the investment
- Performance metrics
- Pipeline tool for pursuing specific clients, projects and partnerships
- Clear identification of lines of communication and organisational structure between the UK and headquarters
- Costed resources and investments required
- Developed a winning commercial strategy
- Established a UK operation on behalf of client
The Results
- Effective identification of specific opportunities and proposals that maximised finite resources
- Efficient decision-making to proceed or withdraw from the opportunities
- Efficient handling of proposals
- Increased win rate
- Relationships developed with UK based companies
- Improved international reputation
- Increased opportunities for other geographic locations through having UK operation
Reintegration of two businesses
Background
- Two companies established and owned by same individuals that have evolved with different customers and therefore structures
- One company has hundreds of small projects, the other has a few very large projects, both with potential services in common
- Both companies are growing fast and in need of growth funding to keep up but without increasing overheads
The Challenge
- Reduce the costs of learning and inventing solutions to support growth
- Planning for success maximising the common structure
- A need to review the ownership structure for succession planning
- The need to identify common services whose growth would benefit both companies
What We Did
- Identified areas of common structure including legal, finance, communication, clients and products where business knowledge is to be shared
- Identified areas for enterprise excellence (opportunities to maximise cross-selling and using existing management structures to facilitate growth of both businesses)
The Results
- Savings
- Increased cohesion of the group
- Opportunities generated to multiply the new singular business into new areas from the common platform
- Satisfied clients, motivated employees and happier shareholders
Permanent presence follows project win in Turkey
Background
- A engineering and environmental consulting practice won a large project in a new country
- Two years assignment for major infrastructure project
- They invested in with 10-20 local professionals
The Challenge
- Early difficulties in converting this project into a permanent office
- How to make a stable business going beyond the project experience
What We Did
- Ran market analysis of the operation from within and looking at the country, assessing the business and technical knowledge there and from outside
- Created an operational and marketing structure based on local capabilities
- Installed a training and technical knowledge exchange in the new enterprise
The Results
- Unwinding of complex situation that had evolved
- Fresh approach based on transparency and long-term commitment lead to higher satisfaction for clients, employees and shareholders
- Gained trust of local authorities hence satisfied local clients
- Established the foundation stone for the regional strategy
Start-up company with worldwide plans
Background
- Start-up company created by highly-qualified seniors without much experience in running a business
The Challenge
- The role of the founders, who will manage the business and how
- Establishing an operating procedure focused on client service
What We Did
- Defined with them what they wanted to be in three and five years time with open honest conversations
- Defined the type of clients and services with them
- Market position for the identity for the company and relationships with other professional services firms to be built
- Assessed the ambition and skills of each member and how to deploy these resources within the growth plan re BD, innovation, management, production
The Results
- Getting the best from the particular experiences through the owners
- Set in stone mentoring younger members – building in succession from the outset
- Increased revenues, clients, project management systems that delivers profitable and enjoyable work
New home work concept for first-time buyers and start-ups
Background
- Young people are struggling to afford to live and work in citiesand neighbourhoods where they grew up or wish to live/work
The Challenge
- To find a way to keep young professionals, start-ups etc within a city with less space, less cost etc to live and work, keeping our towns and cities vibrant
What We Did
- Working with others, developed a model using a real site for co-habitation and co-working for entrepreneurs – House and Work (Homers)
- Stress tested finance model with national bank
The Results
- Banks identified very large opportunity for long-terms
- Convened a collection of potential investors as part of the design and construction process
- Progressed to planning stage
Fast-growing company adopts employee ownership
Background
- A design and engineering company involved in the design in buildings, roads and railways undergoing rapid growth
- Few senior owners considers employee ownership as the way for sustainable growth and succession
The Challenge
- Clearly identifying succession and ownership issues and methods, timelines for engagement with staff
- In growing, they were losing their intermediate staff – typical of a growing company without a clear strategy and career planning
What We Did
- Shared our experience of employee owned companies
- Actively supported share ownership
- Explored different employee ownership structures that returned to the senior owners
The Results
- The juniors and intermediate staff members are fully engaged and wanting to be owners through participation in the strategies
- Total company active engagement in Technical Development and Business Development with staff becoming more empowered
- Employees became leaders in developing business abroad