areas of expertise
M&A integration
commercial excellence
M&A integration
We deliver merger integration at mid-market businesses | with particular depth in revenue-side value creation across diverse-yet-related portfolios and aggregator strategies | private, public, owner-managed.
client synergy
commercial excellence
M&A integration
We catalyse whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts activity and client management across diverse portfolios | initiating and accelerating | carefully balancing culture and independence with synergy.
commercial excellence
commercial excellence
commercial excellence
We up-rate growth operations and infrastructure | increasing visibility | tuning forecast-ability and performance | encouraging investment in key opportunities | in an enlarged multi-OpCo environment.
PROPOSITION SYNERGY
transitional management
commercial excellence
We help organisations connect propositions across multiple OpCos | ad hoc and client-based | piloting solutions and facilitating take-to-market in early stage pitches and campaigns.
CROSS-SELL
transitional management
transitional management
We create channels and processes to encourage cross-sell | once-off and campaign-based | supported by client-focused marketing | enabled by pragmatic CRM-based operations and incentives.
transitional management
transitional management
transitional management
We provide transitional commercial leadership through step-change | shaping, guiding and mentoring | 'holding the fort' and driving development | pending appointment of a Group Commercial Officer.
recent engagements
STEP CHANGE following PRIVATE EQUITY investment | Acquisitive hold-co
A mid-size, newly private equity backed, 5 OpCo international financial services, outsourcing and insurance technology business assembled by acquisition and under new leadership sought to make the whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts from a revenue perspective. We supported the business in piloting 'multi-unit' client management and group-wide proposition integration. Enhanced by transformed growth operations, the business rapidly built a previously inaccessible pipeline of opportunity exceeding expectations.
M&A integration and revenue-side value creation | MID-SIZE AGGREGATOR
A newly formed £200m private equity backed and international aggregator of specialist manufacturing businesses required support integrating its first European acquisition (a £10m owner-managed business). We provided specialist programme management, migration and value creation capability | unleashing a multi-local client management and business development strategy, organisation and value proposition across this acquisition and the entire portfolio. In addition, we developed a re-usable playbook for future acquisitions.
REVENUE SYNERGY ACROSS 4 BUSINESS UNITS | global multi-national
A portfolio of 4 distinct advisory and transactional businesses (revenue c.$200m) held within a global multi-national targeted step-change growth from a new revenue stream at-the-intersections. 'Morphing' in-unit teams into an integrated growth community | introducing multi-unit client management, proposition integration and cross-sell | the unit rapidly exceeded its performance expectations | accelerating and increasingly self-sustaining.
case study | ACQUISITIVE HOLD-CO
STEP CHANGE following PRIVATE EQUITY investment
With client as the key driver of change, we created a cross-group approach to client management and business development | supported by an enhanced operating rhythm and infrastructure.
Focusing activity around specific clients, we built a series of ‘top-10s' and 'top-3s' for in-depth attention | largest clients across the group | largest clients by business unit | largest clients geographically | top prospects to the same segmentation | and white space.
Assembling client-focused teams around the top few, we initiated cross-group conversations | supported by minimal analysis | and lightly facilitated.
We asked simple 'trigger' questions | what does my unit do at this account | what does yours | what do we know | who do we know | what can I do for you | what can you do for me | what can we do together | what shall we focus on | what do we do next?
We kept everything in a pipeline of opportunity | simple and spreadsheet-based | visible to stakeholders across business units | group | private-equity house | with expectations set that this would be refreshed regularly.
Nudged forwards by an empowered internal broker | who challenged and supported across OpCos | and marshalled Group resource, expertise and investment into specific opportunities where value-adding.
Supported by enhanced sales and client management operations.
spotlight on client management
Taking a client-based approach to driving revenue-synergy across 5 business units | transformed the way clients are managed | refreshed growth infrastructure | rapidly built a previously inaccessible pipeline of opportunity.
case study | MID-SIZE AGGREGATOR
M&A INTEGRATION AND REVENUE-SIDE VALUE CREATION
With integration across a geographically distributed portfolio as the key driver of change, we segmented the customer base and built a multi-local account operating model to leverage multiple local OpCo relationships with multi-national organisations.
In a technical and highly fragmented industry in which our client was aggressively consolidating the supply-side and building a pre-eminent global player, we re-shaped management of key accounts and interaction with clients, nudging the customer-driven nature of procurement relationships from local towards global, reshaping our client's value proposition and ultimately playing a role in redefining the industry.
Our work began with a multi-workstream merger integration programme focused on operations, controls, migration and value creation, ultimately creating a re-usable playbook that was handed over to a expanded group-wide transformation team.
Over time, as the sources of value creation became increasingly apparent, our work incorporated revenue synergy through re-shaped and up-rated client management, revenue operations effectiveness, encompassing proposition integration as the focus of acquisitions nudged towards leading-edge technology offerings.
spotlight on multi-local integration
Taking a multi-local account based approach to driving change and supported by a refresh in revenue operating model, we drove revenue synergy and integration across a geographically distributed portfolio that had been assembled through a rapid series of quick-fire acquisitions.
case study | GLOBAL MULTI-NATIONAL
REVENUE SYNERGY ACROSS 4 BUSINESS UNITS
With 'community' as the lead driver of change, we created a cross-group growth community of 70 business leaders, winners, client managers and influencers | top-level local sponsorship and international stakeholders.
Bringing the group together for the first time, we built knowledge of each others' businesses strategies, propositions, clients, pipelines, stakeholders and aspirations.
Creating opportunities to interact at multiple levels, we built lenses on clients, propositions, sectors and geography | bi-lateral and 4-way.
We tried rigorous client- and proposition-focused approaches | proved too complex | fell on stony ground | instead relied on facilitated network to deliver.
We activated and empowered an internal broker as a 'hub' that built and facilitated ‘connections’ across stakeholders, products and clients | continually nudging sub-groups and key stakeholders.
Aligning P&Ls and incentives was key | at OpCo and stakeholder levels | we found that client value was a more powerful incentive than anything else | the task was more about removing barriers than creating incentives | catalysing repeatability once a point-solution was found.
We built a basic growth operations infrastructure and operating rhythm | ensured top-table visibility.
spotlight on community
Taking a community-based approach to driving revenue synergy across the 4 business units internationally | delivered game-changing and class-leading X-OpCo revenue uplift within 9 months | accelerating | increasingly self-sustaining.