[ New Business Launch ]
[ New Market Assessment ]
[ Innovation Strategy ]
[ R&D Management ]
[ Full Potential Assessment ]
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Growth
For businesses to be successful, growth is an imperative, not an option. Top-line revenue growth is often the most straightforward way to increase shareholder value, and is usually less painful than alternative methods of value creation such as cost reduction or changes in ownership structure. However, for all its positive implications, achieving growth is a complex and difficult equation. Only small minorities of companies succeed.
Profitable growth for firms selling into mature markets can be particularly challenging to accomplish, as competitors' reactions result in a zero-sum game. Finding creative ways to increase the size of the pie, rather than new ways to cut the old one, is the challenge too much of today's senior management.
Our Experience in Growth
We focus on growth in terms of revenue, cash flow and shareholder value, all of which are needed for sustainable, profitable performance. We understand that to grow successfully, a company must first properly define and focus on its "profitable core." Additional growth requires that a company relentlessly pursue business adjacencies that leverage and strengthen the core, foster the ability to anticipate and quickly react to major industry changes, and develop processes that eliminate or circumvent the inherent organizational inhibitors to growth. Finally, successful growth relies heavily on management execution. This last imperative is particularly challenging in many organizations, which is why we works to generate consensus within management by jointly developing and prioritizing growth strategies.
Tools for Growth
New Business Launch
Preparing for a new business launch typically involves strategic assessment of new profitability or growth opportunities, as well as threats to the existing, core business. Specific steps include market opportunity assessment, customer needs analysis and identification of cost and revenue synergies. When a new business endeavor may compete against the core business, particular care must be taken with respect to management structure and incentive schemes.
Our Experience in New Business Launch
We have worked extensively with both incumbent firms launching new businesses, and more recently with many start-ups. We are particularly well-positioned to assist clients with the strategic analysis phase of entering new businesses, developing both a high-level long-term business plan as well as a more detailed one focused on shorter-term action steps. We can often work in parallel with management of the new business during the launch phase, as well as with executives within the existing business, helping identify and take advantage of opportunities presented by the new coexistence.
New Market Assessment
New market assessment involves the identification of a reasonable set of untapped customer segments, or of intra-national geographic or global expansion opportunities. Such expansions frequently require rigorous analysis of location or customer-specific demand and profitability drivers, as well as reassessment of sourcing and distribution choices and methods. Unexpected sources of competition must also be anticipated and analyzed.
Our Experience in New Market Assessment
Using product line, channel, and customer segmentation profitability analysis, we can help clients attack new markets with high probability of rapid success. We can size up new markets, identify unexploited profit pools, and identify and profile new sources of competition. We can also quantify sources of advantage for our clients, such as shared customers, distribution channels, manufacturing economies of scale or other shared costs such as marketing expenditures.
Innovation Strategy
Whether products or services, innovation is absolutely critical to drive long-term profitability. Without continued innovation, companies will be relegated to participating in the low-end commodity business - where returns are sure to be unattractive. Innovation strategy is used to identify where a company can best pursue innovation to drive competitive advantage.
Our Experience in Innovation Strategy
Our approach to innovation strategy involves first answering the question: What are the root drivers of competitive advantage in an industry? Is it R&D capabilities, innovation in marketing or advertising, innovation in manufacturing processes, or something else altogether? We then work with our client to develop the optimal innovation strategy for them by understanding their core capabilities and mapping them against capabilities of key competitors as well as likely trends and shifts in the market. Because we are generalists with experience in a multitude of industries, we are well positioned to develop breakthrough innovation strategies that can fundamentally change an industry.
R&D Management
R&D and innovation management begins with an assessment of the firm's overall strategic positioning and its compatibility with its R&D, innovation, or new product development strategy. R&D management methods are becoming increasingly diverse with the unusually rapid growth in high technology and other knowledge-based industries. R&D expenditures must be carefully measured and applied to appropriate product lines, allowing comparisons to alternative options such as acquisition or third-party development. Firms that hope to innovate rapidly must also ensure that they possess the operational and marketing flexibility to develop and bring new products to market quickly.
Our Experience in R&D Management
We help clients through several stages of R&D strategy development, including clear identification of the broad corporate strategy and its implications in determining innovation needs. Other drivers of R&D strategy include assessment of customer requirements, application of the firm's core capabilities and focus on end results and profitability. Achievement of all of these dynamics is crucial to realizing high returns on R&D investments. Using tools such as benchmarking of world-class R&D practices, R&D portfolio valuation and quantification of make-vs.-buy decisions, we can identify the most important levers to improve innovation performance and profitability.
Full Potential Assessment
A full potential assessment identifies and quantifies dormant opportunities to realize revenue or profit growth through the extension of existing business processes or the development of new ones. Full potential analyses serve to create realistic operating goals and identify the most important new growth areas for management attention and other resource allocation. If a firm cannot achieve desired growth rates even when raised to full potential, other considerations such as pursuit of more distant adjacencies or acquisition may be worthwhile.
Our Experience in Full Potential Assessment
Our approach to full potential assessment involves three stages: identification of core processes, application of quantitative tools and model development, and identification of target growth areas and their potential for value addition. We help clients clearly delineate their core growth-enabling opportunities. Then we seek to leverage this core to grow into new areas, prioritizing along dimensions such as strategic importance, economic value, and customer impact. We deliver a clear quantification of upside potential and targets, and assist with communication of the implementation plan to the right people within the organization.
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