Work that Moves the Needle
We focus on the choices and structures that create strategic leverage, building on competitive strengths with disciplined decision-making to change the economics and trajectory of a business.
Clients usually engage us to do:
- Consulting Engagements: individually scoped projects to define, align, and implement new strategy, business models, organizational architecture or operating governance. Includes “Deep Dives“
- Workshops: 1 – 3 day sessions, focusing on a specific topic or challenge. Often done as part of a periodic staff meeting, to address a tough choice or introduce new approaches
- Topical “Diagnostics”: 1 – 4 week assessments of your current strategy, business model(s), operating governance, or organizational architecture. Includes documentation of the current state, assessment of suitability, and diagnosis of gaps and misalignments
We have applied our extensive expertise and collaborative approach across multiple industries.
Change management is fundamental to our consulting engagements
Good decisions don’t matter if they aren’t carried out. Accordingly, our process for major projects:
- Assembles a core team of the principal participants, supervised by a steering committee of the project sponsors and influential stakeholders. We continuously solicit feedback from stakeholders and key influencers, building a guiding coalition which helps secure commitment to project outcomes.
- Establishes scope, objectives, and timeline at the outset, refining them as needed as the project proceeds. We sharpen the urgency that makes the project necessary, focusing the team on defining and achieving the new vision.
- Develops data and analyses with the team, developing new skills and confidence in the project’s outcomes.
- Includes an implementation plan (and ongoing support, if requested) with metrics (not just a presentation and a binder) designed to deliver short – and intermediate-term wins along the way to the ultimate vision, building momentum for change.
- Develops a communications strategy that is integrated into the project timeline, easing implementation.
We embed change management throughout our highly collaborative process, ensuring not just a high-quality deliverable, but an execution-ready team committed to the realization of the new vision.
Strategy & Execution Disciplines
Strategy
Where to Compete, How to Win — and how to build Strategic Leverage
- Mapping and segmenting markets
- Prioritizing segments, balancing relative capabilities and segment attractiveness
- Developing winning value propositions
- Designing next-generation business models enabled by new technologies and capabilities
- Competitive positioning and Go To Market
- Growth strategies
- Ecosystem dynamics and how to exploit them
Manufacturing Strategy
What you Make (vs Buy), Where You Make it, How you Make it — and Why
Manufacturing strategy is business strategy for firms with manufacturing operations. Yet until recently, achieving the lowest landed cost has dominated manufacturing choices.
But in today's volatile environment, your production configuration must balance cost, flexibility, delivery, quality, and resilience to cost and trading shocks. Disruptions arise from wars, piracy, pandemics, exchange rate shifts, spikes in shipping costs, on-again-off-again tariffs, and more.
We help you design resilient production configurations aligned to your business strategy.
Operating Governance
How the organization makes, tracks, and enforces key decisions — especially those with strategic implications.
We build decision-making processes and mechanisms for making key choices and achieving strategic alignment across complex organizations — who decides what, and how
- Product development portfolios
- Joint venture governance
- Product planning, product portfolio management
- Resource allocation
- Engagement models
- Collaboration across regions & functions
Organizational Architecture
The fundamental design and shape of an enterprise and its constituent units to best execute the business strategy
We design the structures — organizational configurations, roles, operating models — that deliver the capabilities required to bring the business strategy to life.
The right architecture reduces complexity, accelerates processes and accelerates transformation.
Below are some of the issues which resulted in executives approaching us, grouped by practice area.
When might you seek assistance with your strategy or business model(s)?
- You have been brought in to address poor performance (shrinking revenue, loss of market share, etc.) and there is either no apparent course to a turnaround, or a number of options — and no obvious way to get everyone behind any one of them.
- Several critical initiatives have been identified, yet you struggle to get the organization to appropriately prioritize limited investment $ to achieve optimal results.
- You have been asked to establish short and long-term goals for your organization in key performance areas, yet the organization accepts no over-arching strategy upon which to anchor them.
- You feel that you are continually “fighting fires” and operating tactically – with no definitive longer term vision – but all this activity is producing little in the way of improving results.
- You do not feel that there is a “roadmap” for success, and you cannot tell if the current activities are focused appropriately.
When might you seek assistance with your organizational design?
- New management/leadership must signal to personnel the need to think and act differently
- A change in strategy/direction was recently enacted and a different organizational construct could improve its execution
- Too much of your organization’s time/effort is focused internally, instead of on customers or markets.
- Morale is low and/or your workforce is increasingly frustrated.
When might you seek assistance with your operating governance?
- Unclear roles and responsibilities are leading to escalating response times and internal tension.
- In the aftermath of reorganization, people are confused about who is supposed to make certain decisions, resulting in a combination of conflict and important things “falling through the cracks”.
- New management has been added as the company (or a subset) has been growing, resulting in an increasing number of disputes/escalations over the boundaries of each manager’s span of control.
- The company has entered into a partnership, acquisition or outsourcing arrangement and it is not clear what decision authority each entity has or what elements of shared processes each sub-group is responsible for.