ANSA Interim Management Case Studies

Management Support
The CEO of a medium sized international group of fourteen companies had been unwell with a heart condition. He therefore needed support to return this under performing group into profitability after two years of substantial losses.

Richard took up the position of Deputy Group CEO and assisted with the turnaround and strategic expansion of the group. He assisted and gave advice on all aspects of the business. In particular introducing a culture change program into the two UK manufacturing businesses and exploring the future manufacturing opportunities for the group in China. During this assignment Richard also steered the expansion onto a greenfield site of the major distributor in Germany and he was involved in the company’s operations in the Czech Republic.

The group returned to profitability during the first few months of Richards appointment and made good returns for the year.

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Change Management
 Ian was requested to join a plc as Managing Director following the acquisition of thirteen sites from a range of previous owners.
These sites had been part of the group for between four and twelve years but had never been integrated into the group and no “global” strategy existed. More importantly they were losing a significant amount month on month.

Change was clearly essential. 
The change program initiated and implemented by Ian included

This change programme was a great success taking the division from loss making into profit in a very short period. Also, as a result of the changes, the division worked very well together and as a single business leading to massively improved morale and high staff retention.

Most importantly, this (now profitable division) increased in share holder value dramatically.

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Shareholder Value
 A specialist Civil Engineering contractor had accumulated losses of £100M and was losing money at the rate of £1M per week, the Group could not sustain these losses any longer. The Company had several overseas contracts part finished with Parent Company Guarantees and Bonds outstanding. The costs of immediate closure was estimated to be £350 million.

Richard was appointed CEO of this company. He targeted Cash Flow and immediate action was taken to collect outstanding debts as receivership was a daily concern. Spending on projects was controlled and decisions were taken to accelerate the close of certain projects where a cash income would result.

A potential purchaser for the business was identified and after extended negotiations the major part of the company was sold for a profit. The terms of this agreement also yielded a further £7M profit from crystallising incomplete projects.

The new company went on to be successful once more and has recently won a $185m contract.

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Sales Organisation & Customer Service
Ian was brought into a multinational group who had just completed the acquisition of eight businesses with their own sales, “customer service” and accounts teams. Whilst these functions worked reasonably well within their own entities they offered little or no opportunity for cost savings or (more importantly) cross selling within the group.

In order to provide the customer base with a single solution and to maximise sales it was critical to introduce a completely new sales strategy into the business. The key points of this strategy were as follows:

• A single sales team operating from a central office with the ability to introduce the full range of products to the customer base.
• An external sales team formed from “hunters” rather than “farmers” to aggressively hunt out sales
• An internal sales team formed from “farmers” to maintain existing customers
• A proactive approach to all customers with a written strategy for all customers
• A proactive/forward thinking sales management team to drive the business forward (rather than try to fix passed mistakes).
• A product specialist from all sites to support the central sales team

The introduction of this strategy was critical to the companies stability, not only did in maintain business, it grew sales by 10 % within two years (in a rapidly declining market).

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Strategy to Maximise Profits
 A FTSE 250 group acquired a small company in the North East for rationalisation and to increase market share for one of its divisions. Payback would be within 3 years.

Richard took on the assignment to assess this Company and immediately realised the potential of this unit was much greater than had been assumed previously.

In the space of a few weeks, production restrictions were identified and overcome.  Customer Service was made the number one priority for all employees resulting in increased sales. Only two more employees were needed to service the turnover which was now double the previous level.

The Company was now more profitable than its rationalisation would have contributed to the Group. Its future was secured and the company continued in business with the best returns of its division.

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Turnaround & Team Building
 Ian was called into a group which had desperate morale and team work problems.

Ian inherited a team of individuals who were mostly strong in their own right but who did not work as a team and did not feel they were part of the business.

Being very much an empowering Managing Director enables Ian to pull together a very strong team who were prepared to go “the extra mile” to move the business forward.

Motivation techniques centred around:

• Clear individual and business strategies
• Empowerment
• Recognition
• Regular training sessions specific to roles and individuals
• Open relationship with all staff
• High levels of communication (in both directions)
• KPI’s

Following the changes made by Ian this part of the company was by far the most motivated which the greatest teamwork and with the quickest improving results.

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Case Studies