Cases
Four engagements, with the numbers that came out of them.
Client names are withheld because the work was confidential. Everything else is as it happened, including the length, and the figures are the ones the client’s own finance team could trace in the accounts afterwards.
A speciality chemicals maker that had run out of Europe
Fifteen years of growth in Europe and nothing left to take. The board had approved a North American entry twice and cancelled it twice, because nobody could say which segment to enter or what it would cost to lose.
What we did
- Sized eleven candidate segments on real customer economics rather than market reports, and eliminated eight in six weeks.
- Built the entry case on a single plant conversion instead of a greenfield, which moved the payback from year six to year three.
- Ran the first ninety days of commercial hiring alongside the client's own team, in the client's own systems.
Outcome
Revenue up 28% eighteen months after the first order, on a capital commitment a third of the original plan. Two of the three eliminated segments were later entered by a competitor and both were exited inside two years.
An insurer with four of everything
Four acquisitions in six years and no integration beyond the ledger. Four claims operations, four policy platforms, four sets of management information that did not reconcile, and a cost ratio four points above the peer group.
What we did
- Mapped the work rather than the org chart: 240 processes, the volume through each, and who actually did it.
- Consolidated claims into two centres on a schedule the regulator could see, keeping the local licences intact.
- Fixed the definitions before the reporting, so the savings could be traced into the accounts by the finance team without our help.
Outcome
€12m of recurring cost out, verified in the audited accounts the following year, with claims handling time down rather than up. The delivery office was handed to the client's own COO at week 20.
One strategy, fourteen countries, fourteen interpretations
A well-argued group strategy that every country manager agreed with and none of them ran. Pricing, range and promotional calendars diverged market by market until the brand meant something different in each one.
What we did
- Reduced the group strategy to nine decisions, and stated for each one whether it was set centrally, locally, or jointly.
- Rebuilt the operating rhythm round those nine, with one monthly forum instead of five.
- Went to eleven of the fourteen markets, because the objection you can answer is the one you hear in the room.
Outcome
Fourteen markets on one plan within nine months, with local pricing discretion narrowed to a band rather than removed. Promotional depth fell by a fifth without volume loss.
A distributor discounting to itself
Twenty years of discount authority delegated downwards and never reviewed. The same customer bought the same item at nine prices, and the sales force believed all nine were necessary.
What we did
- Rebuilt the price waterfall from invoice data, and showed the top forty accounts what they were actually paying.
- Set discount governance at three levels with published thresholds, and moved incentives from revenue to gross margin.
- Kept every price change inside a corridor the sales force had agreed to in advance.
Outcome
Gross margin up 3.1 points inside a year with customer churn unchanged. The governance is still running four years later, which is the part we are actually proud of.
How we count
A result nobody in the client’s finance team will confirm is not a result.
Every figure on this page was agreed with the client before publication and is measured against a baseline set at the start of the engagement, not against a forecast made at the end of it. Savings are recurring unless stated otherwise, and are net of the cost of achieving them.
Where a number moved for reasons outside our work, it is not here. That is why there are four cases and not forty.