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Information
Services
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Internet
Strategy
Financial
Information Service
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Our $4 B client was concerned that it might lose a significant fraction of its customers to new competitors offering Internet-based solutions. Using primary market research and microeconomic modeling tools, we determined which customers would be affected, what new products they would require, with what revenue impacts on our client, and over what time period. Based on our work, the client has accelerated development of an Internet-specific version of its core service and has unbundled certain service elements to better meet its customersi needs for iopeni services. These new services are expected to grow to be as much as one-third of our clientis revenues within five years.
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Internet
Strategy
Commercial
Printing
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A $1 B century-old commercial printer was concerned that the growth in its customersi businesses was increasingly moving to online and away from print. We helped the client define a needed set of complementary online offerings, identify candidates for acquisition who could supply them, and acquire a successful Internet company. The acquired company has since quintupled its revenues through organic growth. In a second assignment, we helped our client accelerate growth still further by developing a process to cross-sell the Internet divisionsi services by treating the other divisions as indirect sales channels for the Internet division.
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Internet
Spinout
Industrial
Company
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A large industrial company had developed a disparate family of small Internet services businesses whose demand for cash to fund their growth was more than the parent companyis shareholders were willing to fund. Nonetheless, the parent company was loath to sell the Internet units because they supplied cachet that was useful in selling the parent companyis traditional products. We helped the company determine that the right strategy was to do a partial spin-off of the business, with private equity investors providing the necessary financing. Working with the division, we developed a common theme of connected services that enabled us to package the units as a single business. We then prepared offering documents to attract private equity funding. The parent is now in negotiations with potential investors.
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Internet
Spinout
Major
Publisher
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We helped a major directory publisher organize an Internet business to complement its traditional advertising-supported directories. Our work entailed helping to identify the right target market, service offering, and value proposition. In addition, we modeled the businessi prospective financials. Because business success entails very rapid national market rollout, which will consume more cash than the parent can prudently invest, the parent company is seeking a financial partner to join it in developing this business. We have prepared the offering memorandum and are working with the parentis investment bank to arrange financing.
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Growth
Renewal Strategy/ Internet
Print
and Electronic Publisher
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This newly public company had recently been spun out from a Fortune 500 parent under whose ownership the business had languished. Widespread perception that the company was a shrinking business in a declining industry segment had led to a dangerously low share price, falling staff morale, and poor financial results. We developed a three-part turn-around approach consisting of:
- Making
the company the most cost-effective player in its core business
- Developing
line extensions using Internet technology to increase delivered
value
- Leading
an industry consolidation based on superior operating effectiveness
This
strategy should increase value for customers, double EPS and share
price within three years, and provide rewarding careers for the
staff.
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Joint
Venture
Wireless
Internet Services
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Our client, a producer of print- and Internet-based information services, sought new ways to expand its business. We developed the model of a joint venture with a wireless Internet company to produce new promotional services for the mobile business customer. We identified the natural partner, opened discussions between the two companies, and developed the appropriate deal structure. The business is now under joint development, with initial service launch scheduled within two quarters. The resulting company is expected to achieve profitable revenues in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars within three years of launch.
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Building
Distribution Channels
Enterprise
Internet and Software Company
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An Internet services division of a much larger company had identified a need in its marketplace for a major software product and had developed an enterprise-level offering to fill that need. While initial sales came from the companyis own sales force, such sales were unlikely to achieve the level of market penetration that the corporate parent expected. We helped our client develop a set of channel partners and build an internal organization to manage and extend the channels program. This program is expected to account for more than half of all sales within two years.
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Post-Merger
Integration
Internet
and Software Services Company
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Our clients, the CEOs of two Internet and software services companies, had just signed a letter of intent to merge their companies. We were retained to work with a cross-company team to address all issues of post-merger integration in parallel with the legal and financial due diligence phases of the discussions, so that the day the merger received formal approval, the companies could begin joint operations. Our work addressed all elements of the two businesses, including marketing and sales, operations, R&D, and administration. Within four weeks we developed a comprehensive plan to combine the companies, achieve a minimum 10% unit cost decrease, retain all major accounts and key staff, and complete the integration within ninety days of deal closure.
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Diversification
Financial
Information Service
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A $400 M financial information company was concerned that its revenue and profitability were very closely linked to the extremely cyclical market for initial public offerings. We were asked to identify new services, which could be sold primarily to existing customers, that would help smooth the cycles and grow the business faster. We recommended offering a variety of outsourcing services that were tailored to the special needs of the financial institutions and law firms that comprised our clientis core customer base. The recommended services have since become a material part of the clientis business and have deepened its relationships with its principal customers.
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Communications
Market Strategy
Electronics
and System Integration Company
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This $6 B division of a Fortune 50 company had developed numerous telecommunications products and service concepts in its R&D laboratory and sought help in commercializing them. We reviewed the project portfolio and identified several multi-billion dollar product ideas. We then helped the company determine which to pursue on its own, which to develop in conjunction with partners, and which to partially spin out to take advantage of the investment communityis current large appetite for communications technology companies.
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Business
Consolidation
Financial
Information Services
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A $100 M information services company led a market consolidation among a set of related players to build a $1.5 B company serving the financial services industry. The company had developed a very compelling technology strategy to deliver the services of all the acquired entities through one suite of hardware platforms, software tools, and networks, thereby eliminating the costs of maintaining multiple incompatible systems and processes. To help the company realize these savings, we developed an orderly consolidation process to sell its customers on the benefits of the new technical environment, install the new technology, and rationalize the multiple sales forces and billing systems that put the entire plan at risk.
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Improving
Marketing and Product Management
Online
Services
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In this assignment, we consolidated highly fragmented marketing and product management activities in the largest division of this $6 B print and online services company. These changes enabled the company to bring a higher degree of professionalism and expertise to marketing and product management as well as to save money by removing one layer of management. In a second division, in which these functions were grossly overstaffed and where there was excessive spending for outside services, we identified a series of specific organizational and budgetary cuts to save nearly $10 M annually. With a third division, we devised a new organizational structure for product management, marketing, and sales to enable renewed business growth after many years of stagnation caused by cost cutting to the point of starvation.
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Sales
and Service Efficiency
Financial
Information Services
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We developed a multi-channel sales strategy to help a financial information services company close the more than 50% sales efficiency gap between itself and its principal competitor. We also developed a customer service improvement strategy that addressed both the root causes of high levels of customer churn and the companyis disadvantaged service cost position. As this latter strategy is implemented, our client expects to lower its customer churn due to dissatisfaction by 10 percentage points and lower unit cost for customer service by 20-25%.
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New
Product Process
Electronic
Information Services
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A $500 M print and electronic information services company was concerned that, as its organization was transitioning from purely print-based products to a family that mixed both print and electronically delivered output, the new product development process was near breakdown. In short, the technology, editorial, marketing, and sales functions were constantly at loggerheads. We worked with staff in these four functions to develop a revised process, shortened cycle time by a third, and smoothed a process that had operated with so much rancor. In a later assignment, we developed an information technology plan for this client to enable it to focus its limited resources on applications of greatest value. In this plan, we identified which functions could be safely outsourced and which had to be kept in house because of their criticality to our clientis core functions.
Return
to Recent Projects
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