Overview
When a British chemicals giant needed to turn around its corporate performance, it called in Novo Altum to help conduct a strategic review of its global business.
Our analysis of the global Finance, HR and Technology functions identified several significant opportunities to reduce costs and improve performance to drive the business forward.
As a result, the share price increased dramatically, leading to the subsequent sale of the company to a Dutch conglomerate.
The Challenge
The client was under pressure. Despite the pre-eminent status of its global brand, corporate performance was not living up to expectations: its share price was under-performing and investors were growing dissatisfied. Drastic action was needed.
It was decided that a comprehensive review of the business was required. Initially the company asked Novo Altum to conduct a thorough analysis of the Finance Function – but their confidence in our insight and expertise was such that our remit soon broadened in scope to include HR and Technology as well, to become a global enterprise transformation programme.
The Solution
By evaluating the operations and benchmarking its performance against that of its competitors, we identified areas in which the overall performance could be improved, headcount reduced and total cost of ownership of each function cut. Taking our findings to the leadership team and Board, we were then able to help them shape the company’s vision and define its strategy for each of the functions.
Working closely with the client we then designed and delivered the target operating model for each restructured enterprise sector, introducing innovations such as implementing shared services opportunities, creating ‘centres of excellence’ and outsourcing and tax efficient supply chain initiatives.
Results
By advising on a £325 million global enterprise transformation programme, we helped the company achieve a sea change in its operations across every part of the business.
Its share price dramatically increased, leading to its eventual sale to one of the largest chemical producers in the world.
