Initiation of a new strategic orientation

Industry: Wine distributor and retailer

Annual sales: Not specified

Challenges:

• Insufficient profitability
• Abolition of tariff walls endangers traditional role as distributor in the wine business
• Wine market CH is decreasing and traditional specialised wine retailers are losing market shares

Approach:

• Check-up and definition of measures for margin optimisation
• Coaching of the strategy process on the levels of owner, supervisory board (VR), CEO and executive board (GL)
• Strategy development 5S© including market research

Results:

• Differentiated discussion with members of the supervisory board (VR) about possible sustainable roles in the European wine business
• Initiation of a new strategic orientation
• Immediate performance improvement thanks to measures taken for margin optimisation

Corinne Fischer Deputy of the Supervisory Board (VR) and CEO, Bataillard & Cie. AG

High performance in wine-trade despite of changes in the market on large scale

„Choosing HPO was a good decision.
The clear role perception of the consultants and the executive board gave no rise to any doubts that the ball was in our court.
HPO made a considerable contribution to strategic realignment with well-directed coaching and the crude facts of an unbiased view from outside.“

Armin Bieri Member of the Supervisory Board (VR), Bataillard & Cie. AG

With HPO foundation laid to overcome future challenges

"I was impressed by the efficient preparation of sophisticated and consistent options for the process of strategy formulation in the supervisory board of Bataillard. Thanks to this effort we - as members of the supervisory board - have been in the position to decide on the highly important strategic realignment of the Bataillard business on short notice.
The cooperation between the CEO/ executive board in their responsibility for strategy and HPO as moderator and sparring partner has led to a very good result."

Strategy development and optimisation of organisational structure

Industry: Construction

Annual sales: Over 1 bn.CHF in sales p.a.

Challenges:

• Insufficient profitability after the merger of several construction companies

Approach:

• Assessment of strategy
• Business design – divisions
• Macro- and Micro design of representative profit centers (building construction, underground engineering and mining, respectively)
• Roll-out to all 50 profit centers through company wide training

Results:

• Strategy clarified (strategy as distinct from available resources and competencies)
• New divisional structure
• New profit center structure, reduction by one hierarchical level
• Improvement of EBIT margin by 5 percent

Shareholder value thanks to growth strategy and lean manufacturing

Industry: Financial services, retail banking

Client size: Over CHF 2 bn. in customer loans

Challenges:

• Organisation has developed historically into several separate units
• Decentralised structure prevents efficient processes and cross-fertilisation among locations
• Lack of appreciation for synergies and market potentials ('mature business')

Approach:

• Identification of untapped market potentials
• Definition of strategic options with regard to tapping growth potentials and creating a lean processing site
• Redesign of corporate processes
• Decentralised processing of customer interactions (to remain close to the customer)
• Sweeping centralisation of all other activities

Results:

• Considerable increase in revenues and profit expected (in implementation)
• Documented increase in efficiency over 10% through increased centralisation

Erich Wild CEO, BANK-now

With HPO consumer finance business strengthened in a sustainable way

«HPO is an ideal partner when emphasis is laid on a successful implementation of strategic realignment. It has been assured early in the stage of strategy development through assistance of the management and through application of HPO methodology that the strategy effectively can be implemented. Attention has been concentrated on the design of to-be processes with subsequent consequent transfer to the definition of the process organisation. So, construction of an internally consistent business model has been assured.
HPO’s strong professional and methodological competence has been highly valuable. The consultants are excellent sparring partners, highly flexible and repeatedly contributing to the project with a critical external view. We had the opportunity to refer to their rich experiences in non-banking sectors allowing us to strongly “industrialise” our processes and to design them in a “lean” way in order to make them fit for the future – as basis for further innovative solutions to come.»

Hanspeter Kurzmeyer Head Retail Banking, Credit Suisse

With HPO consumer finance business strengthened in a sustainable way

«We were looking for an external partner not only experienced in development of strategies but also in implementation. It was our objective to attain the highest certainty possible about implementation of the strategy developed. With HPO we have found the partner we were looking for.
Thanks to substantial expertise in business design, HPO very pragmatically has guided us through the strategy process and has continually pointed to process-related and structural consequences in the discussion of strategic options. This has been a valuable support in the decision making process. We gained a very concrete perception of the consequences of each variation considered with respect to resources and core competences required in the future as well as to necessary redesign of the business. This perception has served as excellent basis for decision making.»

Establishment of professional fundraising in education business

Industry: Graduate and post-graduate education

Annual sales: Over CHF 1 bn. turnover

Challenges:

• No clear fundraising strategy
• No organisation, processes and tools for successful fundraising activities in place
• Limited government subsidies
• Increasing costs for education and research

Approach:

• Development of a fundraising strategy
• Building of an efficient organisation and processes for fundraising
• Coaching of the Unit Head and of the Supervisory Board

Results:

• Establishment of a new fundraising unit
• Start up of professional fundraising activities
• First substantial commitments from donors

Comprehensive analysis of processes and performance

Industry: Building industry (engineering, deep mining, measure systems, test tunnel)

Staff: About 260

Challenges:

• Complexity and diversity like in a group despite a size of a SME
• Too little use of synergies within the group
• Dimensions of growth known, but not to handle within the existing structures
• Business development and innovation not sufficiently engrained on the level of the group

Approach:

• Analysis of current processes and services
• Identification of the essential business areas ‘services’ and ‘systems’
• Implementation of the model to the level of detailed processes, IT requirements and job description

Duration:

• 16 months (with interruptions)

Results:

• Business process models and detailed processes for ‘services’ and ‘systems’ defined
• Organisational optimisation implemented
• Customer acquisition & care in the area engineering established with clear interfaces to production
• Business development established and operationalised

Felix Amberg President and owner of the Amberg Group

With HPO analysis of the whole Amberg group and elaboration of the processes and structures based on the strategic cornerstones

"Even before kick-off two essential cornerstones were clearly defined for the Amberg Group. The Amberg Group should be prepared for the future by a certain growth in the two dimensions ‘International ‘and ‘Products/Competences’. In the course of the project the aim was to elaborate the appropriate processes and structures in order to make the growth scaleable and to make it work with minimal complexity. The methodically established approach ensured that the solutions which had been elaborated together with the management team were implemented and were accepted by the other members of staff. It was mainly the very profound knowledge of the various industries of the HPO consultants which lead to the fact that consultant and management team trusted each other very quickly. This resulted in the elaboration of practical and feasible solutions. In retrospect I can say that HPO was the right partner for the Amberg Group!"

Attractiveness of strategic options 

Industry: Aviation

Annual sales: > 350 mCHF operating profit p.a.

Challenges:

• Single European Sky (SES) aimed at redesigning of European sky as a seamless continuum
• Checking feasibility of a shared air traffic management centre in an environment of competing interests of air avigation service providers (ANSPs), countries, aviation industry etc.

Approach:

• „Green-field“ approach to analyse attractiveness of a tri-national air traffic control centre in boarder triangle area of France, Germany and Switzerland
• Agreement on preliminary working assumptions and scope of feasibility study to limit number of possibilities in the light of assessability
• Design of strategic scenarios and determination of evaluation criteria (quantitative, qualitative and pre-conditions) for assessment of feasibility and attractiveness both from a single ASNP and an overall “boarder triangle” perspective

Results:

• Tri-national centre is feasible in any of the three countries involved
• Financial performance of strategic scenarios found to be main criteria in the evaluation of attractiveness
• Under given scope and given working assumptions none of the scenarios discussed was financially attractive. Positive effects for skyguide (Switzerland) were overcompensated by negative impacts on DFS (Germany) and DSNA (France)
• Consolidated list of required next steps and “questions-to-be-answered” which could facilitate further multinational ANS-cooperation

Daniel Weder CEO, skyguide

Paved the way to a sustainable positioning within Europe with the help of HPO 

"The European air traffic control industry is in a fundamental period of transition. The providers of services in the field of air traffic control have to face fundamental challenges. It was the job of Skyguide to gain a successful and sustainable position in the European air traffic control industry and to develop the best strategy of location in the long run. Skyguide initiated a feasibility study so as to identify the most attractive strategy of location which should help investigate possible scenarios.

Apart from assessing the scenarios from different angles, the permanent integration of the various stakeholders, ranging from clients and members of staff to political authorities and international partners was decisive for Skyguide.

HPO supported us perfectly during this challenging and intensive project. In HPO we have found a highly committed partner who accompanies us professionally with his methodology. His profound expertise in complex strategic problems has helped advance the project considerably. Thanks to his 'Senior Consulting Approaches' and his experience in the 'Stakeholdermanagement' HPO supported us again in the cooperation with our numerous stakeholders." 

Systematic identification and quantification of strategic options

Industry: Industry of bulk goods ( plants - systems - components)

Annual sales: 240 mio. CHF turnover p.a.

Challenges:

• Limited growth prospects in fully developed markets
• Development of a growth strategy to reach a significant size (doubling of the turnover within 5 years) 

Approach:

• Market research of the mineral material and plastics industry
• Derivation of attractive target markets
• Identification and quantification of strategic options 

Duration:

• 3 months

Results:

• Clarification and a common support of the market and of the competitive situation in the mineral material and plastics industry
• Identification and investigation of strategically relevant target markets and their segments and evaluation according to their attractiveness
• Possibilities of positioning as well as ideal profile 'target' clarified and supported corporately
• Possible acquisition partner identified and evaluated according to attractiveness
• Strategic options quantified