Our way
We tailor the way we work with our customers based on specific requierements.
- Consulting: participating in a project from start to deployment.
- Assistantship: managing or assisting management with regular interaction.
- Recommending: analyzing, evaluating and diagnosing in 1-to-6 week long periods.
- Training: transferring knowledge in groups or individually.
To assist our clients, we offer the following services:
Strategic Thinking and Planning
in the Value Chain
- Value chain analysis.
- Market assessment: research and trend development.
- Competitive positioning of the firm in the value chain. Differentiating factors and positioning.
- Developing customer and supplier profiles to identify key relationsips.
- Developing on strategic goals and marketing plan.
Methodologies:
- Assessment and trend development of those external factors that will impact on market performance and the firm.
- Internal Assessment. Identification of core competencies.
- Organizational design and assessment of capabilities.
- Scenario planning.
- SWOT analysis. Development of mission, vision and value.
- Development of functional strategies.
- Action plans for the short term, medium term, and long term.
Self-assessment:
Is the firm’s growth higher than that of the market?
Is the lack of resources/capabilities stopping us from implementing strategic initiatives?
Have we missed opportunities in the past?
Does the management team share a clear and common strategic vision?
Are we competing mostly base low prices?
Identification of Key Relationships
- Evaluation of each customer and supplier.
- Identification of potential joint opportunities and complementary capabilities.
- Customer segmentation based on profitability
- Identification of customers and suppliers that have to potential to build a tailored-business relationship.
Methodologies:
- Selecting segmentation criteria.
- Evaluation of criteria for each relationship.
- Quantitative analysis: cost-to-serve, contribution to profitability, past growth
- Qualitative analisys: ptential growth, strategic relevante, perception-based assessment.
- Segmentation of customers based of their value to the firm.
- Identification of service components for each customer segment.
- Design of a financial and operacional scorecard for managing relationships.
Self-assessment:
Do we know what is the contribution of each customer/customer segment to our profitability?
Have we evaluated how important each customer and supplier is to our success now and in the future?
Have we identified the capabilities of our customers necessary to fulfill our business objectives?
Do we adapt our service offering based on our customer segmentation?
Do we use the same customer segmentation across all corporate functions inside the firm?
Expectation management
- Understanding customer expectations by segment.
- Evaluation of available capabilities to meet customer expectations.
- Matching customer expectations and relationship configuration.
- Development of value proposition for each key relationship.
- Cross-functional training for the management of key relationships.
Methodologies:
- Customer service audit: what are the service components that are appreciated the most by the customer when allocating business to suppliers? How do customers evaluate us and our competitors?
- Identification of service components that can be offered based on the capabilities of the firm.
- Service components: standard and tailored.
- Calculation of the cost of producing each service.
- Establish service offering by customer segment.
- Development of Product and Service Agreements (PSA) for each customer segment.
Self-assessment:
Is delivering on the promises made to the customer stressful?
Are there conflicts between the those who make promises to customers and those involved on delivering on the promises?
Is there consensus about what to promise customers?
Do we differentiate the service offered to different customer groups?
Do we know how to standardize services, rationalize product varieties or make the flow of administrative transaction more effective to the eyes of the customer?
Do we have the capability to produce profitability and operational reports by customers so that they can be used for negotiation?
Performance Measurement of Key Relationships
- Defining performance indicators.
- Defining data collection methods necessary to feed indicators.
- Relating key performance measures to managers’ performance.
- Defining cost-to-serve by customer.
- Measurement and tracking of financial results by key business relationship.
Methodologies:
Evaluation of the performance measurement system in use. Does it let us focus on the customer? Does it enable us to manage each key business relationships individually? Does is foster cross-functional integration? Is it linked to financial results?
Calculation of the cost-to-serve by customer.
Calculation of the contribution of each customer to the firm’s profitability.
Calculation of the firm’s contribution to the customer’s profitability.
Self-assessment:
Do we know the cost-to-serve by customer or segment of customers?
Do we knoe the profitability (revenue minus avoidable costs, without arbitrary allocations) of each customer or segment of customers?
Do we know the operational performance results by customer? (availability, reliability, quality)
Can we measure the operational and financial performance from the customer’s perspective?
Can we estimate what is the value, in financial terms, we provide the customer?
Strategic Relationship Management
- Identifying key business relationships and the necessary functional involvement for the success of the relationship.
- Facilitate the development of a business partnership.
- Development of final report which includes a final report including an assessment of the level of integration and a list of opportunities, responsabilities and necessary resources to make the relationship a success.
Methodologies:
A partnership session is a two-day long meeting in which excecutives from both sides of a relationship (customer and supplier) go through a series of sessions which are necessary to identify the degree of closeness appropriate for the relationship. A partnership session includes the following:
- Evaluation of drivers (the reasons why to partner);
- Evaluation of the organizational factors that facilitate the development of the relationship.
- Evaluation and configuration of actual and desired level of integration in terms of the recourses dedicated to the relationship
- Development of action items.
Self-assessment:
Do we have a relationships with a customer or a supplier that is 3 years old or older?
Are these relationships focused on individual business transactions?
Are there improvement initiatives in this type of relationships focused on the next 6 months or longer?
Have there been attempts to formalize 30% of the relationships, those that are key to the success of the firm?
