After year on year growth in sales and profit the business of the UK arm of an international business services group had plateaued. Margins were shrinking and new business was drying up. The global group was about to conduct a strategy exercise which would be led from Europe in respect of the UK. The UK Managing Director was nervous about his team’s ability to contribute effectively to that strategy exercise and the likely outcomes

Challenging the assumptions
The solid performance of the UK subsidiary of a business services group was beginning to falter with reducing margins in long-term clients and little new business in prospect. Although the company believed it had strong positions in the market sectors in which it operated, it lacked data to support this. We were asked to collect market data to challenge or confirm their assumptions and inform future business decisions

Our brief
We were asked to undertake research and analysis to understand the company's relative position within each market sector, the likely future sector developments, market sizes, key sub-sectors, competitors’ positioning and strategies and evolving customer needs. That would enable us to highlight the key success factors and develop priorities for the future business direction.

How we did it
The majority of our work involved desktop research and analysis. This was supplemented by a number of customer interviews to gain an understanding of their likely future requirements. We were supported in the exercise by a small internal taskforce who helped to gather the necessary data We held several workshops with the top team to share our findings, gather their feedback as knowledgeable players in the industry and to ensure their buy-in to the findings. The small internal task force was guided to the type of questions which need to be answered to set business direction in future.

What Happened?
The UK subsidiary was able to participate effectively in the global strategy review, confident that they understood their market position and likely future developments. In addition, the exercise revealed potential new business opportunities building on core competencies but offering wider solutions than hitherto to meet changing customer needs. They were able to use this to develop their business plan and prioritise the actions required to implement it. An additional spin-off was that the data analysis provided compelling material to present to both existing and prospective customers.