Exclusively Kitchens is a high end bespoke kitchen designer and installation company. Focused on providing the best possible quality and value Exclusively Kitchens operated from its base in Bath across the South West. Having been in business for 12 years the directors of the business felt it was time to take a strategic view of the business and look for ways in which to accelerate the growth. Phil Richardson of Thoughtcrew worked with the directors to identify ways in which they could tap into the huge amount of existing customer information. A new IT system was developed based on ACT to go with a new website, customer case studies, a new PR campaign and finally the relocation of the business to a higher footfall area and the creation of a new division called Exclusively Bathrooms. Sales and profit increased year on year.

Key elements
Strategy
Process
CRM
Leadership
Governance
Marketing
PR
Product and service development

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Northern rail is a successful train operating company with 472 stations and 11 million passenger journeys per year. A key component in running the railway is the development and maintenance of stations. At Northern the quality of stations has an impact on the customer service score carried out by the DfT and failure to achieve certain levels can result in the franchise being withdrawn. Whilst the existing station services team was providing a service that achieved the minimum requirements the leadership team at Northern felt that there was an opportunity to provide an excellent service to internal and external customers and stakeholders
Thoughtcrew worked with Northern’s vision to develop a new department called Estates Management. Processes were designed, a new organisation design was put in place and a new way of working developed. The latest feedback shows a marked improvement in the customer satisfaction.

Key elements
Strategy
Process Engineering
Business case development
Organisation design, job descriptions, union consultation
Recruitment through selection events

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Newcastle City Council wanted to implement remote working for both its people and its assets. However there are 26 wards (districts) within the Council and each has its own way of working so the implementation of a common way of working was proving a challenge. Thoughtcrew working with the solution provider APD Communications designed a single integrated process that worked for all 26 wards. Following implementation the feedback from the IS team was that the process stood up to a rigorous testing and implementation and was actually being used, without change, by everyone across the council.

Key elements
Process engineering
Remote working
Integration between business and IT
Cross functional integration

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Iron Mountain Incorporated helps organizations around the world reduce the costs and risks associated with information protection and storage. As part of its rigorous approach to data management the company already embraces the need for clarity around internal processes and documentation. Thoughtcrew were asked to review and update the current processes on behalf of the public sector division of Iron Mountain. Working in an independent capacity the Thoughtcrew team were to observe the way of working and develop an update set of processes and standard operating procedures based on the actual way of working. The final document exceeded the requirements of current internal audits such as Sarbanes Oxley compliance. In carrying out the work Thoughtcrew identified operational savings and improvements that more than covered the costs of the review and documentation work. Since completing the work Thoughtcrew has also been engaged to provide strategic thought leadership to the public sector clients.

Key elements

Process engineering
Documentation
Strategic thought leadership
Process compliance

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Inbev’s supply chain managed products such as Stella and Boddingtons from the brewery to the installation of the latest tap installed in a pub, club, restaurant or hotel. The processes span a number of departments including, trade sales, customer service, brands dispense, finance, third part delivery, third party installation and merchandising.
Thoughtcrew were asked if they could identify ways in which the supply chain performance could be improved. To benefit the business by increasing sales and reducing costs. By creating an integrated process, identifying opportunities for improvement using innovation techniques, which included biomimetics and by working cross-functionally a new customer centric approach to the supply chain was implemented. A significant impact was observed in both sales and costs and this coupled with an improved sales performance and an integration between the functions meant that the project provided a significant return on investment.

Key elements
Strategy
Process engineering
Workflow
Leadership and team building
Project management
Innovation
Biomimetics
Business and IT integration
Cross functional integration

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Sales development

The challenge at First was to take the next step in developing the corporate sales team for the UK Bus division. This project entailed the creation of an agreed sales strategy, the development of sales management and selling skills and the creation of business solutions as opposed to product sales.

The real challenge was to build on a successful team and to integrate the corporate sales with the locally managed consumer sales. A key component of the work was focusing on the ‘green’ issues and in developing integrated processes coupled with IT systems.

Key aspects
Strategy
Process
Sales Management
Selling skills
B2B
Team development
Recruitment

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What is the key issue for a senior manager involved in a merger?

• What is our integration strategy: where are we trying to get to and how will we get there? What level of integration are we after?

• Review customers, process, IT: Understand the differences between companies and enable planning and resourcing of integration, What will we do and when?

• What is our retention strategy: Whom will we need to keep?

• Develop employee communications: What will we tell people when and how?

• Review relationships: What are the important contacts?

• Plan resources: Where will we need additional knowledge or resource? Consider that the drain of resources resulting from the integration may happen earlier than you’ve planned for!

• M&A integration experience and knowledge: What experience, understanding, capability do we have around integration? Have we ever done one like this before? Do we need a sounding board for ideas? Do we need a checklist?

How can M&A experience be used to help departments who are merging?

The key to a successful integration project is planning. This applies for the integration of

departments, functions, groups, units, businesses or companies (M&A). There are many important questions to discuss around people management, culture, HR, IT, customers, productivity, speed, synergies, linking with other departments and generally bringing people together.

Remember: the later in the process you start to think about, plan and act upon these issues,

the longer your people will be concerned about their careers, their future, their

livelihood, their life. During this period of uncertainty company productivity,

levels and ultimately profit can and will “dip”. The key is to ensure you come out of that

“dip”. Some companies don’t…

What would be the top three skills an M&A project manger must posses?

• Integration knowledge and experience. There are activities and reactions that occur each and every time given a certain course of events, people that have not been through M&A will not see these in time.

• Business knowledge – cant just use an IT project manager.

• Project management skills – planning, team selection, business case writing, evaluation and delivery, project tracking

What are the key measures you would recommend to show a merger was on track?

• Traffic light reports, with progress, issues, blockers

o There are numerous projects needed to put 2 or more departments together. These all interlink and are focused upon delivery. Each should be individually tracked and then the overall project manger will have a summary showing all projects, how they are progressing against plans, together with problems that have arisen. The aim of this document is to ensure smooth delivery and enable blocks to be removed.

• Cost and benefit plans together with delivery

o There is a cost involved in integrating departments, this should be tracked

• KPI’s on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and department or company profit

What are the key trends in the finance sector from an M&A point of view following the ‘credit crunch’?

• M&A continues across all sectors, at a lower rate than when driven by the private equity in recent times.

• Credit crunch means many companies are holding off on M&A or don’t have the cash to do it…however there are now cheaper companies to buy so many are gearing up for a spending spree

• Corporate profits are down, leading to internal cost pressure and more and more internal restructure (change, efficiency programmes), leading to the integration (or putting together) of departments.

What are the main concerns for the integration manager?

• Will I hit my numbers
• Will sales improve
• Can I cut those costs and not damage the business
• Will people leave
• How can I remove the right people
• How fast should I go, I want to go fast but not too fast
• What process should I use to deliver
• I have so much to do and not enough resource
• How far should I integrate

Danny Davis would be happy to discuss with you how best to take advantage of the opportunities facing your business today.

Danny Davis is Owner of DDConsulting and trustee on the board of the Chartered
Management Institute. He can be contacted at danny.davis@ddavisconsulting.com

I once asked the inventor of a clever search engine to build a business analysis engine – a software machine into which we might pour gigabytes of business data and then ask a series of broad questions. It would report with insightful answers, or at least observations.
My colleague declined, suggesting that until artificial intelligence had been perfected computers weren’t really that clever. They couldn’t shed much light on an organism as complex as a business.
I wondered why. Surely we know that Business Intelligence is the answer to our problems. And I just wanted to enhance it a little? What are the weaknesses in a computer-driven ‘solution’?
On reflection, in principle and in practice, there seem to be several.
A computer has to rely on a model that simulates the way the business operates and reacts to stimuli, with built-in priorities, structures and behaviours. Unfortunately, such models are rigid and crude. As businesses change, flexing and evolving, the models can’t keep up.
So, what happens? Well, either there is no underlying model – diverse measurements are taken and reported, but little attempt is made to connect them – or the model reports a Red when it finds two Ambers and so on, and the only insight that emerges is that the model is wrong.
Ultimately the result is Catch-22 – in order to gain insight from the system you have to already possess the insight and tell the system. You don’t know in advance what you don’t know, so you never know it. Simple requests – please graph Germany’s sales data – however, it can do.
There are also weaknesses under the heading of lazy implementation. ‘Solutions’ start with data warehouses and software, not users and needs. Little attempt is made to understand what is really important to the organisation, and only data that is available and of a certain type is reported. Communication (the ‘reader interface’) actually displays the designer’s fondness for gimmicks, and ignorance of the principles of graphical communication.
The typical outcome is expensive failure. Long timeframes, high expenditure approved by senior executives, benefits rarely seen. So, what is the right approach?
Start at the start. With what the organisation wants to achieve, how it will do this and how it will know it is succeeding. Design concise reports that communicate this clearly and inform decision-making. Automate where appropriate – for fast, efficient, accurate data production – but let people interpret and communicate the insight.
Until, that is, we really do have artificial intelligence.

“…solving a problem simply means representing it so as to make the solution transparent” Simon (1996)
Which great decisions have your leadership team made recently on the basis of their monthly management pack?

We are aiming for a 30% growth – the same as the crab, Carcinus maenas gains each time it goes through a growth cycle ( there are 18 of these in its 4 year life).

Based on where your business is right now what do you think is the relistsic growth % in your next growth cycle? Can you beat the crab?