CASE STUDIES
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Case Studies
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Rolling Forecast Solution - Saves I.T. Infrastructure Costs of £3.8M p.a. circa £21M Shareholder Value AddMy client, a Commercial Director for a Global Management Consulting Firm, faced a particular challenge when her client, the COO of a Major UK utility provider, wished to reduce her IT Infrastructure costs, from circa £60m, and so demanded a solution.The COO happened to be a particularly detail oriented individual, perhaps even more so than senior executives in a similar position. Either way, at that time, the incumbent consulting team lacked the necessary capacity to meet their clients requirements. Non delivery would spell disaster, it simply was not an option. I was engaged to re-design a more effective client facing solution. We undertook critical analysis of more than 40 service providers and their costs and constructed a suite of interconnected models (the solution). It was later presented to the client, who's remarks were “ this is the best piece of work I have ever received from..” (the consultant). Needles to say the model was adopted and went on to became the “go to” source document for a large commercial team. It formed a keystone in the clients contractual relationship. Specific balanced scorecard (KPI) metrics would determine extent of my clients P&L and thus her profitability. The solution was capable of forecasting IT infrastructure costs to within a 1% tolerance of accuracy versus the plan. A tolerance that was in fact a contractual obligation. We used graphical analysis to effectively scan cost trends and highlight material variances. We identified many abnormal cost patterns across several key service lines. This in turn led to service investigations. We won several cost rebates from major Telecom providers on behalf of the client. One month we recovered £250,000 from BT alone, and many thousands from Vodafone, who are notoriously poor with their billing accuracy. Needless to say the cost savings amounted to many multiples of our fees.Solution Details:Estimated clients savings £3.8M p/a or £21M Shareholder Value Add Case Study Download International Virtual Network ProviderMy client, the Group CFO of an internationally growing virtual network provider... invited me to take interim charge, as the global head of treasury, following a period of instability within the business. My client had been de-listed from the UK stock exchange due to a reporting irregularity, and was verging on the brink of insolvency.They urgently needed an experienced finance professional capable of stemming their haemorrhage of cash. I put a set of emergency control measures in place which helped to lead the turnaround. The management team comprised ten country Managing Directors, and I led an FP&A change initiative to re-develop a working group cash flow forecast process. My client, managed liquidity in real time across 20 countries in over 10 currencies. I redesigned a cash flow tracking model over a long weekend and presented my analysis to investors, bankers and the company leadership team. We delivered a short list of action based recommendations. These were promptly implemented by the client team and the process held in place for three months during which time a "Strategic Financial Buyer" was found for the business. The work contributed to the transaction, which added some £50M to the pre de-listed valuation.International microchip manufacturerMy client, an international microchip manufacturer was challenged when their Group Finance Director walked out of his position following a dispute with his employers.In the process the disgruntled employee had taken the company bank fobs and associated access pass codes with him, just days before the monthly payroll and creditor payment runs were due. I stepped in to lead the team through the situation. We liaised with the client bankers and main creditors. There was a lot of fear surrounding ability to meet obligations, which had spread to staff and suppliers alike. It was necessary to win trust and prevent escalation of the situation. I managed to persuade the former disgruntled Finance Director to return for one day to work with me to document the critical business processes we needed to execute the monthly payroll and creditor payments. We did this and effected an orderly handover of these processes to newly hired employees within a few weeks.Banking & Capital Markets LeaderIn the aftermath of the worst Capital Markets downturn in living memory, my client, an International Investment Bank, and market leader among the bulge bracket banks invited me to lead an interim change initiative, to manage a multi Billion Euro budget transformation programme.The initiative revised reporting process that captured projections from all business and service providers, consolidated a £2.8 billion budget for a service provider operation exceeding some 28,000 resource globally. I held interviews with some 68 infrastructure heads, across three continents to help them deliver more effective service provider budgets in line with the corporate strategic plan. I devised a set of Strategic KPIs that targeted Cost Income Ratios, Front to Back Ratios and a number of Capital and Risk metrics that were key to Strategic Reporting. Reports were produced for the CEO and Executive team that enabled effective oversight of the project.CFO and programme director for a UK bank
Our client was CFO and programme director for a large UK bank, responsible for leading the transformation of a Wealth Management division. The business served Ultra High Net Worth clients globally. The business, having previously received advice from McKinney & Company, need help to implement their transformation. Bigham Consulting was hired to advise on certain key elements of the transformation strategy. The project involved the replanning of the business under a new set of assumptions and operating model.
The business was to be transitioned from a "product oriented" business to a "service oriented or client centric" business. We led the project in a number of phases. We interviewed more than 40 senior "Finance Business Partners", and Senior Product Heads to map the new model and economic drivers. The new plan was designed by Bigham Consulting and as part of the project scope we advised on the Basel Accords Basel II and Basel III updates. We then led the redesign of the TO BE Financial Planning and Forecasting process which followed the "service pricing" model. The new process was not only more client centric, but more profitable for the business on a Risk Adjusted bases. Elevated Earnings on Assets ratio (EOA), and thus Return on Equity (ROE), added an estimated £0.8 Billion to the Market Capitalisation of the business. An improvement, from £1.8B to £2.6B in under a year. We revised the process for calculating Economic Profit (Risk Adjusted profit) and Enterprise value Add. Under the revised plan a newly recruited team of over 100 elite Financial Advisers would drive the new business growth. We completely redesigned the CFO forecast model under the revised Basel II Capital Adequacy framework. We headed meetings of all the steering and Group Finance and Risk task force committees, reporting to the members of the ALCO Assets & Liabilities Committee. CFO and CRO. |
