10 Consulting - Business Across Cultures

Change management

Our client was in the process of implementing an SAP solution and changes in working practices were required as a result.

Whilst employed on a communications assignment we discovered – by means of an employee satisfaction survey – that the majority of employees considered that the company was not ‘living its values’. We suggested going back to the drawing board and revisiting both the corporate values and the values inherent within the brand - and found a disconnect. The product line was known for its eco-friendly attributes yet the company had little overall impact on the community at large.

Increasing sales revenues through innovative new services and routes-to-market

Our client, an IT company with a mobile software solution that analyses the workflow in remote field operations; such as field service operators, or facilities management, was struggling to generate sufficient revenues to enable it to secure a significant source of funding (£3m) for its next level of expansion.

Intercultural team-building

Our client, a senior executive, had received a promotion to run the Asia/Pacific region out of Singapore. With only 2 months into the job he realized that there were many cultural differences amongst his teams and he felt out of his depth. His performance started to suffer and the results of his division took a dive, along with morale.

International Channel Marketing

One of our customers sells through a network of resellers. Their product (hard disk drives) was an integral part of the end product (PCs). Their day-day interaction was confined to their sole-distributor – a large regional organisation with emphasis on the warehousing and quick supply of low-cost components. The net result was that our client was totally out of touch with the requirements of the end user of their products and how or where it was being sold.

International Expansion

Our client, a provider of business-to-business supply chain solutions wanted to enter the Asia/Pacific marketplace. It had no prior experience in the region or knowledge of the cultural differences prevalent in that part of the world.

Leader cuts operational costs, improves customer service... and gets promoted

Our client, a GM running a retail operation throughout mainland Europe, was struggling with its operations in Greece due to the change of economic conditions in that marketplace.

Leaders transform company cohesiveness

Our client, a company producing cash handling systems, asked us to facilitate their annual sales conference. They identified the following issues within the team and asked us to address these issues in the programme:

Marketing strategy

A financial services company wanted to introduce a new product into a market sector it had no experience of and hired us for strategic advice. Our research suggested that the sector was saturated.

Marketing strategy improves margins, develops new revenue stream

Our client, a software development company, providing online recruitment software was struggling with its approach to marketing. This resulted in a lack of clear positioning and differentiation in a crowded marketplace, delays in time-to-market and lower than expected revenues.

Supply chain efficiencies achieved through new work-flow processes

Our client was in the process of implementing an SAP solution to improve supply chain efficiencies. Changes in working practices were required as a result. The company had not bargained for the level of change required and end-users were feeling isolated. Research showed that few staff understood the reasons for the new solution and fewer still understood what they could do with it to increase their own personal productivity – and therefore that of the company overall.