Case Study: Business RestructureBusiness Turnaround
A US media licensing company was in crisis. Growth had slowed, the economy was in down-turn, competition was fierce, and costs were continuing to rise. Significant change was needed.
Note: Afdonex is a relatively new business. This case example is from earlier work completed by Afdonex’s Don Wieshlow.
challenge
There were multiple challenges in this case which came about because – although the company had achieved a lot of growth for many in years – it was done in a high-cost, resource-heavy model. As the competitive market moved to lower sales price, and lower cost-to-serve transactions, the old sales and production models of this company no longer worked and had to be changed on the fly.
solution
This was a complex situation that required multiple concurrent tactics, across the company of over 1,500 employees. My particular role in this project, included doing an evaluation of the company’s Products Department including, business data, objectives and performance, and a in-depth review of process, the 200 production employees, their roles & responsibilities, and budgets for this area.
From this analysis, and working with other senior managers and external senior consulting resources, a restructure plan was crafted, communicated and implemented, revising process, and reducing staff & costs while ensuring the least amount of operational & revenue disruption.
An enhanced annual planning process with effective target setting & monitoring was also put into place. From these new strategic plans, the production resources were re-allocated to highest return areas. As well, an online asset & contract management system was created, and all product supply chain contracts were migrated to standard online format at enhanced margins and higher efficiency for the company.
results
Benefit:
This business benefitted from my strategic planning and project management skills to identify, communicate & implement cost savings in a difficult situation.
Result:
As an outcome, the media company, in this case, would:
- Improve cash flow by several million dollars annually as a result of this restructure work.
- Reduce office footprint, staff count, costs and management & admin time.
- Focus production resources on the highest return product lines.
- Create automation efficiencies.
- The company would eventually achieve a successful exit through a foreign buyer.