Background and Challenge
A global leader in specialty chemicals struggled to grow revenues for five years following its IPO. A new CEO was appointed who sought L.E.K.’s support to define a transformative strategy to reinvigorate growth.
Approach and Recommendations
We knew from the outset that the success of this work would hinge on ensuring all stakeholders contributing to the solution. Working closely with senior management, and creating joint teams that included over 70 people from all levels of the business, we led a highly collaborative engagement that:
- Identified a large number of significant growth opportunities, despite our client’s recent performance
- Provided robust triaging in order to help management select those opportunities that had the highest potential, and where the firm had the strongest ability to compete
- Helped our client articulate what steps were needed to win in each marketplace
- Identified the core capabilities the company needed to develop
- Demonstrated the limited opportunity for cost reduction in manufacturing because of the asset-light nature of the business, and identified significant upside in R&D efficiency and effectiveness
Results
- We supported management in developing an ambitious plan with over 10% per annum topline growth that would deliver an incremental $120 million within five years
- This was supported by a comprehensive set of implementation plans and KPIs in order to provide a robust process to track execution and allow senior management to intervene rapidly when required, while minimizing burden on the organization
06062018120609