Our Services

EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT

Proactive Search Process – Acquisition and Strategic Alliance
Evaluation of Acquisition Targets
Post-Acquisition Integration Planning

Growth Strategy Development
Our approach to create profitable growth is founded on fundamental business principles honed over thirty years of corporate and consulting experience. Choosing, planning and taking action on the right growth strategies are critical factors of success. We provide a practical, direct and cost-effective approach to assess, plan and implement growth strategy. Our approach to developing growth strategy involves a comprehensive internal and external assessment process leading to the identification of strengths, weaknesses and core competencies. Our proprietary GROWTH STRATEGY MATRIX identifies realistic growth opportunities that will lead to profitable growth. The development of the strategic plan and implementation roadmap insures long term success.

Marketing Strategy Planning
We have strong marketing backgrounds with some of the leading consumer marketing companies in the world. We apply our years of marketing experience and expertise to develop a disciplined marketing strategy. Our approach to marketing strategy development is comprehensive and based on market realities and dynamics. Our process involves a thorough assessment of the business environment, identification of marketing strategies that will create value and development of the marketing plan.

Implementation Management System
Once a strategic plan is developed, ensuring that synergy is achieved across departments and business units is essential. Aligning and linking the organization to the vision and strategic objectives is crucial to the success of the plan. Our management system provides a powerful tool to describe and implement the strategic initiatives in a timely and orderly manner.
Our philosophy regarding any strategy development program is simply “Vision is nothing without Action.” Our goal is to channel energies, abilities and specific knowledge toward achieving the long term strategic goal. The Implementation Management System is a working document, created to assign responsibilities and accountabilities to ensure full commitment and buy-in. It links Vision to Action.

Business Assessment Studies
Our approach to business analysis begins by reviewing the internal documents and interviews with your management team. Our objective during the internal assessment phase is to get a view of the business from the inside. Our next step is an external assessment involving a study of the market dynamics and identifying key market success factors. We then hold interviews with customers, suppliers, sales representatives, etc. to get a view of the business from the outside. Our final step is to assimilate all the information gathered to form a knowledge base of the strengths, weaknesses, and core competencies. Base on this, we develop practical recommendations that address the problems and opportunities facing the business.

Competitive Assessment
A critical factor of success is attaining a sustainable competitive advantage. To gain a competitive advantage, companies require knowledge about their competitors that go beyond the obvious. We have the experience, expertise and industry contacts to provide more in-depth information on your competition including business objectives and strategies, organization capabilities and overall strengths and weaknesses. Our approach to competitive assessment involves:

Assimilation of information already gathered by you, and identification of information gaps.
Confidential interviews with our network of senior executives, not generally accessible by your organization.
Combining our interviews with our information search capability, we form a knowledge base and recommend the strategies to pursue that will give you a competitive advantage.

Business Diversification Studies
(New Product Category or industry evaluation, Geographic expansion)
Before entering into unfamiliar territory, it is imperative that you fully understand the overall dynamics of the new venture. We have the consumer market experience and expertise to provide you with an in-depth study, detailing the economic and business characteristics of the opportunity, and the attractiveness and hurdles of the new product category, industry or market you are considering.

International Expansion Studies
Successful international expansion begins with a clear and complete understanding of the market. Our approach is designed to simplify the process, control costs, minimize language and cultural barriers and increase the odds of success. Our affiliate offices in the target countries have hands-on experience and expertise and are well versed in the country’s economic and business environment. We direct and coordinate the project for you from our US offices.
We begin by meeting with you to agree on the parameters of the project; we communicate your needs to our affiliate office and coordinate all activities; and we translate and clearly communicate our conclusions and recommendations to you at a level consistent with US standards.

A typical, full service project would include the following four stages.
Prepare the information base, which includes a comprehensive market, category and competitive analysis to assess the business opportunity.

Recommend the entry strategy best suited for your strengths and capabilities, whether startup, acquisition, joint venture or other types of alliances.
Develop the business plan necessary for a successful market introduction.
Assist in implementation and follow-up.
We are flexible and our level of involvement will depend upon your current resources and needs.

Proactive Search Process - Acquisition or Strategic Alliance
In today’s competitive environment, a proactive approach to acquisition and/or strategic alliance search is essential. We have years of experience implementing proactive acquisition search projects, and a wide range of strategic alliance search assignments such as joint ventures, licensing in/out, sales and distribution agreements and manufacturing agreements.
We can provide a comprehensive process for identifying and pursuing candidates, or assist you on specific targets already identified. Our orderly process for identifying and pursuing candidates is comprehensive and effective.

1. Define the strategy and prepare the search parameters.
2. Identify all possible prospects and select priority candidates.
3. Develop complete business profiles on each priority target.
4. Identify and develop approach strategies and business propositions.
5. Make initial approaches to each priority candidate on your behalf.
6. Assist in negotiations and due diligence as necessary.

We are flexible and can come in at any point in the process, depending on your needs.

Evaluation of Acquisition Targets
For acquisition candidates you have already identified, it is sometimes difficult for your internal management team to gather relevant information to assess the strengths, weaknesses and value of the business, particularly when you are targeting a competitor. Our method focuses on gathering information that will aid you in assessing the potential acquisition’s strategic fit with your business and the probable availability. We develop comprehensive profiles that include both quantitative and qualitative information drawn from our extensive network of industry and trade contacts and our own information base. We extract and develop a complete understanding of the business and its value to you. Our goal is to uncover pertinent information and develop a powerful entry strategy that will be received positively by the prospective acquisition target and result in a meeting directly with you.

Post-Acquisition Integration Planning
Confidence in mergers and acquisition activity to drive growth has never been stronger. However, according to recent studies of major M&A deals, over 75% fail to meet their objectives. Proper planning and implementation of the integration process is a key factor to success. Our approach is divided in two parts including a pre-acquisition phase to prepare the organization for a smooth transition, and the post-acquisition phase to ensure the merged organizations work together on the most important business issue as quickly as possible. Communicating goals, assigning responsibilities and accountabilities, dealing with people and cultural issues quickly, developing the implementation plan, and acting quickly on specific value creating projects are key success factors.