Private Hospital, London

Our client is a private hospital specialised in cosmetic procedures. They were struggling to achieve positive margins due to high operational costs, slow decision making, and non-value-add activity.

The firm operated under a ‘’cater-to-crisis’’ approach with a high degree of ad-hoc requests, lack of consistency in reports and data sources, a great deal of duplication and replication of work, and limited use of technological solutions to support growth. Executives were focusing on the day-to-day operations and lacked strategic planning. BC was engaged to improve their day-to-day operations while creating strategic alignment for their long-term goals.

BC Approach         

•Back office Optimization – Overhauled middle and back-office accountability and processes (i.e. paperwork, clearing transactions, managing partnerships and third-party investment)

•Process Streamlining – Eliminated non-value-added processes and increased cross-functional decision making to find and implement cost-saving opportunities

•Cost Allocation Overview

•IT Evaluation – Recommended tools to promote execution speed and drive accountability and transparency

•Created executive alignment with clear roles and responsibilities

Results

All this ensure a £1M found in annual direct savings for the client.

 

Transforming processes, Healthcare

Our client serves as the leading cosmetic clinic in London. Its stakeholders have become more extensive and their needs more varied. The clinic work has also been complicated by budget reductions, rapidly changing technology and growth in competition. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of both external and internal activities is the crux of its continuing success.

Since the 2019 our client has seen significant turnover in staff. Those who remained found they did not have the policies and processes they needed to work efficiently. In a state of continual flux, staff often had to scramble to complete tasks. Inconsistent information meant leaders often could not get the quick answers they needed. The client wanted to create a different environment that would improve both efficiency and morale. 

BC interviewed stakeholders at all levels and pored through the organization’s existing repositories to build an inventory of 80 policies and procedures. BC then sorted through these, identifying which were updates, which were outdated, and which were duplicates to uncover the roughly 40 processes that needed true review.

Next BC conducted a process review—including external research and benchmarking—and analysis of gaps and opportunities. For example, BC recommended that the process for dealing with variances include research on both the budget division and directorate sides to determine the root cause, followed by in-person meetings to discuss variance resolution and to report back to team leaders.

Finally, BC created a formal process documentation for approval and publication.

The client staffs at all levels have embraced the changes enthusiastically. Those on the line were eager to put the stresses of scrambling and concerns over compliance behind them. Client leadership appreciated not only the quick results, but the way BC worked collaboratively to get them. BC took the time to get to know the client’s business and to follow and respect the rhythms of its work environment. By working so closely with the client, BC was attuned to its staffing pressures and was sensitive to time our requests in ways that would ensure progress without overburdening an already strained workforce.

 

Post-acquisition Lifesciences and Healthcare, London

BC lead a post-acquisition value creation for a healthcare company. The client originally wanted to restructure back-office operations to reduce operating costs, but after discussions with management, BC identified other areas of improvement. Those included enhancing workflow, upgrading antiquated systems, negotiating vendor contracts and fostering complex client relationships.

BC held daily huddles to promote collaboration and accountability. All these initiatives helped save nearly £2 million for the client, providing it with a solid foundation as it prepares for future acquisitions

 

Business Operations Change, Healthcare 

Faced with recent high turnover of staff and a change in leadership, the Business Operations Department (BOD) of a private hospital in London was challenged with reassessing its organization in order to best serve its customers and keep its employees happy.

BOD is group of 18 employees managing business functions for approximately 3000 staff. Recently, however, it had experienced a high turnover of staff, including the position of Operations Director.

To keep serving its staff, BOD had to patch vacancies with temporary contractors and shift responsibilities among people. Over time, the stopgap measures had resulted in an unclear organizational structure and role discontinuity. As people left BOD, those who remained faced uncertainty and fluctuating workloads.

BOD recognized that its internal organizational struggles were beginning to have an impact not only on its own employees’ satisfaction, but also on how well they could serve customers. Specifically, customers did not know who the right points of contact were for different needs, and responsiveness slowed while requests were redirected. BOD sought a fresh take on solving their challenges, and decided to bring BC aboard to explore new organizational design options that would address current structural challenges and better position BOD for the future.

The organization wanted to move quickly in order to provide the next director with a more solid organizational footing when they came aboard. With just six weeks from project start to finish, BC had little time to acclimate.

BC work was structured in three phases: Discovery, Assess, and Recommend. The Discovery phase gave BC a handle on the “as-is” situation. In a series of interviews with leadership of BOD and began to break apart the challenges. BC baselined the current state of the organization, then refined understanding of how the division was actually structured under normal operating conditions, including defining the proper responsibilities of each BOD role.

During the Assess phase, BC analysed the current-state structure and staff work drivers, quantifying how many tasks each role controlled and how much time was spent on each. During this phase, BC knew that the opportunity for staff to provide feedback was critical, but also that we needed to corral that feedback into constructive channels. Interviewing a few key personnel and surveying the larger staff allowed BC to extract significant insights. For example, BC found that in the absence of consistent BOD leadership, a flat organizational structure had grown. This lack of a reporting hierarchy was at the heart of many of the organizational challenges. BC also found an overly heavy emphasis on BOD specialists, rather than generalists, meaning that when employees left, other employees did not always have the necessary understanding of the full spectrum of BOD processes to effectively fill in.

Finally, the Recommend phase channelled these key findings into two proposed organizational designs—one immediately practicable, the other more forward-reaching. To provide choice and flexibility, both designs had elements that could be taken and combined in different ways. Common to both approaches was the need for a more explicit hierarchy and delineated responsibilities, improved generalization of roles through cross-training and full leverage of all 18 positions. In addition to the designs and functional details of each model, BC summarized key recommendations and next steps to prepare BOD for future success.

BC brought an unconventional lens to the problem, and was able to present options that BOD had never considered. For example, one innovative option divided the department into small core service teams along natural points of coordination, which would help to build collaboration and cross-training organically. People on teams would get to share skills, which in turn would lead to a stronger system of backups for key functions.

BC’s iterative approach, which built upon weekly meetings with BOD leadership, built consensus for the proposed models as they developed. We refined as we went along to ensure no surprises (and no budget overruns) at the end of the very tight 6-week turnaround. The right amount of communication meant leadership always knew where we were in the project and what was happening next. Moreover, BC smooth progress on the main task also freed BC to create additional unexpected value for the client in the form of benchmarking studies against three peer organizations. The client cited these studies as a unique and unexpected value add.

BOD was also impressed by recommendations BC made for the future—namely, improving documentation of standard operating procedures and processes for its BOD as a springboard for process improvement. Other recommendations included a customer service survey and other performance management improvements, and new training for staff that would prepare BOD well in advance for both anticipated surges in demand and unexpected future gaps. BC also suggested ways to engage BOD staff more fully through short “pulse” surveys that would allow staff to provide feedback to leadership more often.

Finally, BC added a follow-up meeting after the conclusion of the work, and after a new director was hired. While not required, BC felt it was important for the new director to hear our recommendations first-hand and be given the opportunity to ask questions on their final organizational design choice.

BOD valued BC’s organization, thoughtfulness, proactivity, and interpersonal skills. BC exceeded expectations, providing a highly regarded end result after just six weeks. As a result, BOD is now in a strong position to move forward with a more effective organizational design.

 

Leadership and management performance, Healthcare

Our Client, a healthcare provider experienced multiple turnovers of top leadership and staff at junior levels over the course of a few years. What’s more, much of the workforce was approaching retirement age, creating serious concerns about long-term organizational sustainability.

Our client knew it needed to take quick and decisive action—and turned to BC to examine leadership and performance-management effectiveness, as well as the workforce’s connection to organizational vision, core values, and culture.

BC started by engaging stakeholders through a series of one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and surveys. BC offered multiple ways for people to provide feedback, and ensured employees felt comfortable talking. To gain as comprehensive a picture as possible, BC got input from 95% of current employees, and from former employees and customer groups as well. What we heard, we validated quantitatively through surveys. Because trust and transparency were key, BC communicated findings openly and honestly to all staff.

BC identified three areas for focus—customer service, mission and vision, and soft skills—and led a series of improvement planning workshops with managers and senior executives. Working together in small groups, BC developed short and long-term action plans for addressing each area of focus. For example, one immediate action was a “get to know me” profile form with employees’ professional and personal information, such as favourite songs, hobbies and quates, which could be featured on a rotating employee achievement board each month. This effort garnered 97 percent participation, and has made significant progress building connections among employees. Another immediate action was to institute a suggestion box and office hours for leadership to be available to employees’ concerns. Employees stated that the programs are improving trust.

After these workshops, BC opened the discussion more widely to members of staff and held sessions to develop additional improvement activities. To give employees the “seat at the table” they’d requested, BC created three teams of change agents. Each team would execute improvement plans in one of the three focus areas, with guidance from BC on conducting the strategic planning sessions with purpose. Empowering employees to contribute to the improvement agenda for their own work environment has been a resounding early success for the company.

In response to employees’ desire to feel more connected to the organization, BC established a number of new engagement opportunities, including a quarterly blog featuring employee interviews and resources for professional and personal development. Other new programs included a Vision Cloud of Company's shared core values and vision, an employee appreciation award, and a podcast series to strengthen soft skills and educate employees. These initiatives have resulted in a more collaborative and communicative team where employees better understand their shared mission and goals.

Core to BC’s successful approach was recognizing employees as individuals who needed—and wanted—to see how they fit into a larger group. Client’s long-standing emphasis on staff members’ subject matter expertise had inadvertently developed a siloed culture that had to be broken down. In this regard, BC led by example, empowering employees to work together to solve their own problems. BC’s job was to give them the support to succeed, rather than propose ready-made solutions.

In just six months, survey results showed the program had already exceeded the entire year’s goals for developing management effectiveness at recognizing team accomplishments. 70% percent of employees described themselves as more knowledgeable about ongoing accomplishments than they had been a year before, and 48 percent reported better understanding of company’s mission, vision, and goals.

Building off the momentum of these tactical “quick wins,” our longer-term strategies look to create a culture of continuous improvement across the board. They include creating a program to expose employees to additional functions across the company; providing opportunities for staff members to lead segments of organizational meetings; implementing a new, across-the-board Customer Engagement Strategy; and instituting executive and leadership coaching programs.

By the end of FY22 ,  our client aims to become an organization that is a beacon of leadership and expertise in private healthcare across London.

 

Operations delivery, Healthcare

As a leading regional healthcare provider began implementation of its long-term performance strategy, it realized there was an opportunity to leverage additional support to optimize care delivery and operations.

The Performance Improvement (PI) team leads and supports initiatives aligned to the performance strategy across the organization. Its work is critical; it is the execution arm for the organization’s key transformation initiatives.

In the face of increasing priorities, more responsibilities, and a growing volume of culture transformation initiatives, the PI team brought on BC to work alongside its existing team of transformation experts and provide program management in two implementation efforts rolling out system-wide: a new care delivery model (NCDM) and the perioperative supply chain transformation project.

BC began by supporting the phased rollout of the NCDM – the organization’s self-designed model focusing on putting the patient first and increasing collaboration and communication from all care team providers.

BC monitored the initial NCDM implementation as it was piloted across the organization’s hospital inpatient units, providing staff training, communications support, and collecting implementation best practices from Doctors and nurse leaders. BC then considered how to best ensure a successful rollout of NCDM in the remaining units. BC began by surveying doctors and nurse leaders and conducting analysis to identify gaps to refine training materials. BC and the PI team rolled the NCDM out to the remaining units leveraging “Train the Trainer” sessions to equip unit leaders with the knowledge and best practices obtained from pilot units. In support of these sessions, our team reviewed participant evaluation scores and feedback to inform subsequent sessions.

BC next turned focus to the perioperative supply chain transformation pilot. BC supported the PI team in introducing system-wide tools and methods to drive improvements in three areas: consistency of roles and responsibilities, provision of tools and methods for managing the supply chain, and eliminating redundancies in clinician involvement in select supply chain process.

BC began by interviewing hospital staff and conducting on-site observations to gain a full understanding of the periop supply chain process and players. Armed with new knowledge, BC rolled out a staff reorganization that aligned roles and responsibilities to distinct job descriptions consistent across all periop departments. We knew a successful realignment would require working closely with the affected staff to communicate how changes would impact their roles. To this end, we facilitated discussions that allowed people to ask questions in a comfortable environment, and provided training on new responsibilities.

BC oversaw the introduction of new tools and trainings to improve and ease management of the supply chain process. BC established new operating room (OR) procedures and communication channels to improve accuracy and timeliness of the Periop supply chain to reduce the over-involvement of clinicians – allowing them to spend more time focused on their patients. After introducing the new procedures and communication channels, BC surveyed OR staff, clinicians and leadership to understand if and how the team was improving. In addition, BC  systematically monitored department performance metrics to ensure the hospitals had fully sustained the changes.

Discipline, collaboration, and flexibility have defined our mutual successes with the PI team across both the NCDM and perioperative supply chain projects. By focusing on streamlining process and adjusting real-time to address feedback and challenges, the NCDM and perioperative supply chain initiatives are already seeing results and have moved the organization closer to its goals of improving employee engagement and providing the best patient experience.

The client has successfully implemented the new perioperative supply chain process and are already seeing results – at one site, supply accuracy has improved 30% within 30 days. The average number of supply selection errors per day has decreased 60 percent, allowing clinicians to spend more time focused on their patients.

The perioperative workforce reorganization now allows leadership to capture performance measurements and provide clear career path progression for staff. Moreover, the team has received feedback from both clinicians and supply chain staff that they feel more empowered by the new processes.

 

Performance management, Healthcare VC

A healthcare organization was initially founded as a national entity, but moved over time to more closely resemble a private organization. This shift resulted in a unique hybrid, wherein many of the organization’s staff positions, policies and processes were established to comply with national regulations.

From a practical human resources perspective, the evolution of this organization meant staff operated under a mixed set of requirements regarding performance assessments. Overall, implementation of performance management was patchy, with less than a quarter of the organization’s employees receiving regular annual reviews or feedback on their performance.

Leadership recognized the need for change, not just to help improve employee performance, but also to recognize those who were consistently performing at a high level. The organization wanted to align performance guideposts for all employees, to keep its progress on track, and to maintain morale. BC was brought on board to help institute a clarified performance management process.

BC started at the top, with the heads of operations and human resources, to pore through with them what pieces the organization already had in place. Concurrently, BC conducted research into performance management best practices, benchmarking other organizations in the space. To understand employee perspectives, BC fielded a feedback survey and conducted extensive discussions with staff at every level and in every type of position. What became clear from these discussions was that good or bad, people wanted to know how they were doing because they wanted to grow.

Because the new process introduced a transformational change to individual mind sets and to the organizational culture, BC moved with deliberation, bringing people along every step of the way. Since some employees had not gone through a formal performance appraisal process, BC conducted extensive training on what to expect and how to respond.

One of the first actions was working closely with the organization’s leadership to create a standard set of requirements for supervisors to manage performance and build robustness and accountability into the process. BC followed up with supervisor training on how to use these standards and how to distinguish between performance and conduct issues during reviews.

Next, BC focused on establishing core competencies for all employees. BC created trainings for managers and provided corresponding sample behaviours to help clarify expectations for supervisors and leaders in regards to how they prioritize their work and their people.

At junior levels of the organization, BC trained staff how to set personal developmental goals and how to work with their managers toward meeting those goals. Crucially, BC taught employees ways to introduce and manage what can at times be uncomfortable conversations. Formal feedback from employees confirmed they valued this series of training, which included one-on-one coaching sessions, as well as open-office hours, weekly Q&A sessions, and a one-stop internal web-based repository of materials.

The new performance management system provides considerable flexibility while aligning the processes for staff across the organization.

By tapping into the organization’s existing consensus culture, BC was able to develop tools and processes that gained across-the-board buy-in as we progressed. As a result, the tools and resources BC provided—forms, reference guides, training aids and more—contribute to a model that has strong impact and genuine staying power.

In the work with leadership, BC communicated the criticality of “leading by example” at every level of the organization. From directors to housekeepers, every person’s role is now defined, every employee is accountable to identified standards, and most important, every person is recognized and valued.

The results speak for themselves. By the time BC had finished this engagement, 80 percent of employees had already received their annual performance review.

 

System Operation, Healthcare

A healthcare organization recently implemented a customized operations solution to better manage their internal processes. Having relied for years on often inconsistent paper-based processes, the implementation represents a big advance for the client, as long as employees are motivated to adopt and use it. Eager to gain the full benefits of its investments, both today and as the system evolves in the future, the healthcare organization turned to BC for help managing the change.

BC helped to support a key user segment in understanding and using the system. Our task was three-fold:

•Support end user adoption of the system as it rolled out in staged releases

•Inform users of impacts to their daily work and help them prepare for upcoming change

•Design future state processes that align with the new way of conducting business

BC first worked closely with management to gauge where different user groups were in terms of commitment to the change and actual adoption and use. A combination of “pulse” surveys and a series of working sessions with various user groups culminated in a comprehensive implementation plan that drew together training resources, communications, tech demonstrations, and workshops on the new business functionality for each release.

A key factor in our success was to connect with “savvy users”. The system involved touched 3 different user groups. Extensively tailoring resources for all these groups represented a formidable time burden. Instead, the team identified key “savvy users” whom BC enlisted to augment our support within their own teams.

Given the unique challenges posed by the iterative development cycle, communication was a priority. Not only did, BC needed to capture the attention of busy people in the midst of their day-to-day workloads, but also had to educate them on often highly technical details. BC employed a multi-point strategy aimed at getting the right messages to the right people through best communications vehicles. Beginning with pulse surveys to identify the type of information that would be most valuable, BC created timely newsletters and presentations to push out information to all impacted users.

Finally, as the healthcare organization continued to envision how its new platform could decrease account implementation timeframes and improve overall quality, BC conducted working sessions to reimagine the future state of the targeted processes.

BC’s support led to an increase in clarity of communications and user engagement. One recent survey revealed that the users’ commitment to the program’s vision increased on average by nearly 60 percent.

As the organization continued the system rollout, BC provided user adoption support while helping leaders and management build their own internal change management capabilities.

 

Local drug manufacturer, Lifesciences and Healthcare

A local drug manufacturer with 1,200 employees was growing rapidly. Leadership’s vision for continued growth started the discussion on how the workforce could grow to meet the company’s future needs. As the company began developing these plans, it recognized the value of enlisting experts in workforce planning.

With a short time to get up to speed, BC set to work understanding the business objectives and current workforce expansion plans. Crucially, BC learned that while leadership wanted to assess the mission-criticality of specific roles they planned to add, the company lacked a standardized way to make these judgements.

BC began by helping determine the types of data required to analyse the company’s workforce plan against industry best practices and recommending the technology tools that could help them do so most effectively.

BC created a guidebook to steer this phase of analysis and developed a surveying tool that would help automate data collection. This tool allowed Human Resource Directors to quickly and efficiently engage business leaders to segment the workforce.

By introducing this, BC streamlined the process of assessing all planned new positions. Equally important, enlisting the directors in this way encouraged their ownership in the process and strengthened their relationships with business leaders as the workforce planning process evolved.

Once the data collection and segmentation were complete, BC examined the information from geographic and functional perspectives, creating a visualization of how the current workforce aligned to geographies, business units, and strategic objectives. Drawing on knowledge of industry best workforce practices, BC showed how their workforce compared to similar industry organizations and identified existing and future gaps.

Ultimately, the drug manufacturer gained a much more robust sense of their workforce. The visualization tool BC created allowed their human resources experts to drill down and get the highly specific information they needed to provide useful input into the planning process.

Rather than deploy an inflexible methodology and toolset, BC began with a solid foundation in data analytics and workforce planning, and then collaborated to develop a customized approach. This blend of established best practices with the agility to accommodate circumstance positioned the organization to enter the next phase—talent alignment—with confidence.

 

Performance Management, Healthcare

With a turnover rate nearing 65 percent and personnel costs of 35% of its budget, the client asked BC to help revamp its inconsistent performance management system to one that would foster employee engagement under a more unified organizational culture, values, and approach to compensation decisions.

BC ensured to:

•Understand the client’s culture, their challenges, and their definition of success in order to lay the foundation for a tailor-made performance management program

•Thoughtfully define the current state of performance management and the vision for the future

•Align perspectives, processes, and technologies toward achieving the new goals

•Engage employees in designing the new performance management program in order to set the stage for individual accountability and ownership of what would be a transformative process

The new data-driven approach to performance management enables managers and employees alike to have clear insight into both expectations and actual performance through a process that collects then combines frequent, real-time and two-way feedback. By developing a reliable process to leverage both past and real-time performance data, BC empowered the client to:

•Reward and recognize performance more transparently and on the spot

•Identify weak performance and intervene as issues emerge

•Equip their leaders with the right information to better discuss development needs and career growth for their people

 

Performance Management, Healthcare

A health service provider wanted to overhaul its performance management program to address inconsistencies across the organization and turn around its high personnel costs and attrition tied to its current performance review process.

BC helped the organization articulate a performance management philosophy and guiding principles. BC then designed a new program that would reinvigorate employees’ connection to their work and provide clear and consistent parameters for reward and development.

The goal was to develop a consistent system of performance management that meets health industry regulatory requirements, emphasizes ongoing employee feedback, elevates personal responsibility for performance at all levels and replaces static annual performance reviews with real-time data and timely interventions.

 

Market research, Lifesciences and Healthcare

A small medical device company focused on circulating tumour cells was seeking insight into the commercial opportunity and viability of expanding an oncology medical diagnostic currently marketed in key European countries.

BC conducted a robust assessment of specific market opportunities and reimbursement pathways across the European markets to determine market access viability. From there, BC prioritized key markets for potential launch and developed initial go-to-market strategies in each region.

BC exhaustively explored the current and future market landscape, specifically evaluating underlying epidemiology and variations by geography. Market research with medics  and payer influencers helped elucidate the value proposition of the test and key reimbursement decisions that may impact uptake. Central drivers and barriers to product adoption were explored to inform how the product would fit into current testing patterns.

BC delivered the potential peak EU opportunity for the client with an estimate of time to peak, taking into consideration key risks and uncertainties associated with an EU launch. BC also identified key markets to prioritize and deprioritize, along with potential go-to market strategies, and the tradeoffs associated with each approach.

 

Business Acquisition, Life sciences

The head of business development of a mid-size pharma company required an external assessment of a potential acquisition target in the rare disease space to help inform decision-making and potential deal terms. The target company had a mix of established, recently launched, and pipeline products.

BC conducted a robust analysis to estimate the future commercial opportunity and corresponding cash flow associated with the target company’s highest value approved and in-line products. In addition, BC highlighted key strategic considerations influencing decision-making, which included potential corporate synergies, opportunity costs of acquisition, and value of broader presence in rare disease space.

BC analysis articulated the strong rationale for acquisition given the target company’s strategic fit with our client’s organization. However, the future value associated with the target company’s portfolio was substantial and required a greater investment than expected. While our client decided to pass on this particular opportunity, BC has continued to provide strategic due diligence support services to the organization.

 

Acquisition of a medical device, Life sciences

Our client, a leading medical device manufacturer, desired an assessment of the historic and current dynamics of medical device use within a chronic pain indication, to inform a potential acquisition decision.

BC explored factors that prevented previous market leaders in this disease from maintaining their leadership position to understand potential implications for the acquisition target. Specifically, BC distinguished between issues that were specific to historic products and those that were indicative of broader challenges with this device category and disease space.

BC conducted extensive research to understand treatment approaches, reimbursement paths, and other market dynamics that impacted perception and adoption of earlier products. Furthermore, BC evaluated Doctors perception of the acquisition target to understand key drivers of uptake and barriers that may be encountered.

BC’s analysis uncovered historic events and dynamics specific to previous market leaders, emphasizing key differences that allowed the client to make an informed decision around the potential acquisition.

Based on BC analysis, the client decided to move forward with the opportunity.

 

Program Management NHS Foundation Trust, London

A group of NHS Foundation Trusts wanted to improve their IT infrastructure and services by forming a Shared Service that could pool resources and expertise. They invited BC to provide assistance with Programme management.

Initially this involved supporting the development of the Business Case, including detailed business planning, costs analysis and legal assessments. Following the agreement of the Business Case, BC continued to act as Programme Managers throughout the transition and implementation stages, including writing and maintaining the Programme Plan, monitoring and reporting on financial and implementation issues and risks, updating the business cases and advising on legal and HR issues, until the successful launch of the program.

 

*Transport review, Europe

BC was commissioned by a German Railway to review the current viability of their container services and to make recommendations if it could be divested. This review was required by the client as part of a larger overhead cost reduction exercise. BC analysed the recent financial performance of the services, highlighted its marketing strengths and weaknesses and listed the key opportunities and threats facing it in the future. BC interviewed the key managers and encouraged them to consider the possibility of a management buyout (MBO). At the same time BC created a list of potential third party buyers and began informal discussions to determine the extent of external interest. BC concluded that the service’s viability was dependent upon its inclusive tours contract with the railways and recommended that, if future merchandising terms could be agreed, either an MBO or a third party sale would be a possibility. BC finally calculated a range of possible sale values and demonstrated the steps which the Railway needed to take in order to divest itself of its container services successfully.

 

Strategy NHS Foundation Trust, London

Our client wanted to review their Information Systems and Informatics Strategy, including clinical and business information. The objectives were to ensure that clinical and business strategies were aligned, and that the Trust was able to take advantage of appropriate emerging technologies, including having the right governance in place to approve and manage emerging work streams. BC consulted throughout the Trust, through both individual and group consultation and surveys, identifying a need for significant investment and improvement to the core IT infrastructure and IT Governance, which had been suffering from underinvestment. The strategy and action plan which BC developed was approved by the Board and BC continued to work with the Trust to support the implementation.

 

*Charity Strategy, London

BC worked the client to establish the strategic planning and examine several scenarios for the future of the charity. The purpose of the exercise was to examine possible portfolios of membership and service offerings. BC original intention was to undertake predictive, classification-based modelling. However, the client's data at that time was insufficiently granular so BC used a multiple probability simulation instead, which proved very effective in helping to distinguish between offering portfolios that were optimal and those that were unlikely to be effective. This analysis was undertaken just before the arrival of a new Chief Executive.  This proved very helpful to the client in helping to progress viable options for change early in the new Chief Executive's tenure.

 

Cost Prediction Model, London Borough Council

A borough council asked BC to help them determine where crime affected costs. BC analysed 2,500 crime incidents and build a predictive model linking crime type and frequency to council costs, particularly housing repairs. The model was successful at prediction, and helped the council produce cost/benefit correlations with investment in better crime prevention and policing.

 

Human Resources Advisor, Private Healthcare UK

One of our clients had a disorganised and demoralised human resources (HR) department. Staff in the HR department was unsure of their roles and responsibilities. Staff who needed HR services complained of problems with benefits, difficulties in hiring staff, poor advice on consultation and repeated mistakes on payroll and expenses. BC worked with the department to put some basic systems and procedures in place. BC helped the team build a business management system manual in order to support them being more organised. BC enabled the team to pull together and speed up the results gained from hiring a new departmental manager three months later.

 

ICT Strategy, Charity Location UK

Our client was a UK charity offering support and advice to those with a range of mental health conditions. They asked BC to help them develop a convincing and deliverable ICT strategy that addressed not only technical solutions but also management information systems and the integration of information. BC consulted widely throughout the organisation to build a consensus about the approach. The strategy agreed included a coasted action plan and road map. This allowed them to bring together their many sources of information in a phased approach and delivered within their resource constraints.

 

Systems Planning Trades Union, UK

BC reviewed all IT infrastructure operations and service delivery for one of the largest trades unions in the UK. The conclusion was that the union would benefit from the strategic use of externally sourced infrastructure and skills. BC was retained to plan and project manage the change, which included documenting requirements, managing the main tendering process, contract negotiations and helping with the TUPE process. The quality of service improved rapidly; not only better user-facing support services but also a more stable, secure, robust and resilient IT infrastructure. These huge improvements were delivered for minimal additional cost.

 

Programme Managers, Membership Organization, UK

A private club was failing to deliver financial, IT, marketing and change management projects. Projects were very late, substantially over budget and not satisfying their target users. Following a review, BC recommended the formation of a Business Improvement Plan (BCP) headed by a Programme Manager. In discussion with the client, BC also recommended the use of interim skills to get the BCP up and running. BC's worked over three months as Program Manager to set out the BCP's policies, procedures, methodology, reporting, personnel and training.  BC succeeded in transforming the client's culture from operationally-based to project-based over the following three months. With a successful BCP running well, and a much better idea of the personality requirements, the client was able to specify the requirement for a full-time person more accurately and show good candidates the appeal of the position.

 

System Selection, Charity Location UK

Our client was a UK charity providing support, education and advice to beneficiaries as well as funding research through a number of grant giving programmes. They asked BC to help review processes and specify their requirements for a new grants management application, to replace their ageing system. After completing that work and demonstrating the cost justification for investment, BC managed a selection process and agreed the choice of a new supplier. BC then supported the charity through the implementation phase, identifying and addressing historic data quality issues. Finally BC worked with the client to review the benefits delivered by the new system and ways of working.

 

Business Plan, Regional Tourist Board, Germany

A regional tourist board was keen to introduce a participative review of its activities in order to establish a business plan to address the prospect of reduced levels of income from traditional sources. BC defined a planning process which contained several management workshops bridged by a period analysis and preparation conducted by individual managers. BC acted as facilitators at the workshops ensuring that the client identified the corporate purposes and key objectives. Each department then reviewed its current activities and dropped any that did not contribute to the achievement of the corporate objectives. As a result, BC helped the management team develop a clearer understanding of the Board's activities, why they are important, and the resources required to undertake them. The client went on to prepare better information and a clear business plan which was well received by the main board and its many members.

 

Systems Design, NHS Foundation Trust, London

BC was commissioned to develop a strategy for supplier and product codes for new purchase order systems. The client required standard supplier and product codes to ensure that purchasing and expenditure information was consistent across business functions. A particular problem was the number of products purchased (over one million) and the wide diversity of the products. BC developed a coding framework based on product types which could be used to monitor patterns of purchasing to assess the range and mix of products and services bought. Where appropriate this was extended for a more detailed product level analysis. BC also developed guidelines for operational procedures such as the set up and maintenance of supplier and product codes. The strategy was adopted by the client and they are monitoring their purchasing patterns using the framework.

 

Business Plan Local Authority, London

Our client had to produce their first annual Business Plan but had no resources available to do the work, and the deadline was approaching fast. BC was called in to define the structure of the Plan, carry out interviews and produce the finished article within three weeks. The Plan that BC produced identified all the major activities and projects in the Department. It showed how they would impact business objectives and how they would affect cash flow, and pointed out opportunities, threats and their implications. Despite the short timescale, the Plan was produced to a very high standard and much of the information was presented graphically for ease of comprehension. The Plan was accepted and agreed throughout the Department and by the Chairman of the Department's sub-committee.

 

Expansion Feasibility Study, Local Enterprise, London

BC was asked by a local enterprise organization, funded by local authorities and private businesses, to evaluate the feasibility of expanding the scope of services provided. BC researched local needs, local/regional and national enterprise plans, and the availability of funding from local/national and European sources. BC concluded that the anticipated additional services would not be appropriate to local needs, but helped identify other local activities to which the organisation could successfully contribute and for which additional funds were readily available.

 

Review of European Market Opportunities, UK Research Organisation

BC developed a strategy for a variety of new services for a research institution working in conjunction with a government development authority. The development of this strategy involved a series of workshops in which senior management and staff worked to develop the key issues of organisational structure, home market improvement and entry to Europe. This process resulted in a series of recommendations which demonstrated to senior management that the development of new European services would require substantial investment, well in excess of their capabilities. However, BC then worked with them on a more modest successful development of commercial consultancy.

 

Systems Documentation & Procedures Design, UK Charity

Our client is one of the largest charities in the UK, with fundraising income of £10s per annum and a large variety of projects in the UK and abroad. They were experiencing problems tracking the flow of documents in the organisation and severe bottlenecks in processing large volumes of incoming mail, especially donations received. We produced a report which documented their current mail and document handling procedures and proposed measures to improve the system. Our suggestions reduced considerably the inefficiencies in processing system, which enabled them to increase exponentially the net income available for charitable work.

 

Sales & Marketing Strategy, Furniture Company, UK

A furniture business needed a Sales and Marketing strategy at a time of tremendous change. BC's needed to build a sales and marketing team in a short space of time in order to increase sales rapidly. BC built a new sales and marketing strategy, supplemented by market research. While building up the sales infrastructure of marketing materials, website, contact management and bid documentation, BC also set about hiring a team of 5 business development managers and their support staff. Annual sales were raised in one year by 50% within the first 3 months. Using hard-won, competitive bid experiences, BC then moved on to identifying key acquisitions and helped to consolidate the business service firm's competitive position.

 

Stock Control Review, Logistics, France

Our client was a French auction house. Within their portfolio was an international distributor of antique furniture. BC was asked to investigate a reported stock discrepancy at their continental European hub. We analysed all business areas in the logistics chain to substantiate the discrepancy, which turned out to be due to a combination of poor internal controls, poor staff management and overly complex stock adjustment, rework and valuation calculations. BC produced a detailed forensic analysis along with a plan of remedial actions. BC executed the immediate actions, including replacement of the stock control system and staff disciplinary processes, within weeks.

 

Office and Systems Review Barristers Chambers, UK

A barristers' chambers, had been experiencing problems with their administration, some of which was computerised. Working closely with a steering group of barristers and the senior clerk, BC was able to identify inconsistencies in working practices and expectations and underutilisation of available computer resources. As a result of BC work, clearer role definitions were agreed and established, duties were more appropriately allocated to suit the personal abilities of the staff in the clerk's office and procedures were documented to ensure consistent use of systems.

 

Systems Selection Review, Apparel Catalogues, France

BC performed a management information review for a retail company involved with the design, production, sales and distribution of clothing. BC reviewed order entry, stock control, MRP, purchasing, capacity planning, scheduling and import control. The company had 3 departments in the UK and had a highly developed catalogue sales arm. BC work was to add value to the systems selection procedure by providing an independent, objective assessment of their shortlisted suppliers and planning for implementation. BC key recommendations were to improve the detailed planning, rethink the complexity of the systems architecture and increase the formality of the systems specification. These recommendations led to smoother implementation and more successful negotiations with the four shortlisted suppliers.

 

Business Plan Utilities, Germany

Our client, a major electrical retailer, was considering setting up a joint venture with a management team for an electrical goods retail business. BC helped to prepare the business plan for the joint venture, which looked at market potential, set up costs and a range of operating scenarios.

 

Efficiency Review Utilities, Austria

BC carried out an efficiency review for a privatised electricity distribution company as part of the setting of the price regulation formula. BC reviewed the revenue and cost projections to assess the scope for efficiency savings. BC also reviewed the capital expenditure projection to determine the financing requirements over a five year period.

 

System Operations Utility company, Switzerland

BC prepared a five year operational strategy for a large electricity board. The work took full account of the requirements of the different business streams (supply, distribution, retailing and contracting) as well as internal service departments. The needs of managers at all levels were considered. A final strategy was prepared and an action plan was presented to the board and approved for implementation.

 

Administration Review, Law firm, City of London

BC carried out a review of the administration covering the services provided by the clerks of a Law firm. A new personnel structure was produced together with recommendations on roles and responsibilities, performance targets and quality of service.

 

Professional Association Effectiveness Review, UK

A professional association asked BC to review the efficiency and effectiveness of its membership department. BC examined the management, organisation and controls in the department, including the adequacy of staff, budgetary control and the use of IT facilities. BC also examined the association's organisation structure and reporting lines. BC produced a set of practical recommendations and an implementation plan which enabled the client to effect all the changes and benefit from the improvements within three months.

 

Retail Strategic Review, Germany

For a retail company BC reviewed their strategy, products, pricing, systems, controls, financing, management and organisation. BC was asked by the board to examine the strategy because of concern over the organisation's management. BC report to the board identified a number of issues ranging from sales commissions to management reporting. In particular, BC analysed the company's performance against a number of variables to help the board identify the economic cyclical element in recent difficulties, as well as some transfer pricing issues. These, and the other recommendations, gave the board the assurance that management had a workable plan to restore profitability.

 

Review of Job Control Procedures Chartered Surveyors, UK

BC carried out a review of current procedures on job control and the monitoring of client relationships for a UK firm of Chartered Surveyors. BC interviewed key directors in all major divisions and departments, and sent out a questionnaire to all directors nationwide. BC proposed ways of improving client management and job control by assigning specific client responsibilities to individual directors, a more disciplined approach to procedures and administration.

 

*Transfer Pricing Review Manufacturing, Europe

For a manufacturer of milk replacers BC reviewed the transfer pricing arrangements between the manufacturing and marketing organisations. During the review BC identified a number of weaknesses in the existing procedures. BC recommendations centred on a fundamental change in management reporting which removed the need for complex transfer pricing arrangements. BC final report included a preform management reporting pack which reflected the new organisation structure. BC recommendations have been accepted and implemented by the client.

 

Business Strategy Waste Management, Germany

The industry leader in waste management asked BC to assist them in the formulation of their 10 year business strategy. This strategy covered all three aspects of their business, i.e. Waste Services, Landfill and Technical Services. The strategy formulation was based on two streams of work, an internal stream, covering mission statement, SWOT analysis, critical factor definition, organisational structure analysis, resources assessment and financial analysis, and an external stream covering business environment assessment, market definition, competitor analysis and industry structure analysis. These internal and external steams resulted in the formulation of an evaluative framework for business opportunities within the waste management industry. The opportunities evaluated covered a wide range, including competing better, expansion of disposal, personalisation and image. The project resulted in a clearly defined strategy based on improvement and growth planned to increase profits by a factor of four.

 

Logistics Management Distribution Company, UK

BC provided consultancy for a UK based Distribution Company in preparation of their Corporate Plan. BC work included a review of future warehousing strategy, evaluation of future business sectors and support to their business plan presentation.

 

Merger & Acquisition - Relocation Implementation Plan, Belgium

For a medium sized manufacturer of wood products for the DIY and construction market BC assisted management prepare a detailed, fully cost task plan for the implementation of a major relocation and merger of two manufacturing business. These businesses based in the South of Belgium were to be transformed to a single site in the North which was previously used for manufacturing but left currently vacant and run down. We used the latest project management tools to assist our review of task timings and costs.

 

Management and Capacity Study Healthcare Company, UK

BC was commissioned by a healthcare company to perform a Measurement and Capacity Study as the first stage of a cost reduction exercise. BC determined the functions and activities of the group and divided it into units. BC then determined the inputs, outputs, internal and external interfaces for each unit. This analysis allowed us to determine the areas of poor efficiency or effectiveness for further study.

 

Systems & Procedures Review Magazine Distribution, UK

BC undertook two main streams of work for a UK distributor of magazines and periodicals:

1.Stock and Issue Controls: designed and implemented a stock control system aimed to track the history of each issue of a publication, recording print orders, returns and current stock. BC implemented wide ranging systems and procedures to facilitate the verification of declared returns to support affidavit claims to publishers.

2.Operations Director Secondment: BC preliminary work with this client recommended the appointment of a Director based at its operational centre. Areas covered were the introduction of EC VAT procedures and reporting, recommendations for new financial and management reporting, control reports for quantifies publisher exposure, agent contract profitability and monitoring performance against publisher portfolios.