Overview:

• The client is now projecting a 0.6 increase in sales revenue as well as a 1.8% increase in profitability.

Challenge:

A leading consumer-products company with a broad product portfolio spanning over 150 countries requested Challenge Advisory to assist them in revitalising their sales strategy. Sales had stagnated in the face of increasing competition, and revenues were eroding due to increasing cost pressure from the retailers.

The Revelation:

Challenge Advisory’s strategy team examined the client’s objectives and found them to be sound. There were, however, several issues with the strategy used by the client to achieve these objectives. Future plans were too broad and lacked detail, meaning they could not be effectively aligned with a budget. They also scaled poorly, meaning that regional outlets could not follow the wider initiative set by the company’s strategy team.

Finally, the information given to executive management meant the client was constantly making bad decisions; budgets were based on the previous year’s spending instead of future expenditure, and often the information given to management was insufficient for making quick, strategic decisions. Challenge’s strategy team identified key specific markets in a business, for example cleaning products in Switzerland.

Defined as units, the strategy devised a matrix framework in order to correctly allocate resources to those defined as key, where growth was expected to be highest and the business strategy was best represented. They also worked with the client’s own strategy team to draw up pilot plants, which provided detailed information on each market (eg. price, sales projects, key competitors etc.) and clear definitions of the financial goals, showing what is required to achieve each goal.

Outcomes:

Since consulting with Challenge Advisory, the client has undergone wholesale changes to serve a vastly improved revenue stream. The strategy devised in tandem with Challenge’s strategy team has been repurposed as a template which is now used throughout the entire organisation. 20% of resources are now reallocated to ensure profitable development (e.g. moving resources from mature markets to those with a high potential for growth), and investing in future growth has also allowed more leniency when approaching market targets.

The client is now projecting a 0.6 increase in sales revenue as well as a 1.8% increase in profitability.