Case Studies

The following case studies show how consulting helps organizations in identifying solutions to their business requirements. While some of the results might seem obvious at the end, it is the analysis performed by executing applicable fundamentals and principles of business management that brings in site to the key issues and possible business solutions to create the competitive advantage. These cases would not have had benefited without focused and unbiased team work, analytical abilities of the team, and more importantly support from the leadership of the organization.

Case Study – 1

A company developed patented technology to manufacture recycled material that can be used in construction of pavements at low cost. After few years in business, management of the company was thinking of selling shares to cash on equity and further expand the business. Management of the company consulted to find what changes would help to improve the valuation of the company.

This case study falls under consultation-category to position the company to improve the valuation.

As a first step information was gathered from financial statements, accounting, partners, customers, management and employees. The data was analyzed to find that there were two products/services executed by the company. One was in manufacturing the patented material, and the second was to win bid for a construction project and use the patented material. However, the resources of the company were spread very thin, and the amount of effort to win the construction project was very high compared to the profit generated. Based on the data and analysis, the recommendation was to focus on selling of the patented material, which involved lesser effort and also had a shorter transaction time compared to winning bid for construction project. By focusing on its strength overall profit of the company can be increased, while the revenues might be marginally impacted as against winning bid for construction project. However, the uncertainty of winning a construction project is much higher, which can negatively impact the valuation of the company.

Case Study-2

A non-profit organization was funded by donors interested in supporting people impacted by slavery. There were other/competing organizations for these funds that were promoting themselves by claiming to serve large number of people. However, the level (depth and quality) of service were quite different. The organization wanted to build KPIs that can be shared with the donors to apprise them on the performance and level of services.

This case study falls under consultation and optimization categories, as the company was striving to attract and improve funding by showcasing its performance.

As a first step, we interviewed the stakeholders to find the performance indicators that were important measures for donors. During this process, we became aware that

• Standard metrics for non-profit organizations were getting traction.
• Donors were aware of the differences in the level of services provided by various organizations supporting people impacted by slavery.
• Donors were interested in knowing the change bought in people impacted by slavery, and how the non-profit organization was improving performance.

We developed KPIs such that these standard metrics along with measures that the donors verified while selecting organizations for donating. We also developed mechanisms to compute KPIs and present them in the annual reports that were shared with donors. The KPIs were presented in graphical format for readability, and the metrics were provided along with stories of impacted people.

Case Study – 3

An organization running a preschool wanted to grow its business. Preschool services were used by working parents, who needed care taker during work hours, and also help grow their children’s social abilities.

This case falls under Consulting as the organization was looking to grow its business.

As a first step, we interviewed various stakeholders and competitors, to find customer needs and what they looked for when enrolling their children in preschool. In addition, we ran financial analysis for the organization and its competitors to see how the revenues and expenses varied for various preschools and how they were performing. In this process, we found that

• Customers were paying flat fees, irrespective of the way services were used.
• Some enterprises funded new preschools for the benefit of its customers or employees.
• Changes in state regulations provided some opportunities and threatened some services.

Based on the findings, strategic options for service based pricing, use of brand to expand services in new locations, watch locations that had support for establishing new preschool were provided to the client.

Case Study – 4

A startup company wanted to run a product survey to enter a new market ( India region). Startup had constraints with resources and managing this stream of business function in the new region.

This case falls under Survey Execution and Project Management.

As a first step, we agreed on the Survey to be executed in terms of numbers, target profile, unknowns and expected outcome with client.

We ran some sample surveys, and understood some of the pain points(for target audience and survey representative) in getting effective responses. We kept improving the survey representation script to a satisfactory level, in a way to be effective in communication with target audiences by pitching the purpose, setting the expected time, and making understand the use of the response. Our next steps was to contract agencies that will execute the survey to get the number of responses and cover various regions, and to ensure all the agencies perform to similar standards. From the sample surveys we were able to come with the time and cost estimates that were helpful in negotiating with the agencies.

In this process, we found that in developing countries like India

• We need to communicate the seriousness of the survey with the agencies
• We need to present expectations from the survey, even if not on paper (most of the agencies don't like to put the terms and conditions on a signed paper)
• We need to ensure the agencies have qualified people, and address the gap between earlier experience and the required experience for the project
• Quality check has to be performed at the initial stage by running samples, otherwise we are likely to get poor quality, and to fix it will become expensive

Based on the findings, we have continuously improved the effectiveness of the survey execution along with the agencies, which helped reduce cost and share knowledge.