OUR VALUE PROPOSITION
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Strategic transformation
Supporting transformative projects for our clients requires a strategic analytical vision to identify value creation opportunities. It also requires acting as a cross-functional glue within the organization, ensuring alignment with the defined direction and consistency of actions. Finally, it requires earning the trust of directors and teams to challenge them and guarantee the success of implementation.
Project examples
Context
A telecom operator faced a classic but particularly delicate challenge: it had to continue massive investment in its fixed and mobile networks to avoid technical obsolescence, but could not increase plan prices due to a mature, highly competitive market. A transformation was needed to structurally reduce costs.
Scope & objective
Within the Network Division, the investment strategy and its implementation were managed by the Transversal Program Director, who was caught between the General Management’s contradictory demands to accelerate investments and cut spending. The Transversal Program Director had little leverage to push operational teams (engineering and deployment) to truly reduce costs. Our mission was to resolve this equation.
Form of Support
The project had three successive phases, pragmatically developed based on results:-
Economic structuring of the transformation: Building a reference framework to apply intelligent pressure on operational teams. Multidisciplinary work to distinguish investment costs from operating costs (previously unclear), and establishing a shared reference framework and monitoring system.
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Structuring and supporting a technical deployment efficiency program: Identifying levers to reduce delays and costs in deployments, clarifying responsibilities, and structuring efficiency monitoring.
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Cost reduction in the organization: Classifying roles, highlighting inflation in interface functions (between internal services and between internal and external contractors), project functions, and management functions—paradoxical given the poor efficiency results.
Delivrables
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Reliable reference bases for investments.
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Reliable reference bases for operating costs.
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Indicators linking program progress and costs.
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Structuring of the multidisciplinary transformation program.
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Analytical reference bases for the organization (qualified headcount and organigram, macro-processes highlighting duplicates).
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Target organizations and rationalized macro-processes.
Résults
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Cost reduction became the Network’s top priority and lost its terrifying, irrational aspect. Different Directors learned to make it a true priority and report on it.
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Deployment efficiency was finally measured based on manageable levers and improved by 15% overall, and by over 30% on key topics.
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The network organization underwent a profound restructuring of responsibilities, ultimately reducing interface staff from 25% to 10% of the total.
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Context
A company owned by a private equity fund, formed by the merger of two partially competing players.
Scope
Define a value creation plan. Structure the project around 15 initiatives, aligned with the target organization, each with engaged operational leaders and motivated project managers. Establish governance to track progress against the predefined plan. Work alongside executives to help achieve their objectives and identify ways to pivot in case of difficulties. Ensure smooth cross-functional communication, manage overlaps between initiatives, and enable management to make necessary decisions by structuring key issues and reflections.
Form of Support
Project structured by setting up a central steering team and mobilizing an internal network of change agents close to executives. Full-time project lasting approximately two years.
Delivrables & results
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Definition of a new organization.
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Detailed project plans with key milestones to achieve quantified objectives, and monthly progress tracking (with progress curves).
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Rapid implementation of governance with a detailed dashboard to monitor progress.
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Achievement of key milestones within tight deadlines (formal establishment of the organization, brand change, procurement synergies, customer/supplier communication, and securing commercial relationships).
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Exceeded value creation targets by 30%.
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Executive support
A leader may need a trusted partner in at least three situations:
Tough (and non-collegial) decisions that require perspective/an external view
A lack of time to address a crucial issue, or
A need for expertise on a new subject for him or her. This kind of support is generally the result of trust built on previous types of projects.
Project examples
Context
The CEO of a family-owned industrial SME wanted to step back for retirement and transfer the company to his children, who were already involved in the organization. The company’s performance had declined in recent years, and the goal was to use this transition to define a new vision and ambition.
Scope
Conduct an audit of the current situation. Build relationships with the management team. Understand the market and competitive dynamics. Identify needs for evolution and improvement.
Form of support
Initial six-month support extended to nine months to give teams time to take ownership and contribute to defining the target vision. Regular ad hoc meetings with the CEO and successors. Member of the Executive Committee (and participation in relevant governance bodies) throughout the project.
Deliverables & results
New target organization, implemented in three phases. New governance established during the project. Recommendation to create a business unit for the R&D-focused part of the business. The two following years were the best in the company’s history in terms of growth and profitability.
Context
Coming from a related industry, the client took over a newly created division with high growth ambitions. She needed to consolidate several entities within the division, including recent acquisitions.
Scope
Dual need: first, to quickly increase working capacity; second, to rely on an external expert to explore issues, resolve questions, and address key challenges rapidly.
Form of support
Six weeks of part-time work. Close collaboration with all directors reporting to the VP of the new division. Weekly or bi-weekly meetings with the division’s director. Support evolved into tailored implementation of recommendations.
Deliverables & results
Answers to two key questions. Market and customer base mapping for the business unit. Definition of the BU’s vision and ambition. Securing the core historical business. Achieved annual growth exceeding 15% over a number of years.
Strategy, economic performance and business plans
Supporting companies in defining their strategy and improving economic performance: market analysis, performance analysis, key differentiators, and business plans. We work with both large corporations and family-owned SMEs to generate growth and/or increase profitability.
Project examples
Context
A technology leader faced a technological disruption that could be accelerated by pressure from the customer/partner ecosystem, potentially reshuffling the competitive landscape.
Scope
Analyze the current market status: penetration, market shares, differentiating features, and commercial success drivers. Conduct customer interviews to understand short-term migration propensity to the new solution and specific choice criteria/value proposition expectations. Implement an online questionnaire to gather quantitative data to support recommendations.
Form of support
Project composed of two analysis phases (quantitative then qualitative), followed by the formalization of a strategic recommendation. Continuous work with a broad client team to guide managers toward a shared consensus (regular calls and several workshops). Two VDP partners involved part-time. Total duration: twelve weeks.
Deliverables & Results
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Detailed interview reports.
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Analysis of online study results and synthesis of key insights.
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Perspective detailing expected market evolution, customer needs (met and unmet), differentiation opportunities for the client, and strategic recommendation.
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Strong client buy-in (team and Executive Committee member sponsoring the initiative). Client appropriated and implemented the recommendation by prioritizing two of the four identified strategic axes. The company remains the market leader.
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Context
Three international telecom groups present in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa aimed to merge to form one of the world’s leading telecom operators.
Scope
Support the negotiation process between operators. Jointly conduct due diligence on each national operator to build a business plan for asset valuation. Establish a general methodology acceptable to all three groups. Identify synergies generated by the merger of these three players.
Form of support
Upstream and downstream work was conducted intermittently, with involvement adapting to the actors’ timelines. Analytical work was carried out over three months by a large team led by a delivering partner. Initially, the work was conducted independently of the actors to develop the objectivity needed for buy-in from the three groups. We identified the main drivers of revenue development and margin levels for an operator, to apply consistent assumptions to different national operators. Potential synergies were estimated at the end, based on expert interviews and benchmarks of value generated by previous comparable deals.
Deliverables & Results
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Developed a robust and objective methodology to model a telecom operator’s business plan (fixed and mobile).
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The methodology and its results were accepted by all three groups.
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Synergy analysis showed relatively limited potential, which did not contribute to the merger’s realization. Ultimately, the merger did not proceed, mainly for human and political reasons.
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Organizational performance
Considering the organizational dimension at every stage of transformation.
In projects, organizational questions in the sense of "hierarchical structure" should not be addressed before resolving fundamental strategic and operational issues. However, they must still be addressed and anticipated early, in alignment with core business identification, governance, and processes. Creativity—drawn from our diverse experience—and modeling capabilities are essential to avoid replicating old patterns.
Project examples
Context
An international B2B service company specializing in commercial outsourcing, with €600M in revenue and 1,000 employees in France, acquired a competitor. The acquired company’s president was to become the CEO of the French subsidiary, but the organizational details were undefined.
Scope
Provide direction to managers of both companies. Structure and ensure a successful integration across all departments. Redefine key roles without overlap while offering growth perspectives to high-potential managers.
Form of support
Identify human, technical, and strategic challenges for each function. Define function-by-function integration plans. Support executives in defining the organizational structure. Organize a two-day onboarding seminar for management, followed by nine months of monitoring the integration plan using OKRs.
Deliverables & results
Pre- and post-integration organizational charts
Function-specific integration plans
Delivery of a two-day onboarding seminar
Steering committee facilitation over 9 months focused on integration
Broad acceptance of the new organization
Individual objections resolved
Fully integrated operations (commercial, operational, digital) within one year
Context
A €1.5B transport company faced a massive structural deficit. To control direct costs, the company had to radically change its production and commercial management models.
Scope
After overcoming divergences on the operational model and launching the first transformation initiatives, the General Management wanted to align the organizational structure with the target operating model. Several options were possible for responsibility distribution, in terms of geographic scope, resource allocation, and hierarchical levels.
Form of support
The mission had three components:
Identify success conditions for the target operating model
Consider existing structures, assign fitting roles to key managers, and ensure sufficient buy-in from Executive Committee members so they fully own their respective domains
Translate new responsibilities into measurable objectives and KPIs, validate conformity of actual responsibilities with the model, and define interaction modes among leaders
Deliverables & results
Target org charts delivered within 1 month
KPIs by managerial scope defined within 1 month
Operating model functioning as intended, validated by relevant decision and control bodies within 6 months
Near-complete retention of key personnel
Successful financial turnaround (€100M in savings within a year)
Enabled a second transformation phase to renew both the offer and operational model, restoring profitability
Témoignages clients
La satisfaction de nos clients est notre meilleure carte de visite
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Maximilien Hubert
Entreprise
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Jean Marc Dupont
Entreprise
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Marc Lanna
Entreprise