No.1 Marine Supplies Company

Based on The Solent, the company, had sales of £500K and was making a small loss. It had recently been bought out by a team that could identify the untapped potential and had the drive and experience to make things happen. The key people were working long hours to build a sound platform but felt they would benefit from an external perspective on their overall strategy.

At the end of their strategic planning day, the directors had set themselves challenging objectives which they felt confident they would achieve over the next 5 years:-

• To be the natural and logical first choice for new and existing customers
• To gradually build profits up to exceed £250K per annum
• To acquire the necessary core capital
• To quintuple their own remuneration
• To introduce new boats to their product range
• To become more the leaders of the business and less involved operationally
• To reduce their hours

The directors thoroughly enjoyed their session and appreciated the benefits which a facilitated planning day away from their own environment offered them. In particular, it brought together all their ideas and assembled them into a coherent entity for the first time ever. Their launch pad for the future was in place.

No.2 Kitchen & Cabinet Making Company

This company has sales of just under £1 million & three owner-managers who have become too “hands-on”. Their product quality is high & national demand has led to mounting pressure, loss of focus & loss of profits. They once knew exactly where they were going & how they were going to get there but not any more. Their strategic planning day generated a range of benefits including:-

• Re-identifying their mission statement – to be perceived as leading providers of “exceptional design-led, service-driven, customised solutions” in their field.
• They could see how marginal profits could turn into £400K pre-tax in 5 years, whilst they also earned the rewards they wanted personally.
• They could see how Sales would quadruple to £4 million.
• Identifying “clever” low-cost entry opportunities which can turn into “logical add-on” products.
• The importance of immediately re-organising the use of the available office space. Efficiency levels were under pressure & staff were becoming increasingly unhappy - & the move to new premises was two years away.

They acknowledged that these & other benefits came largely as a result of making the time to step out of the cauldron their business had become & take the opportunity to think clearly & creatively in a completely different environment with a skilled & experienced facilitator.

Three years on & they have more than achieved what they set out to do, their success story having featured in the “How I Made IT” section of The Sunday Times.

No.3  Printing Supplies Company

This company had sales of £15 million & was losing at least £100K every month, having been a loss maker for some years. A leading venture capital company had invested many millions of pounds & had concluded the time had come to get out.

Ian Thurgood was appointed finance director for as long as it would take for the investor to arrange an orderly disposal of the business. At the start of the project, the overdraft was at its ceiling of £500K with the bank refusing to lend more, payments to the Inland Revenue were behind & it was increasingly difficult to keep suppliers onside. The market seemed to sense the mounting pressure, which meant maintaining sales levels had fallen leading to deep discounting on an increasing scale.

A plan was developed with the board of the company & the investor which included cash generating activities such as:-

• Sale of obsolete & out of date stock
• Sale of fixed assets
• Sourcing higher margin printing machines in Asia
• Only purchasing  stock in greatest demand from customers
• Devising a new discount policy
• Agreeing new payment terms with key creditors & the Inland Revenue

 The result was the elimination of the overdraft in about 8 weeks, which bought time for the investor to complete the sale of the business without there being the need to shore things up with additional capital.

No. 4  Accountancy Practice

A three partner accountancy practice in the home counties earned fees of £500K per annum. Despite being a proactive positive-minded firm with a name for looking after their clients, they could readily see there were potential gains to be made from having a strategic planning day. In the event, these included:-

• A reaffirmation of their mission to be regarded as the best professional services practice in their postal area.
• A plan aimed at trebling their profits.
• A plan focusing on winning new clients of the quality they WANT.
• A plan to enable the managing partner to have a shorter working week.
• A strategy to ensure improved levels of partner self confidence & self esteem via life coaching.
• A structured plan to improve the practice culture & to enhance the skills & knowledge of team members.

 As a practice, their services included facilitating strategic planning for their clients, which meant that, as well as having an unusually rewarding day for themselves, their own session enabled them to see at first hand just how much clients can gain from a day “thinking out of the box”.