Selected cases from our team’s B2B experience

Our experience in B2B includes several industries and projects in Strategy, Marketing & Sales, Capabilities & Organization, Operational Excellence and M&A/PMI.

European market & pricing strategy for Brazilian pulp company

Client

  • Global Brazilian pulp & paper conglomerate

Tasks & Objectives

  • Trigger current growth rate, penetrate more market segments and increase profit margin

Results

  • Optimized current pricing approach tested with two lead customers

  • Developed value proposition from commodity supplier to solution provider

  • Developed specific value creation ideas incl. testing, operationalization, client communication, selling approach, training for salesforce

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“We experienced a multinational client team with a high level of enthusiasm and professionalism. When we saw that our project results were implemented immediately with high customer impact we were extremely proud having contributed to this success“

<b>Ingmar Brunken</b>
Ingmar BrunkenAssociate Partner

Market entry strategy for selected vertical (automotive)

Client

  • Global aluminum producer of rolled products and extrusion divisions

Tasks & Objectives

  • Development of market entry downstream strategy for the Eastern European market for automotive sector

Results

  • Analyzed main trends and future outlook in the automotive industry and downstream strategy of competitors

  • Developed market entry strategy

  • Selected application areas

  • Decided on product and service offering

  • Developed business case

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“The challenge was to boil down numerous application and product ideas to those which were creating value for the customers and where our client was competitive technology- and cost-wise “

Market due diligence aluminum company

Client

  • Global private equity investor

Tasks & Objectives

  • Due diligence for financial investor to acquire parts European rolled products business

Results

  • Market due diligence on all businesses of target

  • Developed scenarios and basis for valuation

  • Developed post merger value creation plan

  • Developed negotiation strategy and own recommendation

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“Financial investors are demanding clients who require fast fact and experience based advice for appropriate valuation and successful negotiation support“

Diversification strategy for specialty steel manufacturer

Client

  • European specialty steel manufacturer

Tasks & Objectives

  • Reduction of high risky dependency from steel manufacturing and processing

Results

  • Analyzed industry segments/companies with defined EBITDA threshold and growth perspective

  • Quantified synergies to current core business

  • Defined short list with targets

<b>Oliver Renzow</b>
Oliver RenzowAssociate Partner

“The reason for success was a consequent implementation of our analysis in an M&A strategy to identify the right potential targets“

Reorganization/restructuring of global aluminum manufacturer

Client

  • European aluminium manufacturer

Tasks & Objectives

  • Organizational improvement and redesign

  • Historically grown organization without integrated processes and responsibilities needed to be reviewed and adjusted to future load and product mix

Results

  • Developed new organizational structure with clear roles and responsibilities in all operational areas (purchasing, supply chain management, maintenance, manufacturing, scrap management etc.

  • Reduced total headcount by 45%

  • Increased profitability dramatically

<b>Oliver Renzow</b>
Oliver RenzowAssociate Partner

“Dramatic drop in raw material prices and the traditional resistance towards efficiency improvements led to a high change pressure in the organization and the minds of the employees. The result was a competitive and profitable organization.“

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

Post merger integration (non-ferrous metals)

Client

  • European market leader of non-ferrous metals

Tasks & Objectives

  • PMI of target organization into existing footprint/ organization of client

Results

  • Defined integration strategy with clear milestones and responsibilities

  • Quantified potential and leveraged synergies

  • Monitored milestones

<b>Oliver Renzow</b>
Oliver RenzowAssociate Partner

“PMI is a high stakes situation for all parties involved. We found it extremely helpful that the key managers were appointed right at the beginning of the process so they could run it and direct the integration effectively.“

Strategic pricing initiative in aluminum

Client

  • Global leader in flat rolled aluminum

Tasks & Objectives

  • Development of pricing strategy

  • Pricing and price realization was not in focus for many years and had to be reviewed

Results

  • Set up system to manage the cross-price response functions as key to success

  • Asymmetric competitive reactions were considered (competitors follow if you reduce prices, they keep their prices if you increase)

  • Expansion opportunities of the value creation were identified (e.g. service pricing)

<b>Ingmar Brunken</b>
Ingmar BrunkenAssociate Partner

“After our competitive simulation exercise and the analysis of competitive and customer behavior, we had the full buy-in of the sales force, which was the basis for the project’s success.“

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

Marketing & Sales in aluminum

Client

  • Global leader in flat rolled aluminum

Tasks & Objectives

  • Marketing & Sales strategy for flat rolled aluminum producer

  • The client needed to increase its understanding of customer needs and buying behavior dramatically in order to stay competitive

Results

  • Conducted market and customer segmentation

  • Analyzed in detail stockists’ and distributers’ needs and behavior

  • Analyzed and prioritized verticals and customer segments with respect to the decision structure in the buying process

  • Decided on future focus areas for sales force

<b>Dr. Arne Duss</b>
Dr. Arne DussAssociate Partner

“The better understanding of customer needs and compromises as well as the way how they made purchasing decisions led to a complete change of our clients market and selling approach“

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

Cycle time and cost reduction for global EPC in power engineering

Client

  • Global leader in power plant engineering

Tasks & Objectives

  • Reduction of cycle time and product/ system-cost for combined cycle power plant to increase competitiveness

Results

  • Defined aggressive project objectives: cycle time and cost minus by 30%

  • Developed a modular approach and CCP performance classes

  • Optimized processes in sales, engineering and project execution

  • Developed new procurement concept

<b>Gregor Gnädig</b>
Gregor GnädigAssociate Partner

“It took a lot of effort to effectively change the way how sales and engineering work together and to change from customized engineering to modular systems. Breakthrough was only possible due to the client’s internal leadership and a fact based support from our side.“

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

Strategy development for global leader in power plant services & parts

Client

  • Global leader in power plant spare parts and services

Tasks & Objectives

  • Development of a competitive strategy for profitable growth in existing and new product/market combinations

Results

  • Analyzed current combined business and future business potential for gas turbine, steam turbine and generator services

  • Developed strategies for each product to grow profitably

  • Derived requirements for organizational changes to effectively support the agreed upon strategies

<b>Walter Gränicher</b>
Walter GränicherAssociate Partner

“After the merger of the mother companies, we started from scratch in a large new service division supporting power generation companies. For the first time, our client was able to fully concentrate on the service needs of its customers – with tremendous success.“

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

Supply chain strategy for global leader in power plant services & parts

Client

  • Global leader in power plant spare parts and services

Tasks & Objectives

  • Development of a new supply chain for boilers as components in power plants

Results

  • Analyzed and assessed current boiler supply chain and tested ongoing hypothesis

  • Analyzed market dynamics going forward to understand in which geographies the future demand will occur

  • Developed new supply chains (processes, structures, capabilities, suppliers) incl. implementation plan

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“Fast changing markets made parts of the client’s business uncompetitive – almost overnight. We had to find a completely new setup to return to profitability and to be prepared for rapid market changes in the future.”

<b>Dr. Arne Duss</b>
Dr. Arne DussAssociate Partner

Steam turbine supply chain strategy for global leader in parts & service

Client

  • Global leader in power plant spare parts and services

Tasks & Objectives

  • Development of a new supply chain, sourcing and manufacturing strategy for steam turbines services and parts

Results

  • Translated future customer requirements to load across geographical footprint

  • Developed forecast system for future demand

  • Developed manufacturing scenarios and evaluated them based on cost, capacities and capabilities

  • Defined commodity sourcing structure, aligned processes and structures

  • Developed make or buy strategy

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“We were proud to help our client in making fact based decisions fast and almost without political compromises. The result was a fast implementation and increased competitiveness in an industry with low entry barriers for competitors”

<b>Oliver Renzow</b>
Oliver RenzowAssociate Partner

Corporate strategy for Swiss global industrial group

Client

  • Swiss global industrial group

Tasks & Objectives

  • Rethinking of the current corporate strategy as the group was significantly undervalued compared to the sum of its businesses

Results

  • Selection of economic value generation as guiding principal and definition value based KPIs

  • Peer comparisons and investors’ expectations as basis for target definitions

  • Definition of 7 core strategic objectives

  • Value creation potential of the portfolio conducted

  • Agreement on portfolio development options

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“Undervaluation at the stock market forced the board and management team of our client to rethink their corporate strategy. A clear value creation focus was installed top down and implemented consequently. Stock price recovered significantly in the following 18 months.”

<b>Oliver Renzow</b>
Oliver RenzowAssociate Partner

Customer value analysis for global standards organization

Client

  • Global standards organization

Tasks & Objectives

  • The value and economic benefits of standards provided to the different sectors needed to be clarified and operationalized

Results

  • Developed a methodology to assess the economic benefits of international standards

  • Tested this methodology on company, sector and country level

  • Applied this methodology to a selected global vertical sector with a sufficient set of validated real life data

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“It was exciting to help a leading provider of global standards to measure and communicate the value of their products and services in a convincing and fact-based way.”

M&A strategy for global professional services firm

Client

  • Global professional services firm

Tasks & Objectives

  • High growth ambitions required to go for external growth options

Results

  • Clarified strategic objectives

  • Analyzed competitor landscape and customer feedbacks/needs in target regions

  • Compiled a long and short list of potentially attractive targets

  • Analyzed short listed targets in detail

  • Started negotiations with selected companies and managed merger process until closing

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“An M&A strategy is always initiated based on financial ambitions. Later, the implementation is very much driven by the personal fit of the senior executives meeting each other in the negotiations. Bringing those two elements together is the art of a successful deal.”

Supply Chain Strategy for global aluminium player

Client

  • Global aluminium player

Tasks & Objectives

  • European footprint and supply chain not optimal

  • All sites needed performance improvement

Results

  • Efficiency improvement initiatives in major European sites

  • Optimized processes and interfaces in european manufacturing setup to increase throughput times and reduce scrap

<b>Dr. Carsten B. Henkel</b>
Dr. Carsten B. HenkelChairman & CEO

“In a well balanced top down and bottom up approach we motivated the employees of our client to contribute substantially and to the overall and plant improvement concepts. This was the key for successful implementation also supported by the workers’ councils.”

<b>Dr. Arne Duss</b>
Dr. Arne DussAssociate Partner