Case Study: Post-Buy Out-Strategic Planning Exercise

CNP was engaged by a market-leading industrial construction company to conduct a strategic planning exercise following a management buy-out. The client’s objectives were to:

• Develop an overarching plan that would grow revenues from ~$80M to ~$150M over a five-year period.
• Diversify the company’s revenue streams into emerging sectors (e.g. renewable natural gas) in order to peaks and troughs from the client’s existing industrial markets.
• Create a tactical annual business plan for each of the client’s four business units.

As with all CNP projects, we started by scoping the project to set objectives, a timeline, deliverables and budget.

Our approach to strategic planning has five steps that start with an evaluation of where the business currently stands

Amongst other things, we reviewed the client’s past strategic plan, we interviewed leadership to develop a consensus of the current strengths & weaknesses, and we reviewed financial information to shed light on where the company was growing and profitable.

We then worked with senior leadership to develop a five-year vision for the business. That vision included financial objectives as well as organizational and operational goals. This vision served as the North Star for the planning activities with a wider client group that followed.

To develop the overarching strategic plan, we held four workshops for the client’s senior leadership team. These workshops focused on identifying the key factors necessary for the company to grow, diversify and remain operationally successful. Each workshop focused on a different aspect of the plan.

The CNP team developed a detailed strategic plan which was reviewed with leadership and then presented the strategy to the client’s advisory board.

We also worked with the leaders of the client’s four, diverse business units to develop induvial plans for the coming year designed to deliver the key objectives set for those businesses. Individual plans were more tactical and in a format tailored to the business unit’s needs.

Lastly, we helped the client to implement tools and a process to implement the strategy that would ensure that there is accountability. We also help to implement a new planning cycle that would ensure that there is an ongoing cadence to evaluate where the company is and what needs to be done to grow further.

Success Factors

• A clear mission and long-term vision for the company shared by the leadership of the business (and its shareholders, if different)
• A frank and robust assessment of the current strategic positioning of the company i.e. its ability to outperform the competition to win work.  This should be based on data – customer and employee feedback, project win rates, etc
• An objective assessment of the key success factors to grow in the company’s chosen markets and a plan to address those factors
• A recognition that focus, accountability and discipline are critical to developing and implementing a robust strategic plan

Do you need help refreshing your strategy?

Reach out today to discuss how we can help. Contact: Chris Perfect