Customers include corporate, non-profit, and academic organizations.

WHAT: The U.S. company has business entities in over 90 countries and an international team of highly qualified business experts serving clients across most industries and sectors. Assignment: Advise the senior C-level executives and help the COO leverage the company’s position and assets to develop its enterprise customer offering to fit immediate and future customer desires while keeping growth and profit margins intact.

WHY: The company is a prisoner of its incredible success, rapid expansion, and technological advancements. Customer service excellence has been vital throughout the growth trajectory, with an increasingly automated and client-managed user experience. So far, the company has primarily relied on one product and value proposition in its offering and communication for all clients. Emerging disruptive competitors call for more segmented value propositions with an immediate, interim, and longer-term trajectory in mind.

HOW: Extensive secondary research and interviews with closer to 35 internal and external stakeholders located in North America, Europe, Asia, and India, to understand enterprise customer needs and associated challenges in international expansion journeys. Design differentiated value-proposition(s) tailored for identified creative client segments that align with the company vision, operations, and resources. Refine and verify the soundness of the proposed design, business, and future expansion logic. Deliver a turn-key solution focusing on immediate (next year), mid-term (two-three years), and long-term implementation (beyond three years).

WOW: A personal note to congratulate you! Working together has been a positive experience over the last couple of months. It has been informative and motivating to see the energy from the group, and they have generated some exciting ideas. As well as developing ideas, the group has acted as a catalyst, encouraging us leaders to ask new questions about ourselves and how to improve our customer experience. This is invaluable as we strive to be the best in the business!

WHAT: Ensure HR is equipped to support strategic business expansion, primarily within established knowledge-intensive organizations. Assignment: Design and deliver an explorative learning experience that develops a comprehensive foundation for future-focused workforce management.

WHY: Prepare HR Managers from eight pan-European insurance companies to see uncertain opportunities and adapt and act in rapidly changing contexts while keeping workforce management objectives aligned with long-term strategic goals. The program boosts confidence in defining assumptions of what is to be, experimenting with new things, and verifying findings by failing fast while continuing to support the explorative business journey in the capacity of HR-business partnerning.

HOW: Introducing the critical topic of future thinking in (insurance) business, followed by talent wars: future workforce management, and defining and exploring the transforming market in a customized strategic business war game setting to determine future strategy and cultural fit with an integrated machine-human approach. The following day participants define real-world strategic next steps and share action plans with digital transformation and corporate workforce management in mind.

WOW: During this two-day learning event, we focused on HR business partnering to support strategic business expansion in the insurance industry through an interactive war game. We aimed To identify business critical issues, Build a comprehensive foundation for future-focused workforce management, and Connect insurance with technology to transform traditional ways of doing business. Thank you Henrik Totterman, D.Sc.

WHAT: The public advertising technology company works with the world’s largest brands to optimize their digital advertising campaigns with an omnichannel approach. Assignment: Explore the impact of rapidly evolving consumer privacy and identity concerns, possibilities to diversify customer segmentations to include more long-tail, and how the company can boost cultural change among some of its more conservative large clients and influential stakeholders.

WHY: The digital advertising market is evolving rapidly, and the company has many opportunities to expand and scale. At the same time, emerging issues and trends force the industry to adapt rapidly, so it's essential to assess options carefully albeit swiftly.

HOW: Apply a lean innovation approach by defining and testing hypotheses to build a solid business proposal to address the three strategically significant challenges. Analyze the past, present, and emerging to determine strategic priorities and ways to keep accelerated growth and high-profit margins intact, even when serving smaller clients or aiming to cultivate the market.

WOW: Thanks for the opportunity. It's great to see that the future of marketing is in such thoughtful and capable hands!

WHAT: Focusing on healthy dishes and supporting a growing and loyal client base, the restaurant chain has today 5 locations and 70 employees. Assignment: Advise the Chairman of the Board and the Founding CEO in finalizing expansion plans and leveraging the company’s position and assets to continue developing profitable business in the selected markets.

WHY: The ambitious franchising-based growth strategy for the incoming years aims at several hundred restaurants and eventually expand into a nationwide chain with around 1,000 restaurant units. The investors and advisors have a solid track record to back up this bold strategy. After extensive testing, piloting, and adjustments, the restaurant concept is ready to scale and expand to gradually become a nationwide chain of restaurants, with growth and margins intact despite the disruptive forces of COVID-19, worsening labor shortage, fierce competition, and record-high inflation.

HOW: Secondary research and over 30 stakeholder interviews to gain intelligence on key business drivers: customer innovation, talent, leadership, competition, cooperation, product performance, profit modeling, etc. Present a complete short-term proposal fully implemented by the 3rd quarter of the following year, including a short-term strategy and business case with relevant benchmarks. More long-term business initiatives must be implemented within two years, emphasizing realism and maximizing the market opportunity by thinking big, risk, and growth.  Consider all three challenges: labor, cost, and competition, with appropriate comparisons to the U.S. and other market conditions.

WOW: I am grateful to have met you. The work you did on behalf of the company will remain part of us for years to come.  You inspired our founder and provided creative insights, many of which we have begun implementing.

WHAT: The newly appointed CEO of this MidCap food production company is on a mission to transform the currently unprofitable and declining commodity business into a profitable, growing, and value-adding brand led by a well-performing and collaborative team across its production facilities in the U.S. Assignment: Examine and advise strategically how this recently acquired company can become the pride of the European mother company’s business portfolio by releasing trapped value across its operations.

WHY: The vision is to provide superior customer service, create best-in-class products, and ensure a company culture that strives to make a difference for customers and brands. However, the company is entrenched in employee attraction and retention issues, profitability due to volume focus, outdated plants, and essential private label products in a competitive market. Positively the market is growing, and the opportunity to increase market share is ample with a shift to own brand and value-adding business that accelerates growth.

HOW: Show a pathway to becoming a great workplace and a value-adding trusted partner with a sustainable and efficient nationwide operation with a strong foundation in a profitable, growing business. Secondary and primary research focuses on competitiveness, profitability, efficiency, and people/culture with extensive analysis and stakeholder interviews with 30 employees, executives, customers, and partners—external analysis of the competitive market, rising costs and inflation, and labor shortage.

WOW: On behalf of the whole company team, thank you and your consultant team for the job well done. Going into this, we did not quite know what to expect, but we decided to be open and share and thought that if we did that, we would likely get better quality and more meaningful results. You guys truly nailed it, and we look forward to the final report. Thanks again!

WHAT: U.S. offers tremendous potential for foreign knowledge-intensive companies, but the market is complex and competitive. Finding a tailored and integrated entry approach is both expensive and challenging. Assignment: The Chairman and CEO of this European company are looking for a step-by-step market entry strategy and the process, considering uncertainties and risks while expanding the partner network and customer pipeline in an explorative fashion.

WHY: Chairman and CEO plan to launch the North American expansion from their newly established regional headquarters in New York in a few months. They are particularly interested in understanding this market's unique conditions, specific opportunities, and how to support transforming a well-established European professional solutions company into the North-American business landscape.

HOW: Some key priorities included building a comprehensive foundation for U.S. expansion, identifying critical business issues and questions, segmentation to optimize market positioning, and strong expansion focus. The extensive research and analysis results provide a good understanding of the total business potential, fresh ideas on strategic approaches, and underline required partnerships. The client also received an encouraging yet fact-based, conservative, and profit-driven execution plan. The conclusions also highlight unique market-related challenges identified through secondary sources, people connected with the geography, and benchmarking with competition, other industries, and regions.

WOW: Thanks for a great project; your team did well, and these new angles inspire us to accelerate expansion when the U.S. reopens after COVID-19.

WHAT: This global public company aims to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives. The company seeks to uncover opportunities at the forefront of medical innovation through partnerships through its venturing business unit. Assignment: Provide strategic advice to the company CFO and M&A Executive Director on potential strategic collaboration opportunities with emerging and smaller biotech companies based outside the U.S. and why these are particularly well suited for different forms of collaboration.

WHY: The competition among large international pharmaceuticals has increased over the past several years. Collaboration is of core importance. At the same time, significantly smaller biotech firms are less dependent. They have more alternatives to fund R&D. The company aims to optimize the potential of its extensive scientific and logistics base by seeking collaboration opportunities and by developing complementary business models in the most commercially promising areas.

HOW: A thorough market research was completed to support the company's strategic initiatives and to provide a carefully prepared proposition to drive creative and innovative business-related collaboration opportunities. The approach built on the critical question of how the company should leverage its position as one of the largest pharma companies globally and its assets to develop profitable win-win collaboration opportunities. The research emphasized aspects to consider when expanding the collaboration ecosystem and forming successful agreements and strategic partnerships.

WOW: The presentation of results was of high quality, and I enjoyed the energy from the team. Please send my regards to them again, and as you can tell, the biopharma industry is a fascinating place to grow and continue to learn.

WHAT: The City has prioritized cultivating a gaming/dining district to attract companies and visitors. Assignment: Offer strategic advice to the city Mayor and the Strategy and Business Development Officer on becoming an immersive gaming/dining district and how they can emerge from the pandemic with the economic driver intact.

WHY: The Major's Office is known for working in unison with residents and businesses to tackle the City's challenges. Working closely together makes the community the best it can be. Setting an ambitious strategy and building coalitions is necessary for the City to continue transforming towards a prosperous, inclusive, and equitable society. All stakeholders must be committed to moving the City forward toward a higher standard of living.

HOW: The foundation of this assignment builds on the perspectives of four key stakeholders the City, its citizens, its businesses, and the Chamber of Commerce. Extensive pre-research was conducted to identify appropriate benchmarks, trends, and drivers to transform the inclusive City environment into a vibrant and diverse creative business community. Close to 30 stakeholder interviews were conducted to understand engagement opportunities and how to enhance the delivery of services for all residents.

WOW: The insights on entrepreneurial strategies for the City's economic development were invaluable and thought-provoking. The process itself was gratifying, and I loved talking with these international professionals who brought a breadth of experiences from around the world to our discussions. The action steps they laid out come from a sound understanding of what can make cities innovation centers. I am highly optimistic about their successful implementation thanks to their specific directives. I would not hesitate to do this again to measure our progress in building our City of the future!

WHAT: One of the largest restaurant chains in the world with close to 15.000 locations in 90 markets. Assignment: Offer strategic advice to the Director of International Marketing Strategy and Director of Global Talent Management on ways the company can outsmart the competition in three chosen markets, followed by other vital regions. Deliverables include a complete business proposal to be fully implemented within six months and a shorter-term strategy and business case with relevant benchmarks.

WHY: The competitive landscape has become increasingly challenging over the last few years, especially regarding low customer loyalty, price sensitivity, and rapidly changing regional market dynamics. Competitors have introduced customized services and loyalty programs to secure market positions and retain high-value customers. The intense competition focuses, in particular, on pricing strategy, product and packaging innovations, service, and the quality, healthiness, and variation of food on the menu. The company is looking for ways to break away from this mold by leveraging its assets, like a strong brand, technology, and a global presence.

HOW: Extensive primary and secondary research to propose new service solutions, organization, and business models that resonate strongly with mission, vision, and values. Careful consideration was given to leveraging the company's position and assets to continue to develop profitable business in the selected markets while making appropriate comparisons to the U.S. and other market conditions. The proposed business initiatives are all implementable within two years, emphasizing realism and maximizing the market opportunity by thinking big and on growth.

WOW: Our team loved the project and wants to continue collaborating with you. The organization is now focused on this and working to transition even more to a global organization. Thanks!