The issue
- A subsidiary of a global defence company, providing technology-based R&D solutions and advisory services to government and defence organisations and private sector companies at the cutting edge of secure communications and cyber warfare
- Despite repeated calls by Group to improve, the business continuously failed to meet performance expectations on revenue growth, profit margin and free cash flow
- The business was suffering from an overly-layered and siloed organisation structure, with burdensome management processes and lacking commercial focus
- The underlying issues were structural and an absence of effective performance management, wrongly being justified because business discipline would stifle creativity and innovation
Solution
- Undertook a business-wide design and business case development stage to anchor the current performance failings and the required changes
- Implemented over a 12-month period working alongside the business unit leadership with a structured plan;
- A new leadership team established, with stronger governance processes, metrics, and proactive staff engagement
- Simplified the operating model and aligned capabilities to market needs
- Re-framed value propositions and initiated the move into critical national infrastructure
- Implemented resource management to drive productivity uplift
- Implemented new mentoring and HR processes to underpin talent management
- Supported post-implementation by refreshing the plan
![](https://www.curzonconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Cropped-MCA2017-LOGO_winner-black-uai-258x145.png)
The results
- 29% revenue uplift (versus budget target)
- 18% Return on Sales achieved versus a 15% target for the financial year
- 90% improvement in business cash flow
- 10% points increase in Engineer productivity, with a continued increase to 74% utilisation in year 2, and climbing
- Transformed the operating model and business culture to be customer and commercially focused
- Established performance management at the business and individual level
- Underpinned changes with disciplines, governance, reward structures and visibility
- The Project won the Management Consultancy Association’s award for “Performance Improvement in the Private Sector” with full sponsorship of the client
An award-winning team
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![MCA2019 LOGO_WINNER_black Curzon Consulting award winning team](https://www.curzonconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/MCA2019-LOGO_WINNER_black-300x300.png)
![Curzon consulting mca finalist 2019 Curzon consulting mca finalist 2019](https://www.curzonconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/wards-_0004_2018-300x300.png)
![wards-_0003_2017.png](https://www.curzonconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/wards-_0003_2017-300x300.png)
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![wards-_0000_Layer-1.png](https://www.curzonconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/wards-_0000_Layer-1-300x300.png)
![MCA 2023 LOGOS black finalist 1](https://www.curzonconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MCA-2023-LOGOS-black-finalist-1-300x292.png)
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