Using strategic acquisitions to provide accessible, affordable healthcare for more UK residents
Outcomes
Market intelligence to deploy £100m for inorganic growth, advancing better healthcare for 10m UK customers
- Developed a replicable framework for assessing healthcare segments and potential targets, providing a structured approach for future acquisitions
- Identified and prioritised 3 key healthcare segments from an initial pool of 260 to support the client’s inorganic growth strategy
- Shortlisted 6 cash plans and PMI providers and Top 15 target healthcare organisations, estimated their enterprise values using reliable sources, and initiated engagement for potential acquisitions or investments
Curzon Approach
- Conducted analysis of cash plan competitors and small PMI suppliers to evaluate attractiveness for potential M&A
- Set up a clear assessment framework with defined criteria and KPIs – covering financial strength, growth potential, and strategic fit – to identify other attractive healthcare segments and M&A targets
- Identified UK healthcare segments with high growth potential, large customer engagement, and strategic alignment
- Performed sensitivity analyses on top-ranked segments to validate strategic attractiveness under varying market scenarios
- Identified, shortlisted, and initiated engagement with the top 15 organisations for potential mergers, acquisitions, or strategic investments
CASE STUDIES
Read some of the client problems we have solved!
5-year strategic plan to uplift recurring revenue by 80% through organic growth within four years
Outcomes
Strategic Organic Growth Development & Implementation Planning
- Identified multiple growth pathways to reach 80% revenue growth within four years
- Developed a balanced framework of win strategies to drive incremental revenue and EBITDA growth
- Generated a 5-year strategic plan, go-to-market launch and implementation roadmap to capture the identified incremental income
Background
Curzon was tasked with developing a 5-year strategic plan for a leading distributor of medical consumables in the UK, who were faced with significant changes in the largest customer segment, leading to a material decline in client revenues and EBITDA fell below business case targets
Curzon Approach
- Sized the UK medical consumables by market segment (Private acute, NHS, Care homes)
- Created a vision for the organisation in collaboration with the client senior leadership team
- Shortlisted target segments to drive organic growth
- Developed win strategies, differentiated value propositions and business model options for each segment
- Identified approaches to extend treatment and care pathways into a patient’s home
- Developed a 5-year financial plan including revenue projections and investments required
- Developed a strategic sourcing business case leveraging GPO model
CASE STUDIES
Read some of the client problems we have solved!
Scalable strategy for growth at a UK private hospital group to unlock self-pay revenue
Outcomes
Driving self-pay growth through a data-led go-to-market strategy
- Identified a £67m revenue opportunity by producing a detailed, location-specific market model
- Brokered a strategic partnership which alone is forecasted to generate up to £10m in additional self-pay revenue
- Reduced NHS wait times for elective procedures by redirecting PMI-ineligible patients to private care
Background
In response to rising NHS wait times and increasing demand for private care, a leading private hospital group set out to expand its self-pay offering, and sought a strategic partner to drive this growth and wanted to leverage Curzon’s expertise in healthcare strategy
Curzon Approach
- Built a granular, hospital-level revenue model which integrated NHS wait list data with socioeconomic and financial assessments
- Initiated a first-of-its kind smart distribution partnership between the hospital group and broker to covert PMI-declined leads into self-pay patients, creating a new scalable growth channel
- Identified and addressed pain points in the customer journey, including recommendations to improve pricing transparency, digital lead capture and broker confidence
- Proposed enhancements to the value proposition and operational improvements to boost lead conversion and brand perception
- Created a business case to recommend a strategic partnership
CASE STUDIES
Read some of the client problems we have solved!
From one-size-fits-all to specialist rewards: Curzon builds a smarter fee structure for a private medical insurer
Outcomes
The UK’s first, data-driven, value-based reimbursement fee structure
- Crafted a should-cost model encompassing key factors: surgical time, variations based on specialism, surgeon expertise, clinical risk cost, and admin costs
- Delivered benchmarking insights showing client reimbursements compared to market averages, and specifically against another larger insurer
- Compiled a comprehensive report highlighting key findings, outlining urgent need for changes, and providing an initial should-cost model design
Background
Consultants complain about the client’s current reimbursement structure for surgeons and anaesthetists, citing rising practice costs and other unaddressed factors
- Current fee structures do not reflect specialism levels, patient complexities, or actual procedure lengths
- A “one-size-fits-all” approach fails to account for the varying time demands of different consultations
- We used an initial sample set of 20 pre-agreed CCSD codes as the basis for our investigations and interviews
Curzon Approach
Benchmarking Analysis
- Comparing the client’s reimbursements on a like-for-like basis across 4 major competitors for surgeons and anaesthetists
Should-Cost Model
- Consulted surgeons and anaesthetists through interviews and survey to understand their views on fees, and used thematic analysis to map key points of consensus and divergence
- Leveraged data on the number of surgeons in different UK specialisations, NHS bands, typical procedure time,, and private practice costs to develop should cost model
CASE STUDIES
Read some of the client problems we have solved!
UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2025
We are delighted to have been recognised in the 8th annual edition of the Financial Times UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2025 Special Report
Recommended across 12 categories an increase year on year, the annual rating, compiled with data company Statista is based on endorsements by clients and peers. It demonstrates our consistent year-on-year sector and service line growth.
Consulting companies are awarded Bronze (recommended), Silver (frequently recommended) or Gold (very frequently recommended).
Sectoral Expertise
· Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals – Bronze
· Construction & Infrastructure – Silver
· Energy, Utilities & Environment – Silver
· Financial Institutions & Services – Bronze
· Healthcare & Life Sciences – Silver
· Insurance – Bronze
· Public & Social Sector – Bronze
· Travel, Transportation & Logistics – Bronze
Consulting Services
· Digital Transformation – Bronze
· Operations & Supply Chain – Silver
· Strategy – Silver
· Sustainability – Silver
Managing Partner Andrew Morgan said
The FT Awards are a testament to our company’s continued growth, driven by our team’s exceptional talent and dedication. I’m truly grateful for their relentless commitment, passion, and ability to consistently deliver outstanding results for our clients.
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RECHARGE UK calls for new government to put renewed focus on skills
Specifically, the group wants to see radical changes to skills and training courses across the UK.
This builds upon recommendations set out in the group’s report ‘Harnessing the skills opportunities of a recharged electric vehicle sector’ which explores how the UK can equip its workforce for the exciting opportunities emerging in the EV sector.
RECHARGE UK is the EV arm of the REA (Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology). The report was produced in association with Curzon Consulting.
Ahead of the General Election, Labour said it would provide Technical Excellence Colleges which would work with businesses, trade unions and local government to provide young people with better job opportunities and the highly trained workforce local communities need in this changing world.
The government has now confirmed that it will establish a body to be known as Skills England, and reform the Apprenticeship Levy.
A briefing document states that Skills England will ‘bring together businesses, providers, unions, mayoral combined authorities and government to ensure we have the highly trained workforce that England needs’.
RECHARGE UK’s report calls for Centres of Excellence for Net Zero Skills which would see local employers sponsor courses at these sites, located in existing colleges and schools in the heart of communities. Providing additional funding, and resources to these education establishments. It would provide a clear and obvious pathway for post 19 education, where college and university graduates could specialise in net zero skills such as chargepoint installation and maintenance.
The REA’s Transport Policy Manager Matthew Adams said
We welcome the engagement Labour had with our skills report when they were in opposition. I hope that we can continue to have a strong relationship to deliver the change the industry needs to accelerate the deployment of charging infrastructure across the UK. The launch this week of Skills England prioritising the skills the UK needs going forward is a good start and I hope takes on some of our recommendations and recognises the challenges for each part of the EV sector from manufacturers, to installers and charge point operators (CPOs) to software providers and local authorities and technicians.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) estimate that by 2030, between 80,000- 100,000 jobs[1] could be created by electric vehicle and battery manufacturing in the UK. Meanwhile we are seeing a decline in the number of people qualified to operate and install electrical machinery. Since 2018 the number of people with electro technical skills has fallen by 19% from 342,000 in 2018/19 to 276,000 ± 10,000 in 2023[2].
Research by Curzon Consulting for RECHARGE UK’s report offers a unique insight into current and future recruitment concerns by charge point operators (CPOs). Of those CPOs interviewed by Curzon, 75% of CPOs expressed the view that the current skills gap was “significant” to “very significant”. Recruitment is predominantly from outside the EV industry and 25% of CPOs stated that it took them two months to fill vacancies, with 42% experiencing a lag of three months or longer to fill EV electrician roles.
Almost 40% of those surveyed also said that skills shortages were impacted by Geography. This highlights that a full national strategy like a Centres for Excellence programme could be beneficial in addressing the growing demand for electrical skills across the country.
Most pressingly all CPOs surveyed said that demand for electricians would rise significantly in future and 48% said that demand would rise beyond what the current workforce could support.
Natalia Sokolova, Partner, Curzon Consulting, commented:
With the establishment of Skills England and the reform of the Apprenticeship Levy, we are setting the stage to bring together businesses, providers, unions, and government bodies to build a highly trained workforce. Our research evidences that we must go even further to create Centres of Excellence for Net Zero Skills. The time to act is now
The report can be viewed here – https://www.r-e-a.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Harnessing_the_skills_Report-D2_Low-Res.pdf
[1] https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/CCC-A-Net-Zero-Workforce-Web.pdf
[2] https://www.the-esp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/TESP-2023-LMI-Refresh-879.pdf
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Congratulations to Our 2024 MCA Awards finalists
Curzon Consulting Earns Recognition as Finalist in Two Management Consulting Awards Categories
We’re thrilled to announce that Curzon Consulting has been shortlisted as a finalist in two categories for the 2024 Management Consulting Awards! This prestigious recognition reflects our team’s exceptional work and positions Curzon among the industry’s elite.
Organised by the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), the #MCAAwards celebrate the transformative contributions consulting firms have made throughout the past year.
Remarkably, 2024 marks Curzon Consulting’s ninth consecutive year as a finalist, solidifying our reputation for consistent excellence.
Congratulations to all of the other finalists.
Commercial Excellence with Marston Holdings Ltd
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Marston Holdings Ltd (MHL), a private equity-backed enterprise with a turnover exceeding £350 million. Primarily operating within the UK, the company caters to diverse sectors, prioritising services related to legal and regulatory obligations enforcement, including but not limited to parking enforcement, fine collection, and management.
MHL embarked on a transformative journey to achieve remarkable growth, with a focus on unlocking substantial savings through a strategic procurement programme. In collaboration with Curzon Consulting, MHL aimed to address challenges such as insufficient spend visibility, dominant incumbent suppliers, and limited procurement influence within the organisation.
Under the leadership of Curzon Consulting and CEO Martin Johnson, the project, named Project Eagle, aimed to drive sales, optimise costs, and enhance productivity. The procurement transformation programme set out to revamp MHL’s procurement organisation while delivering substantial savings.
Curzon’s approach was multi-faceted, leveraging deep data analytics, innovative thinking, and tried-and-tested change management methodologies. The process involved three main workstreams: Spend Opportunity Assessment, Benefits Delivery, and Procurement Organisation Assessment.
The Spend Opportunity Assessment phase involved a rapid analysis of MHL’s spend, identifying significant savings. Despite initial challenges, the team delivered the core assessment in less than five business days. Subsequent phases focused on implementing cost-saving initiatives, including achieving quick wins within the first two months.
The Benefits Delivery phase saw the implementation of various procurement strategies across different expenditure categories, such as strategic sourcing, product harmonisation, and make vs. buy analysis. These initiatives led to significant cost reductions.
Additionally, the Procurement Organisation Assessment aimed to enhance MHL’s procurement capabilities. Recommendations included restructuring the team, enhancing governance, and improving strategy and systems.
Throughout the project, Curzon fostered a collaborative relationship with MHL, employing a unified ‘one team’ approach and acting as trusted advisors. A well-defined governance model ensured efficient communication and problem-solving.
Despite challenges such as supplier resistance and stakeholder reluctance to change, Curzon overcame obstacles through pragmatic approaches, evidence-based reasoning, and stakeholder management expertise. The project delivered measurable results, exceeding savings targets by 28%, with a sizeable in-year cash impact. Qualitative outcomes included improved transparency in spend areas, satisfaction with new products, and enhanced trust in the procurement team.
In conclusion, the partnership between MHL and Curzon Consulting exemplified resilience, innovation, and successful collaboration, resulting in significant cost savings and organisational improvements.
Chetan, Stephane and the Curzon team were contracted to deliver an optimisation programme at Marston Holdings. The Curzon team approached the complex task with energy and professionalism, which was key to the ultimate success of the programme.
The technical knowledge and capability of the Curzon team were clear from the start of the engagement and we had total faith in their capability to deliver the ambitious goals they had been set. Marston would recommend Curzon to anyone who requires the domain knowledge and experience of a capable consulting partner. We look forward to working with them in the future
Martin Johnson, CEO, Marston Holdings Ltd
Performance Improvement in the Public Sector with National Highways
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Responding to the UK Government’s productivity challenge, National Highways (NH), in partnership with Curzon Consulting, is delivering a transformational 30% improvement in productivity and can realise a multimillion pounds in savings by 2030.
Over the past twenty years, the construction sector has struggled to demonstrate meaningful productivity improvements. NH set a challenging target of a 30% productivity improvement and a 5-10% cost reduction over Road Investment Strategy 2 (2020-25) and appointed Curzon as its strategic delivery partner.
Significant progress has been made over the last year (23/24). There has been an average of 30% productivity improvement across monitored assets, and the percentage of hours lost has been significantly reduced. This achievement demonstrates the robustness of the standardised systems and processes that have been developed and deployed.
Core enablement of the productivity improvement lies in the timely capture and reporting of performance via an innovative and interactive App, rolled out initially across the Tier 2/sub-contractor supply chain. This has enabled NH to make faster, informed decisions where there are significant variances to plan, enforcing greater accountability on the supply chain, identifying and specifying standards and best practices, and raising supply chain awareness of what good performance looks like. In turn, this has fostered greater collaboration between NH and its supply chain without requiring contractual amendments. Increased scheme predictability is tangible, with Tier 1s rebase-lining their schemes to include productivity improvements while modular design improvements and standardisation contribute additional value.
Creating and implementing a digital productivity app and dashboard has provided NH with a consistent stream of standardised productivity data and relevant context directly from the point of delivery. This has brought about a positive change in how NH and the supply chain collaborate. For the first time, NH PMs are engaging in conversations based on intelligence gathered from the dashboard. With weekly progress reports, NH can now access productivity data insights to scrutinise and challenge the supply chain, which was impossible before.
NH is using digital intelligence to collaborate with its supply chain, measure the productivity of key assets, and set improved productivity targets. They now have an efficient system for gathering, reviewing, and acting on productivity data. NH has developed a methodology to calculate productivity value and demonstrate efficiencies to the Office of Rail and Road. NH can now utilise the extensive productivity data for strategic procurement, commercial decision-making, and contracting.
The 30% target improvement is being achieved or exceeded on most asset classes, giving NH confidence that improved productivity in Road Investment Strategy 3 (2025-30) will translate into multi-million-pound benefits.
The Curzon team is making significant contributions. National Highways has been striving to set asset-level productivity baselines for over 10 years. The work we are progressing together is transforming how National Highways reviews project performance and is also beginning to inform wider industry Infrastructure Client Group.
David Bray, Programme Director, National Highways
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UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2024
We are delighted to have been recognised again as one of the ‘UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2024’ by the Financial Times
Recommended across 11 categories an increase from 8 in 2023, the annual rating, compiled with data company Statista is based on endorsements by clients and peers. It demonstrates our consistent year-on-year sector and service line growth.
Consulting companies are awarded Bronze (recommended), Silver (frequently recommended) or Gold (very frequently recommended).
Sectoral Expertise
· Aerospace & Defence – Bronze
· Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals – Bronze
· Construction & Infrastructure – Silver
· Energy, Utilities & Environment – Bronze
· Financial Institutions & Services – Bronze
· Healthcare & Life sciences – Silver
· Public Sector – Bronze
Consulting Services
· Digital Transformation – Bronze
· Operations & Supply Chain – Silver
· Strategy – Silver
· Sustainability – Silver
Managing Partner Andrew Morgan said
The FT Awards are a humbling recognition of our company’s continued growth and as a direct result of our team’s talent and commitment. I’m deeply grateful for their unwavering dedication, incredible drive and ability to deliver outstanding results for our clients.
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UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2023
We are delighted to have been recognised for the sixth consecutive year as one of the ‘UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2023’ by the Financial Times.
Recommended across 8 categories and with a Gold Award for the 2nd consecutive year, the annual rating, compiled with data company Statista is based on endorsements by clients and peers. It demonstrates our consistent year-on-year sector and service line growth.
Consulting companies are awarded Bronze (recommended), Silver (frequently recommended) or Gold (very frequently recommended).
Sectoral expertise
- Construction & Infrastructure – Gold
- Healthcare – Silver
- Financial Services – Bronze
- Public & Social Sector – Bronze
Consulting services
- Digital Transformation – Silver
- Operations & Supply Chain – Silver
- Strategy – Silver
- Sustainability – Silver
Managing Partner Andrew Morgan said
We are absolutely delighted to see the continued and consistent progression of Curzon. I am so proud of the team, as this emphasises their commitment and dedication to deliver sustainable, tangible results for our clients through strategic, operational and transformation delivery.
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2022 MCA Awards Winners
We are so very proud to announce #CurzonConsulting, has won the Commercial Impact #mcaawards 2022 award, with #RamsayHeathCare. Representing the very best of our consulting business, it’s such an incredible achievement to be recognised for our Procurement Transformation Programme. The judges said this was a team that: “brought specific expertise to a problem and rebuilt the procurement capability at speed, changing hearts and minds in the organisation.”
Established by the Management Consultancies Association, the representative body for the UK’s leading management consulting firms, the #MCAAwards demonstrate the transformational work the sector has undertaken during the last challenging twelve months.
The remarkable achievement marks the eight consecutive years that Curzon Consulting has been a finalist at these prestigious awards.
Commercial Impact: Procurement Transformation Programme with Ramsay Health Care UK
Ramsay Group operates a global network of 530+ healthcare facilities across 11 countries.
The pandemic exposed an over-reliance on a ‘single’ income source. With all elective activity (e.g., joint replacements, cataracts), the primary income source, halted overnight, but a high fixed cost base remained.
As a response, Ramsay UK embarked on an ambitious growth & efficiency programme. Curzon was engaged to design and deliver a Procurement Transformation programme.
Over 9 months, we took a pragmatic, agile and “together” approach to accelerate benefit delivery, particularly in high spend / high complex clinical spend categories.
By assessing the existing PO against a methodical and objective review against 8 dimensions we highlighted several data-driven insights; fundamentally, the PO only managed 44% of total spend; hence lack of PO involvement resulted in suboptimal category /supplier management and savings delivery.
Improvement opportunities were incorporated into the design of the new Procurement Organisation.
Our methodology was specifically adapted to address demand-side cost optimisation levers.
Through a deep dive into orthopaedics, a key benefit delivered in Orthopaedics came from ensuring the Surgeon selected the appropriate implant system (metal or ceramic) to match the patient’s profile (e.g., age, gender).
A well-established norm in Orthopaedics is to routinely implant, high quality, lower-cost metal vs. ceramic hip systems into >70-year-old patients. Our analysis showed Surgeons at Ramsay UK implanted costly ceramic hip systems in 33% of >70-year-old NHS patients. The NHS reimbursement for a complete hip replacement is fixed, so every incremental switch from ceramic to metal impacted the bottom line.
Surgeons had little comprehension of how their hip selection decisions impacted Ramsay UK’s profitability. Our insights directly influenced the Orthopaedic Steering Group’s new policy which required Surgeons to utilise lower-cost metal hip systems in older NHS patients.
Curzon established an open, trusted, and collaborative way of working with the Ramsay team, and by adopting a “one team” approach with the PO we ensured everyone involved with the procurement transformation owned the outcome and maximised the benefits from knowledge transfer during Wave 1.
Fundamentally a key part of the relationship was to ensure recommendations on cost improvement would not compromise clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.
Wave 1 has delivered £multi-millions in incremental annualised savings. In addition, the savings have translated into several £100 million worth of shareholder value.
Commenting on the success – Ramsay Health’s CFO Peter Allen said:
“Curzon helped us obtain the confidence and operational ‘can-do’ to drive incremental savings sooner than we could have expected, and then to push on to best practice performance.
Their skill was in balancing pace of change and the results imperative with the need to take the organisation with them on the journey. A key achievement was building the necessary collaboration between the many functions that needed to act together to drive benefits in complex clinical spend categories.
Curzon’s strong analytical expertise, and ability help us to take a critical view on the “art of the possible” and bring the team along on the journey to demonstrate benefits delivery was a critical success factor.
The result was a tangible and ongoing commercial win, and a new Procurement Organisation to drive cost leadership, profitability and sustainability going forward”
A massive congratulations to the Curzon Consulting team and Ramsay Health Care UK and the other finalists.
