STRATEGIC POSITIONING TRANSITION FOR A + €100 MILLION MEDIUM SIZE ENTREPRISE

Mr. X was the Managing Director of a family owned SME of several million euros of revenue. They specialized in the trade of convenience agroindustry goods. They called on to ND Consultant in order to help their strategic positioning transition plan.

20 YEARS OF STEADY REVENUE GROWTH

This company was making over 100 million euros revenue, with 400 employees. The leaders wanted to upgrade their management of production and BtoB sales. They experienced over 20 years of a steady revenue growth and excellent reputation on their market. Though, the executive team wanted to change their strategic positioning. Their core values were proximity and a positive value for money. They wholesaled mid-ranged consumer products, with a very aggressive rate positioning.

LOOKING FOR MODERN TECHNICS

When the company leaders decided to call on ND Consultant, they intended to have a new generation of salespeople. They wanted them trained with modern technics of BtoB sales. Up until then, the human resources approach had been rather empirical. The family-based management positioning was anchored in all the other department of the company. Management team decided to strategically maintain the new and traditional sales forces for a while. The intention was to eventually train the entire commercial personnel over a period of 12 to 24 months.

CAPACITY BUILDING

We know how to tailor a training for a customer. But only after a thorough analysis and understanding of the company functioning and positioning in their macro-economic environment. Therefore, after a first internal audit, we decided with the customer, that a simple training would not be enough. It could not efficiently support their transition. We needed to perform a more thorough analysis in order to be able to fulfill an up-to-date strategic positioning.

NEW POSITIONING AND STRATEGIC PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

The sales training took place anyhow, and thanks to the overall trainees’ satisfaction, ND Consultant conducted the consulting mission. We decided it was essential to consider all the indicators of the market. Then only, we could confirm the new positioning strategic value.

We conducted a three months market study. It helped us present the customer with several recommendations, to support their strategic ambitions on the market. Their intuition was right. Stepping into that new positioning totally made sense, from a financial and social standpoint. But the project needed to be strengthened.

Thanks to the market study, we were able to highlight several additional business opportunities for the company. We literally left them with an incubator of projects that could help the company diversify its revenue streams, for many years.

For almost two years, ND Consultant supported that company. We helped design strategic frames and implementation projects management of several opportunities. One of the most significant was the creation from scratch to initial board of directors’ takeover, of a new BtoC concept retail company…

But that is another story!

Your Medium business is growing fast? And you feel you need to strengthen your management capabilities?

Share your projects with us and we will see what we can achieve together!