Countries where we are executing projects

asia business building for a global financial services institution

situation:

Our client, a global financial services institution, had an aggressive assets under management target for 2010. Since a significant part of its growth was expected to come from its wealth management business in Asia, the client launched an initiative to identify the most attractive markets in the region, develop a viable business model and rapidly set up new operations.

a-connect solution:

Within 48 hours of the initial request, a-connect provided a strong team of Independent Professionals: Wing, a Chinese project manager with a background from McKinsey and Citigroup; Parkson, a hands-on former Booz Allen consultant with deep business building skills; and Ankur, a former BCG consultant who is an expert in financial modeling.

impact:

Within 3 months, a detailed business plan was written and internally signed off and the first staff moved into the new offices. The effort was so successful that the client launched an effort to replicate the business model in other new markets even as it was preparing the official opening of its new operations.

pricing for a U.S.-based provider of laboratory equipment and supplies

situation:

Our client, a leading global supplier of laboratory equipment for the pharmaceutical and university markets, was facing increased pressure from distributors and clients. A new CEO felt that there was an opportunity in differentiated pricing and wanted to run an internal project. He asked a-connect for support.

a-connect solution:

We provided two independent professionals for this effort: Dev was a pricing expert who had done pricing projects with McKinsey and ran his own consulting practice focusing exclusively on pricing opportunities; Chris started his career with a specialized company providing pricing methodology advice to airlines before joining McKinsey.

impact:

Within 3 months, our IPs analyzed the client's pricing history as well as their processes. They installed a new global pricing process and a more differentiated pricing system that took the market position into account as well as competition, innovation and other factors. As a result, the client improved its net margin by more than 2 percentage points over a 12-month period.

digital asset management for a German sports league

situation:

Our client, a German sports league, asked us to support their initiative to build up the largest digital film and photograph archive of European sports. The entire infrastructure and organization required to manage and market the archive needed to be set up from scratch. Benchmarks were not available due to the first-mover type of work. At the start of the project, the legal position of the company was unclear, as no one had tried to consolidate media rights for archive usage to this extent before.

a-connect solution:

We provided IP Thorsten to tackle this challenging project. He is a senior expert with deep experience in the online and offline media industry and its sales engines. He also has strong leadership and project management skills. Thorsten supported the internal team in clarifying the legal situation, and pushed the initiative, keeping abreast of the technical details while simultaneously orchestrating different stakeholder groups with care.

impact:

Within the first 4 months, Thorsten sorted out the legal situation and negotiated remaining media rights arrangements. He set up and managed the RFP process for the selection of the Digital Asset Management software as well as the digitalization provider. Both initiatives were delivered on time. To round out his deliverables, Thorsten helped to set up the organization to run the digital archive and recruit new employees.

turnaround of the Scandinavian operations for a global catering company

situation:

Our client, a global leader in airline catering, had operations around the world. Following the recent changes in airline catering behavior and the move towards low cost carriers, the company launched a global restructuring project, using internal resources. In Scandinavia, however, the client lacked the internal resources to drive the restructuring project for the region. They looked to a-connect for support.

a-connect solution:

Within 48 hours, a-connect identified Jens as the best IP for the project. In addition to being a project manager with McKinsey, Jens had experience in restructuring the ground operations of a major airline, plus supply chain line management expertise with Volvo.

impact:

Scandinavia was turned around within a 6-month timeframe, making it one of the most successful regions in the global restructuring program.

lean manufacturing for a global supplier of marine electronics

situation:

Our client, a worldwide leader in marine electronics based in Scandinavia, was facing an increasing backlog in one of its main manufacturing facilities located in Northern Mexico. The backlog was increasingly jeopardizing their global growth program, as clients around the world were not being served during the main selling season.

a-connect solution:

a-connect provided a senior resource to support the client within 48 hours of the request. Joerg is a German manufacturing expert who lives in Hong Kong, with intimate knowledge of manufacturing processes in emerging economies. A lean manufacturing expert with a SixSigma Black Belt, Joerg provided a unique combination to support clients.

impact:

Within 6 weeks of Joerg's arrival in Mexico, the production level was back to acceptable levels. Joerg then started a lean transformation program, switching the production from batch to line, in order to bring the operation up to world class standards.