B2B Business Valuation

The client wanted to value his business unit, as if it was to be sold to a VC or competitor. This would allow him to focus on building those parts of the business which added most value, and address those issues which reduced value. The methodology used was to triangulate 3 different valuation methods, comment on insights into value, assess the risks and opportunities and recommend actions to increase business value. The project resulted in a re-focussing of business sectors and accountabilities on cash and debt and re-structuring to reduce overheads in low value sectors.

Consumer Business Review

Early in 2006, a restructure of the Powergen Board led to the appointment of a new director for the Consumer business, the £500m EBIT business with 6m residential electricity and gas customers in the UK.

The new director engaged us to assist with a full review of the business, making recommendations for change. The review focused on operational disciplines and processes, together with organisational capability, and led to the formulation of a detailed plan of execution, and a degree of restructuring.

B2B Integration Review

E.On AG completed the acquisition of Powergen PLC in the UK in 2002, which was closely followed by a number of other corporate acquisitions in the UK - TXU's retail business in October 2002, and Midlands Electricity in 2003. The retail business was restructured in early 2005, consolidating the business from these acquired organisations into a consumer retail business and a separate Business to Business organisation.

Reorganisation of the business to business organisation required migration of over 100,000 corporate customers from acquired client legacy systems to the standard systems platform, and implementation of new processes to support corporate customers. This Integration Programme was the major strategic initiative for E.ON UK's business to business organisation, and with a programme team of over 80 people, was a major investment and therefore highly sensitive for the organisation.

When progress on the programme became a concern to the board, we were engaged to carry out an Independent Review, working with the programme board to recommend and ensure implementation of changes required to safeguard the programme's success.

Recommendations were made and implemented ensuring that this programme was delivered successfully.

Consumer Head Of Change

Following presentation of the wide-ranging recommendations from business strategy, through organisational, system and process change, Iain Spence was retained throughout 2006 to oversee and drive through the commencement of this major change programme.

This involved Iain Spence joining the executive management team as interim Head of Change, leading a team of change management and project management professionals, and assisting the leadership team in shaping and driving the business changes.

The change programme comprised organisational change, system implementations and improvement in process, together with launch of new propositions and branding changes. This included the implementation of a new online content management system, re-launch of the Home Services business, upgrades of mobile sales tools, migration and one of call centres, implementation of new product development processes and re-branding of the business.

We introduced new programme management and governance processes, restructured the delivery teams and recruited new capability into the business to ensure successful delivery, including a new permanent Head of Change.

Location Rationalisation

Prepared and agreed a strategy for reducing operating locations for a major services group, following an extended period of acquisitive growth. Criteria were not to be purely financial but also process co-location, staff retention and to advise on whether a ‘head office’ would improve communication and business cohesion. Recommendations and plans were accepted and the implementation begun.

Energy Efficiency Review

Utility companies are required to invest in national energy savings by subsidising customers to reduce energy consumption. A review was commissioned by a major utility to review the business unit responsible for the deployment of £60m of energy savings when it appeared the unit could miss its business targets. The review looked at the alignment of objectives to the business plan and then at issues surrounding the delivery of objectives. The review resulted in a change of leadership for the business and was used as the template for delivery of a successful result by the new leadership.

B2B Data Quality & Cleansing

One of the major causes of debt within the business was billing accuracy and timeliness, a common theme throughout the UK energy industry, largely a result of industry data flows and processes created on deregulation of the industry in the 1990s.

These processes have resulted in inconsistent accuracy of customer data. We were therefore engaged to carry out analysis of the data and identify common causes and issues to be resolved, together with wide-ranging recommendations from policy changes to system improvements and process controls.

Target Operating Model

Once the change programme was established, the change team and permanent Head of Change in situ, we were retained to support the programme and to carry out further projects.

The first of these was the development of a Target Operating Model ("TOM"). The TOM defined the processes, systems and organisational structure of the operation of the future - a top-down drill-down of the business to a level of several hundred process activities. This allowed clear communication of changes required in order to develop a world-class energy retail business, with robust operating processes.

It also led to a programme of organisational change, aligning accountabilities and responsibilities with the processes of the business.

Strategic Planning

Developed business strategy and change plan for major business services business, set up effective management capability for change, and programme directed the initial implementations.

Balanced Scorecard Development

Every great business strategy will have measurable impacts, but more often than not these impacts are not explicitly monitored by the business to see if the strategy is working. Quite often businesses continue to produce the same Management Information and Financial Reporting as they always did, regardless of a change in strategic plans.

We prevented this by producing a metrics pack directly aligned with the business strategy, drilling down from a simple view for communication to the wider business teams, to a more detailed view to facilitate business decision making.

Smart Metering Programme Mobilisation

Set up and mobilised a robust programme of change, shaping E.ON's strategy for smart metering.

Engaged the team responsible for driving this programme through both B2B and consumer businesses.

B2B Head of Change

Iain Spence led the board of the UK B2B energy business in developing a new business strategy and change programme focused on profit growth and debt reduction, inspiring the full business in its communication, and building a 3 year delivery plan and capability to achieve the business’ transformation.

Home Services Review

Initially carried out a strategic and capability review of a major home services business, which led to a number of organisational, proposition and operating changes, setting the business up for a successful growth period.

We were later engaged to carry out a business architecture design and delivery roadmap to support the expansion of Powergen's Home Energy Services business. This defined people, process and systems capabilities required to enable a quality customer journey during a period of significant growth in boiler installations, repairs and servicing.