Organisations exist to create and capture value. Whether you are in the private or public sector – the products and services that you provide must meet the requirements of your customers. The market is not static, the context within which businesses operate changes, meaning companies need to understand the market forces in order to make the decisions and allocate the resources that will allow you to compete and win.
A good strategy is by no means a certainty for success. No amount of strategic planning makes up for poor execution – yet making the hard choices over the long run is what separates companies that sustain superior market performance and those that succumb to its shifts.
Aligning resource availability with resource allocation is where Finance and Strategy meet. Capital allocation, return on capital employed, market share are all inter-related elements, requiring close alignment and a coherent approach.
We underpin our strategy work by deep understanding and analysis of the market fundamentals and trends, competitors and competitive threats, customer demands and expectations, core capabilities of the organisation, and the portfolio of assets that are leveraged to create value. Through aligning the internal and external dynamics we work with executive teams to chart a path for success.
Strategic and Market Analysis
Our strategic and market analysis work focuses on creating a deep understanding of the dynamics impacting an organisation – from an internal and external perspective. This includes:
MARKET AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
Good strategy has to be underpinned by sound analysis, of which the external environment is key. Understanding the market trends as well as competitor moves are all required for appropriate positioning of your company.
CUSTOMER ANALYSIS
Understanding the customer needs, their pain points, their drivers and how they perceive value are key components in understanding the direction a business takes. As data becomes more readily available, leveraging digital insights to drive customer analysis is becoming central to our value proposition.
DEFINING THE CORE
Over time, companies with a dominant core outperform the competition, while growing and creating sustainable value through moving into adjacencies. A deep understanding of who and what the most profitable customers, channels, competencies, products and services are is essential in adequately defining and profiting from the Core.
PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS
Having a clear and consistent framework for analysing and prioritising both your project and asset portfolio is key in delivering sustainable and superior returns. Relationships between market share and returns, with a focus on the core, influences portfolio decisions.
Strategy Development
FACILITATION
An important component of the strategy development process is facilitation of management, executive and board sessions towards desired outcomes. Utilising various approaches, our team ensures the full spectrum of strategic possibilities are explored, understanding trade-offs and the decisions that must be taken, while working towards buy-in and support.
STRATEGY FORMULATION
Defining the strategy is the culmination of several key pieces of analysis and engagement. Macro external analysis, internal financial and operational analysis are all minimum requirements to understand the decisions that need to be made. The strategy (including resource allocation) must be clear on the desired or expected outcomes to be realised as a consequence of implementation.
FUNCTIONAL STRATEGY
Working with management teams to cascade corporate objectives to business units to ensure organisational outcomes are realised.
DIGITAL STRATEGY
Organisations face various challenges from rising customer expectations, competition from new “digital native” market entrants and constantly evolving business models. In order to address these challenges and stay relevant, now more than ever companies need to be aligned on their digital and IT strategies if they are to compete and win in their chosen markets.
Finance
CORPORATE FINANCE
Funding business activities, including capital structures, capital allocation, portfolio analysis and review, balance sheet structuring are integrated with the strategic process, where alignment between availability and allocation of resources must be optimised in order to balance fiscal responsibility with strategic intent.
CAPITAL PROJECTS
Project development work includes market analysis, market sizing, policy and regulatory analysis, discounted cash flow modelling and techno-economic feasibility. We work with project development teams to ensure robustness of economic assumptions utilised in determining project viability and drive towards securing bankability and financial close of projects.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Investment through acquiring new businesses or service lines requires an understanding of the strategic and operational drivers within which value must be created. Short term growth coupled with long term sustainability and the integration of different businesses must be adequately understood and alignment in expectation and outcome defined prior to execution. Our Merger & Acquisition work focuses across the lifecycle, including strategic analysis, corporate finance, due diligence and post-merger integration.
Implementation
AIA supports all our service offerings with implementation support – ensuring that we see our work through to completion. We believe that strategy not implemented is often worse than no strategy at all as this creates a false sense of progress. We are committed to walking hand in hand with our clients.
