Business Improvement & Cost Reduction

Strategic and Innovation Initiatives

Running a company is hard. But running a company profitably in 2024 is harder than ever before. The current economic climate is challenging. Businesses recovering from lockdowns and supply chain disruptions are now impacted by cost increases, loadshedding and political volatility. Markets are changing (e.g. AfCFTA, reshoring or nearshoring). Disruptive AI-technologies seem to pop up everywhere. And disruptive competitors are forever trying to take over your slice of the market. Businesses owners and execs are faced with a significant challenge and a careful balancing act:

• managing day-to-day operations
• improving performance
• improving efficiencies
• managing risks
• complying with increasing governance requirements

We can assist with the following:

• Business Model reviews
• Implementing and rolling out new projects
• Business internal rationalisations, re-organisations or restructurings
• Outsourcings or Joint ventures
• Project Rescue
• Finding processes or areas of operation to improve (see below)

• Sales or Product mix reviews
• Business Analysis or Diagnostic Studies to identify business areas, service lines or service offerings for improvement
• Process Improvements or Process Redesign
• Policies & Procedures
• Risk Mitigation

Cost monitoring and Cost reduction projects

On the one hand, Executives have to keep a finger on the many performance levers that drive business. On the other, they also have to maintain a healthy return to shareholders. Ultimately bottom-line performance and return counts. Focusing on the wrong metrics, being side-lined by vanity metrics, or paying insufficient attention to minor details can end up eating into hard-earned after-tax returns. Large companies generate truck-loads of data. Sifting through this data can take days and weeks, specifically if you do not have the right tools, and also when you do not know what your searching for. This makes it increasingly difficult to keep both eyes on the ball.

We recommend that any cost reduction exercises be conducted holistically, taking into consideration the bigger picture. This would mean side-by-side (ideally sequentially) with strategic sourcing reviews. This will maximise the likelihood of identifying savings.

We can assist with the following:

• Identification and selection of business metrics
• Analysis of cost drivers across various business functions
• Planning, implementing and management of cost-monitoring projects
• Cost simulation - digital twins