Client Situation
Our client, a subsidiary of a Dubai-based investment manager and is one of the largest processors of flat architectural glass in the Middle East. With a presence of 20+ years, the client is a leading supplier of sputter-coated energy saving glass across the Gulf, with sales in markets across the globe. Given its weak financial position, the company needed to increase volumes above break-even levels and increase turnover despite a highly competitive scenario. A more aggressive sales and marketing effort would have to be adopted. The client was also considering new product development opportunities in related areas.
Cedar’s Approach
The client mandated Cedar for developing a detailed understanding and assessment of available opportunities. The client had also tasked Cedar with developing a growth strategy with the help of the Balanced Scorecard. Cedar’s approach was as follows:
- Review of all relevant internal documents related to the strategy and operations of the client
- External research using secondary data gathered by Cedar
- Over 50 interviews were conducted with the client’s internal stakeholders, customers, consultants, and other relevant external organizations and individuals
- Integration and analysis of all collected inputs
- Strategy formulation and strategy mapping
Outcome
The key outcomes of this program were as follows:
- In-depth analysis of the UAE architectural glass market
- Detailed competitive assessment and development of profiles of the top 2 direct competitors
- Cedar presented several strategic recommendations using the four perspective Balanced Scorecard framework while explaining their rationale and implications
- Some of the key financial strategy recommendations were:
- Addition of other architecture glasses (non-high performance glass) to the product range to get more business from existing customers and potentially acquire new customers
- Additional revenues to be generated from processing other non-coated glass and offering tempering services
- Some of the key customer strategy recommendations were:
- The client needed to change its perception and be recognized as a timely supplier of high-quality products
- Only some leading consultants were fully aware of the benefits of high-performance glass. The client needed to educate the market, on different types of architectural glass, their technical characteristics, etc
- Some of the key internal process strategy recommendations were:
- High-performance glass should continue to be the primary focus. Cedar also recommended diversification into processing other glass products (non-high performance glass) to increase the customer base and improve sales
- Formal processes should be introduced for monthly sales forecasting, allowing for material and production planning in advance for better lead time calculations
- Some of the key organizational development strategy recommendations were:
- To achieve aggressive growth targets over the next few years, the client leadership must provide strategic direction to the team, hold people accountable for the results, improve motivation and teamwork, and take timely corrective actions
- Suggestion to introduce a team-based incentive system in the production and maintenance department to help to reduce wastages and rejections, improving productivity