Client Situation
Our client is a leading UAE-based NBFC that recently acquired a Fujairah-based Exchange House business. The client needed assistance in identifying synergies between the NBFC and the acquired exchange house business and a viable growth plan for the company.
Cedar’s Approach
Cedar was mandated to develop a business plan using the Balanced Scorecard framework to launch the new target acquisition and develop a growth and way-forward strategy for the NBFC. Following were the activities conducted by the Cedar team:
- Assessment of the exchange house market in UAE in terms of size, growth rates, and customer segments
- Examined the impact of market conditions on customer trends, critical success factors, growth opportunities in existing segments, and newer segment opportunities
- Highlighted the emerging trends in the exchange house industry with regards to technology adoption, partnerships, and regulations
- Profiled 2-3 key players with their current services, products, segments, operating model, and future plans by conducting 8-10 key market interviews
- Reviewed current business of exchange house acquired to understand key drivers for growth & focus areas for the next 3-5 years, including target customer segments, process innovations, human capital development initiatives & technology investments
- Conducted a financial analysis of the acquired exchange house’s performance to understand the revenue & profit trends, key expenses, and key financial ratios
- Identified existing customer segments that could offer quick-win opportunities from a cross-sell standpoint of exchange house products
Outcome
The key outcomes of the project conducted by Cedar were as follows:
- A way-forward strategy based on seven key areas leveraging the Balanced Scorecard framework was developed. The key areas were:
- Financials: Projected revenues & investments
- Partnerships: Potential for partnerships with players within the ecosystem
- Customer: Customer segmentation and cross-sell opportunities
- Service: Optimal service mix aligned to market
- Process: High-level improvements in critical processes
- Organization: Alignment of organization structure with business plan
- Technology: Potential upgrades required for various internal systems
- A longlist of initiatives was formulated and mapped on a prioritization matrix to determine the impact and effort for each initiative based on discussions with management
- Cedar helped prioritize the initiatives across quick wins, medium, and long term initiatives
- 16-point initiatives list developed to drive NBFC and acquired exchange house business growth & market leadership positioning as a part of strategies forward
- Built a high-level implementation plan with identified critical success factors for the rollout of the identified initiatives, including key activities, timelines, ownership, and milestones