Exolta is a full service advisory business. Whether you need a coach, a mentor or an ad-hoc adviser to bounce ideas off through to a team to re-engineer your balance sheet or manage a planned exit, Exolta have the right team, the best approach and a cost effective way of engaging with your business. If you have a requirement not covered in our services, please make contact to find out more about how we can help.
All businesses, whether focused on growth or on performance improvement, create demands on the management team which often distract from ‘business-as-usual’.
In times when this starts to reduce management’s attention on their own development or their ability to continue effective decision making, it is often the case that a straightforward sounding board will help to return the degree of focus previously enjoyed.
Exolta recognise this and have an effective coaching and mentoring programme which helps management teams and business leaders to continue to develop, make effective decisions and to retain appropriate strategic focus whilst continuing to deliver business as usual.Book an informal session to discuss how we can help by making contact here.
Helping clients to increase performance by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of key business processes can result in real competitive advantage. Exolta‘s performance improvement experts focus on the areas of finance, information technology and governance, risk and compliance business processes. Using enablers such as change and programme management, ‘big data’ and technology, we offer a range of comprehensive solutions to our clients. Exolta possesses significant expertise in the areas of cost reduction, sourcing, partnering and shared services analysis, IT effectiveness, as well as operational performance improvement to help businesses achieve best in class performance.
Programme and Change Management
The successes and failures of major change and growth programmes in all sectors are well documented. Business-critical events like these are no place for learners. Maximising the upside and avoiding the downside is where Exolta advisers come into their own. Our carefully selected programme and project managers and directors have been through major implementations time and again, honing their skills, experience and developing valuable instincts to apply to your change programme.
Businesses in growth experience huge levels of change, driven by the need to:
- Respond to competitive threats and decreases in customer spend through the innovation and launch of new products and services
- Creating efficiencies and cost reductions by rationalising systems and processes and outsourcing low value tasks
- Work with your board of directors, corporate or senior management team to define your strategic objectives and develop your new business model
- Create and manage a programme of communication activities to generate awareness and support for your new business direction
- Enhance your project management approach to include activities for implementing and embedding change
- Transform your capacity for change by identifying project and changes into a portfolio of initiatives and prioritising this portfolio against your critical success factors
- Develop your capability for change by transferring our knowledge to your staff through coaching, mentoring and the provision of workshops and tailored training courses
Risk Management and Governance
Our work in this area focuses on the use of Risk Management techniques to help protect the revenue streams of a business. Much of our work in this area has focused upon ensuring fit for purpose governance and risk management practices are implemented (not overkill, simple, practical initiatives that deliver real added value to the business). These are developed in the context of maturing the business and assisting with the likely areas of concern when a business faces the type of due diligence performed during an exit.
The potential for IT to enable and support business transformation is enormous, but IT projects consume large amounts of resources – even in the smallest of businesses. This makes the management of IT one of the most challenging issues today. Exolta‘s approach to IT Effectiveness is based on our practitioners’ deep experience and expertise assisting some of the world’s most agile start-ups through to the world’s most successful large listed ventures with their IT challenges. Services we provide include the following:
- Aligning IT to the business processes
- Review the effectiveness of IT strategy
- Advise on the development of a business led IT strategy
- Establish the conceptual design and controls surrounding people, processes and technology
- Provide recommendations regarding IT governance, operations and organisation
Our benchmarking services revolve around two key approaches. The first is competitive benchmarking where we wish to discover what a business’ performance is compared with an immediate competitor or peer group. This can be across the entire spectrum of business comparators, i.e., finance, sales, products and services, organisation, technology, research and development, staffing, etc. World class benchmarking is where comparisons are made with organisations in different industries, with the object of being ‘best in breed’ for critically important activities which may influence market share, costs, staff motivation and effectiveness (i.e. accounts payable, standard costing) etc. Exolta‘s advisers have many years experience of devising and implementing benchmarking programmes. Common to all such activities is our desire to make the results relevant and of value to the business thus empowering informed decision making.
Strategic Development and Planning
Exolta bring to bear the very best thinking in external perspectives which help our clients to tackle strategic issues and challenges. We help our clients develop clear corporate and business unit strategy relating to changing customer behaviour, competitor business models, changing domestic and global markets, or simply by helping to structure ‘thinking’ in respect of complex growth issues. An external perspective can challenge the received wisdom within any business. We focus on the areas of strategy where our research-based, customer-focused approach can add real value. Some of the issues which challenge our clients often include questions such as:
- Why are our competitors outperforming us and what can we do about it?
- What is the size and what are the dynamics of the market and how should I exploit them?
- How is our industry or chosen sector likely to change and how do we keep pace?
- Which customer groups are most profitable, and how can we find more of them and their ongoing needs?
Businesses in growth experience huge levels of change, driven by the need to:
- Respond to competitive threats and decreases in customer spend through the innovation and launch of new products and services
- Creating efficiencies and cost reductions by rationalising systems and processes and outsourcing low value tasks
- Work with your board, corporate or senior management team to define your strategic objectives and develop your new business model
- Create and manage a programme of communication activities to generate awareness and support for your new business discretion
- Enhance your project management approach to include activities for implementing and embedding change
- Transform your capacity for change by identifying project and changes into a portfolio of initiatives and prioritising this portfolio against your critical success factors
- Develop your capability for change by transferring our knowledge to your staff through coaching, mentoring and the provision of workshops and tailored training courses
Programme and Change Management
The successes and failures of growth programmes in all sectors are well documented. Business-critical events like these are no place for beginners or inexperienced business advisers. Maximising the upside and avoiding the downside is where Exolta advisers come into their own. Our carefully selected programme and project managers and directors have been through major implementations time and again, honing their skills, experience and developing valuable instincts to apply to your change programme.
At Exolta, we focus on a range of growth initiatives for our clients. Some of these relate to inorganic growth through mergers or acquisitions. Exolta‘s experience in supporting merger and acquisition strategies and activity includes working with companies looking to acquire, or be acquired, as well as private equity firms. Exolta participates in all four key phases:
- Strategy and Deal Rhetoric
- Target Identification
- Due Diligence
- Post-Acquisition Execution
Our work in this area aims to:
- Validate cost/benefit assumptions.
- Identifying hidden value/synergies.
- Providing a list of priorities to capture short-term savings and/or customer benefits.
- Developing a list of investments to support the strategic goals.
From planning through implementation, Exolta brings its clients measurable improvements in perfect alignment with their business strategies.
Business & Financial Modelling
Whatever your current situation, you will need your business and financial models to be relevant, accurate, reliable and robust. Businesses and lenders/investors are facing an increasingly risk-based business environment, which brings added obligations for improved reporting of information and more robust and transparent analysis. Exolta can provide practical financial models which are central to these reporting and analysis functions and ultimately are fit for purpose in supporting a range of transactions/situations. All of our work in this area stands close scrutiny with banks and other financial institutions and because of the increased independence we bring, they often obviate the need for further/detailed due diligence.
Communications and Business Intelligence
Do you think that analytics and ‘big data’ are not for you or your business? The new order we are facing in commerce today sees small challenger businesses taking on the more mature, established enterprises of old. They are empowered to do so through the careful assembly and use of business intelligence. Whilst often put on the ‘too difficult to do’ list or the ‘too expensive to contemplate’ pile, our work in this area is made cost effective through the use of proven frameworks and methodologies. This coupled with Exolta‘s market leading business intelligence advisers means that we can often devise and implement a strategy in this area which adds real value at marginal cost. Want to know more? Contact us here
Often, a business itself will recognise the need to take in additional finance. Most often, the reasons for the additional finance can be attributed to:
- Expansion of the business organically, with a new or extended service or product line, expand a manufacturing facility or to expand geographically
- To fund an acquisition
- To exit a shareholder through the purchase of their shares or allow a majority shareholder to partially exit the business
If your business is contemplating additional funds for whatever reason, Exolta are likely to be able to help. We can:
- Critically review your business and advise on the most appropriate type of funding from private equity, debt solutions such as cash flow lending, asset based financing and invoice discounting. Clearly, the right mix of finance is critical as you need to ensure the business can continue its growth effectively without giving too much equity away to external funders/stakeholders
- Develop, finesse or prepare the business plan and financial modelling to support the plan
- Introduce your business or present your plan to our network of private equity houses and debt providers and other funders
- Help develop a negotiation strategy and assist in negotiations
- Provide assistance and project management for areas alien to your business
For a no obligation discussion or for more information, please contact us here.
Exolta‘s services here are designed to assist and facilitate business owners preparing their business for a future sale.
Inevitable with such a transaction is the degree of close scrutiny during a purchaser’s initial commercial appraisal and during detailed financial due diligence. Our exit strategy activities are designed to help owners prepare for this in advance. We assist by identifying practical steps that can be taken by the business in the run up to the sales process which are designed to ‘harden’ the business or enhance its attractiveness and therefore value. Ideally such activities are completed in the period of 12-18 months before commencing a sale process.
Being well-prepared for a future exit event can contribute materially to the transaction’s success and the ultimate sale price achieved.
It should be noted that the Exit Strategy we produce here is essentially a plan to ‘groom’ the business and should not be undertaken in isolation of the other services provided in this section.
Our work in this area focuses on identifying the aspirations of the key business owners and shareholders. We start by seeking to establish the degree of ‘congruent’ thinking and a test of alignment of goals and objectives in the shareholder community. Once established we undertake a series of one-to-one meetings to assess individual intentions and appetite for an exit.
Once complete, we work with management to implement plans in such a way as to support the ‘collective’ individual goals during the grooming process and the eventual exit.
Any planned exit event will inevitably involve management in establishing the most appropriate route for their personal departure from the business. In circumstances where the business owners wish to fully leave the business, succession planning must be contemplated and a plan established to replace key or critical business skills. Our work in this area can assist the owners in developing such plans and identifying key individuals to fill gaps in management after a transaction has completed. Our work here is intended to be long term and Exolta pride themselves on developing managed risk plans to allow all parties to achieve their desired goals and outcomes.
Exolta work closely with clients to determine the long term business strategy. In the context of the shareholders’ aspirations, we establish what the desired form of exit may look like and develop an exit strategy for the business and its key stakeholders. The exit strategy drives out many important aspects of the exit decision, for example:
- Is there an optimum time to exit?
- What is the current estimated exit value?
- Does the business currently look attractive to new investors/acquirers?
- Will the business exit on a rising level of profitability?
The decision to exit and the process ahead of exit can be complicated. It often involves balancing up competing objectives. Quite often these revolve around the current valuation, in particular being less than what the owner would like to achieve. In many ways this can act as a catalyst to the grooming process as an owner looks to pursue a strategy to improve the exit valuation. Exolta‘s role in the process is kept clear and straightforward. We work with our clients to determine the answers to these questions and to develop practical plans and actions to maximise the valuation of the business on exit.
