On Tuesday morning wake up and head for the airport for a flight to Madrid.

On arrival at CDG, the team – Louise, Valentin and Thomas – is already there and we enjoy a coffee and a croissant to prepare the day ahead and divide the roles of each.

The documents were printed the day before and we prepared well for this day, which is very important for the rest of the project.

Two hours later, we arrived in Madrid.

It is very nice but no time to enjoy the sweetness of Spain because the day promises to be difficult: we must present the first results of phase I of the project namely baselines of costs by function SG & A and the first results of benchmarks both internal and external, highlighting significant differences in certain functions …

The subject is delicate and it will be necessary to show a lot of conviction to have the support of the teams and to define the actions to be put in place!

So we start the morning with a debrief with the boss of the country and its financial director: they are “challenging” but the discussion is constructive and we arrive late morning to define the key actions to launch to meet the objectives. They also take advantage of our presence to push some topics already launched but have fallen behind the heavy operational constraints of their daily lives.

1PM, it’s already time for lunch and we leave with the team and customers in a restaurant where they usually go.

This is an opportunity to get to know the team better and discuss the economic context in Spain and the forthcoming elections in Catalonia, a subject that generates a lot of debate!

In the afternoon, we have reviews with the bosses of the functions concerned by the actions to be launched and who take a look outside their organization and operation.

It shows us their organization and how they work, which allows us to better understand the specificities of the country and their function as well as their expectations.

We then build together the detailed schedule for the next 6 weeks and we detail the list of data to collect before planning our next interactions.

We end the day with a quick synthesis with the boss of the country to ensure that we are well aligned with its key expectations and we return to the airport.

Everyone takes the opportunity to answer to his emails and we made a quick debrief between us.

The day was intensive but we leave with clear ideas and a customer “on-board”!

After two weeks spent to analyse and model a global energy player’s performance and to meet key stakeholders from this field, we are about to present our first conclusions and recommendations to our client. Our strategic review took into account all the products for each market and geography, technological breakthroughs as well as competitive landscape: a true 360° study that correlates our client’s historical performance to its market.
Project objective was also about predicting results in the short and long term. The project addresses major issues for this global leader exposed to the oil industry: pressure on oil prices had been intense for the past weeks and potential financial impacts are huge.

7:30 – In the lounge of Paris’ airport, I join Lucie and Christophe, the two consultants from my team, and Patrick, Senior Partner at Advancy who is in charge of this project since the beginning. We take a coffee and review our presentation together by focusing on key messages we would like to insist on. This is necessary, as we have many analyses to show. To have a real, immediate and sustainable impact, it is essential to roll out specific actions very fast. We are leaving to Stuttgart to join European headquarters.

 

10:00 – The CEO welcomes us and invites us to enter a meeting room. Management Committee is already there and I start our presentation.

Tension is palpable throughout our analyses since they demonstrate poor performance of the company for the past two years with large market share loss on several segments. About the future, predictions are however more positive than expected. Thanks to the segmentation of projects (exploration, exploitation, retail), we can show that anticipated decline is limited to specific segments and can be mitigated by the strong growth from other high-margin projects.

Following this intervention, after a few seconds of silence, the management replicates with their budget forecast for the next two years. The gap with our predictions is minimal, less than 1%! This totally validates the relevance of our approach! An intense Q&A session follows since this is the first time that a presentation so clear of the company’s performance has been revealed to the Management.

Encouraged by these results, Patrick takes over and raises the possible future scenarios to the Management. We are all convinced that it is crucial to involve business unit directors and geography leaders more into this new objective of optimizing performance monitoring. Our first estimates indeed suggest that a revenue increase by $40M is possible, which is about 30% better than forecast.

16:00 – We take a taxi to head back to the airport. During the ride, our phones ring. The CEO congratulates us another time for all the work accomplished. We can plan the next meetings, a new phase in the mission begins. Patrick confirms that the team will remain the same. Lucie, Christophe and I are very happy to continue the adventure! We celebrate all together around a drink, while waiting for our plane.

20:30 – We land in Paris. When I switch on my phone, I receive the first meeting confirmations I planned. Things are moving fast and it’s great! Another message appears in my inbox: Sebastien, Senior Partner at Advancy, telling me that our strategic review presentation at the French Industry Ministry was a real success. It is the achievement of my last mission as well as the end of a fulfilling day. I come back home with the feeling of truly contributing to ambitious projects.

A day with Florent, Principal

On Tuesday morning wake up and head for the airport for a flight to Madrid.

On arrival at CDG, the team – Louise, Valentin and Thomas – is already there and we enjoy a coffee and a croissant to prepare the day ahead and divide the roles of each.

The documents were printed the day before and we prepared well for this day, which is very important for the rest of the project.

Two hours later, we arrived in Madrid.

It is very nice but no time to enjoy the sweetness of Spain because the day promises to be difficult: we must present the first results of phase I of the project namely baselines of costs by function SG & A and the first results of benchmarks both internal and external, highlighting significant differences in certain functions …

The subject is delicate and it will be necessary to show a lot of conviction to have the support of the teams and to define the actions to be put in place!

So we start the morning with a debrief with the boss of the country and its financial director: they are “challenging” but the discussion is constructive and we arrive late morning to define the key actions to launch to meet the objectives. They also take advantage of our presence to push some topics already launched but have fallen behind the heavy operational constraints of their daily lives.

1PM, it’s already time for lunch and we leave with the team and customers in a restaurant where they usually go.

This is an opportunity to get to know the team better and discuss the economic context in Spain and the forthcoming elections in Catalonia, a subject that generates a lot of debate!

In the afternoon, we have reviews with the bosses of the functions concerned by the actions to be launched and who take a look outside their organization and operation.

It shows us their organization and how they work, which allows us to better understand the specificities of the country and their function as well as their expectations.

We then build together the detailed schedule for the next 6 weeks and we detail the list of data to collect before planning our next interactions.

We end the day with a quick synthesis with the boss of the country to ensure that we are well aligned with its key expectations and we return to the airport.

Everyone takes the opportunity to answer to his emails and we made a quick debrief between us.

The day was intensive but we leave with clear ideas and a customer “on-board”!

A day with Thomas, Manager

After two weeks spent to analyse and model a global energy player’s performance and to meet key stakeholders from this field, we are about to present our first conclusions and recommendations to our client. Our strategic review took into account all the products for each market and geography, technological breakthroughs as well as competitive landscape: a true 360° study that correlates our client’s historical performance to its market.
Project objective was also about predicting results in the short and long term. The project addresses major issues for this global leader exposed to the oil industry: pressure on oil prices had been intense for the past weeks and potential financial impacts are huge.

7:30 – In the lounge of Paris’ airport, I join Lucie and Christophe, the two consultants from my team, and Patrick, Senior Partner at Advancy who is in charge of this project since the beginning. We take a coffee and review our presentation together by focusing on key messages we would like to insist on. This is necessary, as we have many analyses to show. To have a real, immediate and sustainable impact, it is essential to roll out specific actions very fast. We are leaving to Stuttgart to join European headquarters.

 

10:00 – The CEO welcomes us and invites us to enter a meeting room. Management Committee is already there and I start our presentation.

Tension is palpable throughout our analyses since they demonstrate poor performance of the company for the past two years with large market share loss on several segments. About the future, predictions are however more positive than expected. Thanks to the segmentation of projects (exploration, exploitation, retail), we can show that anticipated decline is limited to specific segments and can be mitigated by the strong growth from other high-margin projects.

Following this intervention, after a few seconds of silence, the management replicates with their budget forecast for the next two years. The gap with our predictions is minimal, less than 1%! This totally validates the relevance of our approach! An intense Q&A session follows since this is the first time that a presentation so clear of the company’s performance has been revealed to the Management.

Encouraged by these results, Patrick takes over and raises the possible future scenarios to the Management. We are all convinced that it is crucial to involve business unit directors and geography leaders more into this new objective of optimizing performance monitoring. Our first estimates indeed suggest that a revenue increase by $40M is possible, which is about 30% better than forecast.

16:00 – We take a taxi to head back to the airport. During the ride, our phones ring. The CEO congratulates us another time for all the work accomplished. We can plan the next meetings, a new phase in the mission begins. Patrick confirms that the team will remain the same. Lucie, Christophe and I are very happy to continue the adventure! We celebrate all together around a drink, while waiting for our plane.

20:30 – We land in Paris. When I switch on my phone, I receive the first meeting confirmations I planned. Things are moving fast and it’s great! Another message appears in my inbox: Sebastien, Senior Partner at Advancy, telling me that our strategic review presentation at the French Industry Ministry was a real success. It is the achievement of my last mission as well as the end of a fulfilling day. I come back home with the feeling of truly contributing to ambitious projects.