International Growth

We have helped clients make considerable gains in the performance of their overseas operations. Our emphasis has been on improving market position and accelerating growth.

Representative projects include:

• Developing a North American strategy for a leading international bank. A newly-appointed head of North America needed to present a strategy to the board in four months. The project scope included all banking businesses, investment banking, securities brokerage and underwriting and Treasury plus assessing a potential acquisition.
  
  The project was concluded successfully despite the daunting timetable by working with nine client officers. The recommendations were accepted and implementation started in the following quarter. The bank showed a significant improvement in operating results and successfully completed a major acquisition consistent with the strategy.
  
  
• Improving relationships with partners in emerging markets. This client had recently started operating in smaller, developing markets by licensing to strong local partners. While the client had developed a process for evaluating prospective partners and helping them launch the product, it had not determined how to provide ongoing support and wanted input from the licensees themselves.
  
  The project, which included travel to five continents in eight weeks, provided recommendation far beyond the original project scope while remaining well within the original budget and time constraints. It outlined changes in the assessment and launch process, devised a governance structure to allow for ongoing feedback, defined the needed education and support programs, advocated changes in the relationship between the proprietary and the franchise businesses and called for additional technology support. The report captured senior-level interest and led to changes in the organization and staffing of the franchise effort and a substantial increase in the technology budget, as well as adoption of the suggested education and support programs, greatly increasing licensee satisfaction and participation.