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A leading domestic chemical company engaged Tata Strategic to formulate a growth strategy including both core and adjacent business opportunities.

A leading chemical company engaged Tata Strategic to formulate an entry strategy into the global biofuels business.

A leading castor oil exporter in India wished to strengthen its current business by forward integrating into specialty polyamides. Tata Strategic was engaged to conduct a product market study, evaluate investment opportunities and suggest an entry strategy for the client.

A leading Indian agrochemical player was experiencing static growth and declining profits after its demerger from its parent. The chemicals division of the company which contributed majority of the revenues was under pressure due to changing market dynamics and increased competition. 

A leading MNC wanted to chart out a growth strategy for their product offerings in key markets in India.

Tata Strategic worked with senior managers in the client organization to develop the plan. Key assumptions were verified. Implementation plans were developed for key functions and projects. Cross-functional issues were resolved and organizational consensus developed. Review mechanisms were put in place to monitor progress and ensure essential inputs.

A robust plan was developed and actual business performance has been largely in line with the plan. The client organization was able to achieve its best performance in several years following the exercise.

Tata Strategic undertook a detailed assessment of the coverage, effectiveness and utilization of existing systems with regard to critical business processes and ERP modules implemented. Critical issues and concerns were diagnosed along with schemes to address them. New IT initiatives were identified based on strategic priorities and technology trends. Prioritization of the new initiatives was then undertaken, from which an implementation plan was drawn up. Resource requirements to implement the plan were also identified.

The client is in the process of implementing the recommendations.

Tata Strategic was asked to enable this by using the Balanced Score Card (BSC).

Tata Strategic developed a strategy map for all businesses and support functions. The map established the link between strategic objectives under four perspectives: Financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. Metrics were identified for each objective, ensuring relevance, data availability, ease of implementation and comprehension. Depending on the roles and responsibilities of individuals, BSCs were developed for the top and middle management. To facilitate its smooth rollout, Tata Strategic ensured that the BSC process was understood by people in the client organisation responsible for its implementation and modification.

The BSC process has helped the client align the roles and responsibilities of individuals in the organisation with the overall strategic direction.

Tata Strategic assisted the firm in mapping manpower distribution and roles, responsibilities and activities of all the four categories of workers – white collar, permanent, daily laborers and contract workers across departments. It also identified activities that did not add value, and used several productivity improvement techniques to reduce man-power- clubbing and elimination of roles, automation, outsourcing and departmental re-alignment.

The recommendations are under implementation and will reduce manpower by about 23 per cent.

Tata Strategic, as the organisation’s business consultant, had to enhance competitiveness by addressing the issue of long purchase cycle time.

Tata Strategic’s approach to improving the processes focused on a phased transition from prevalent practices to proven best practices. This was carried out through analyses and providing organisational support. A multi-tiered tracking mechanism was employed to map the quality of process adoption so as to ensure its implementation in day-to-day business activities.

The client has seen a drastic improvement in response time. The favourable results achieved by the client are in areas as diverse as PR-GR cycle time, procurement cost and inventory reduction.

Tata Strategic used a structured methodology to map the client’s dealer network across the country. The dealers were segregated on the basis of their potential and commitment to the client. The analysis identified that about 60 per cent dealers who contributed toward 7 per cent of client sales could be transferred to the category of those not adversely impacting market share. Tata Strategic also formulated a new credit policy with adequate information flow mechanisms to control trade receivables.

As per Tata Strategic’s recommendations, the client rationalised its distribution network, enabling the sales team to focus on market development. The client also initiated the revised credit control policy in the organisation. This is expected to bring down trade receivables by 50 per cent.

To meet the requirement, Tata Strategic first formed cross-functional teams headed by a senior person in the client organisation, and established a mechanism to monitor and review progress (steering and coordination committee). Tata Strategic helped the teams identify key issues, analyse data and give recommendations. Further, Tata Strategic grouped the findings and recommendations and sent it to the senior management team to develop an action plan that included milestones and responsibilities. Tata Strategic also transferred the expertise required to carry out a similar exercise without assistance, to the client team.

The strategy development process has been institutionalised. Exports, manufacturing and overhead cost reduction, de-bottlenecking, quality improvement and process improvement were identified as focus areas and worked on. Additionally, the client is in the process of evaluating new growth engines. A strategy cell headed by a senior executive has been formed and the annual budget is now being prepared based on the long term plan.

Tata Strategic carried out an environmental assessment through strategic diagnosis, conducted a vision workshop involving senior and middle managers of the company, identified core competencies, and outlined the organisational structure to facilitate growth.

The client is instituting a strategic planning process to stay in line with the outlined objectives.

Tata Strategic did a cost-based analysis using tools like cost waterfall, cost element categorisation, and demand and supply side analysis. Preliminary estimates suggested synergies were possible through consolidation. Based on this, Tata Strategic designed the organisation architecture for the corporate procurement group, incorporating structure, roles, responsibilities and metrics and a broad definition of processes.

The new organisation structure has been put in place.