For an organisation to perform at its best – to be profitable, serve its customers, undertake a successful transaction or expand – a clear strategy must be at its core.

But equally important to its success is a robust and practical operational model to support and execute the chosen direction of the business.

Grant Thornton works with clients to understand and test their operating model to ensure they reflect and enhance profitable business and growth strategies. An operating model includes:

  • how you interact with your customers and deliver the intended customer experience
  • the processes to support the delivery of products and services and any enablers
  • the roles of the people you need to support this organisational structure
  • technology to enable your business.

Where performance can be improved and cost efficiencies gained, we help develop and implement new structures, models and plans to reach these strategic goals.

We also help clients respond swiftly to market changes, identify growth opportunities, minimise costs and help business leaders find opportunities for performance improvements focused on growth and an improved profit position.

How we help

Execution of your strategic plan

The execution of your strategic plan is as important to an organisation’s success as the development of it. Our team helps shape and implement operating models that are key to sustainable success. It’s how you structure your organisation – your people, capability and processes – to deliver on the intended – even changed – customer experience, products and services.

Developing and implementing your operating model

Delivering on strategy inevitably requires changes to be made to the operating model – and such change can be highly disruptive if not managed well.

We support leadership teams, in both public and private sectors, to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency to deliver change management programs with minimised disruption and optimised results.

Our expertise includes:

  • operating model alignment or redesign
  • business process improvement
  • business performance and measurement
  • working capital management.
Understanding your customer and their experience

Understanding your customers or clients is fundamental to growing your business.

With extensive experience across a range of sectors, we help identify your targets, what solutions best meet their needs and how to drive loyalty and business growth.

We also support in assisting you to understand the current experience, through the eyes of your customer, by better mining your data. Through this a targeted improvement program can be developed to improve the customer experience, improving customer retention and reducing churn.

This includes:

  • customer risk assessment
  • customer journey mapping and experience
  • research and analytics.
Purposeful merger and acquisition (M&A) planning and integration

Providing an integrated approach to supporting your M&A journey, we work with you through all stages of the transaction to maximise deal value and performance. We take a robust approach to realise deal value through integration planning, stakeholder engagement, synergy realisation planning and management, overseeing the delivery of the integration plan and change management.

For more information on how we support mergers, acquisitions and financial due diligence process, visit our Deals page.

Optimising your supply chain and inventory

Streamlining and creating efficiencies within your business saves you money and can significantly increase your profit.

We help clients understand and leverage their working capital to maximise value and profit.

Jamie Downs
Get in touch
Partner & National Head of Management Consulting
Jamie Downs
Contact Jamie Downs Learn more about Jamie Downs
Jamie Downs
Contact Jamie Downs Learn more about Jamie Downs
Jamie Downs
Partner & National Head of Management Consulting
Jamie Downs
+61 425 775 350

Key services

Strategy

We are specialists in the design and delivery of executable strategy as well as Board advisory, C-Suite support and sustainable growth advice.

Management consulting

Our management consulting services team helps you to plan and implement the right strategy to deliver sustainable growth.

Deals

Our team works with clients on all aspects of their deals and transactions to get the deal done and implement the frameworks for long-term success.

Case study: Trading terms optimisation

Client challenge
Client challenge
Client challenge
David Jones had not formally reviewed its supplier trading terms from a corporate end-to-end view for several years and their trading income was not growing in line with sales. An initial ‘discovery’ phase quantified a significant opportunity across the business. Grant Thornton was engaged to undertake a comprehensive planning and execution engagement to deliver the identified supplier benefits. At the same time, the client was making significant changes to its supply chain operations and, therefore, these two activities were to be closely aligned.
The solution
The solution
The solution
David Jones required additional capacity to support them in the quantification, planning and execution of a structured supplier trading terms negotiation program. The team at Grant Thornton drove the following activities and tasks: establishing program governance; opportunity methodology and quantification of opportunity by supplier and trading terms; supplier engagement strategy and segmentation; preparation of supplier negotiation materials – the ‘playbook’ for each category; benefits tracking and capture.
The outcome
The outcome
The outcome
A key outcome of this engagement was to assist David Jones to run a program of works aimed at improving overall margin through collaborative negotiations with strategic partners (ie suppliers). As a result, David Jones was able to achieve their targeted in-year benefits.
Read more

Case study: Operations transformation

Client challenge
Target Australia was facing stalling revenue and steadily growing costs, with core functions not aligned and working together across the business. The merchandise and supply chain functions were driving significant excess stock volume to stores. Unprofitable stores were driving cost into the supply chain, whilst inefficient distribution centre and transport operations were driving cost.
The solution
The Grant Thornton team worked with the Target Australia leadership team to instigate an end-to-end process alignment and profitability improvement program which we called FACTORY-TO-CUSTOMER. The program was designed to streamline operations from the source of a product throughout its journey into the customer’s hands. Program workstreams included Product Sourcing, Planning, Logistics, Online, Store Operations and IT Systems. Grant Thornton co-designed and led the program, managing the program governance and commercial benefits tracking.
The outcome
The project resulted in: major cost reduction through the supply chain, through improved operations, removal of inefficient process and the incorporation of automation in two major distribution centres; enhanced product margin through streamlined product planning and enhanced stock management driving out excess stock; reduced cost base through consolidation of organisational structure around product forecasting and replenishment.
Read more

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