Growth Strategy
Project Type
New Business Strategy​
Data Analysis, Stakeholder Interview, Competitive Analysis, Opportunities Identification, Opportunities Prioritization, Business Model, Acquisition Target Identification
Industry
Tourism, Health, Consumer Products, Education
Duration
3 months
Role
Senior Consultant​
​
Mentor 3 analysts, Set Analysis Framework, Set Project Plan, Give Direction & Feedback, Stakeholder Interviews, Present Findings
Background
The client's revenue was highly reliant on the hospitality business targeting international tourists. However, Thai tourism sector was volatile and high risk due to its dependency on Chinese tourists. The client needed to diversify the business portfolio and engaged us to identify new business opportunities that can generate revenue within 3 years.
Project Outcome
Acquisition Targets
4 business plans were developed based on the selected opportunities with actionable next steps for execution – including high-potential targets for acquisition
Investment Executed
In 2019, the client invested in one of the proposed targets
Research Goals
-
Identify high-potential opportunities
-
Assess internal capabilities to analyze strategic assets
-
Develop business plan
-
Identify merger & acquisition targets
Role & Responsibilities
Senior Consultant. My key responsibilities include:
-
Propose project approach and analysis framework
-
Lead 3 analysts to develop high-quality output
-
Co-conduct in-depth interviews with 6 senior stakeholders
-
Co-present key findings to senior executives (CEO, CFO, Head of Business Development)
Process
Analysis Framework
If not hotel, what business should we do?
Setting the analysis framework is one of the most difficult parts of the project since the client came to us with an enormous question: “If not hotel, what business should we do?” There are multiple ways to address this question but given the time constraint of 3 months, how do we ensure that we can conduct a comprehensive analysis to shape the direction of a 1.5-billion-dollar company?
After 1 week of 50+ iterations, my project director and I came to a conclusion that analyzing Attractiveness of the opportunities and Attainability would be the most optimal framework for this client. (Note: Sub-indicators cannot be displayed due to proprietary framework)
Stakeholder Interview
Gaining trust
My project manager and I conducted in-depth interviews with 6 senior executives as part of the internal capability analysis. Since we worked directly with the CEO and CFO in this project, interviewing the executives was tricky to maneuver as some viewed the session as a performance audit. This is how we approached the situation.
​
First, We carefully crafted the interview questions to make sure that they are objective, situation-driven instead of personal interrogation, and forward-looking - to ensure that this session is about future potential, not past performance. Then, we asked the executive to self-rate their department's readiness to scale. Lastly, the key point of the stakeholder interview is to identify strengths. We synthesized the interview results focusing on strategic assets that could be leveraged for new businesses.
