Business consultancy
We have an in-house team of business strategy consultants who are ready to be your partner for strategic planning.
Strategic thinking that moves you forward.
From defining direction to building organisations fit for their future, our business strategy consultants have all aspects of your strategic planning covered.
Our business consultancy services
Research projects
Research that extracts the information you don’t have but need to inform clear and confident decision making.
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By leveraging in-depth interviews, focus groups and surveys our customer research uncovers invaluable insights to power your strategic decisions.
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Our employee climate projects delve deep to uncover insights that will help you foster a happy and performing workforce.
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Our competitor research service delivers actionable intelligence to sharpen your competitive edge
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Our market research service provides a comprehensive understanding of your industry landscape, empowering informed decisions.
Research project > Case study
“We recently commissioned Genoa Black to get a clearer idea of what our customers thought about us. Genoa Black completed a detailed customer survey to achieve this, diligently coaxing views and opinions from busy customers in various countries around the world. It has been a successful and revealing exercise.”
Andy Bing, Sales Director, Loch Duart
Delivering customer research to help a salmon supplier find competitive advantage.
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Client: Loch Duart is an independent Scottish salmon farming company.
Challenge: As the company operated in a highly competitive marketplace, the management team wanted to confirm if the brand remained a current and relevant choice for their customer base.
Our work: We undertook an extensive international insights project with a diverse range of Loch Duart’s UK and international customers to develop a clear understanding of distributors’ and other B2B customers’ perceptions of the brand and their main drivers to purchase.
Alongside detailed competitor reviews, we coordinated a two-month-long telephone research programme with 39 customers, from an initial pool of 43 contacts, across 12 international markets and in four languages.
Business health check
We conduct comprehensive business health checks that equip you with insights that prevent failures and inspire growth.
Business growth is not fuelled by a single dimension, no matter the objective it is always fuelled by the convergence of three principles; desirability, feasibility and viability.
Desirable: you have and communicate a value proposition.
Feasible: you have the capabilities required to deliver.
Viable: you are sustainably profitable and low risk.
Our team will assess your performance against these areas and provide you with actionable recommendations.
Health check > Case study
"Our partnership with Genoa Black was instrumental in helping us address a critical need for organisational clarity. We recognised the importance of understanding our organisation's health if we were to be able to drive meaningful direction for our charity going forward.”
CEO, anonymised animal charity
Running a health check on an animal charity looking to make a big difference.
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Client: An animal welfare charity.
Challenge: The charity wanted to understand the health of the organisation so their board had more direction to support creating a valid and effective business plan.
Our work: Our team conducted health check of the organisations desirability, feasibility and viability.
Of note, the health check flagged revenue was not reliably outcompeting costs in current model. Therefore, direction was provided that any immediate work must focus on a return to stable profitability.
This led to the board putting a restrictive budget on welfare services as they are revenue-deducting, and redirecting budget to commercialising new revenue streams that would focus on driving profit.
Alongside this, the health check inspired a number of other critical conclusions in resulting business planning.
Business plan
Our strategy consultants work with your leadership team to deliver business plan development.
Covering a range of growth contexts, including but not limited to survival, commercialisation, diversification, internationalisation, market penetration and exit, our team can devise a clear plan for your aspirations.
Business plan > Case study
"Genoa Black clarified our vision and provided a comprehensive plan for achieving it. Thanks to their expertise, we now have a clear path to realising our goals and turning our vision into reality."
Managing Director, professional services recruitment company.
Defining the multi-million pound growth of a recruitment firm.
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Client: A professional services recruitment company.
Challenge: When it comes to financial thriving the firm has a clear exit in mind for its Directors, with a target of £4 million per equity holder. This vision is driving their financial ambitions.
But for this vision to become reality, it must substantiated with a business plan inclusive of well-defined stepping stones.
Our work: Our team validated the vision of the business and outlined a plan for achieving it across the next five years. A business plan was created focused on increasing their revenue from £2 million to £10-13 million, in order to support desired equity holder exit.
Business plan > Case study
"Genoa Black's expertise guided our entry into the Middle East market. Their due diligence and market insights provided the clarity we needed to validate the opportunity. And their subsequent recommendation on the entry model inspired our approach to expansion."
Tom Murdoch, Managing Director, Brimmond
Defining a plan for entering the Middle East.
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Client: Brimmond is an engineering organisation delivering hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical and electrical solutions, across energy and marine sectors.
Challenge: Brimmond took the decision to consider the opportunity of entry into the Middle East market. The senior management team believed that entering the market had the potential to further lift the turnover of the business. Too add, it was also viewed that market entry would secure the business against decline in its primary North Sea market.
Before acting they needed some due diligence executed to confirm the presence and scale of opportunity. If an opportunity was validated, they then also required an expert recommendation on mapping a business plan for entry.
Our work: Following establishing that there was in fact an opportunity, the team developed a business plan for entering the market.
Business plan > Case study
Defining an exit plan for owners of a road repair firm.
"Thanks to Genoa Black, we now have a clear path to a sale at maximum value."
Anonymous, Managing Director
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Client: An engineering business who had redefined the Local Authority methodology for road surface/pothole repair, through eliminating and replacing several activities traditionally required.
Challenge: The company senior team wanted to leverage the business in order to secure a large and immediate financial return. The key route being considered for achieving this objective was an exit via sale within 12 months. To inform this process the team commissioned Genoa Black to develop a plan to be actioned pre sale in order to maximise the sale value.
Our work: After establishing what the desired sale looks like, Genoa Black conducted a series of gap analysis audits across the organisation’s net profitability and multiplier determinants. This process identified actions in relation to ensuring the business will be achieving maximum value at point of sale.
The final output was a value creation focused business plan for improving net profit and boosting their multiplier score, in turn increasing sale value over the next 12 months.
Business strategy
Our team can work with you to ensure that the pillars of your business - product, people and promotion - are primed to support your business plan.
We offer a variety of stand alone business strategy projects that ensure key areas of your business are performing.
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Our team support with the following areas of product strategy:
> Pricing strategy
> Product messaging
> Customer journey development
Project example:
Designing a strategy for a multi-national OEM looking to launch a new product into Asia.
We helped a globally renowned engineering company, active in over 100 countries, launch a ground-breaking hydraulic pump to the Asian excavator OEM market.
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Our team support with the following areas of people strategy:
> Governance
> Culture
> Talent development
> Employer brand & recruitment
Project example:Designing a corporate governance plan for a multi-national manufacturer of automated packaging solutions.
We delivered a corporate governance plan for a multi-national manufacturer of automated packaging solutions, encompassing governance structure, the remit of leadership groups, the roles and responsibilities of leaders, reporting and meeting processes and performance management.
Following this project we worked with the business on its culture by helping them develop company values to guide behaviours, traditions and decisions within the organisation.
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Our team support with the following areas of promotion strategy:
> Business positioning> Customer acquisition strategy
Project example:
Designing the positioning of a multinational renewable energy consultancy.
We designed the transition from having one global corporate brand, which was causing confusion on the capabilities of the business within each of its active markets, to having regional sub brands united by a purpose but tailored to local service offerings and propositions.
Not sure what your leadership team should tackle next?
Unlock the power of a fresh perspective. Our free sounding board service provides you with direction on what the next steps should be for your business.
Sign up for a 30 minute sounding board conversation today.
Our team of experienced consultants will offer you a fresh lens through which to view your business and its priorities.
Our people
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Gaynor Duthie
Managing Director
Connect with Gaynor
on LinkedIn here.