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Executing a turnkey power project The Situation A major international power corporation had been awarded multi-million dollar power distribution projects in Saudi Arabia across multiple locations.  The projects were in disarray, with significant delays affecting profitability and eroding customer confidence. The company urgently needed to take control and accelerate the projects.  The Solution The assignment was handled jointly between the X-PM France and X-PM India offices. X-PM provided a very senior and highly qualified CEO from India.  The Interim manager reviewed existing projects management processes and set new timelines with a system of internal project controls. He provided leadership to multi-national project teams, with a special focus on adhering to group health and safety norms across sites, contractor and supplier management and cost monitoring.  The Result Rigorous monitoring and project controls started showing improved results within the first six months. A sense of ownership grew among the Project Managers across multiple project sites. Client relationship improved as the team became more responsive.  The Client issued completion certificates at the end of the engagement. 

IMPROVED THE PERFORMANCE OF TWO STEEL PLANTS The Situation The client wanted immediate cost reduction due to the losses incurred in the previous year. Plant A: Investments had been made to increase capacity significantly, but mean time between failure (MTBF) was low. Plant B: This was a new steel plant, but the bottleneck was the hot rolling mill. The objective was to increase throughput by 50%. The Solution The client requested the WIL Group to quickly put in place a team of experts (MTBF, total productive maintenance and metallurgy), on a part time basis for 18 months. The India and France offices of the WIL Group handled and coordinated this effort. The Result The WIL Group set up an initial global audit after taking the management into confidence. Three global experts were involved in the entire process. Plant A was a real success story, particularly the implementation of cost-loss matrix, TPM and MTBF. Quick results were achieved at Plant B by focusing on a few key performance issues. The second phase at Plant B continued with selective capital expenditure.

IMPLEMENTED GROWTH STRATEGY The Situation Following a strategic planning process, a US software company decided to grow its business by entering the Indian market. The Client contacted the WIL Group to execute this growth strategy. The key challenges were: 1. To gain an advantage in the Indian market, they had to move as fast as possible. 2. They needed to minimize cost and risk. 3. They needed to deploy a manager with the right interpersonal skills, knowledge and understanding of the sales process and local culture. The Solution The WIL Group proposed the creation of a virtual sales office for the Client in India. In the eyes of local pharmaceutical companies, the client would have a physical presence in India overnight, without having to create or acquire a legal entity. The WIL Group provided an experienced Indian business development manager for the Client with knowledge of the Indian market. The Result The new manager deployed by the WIL Group quickly formulated, organized and executed a sales plan. Within twelve months, the Client signed up three new Indian customers, who collectively accounted for over 5% of the Client’s global revenues.

TURNAROUND OF INDIAN EPC COMPANY’S OFFSHORE DIVISION The Situation The key challenges faced for laying of new crude offshore transmission lines for a project in Saudi Arabia were as follows: 1. From the inception of the project in May 2013 until the contractual completion date (Nov 2014) only 5% project progress was achieved.  2. Original contract value was $30 million less than the cost to complete (CTC). 3. No working capital was made available from the Client to complete the project.  4. No proper project organisation was in place, and there was a lack of procedures, competent resources and operational assets.  5. The project completion date and project insurances had lapsed.  6. There was mistrust between the WIL Group’s client and their Saudi costumer.  The Solution The WIL Group deployed an interim president to complete the project without damaging the Client’s reputation further. The plan was to:  1. Rebuild the trust and confidence between the WIL Group’s Client and the Saudi customer.  2. Establish a competent project team.  3. Amend the contract, including getting extension of time to complete the project.  4. Revise the project schedule with Client approval.  5. Set up project office.  6. Find subcontractors with the right capabilities.  7. Develop a specific execution plan for offshore/installation including the subcontractors’ involvement fr pipe laying and offshore surveys.  8. Convince the Client’s Saudi customers to provide additional working capital and help in covering the gap between contract value and CTC. The Result The WIL Group’s interim manger quickly rebuilt trust with the Client’s Saudi customer and achieved the following results: 1. The contract was amended and the WIL Group’s Client was given a 21-month extension from the original completion date. 2. A project office was set-up and a new project organization was approved by the Client’s Saudi customer. 3. A detailed revised project schedule and execution plan was presented and approved by the Saudi customer, including commercial proposals of subcontractors. 4. The WIL Group’s Client reached an agreement with their Saudi customer to support the project with working capital within the original contract value and to look for ways of covering the CTC gap. 5. Long lead procurement items sourced.

ESTABLISH A GREEN FIELD MANUFACTURING PLANT The Situation As the Client’s sales Middle East had been stagnating for several years, they decided to expand their physical presence in the region. The project would bring the company closer to customers in the Middle East and was critical to the group’s growth plans in the region. However, the company was facing enormous difficulties in expanding its foot print in the region due to a lack of internal expertise in managing a project of this size and complexity. The Solution The WIL Group selected an experienced manager to manage the project. As Interim Project Director, he began by identifying and finalizing the infrastructure footprint for a manufacturing plant in Dubai and offices in other countries in the region. The WIL Group’s manager engaged at multiple levels: extensive commercial and legal negotiations, the recruitment of key people, the implementation of IT/ERP solutions, management and financial reporting. All operational aspects were monitored and managed by him through sub-groups and by using planning tools such as MS Project. The Result The project had tight timelines with multiple stakeholders, including local regulatory bodies and banks, making it a challenge to execute on time. Results were visible after 6 months of intensive project development work. The Client obtained several regulatory approvals and signed agreements to acquire assets to further develop infrastructure. The WIL Group’s interim manager successfully completed the assignment and executed a smooth hand-over to the permanent team within the Client’s organization.

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE OF INDIAN AGRO-CHEMICAL SUBSIDIARY The Situation The Indian subsidiary of a multi-national agro-chemical company had been underperforming for several years. Key issues identified by the global management team included: 1. Lack of direction and leadership at the local level. 2. Low morale and motivation among the field staff. 3. Poor processes and follow-up on strategy execution. The Solution The WIL Group was quickly able to deploy an experienced senior executive with relevant industry knowledge to take charge as the interim CEO. The interim CEO worked in co- ordination with the global management team and set in place a 90-day plan to address key issues. The interim CEO focused on key problem areas and gaps; he took immediate action by optimizing processes and filling critical vacant leadership positions. The Result The global management team achieved greater visibility on India operations. Morale and productivity at the local office improved significantly. Key performance parameters such as revenue growth, gross margins and number of days outstanding showed significant increase over the previous year. Channel partner relationships and market perception of the company improved substantially.

TURNAROUND OF AN INDIAN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY IN SINGAPORE The Situation The nanotechnology start up division had a large pipeline of innovative products across multiple end-use segments, but was unable to scale up business due to its lack of a deep understanding of customer needs and its inability to craft a compelling proposition.   Overall the business lacked a focused strategy for customer acquisition and was unable to scale up. The Solution This assignment was split into two phases: • Diagnostic study to understand customer pain points, needs and constraints as well as quantifiable benefits of adopting of innovative technologies across multiple applications. • Creating a strategy and execution plan to enable customer acquisition and deeper engagement with newly acquired customers. We segregated responsibilities within the sales and marketing team to significantly reduce the cycle time for approvals and deepen engagement for existing customers. The Result The strategy of mining existing accounts for higher wallet share by way of line extensions paid handsome dividends, leading to the doubling of revenues within 4 months. With focused effort on a few large accounts, a compelling value proposition and mapping of all stakeholders enabled us to reduce approval cycles from 18 months to 6 months for new business. The organisation achieved a net positive run rate within 6 months.