Case Studies

Turnaround of an Indian Construction Company in Singapore The Situation A major Indian construction company was facing major cash problems in its subsidiary in Singapore, due to mismanagement.  Customer relationships had completely broken down after a series of broken promises.  Projects were not moving forward.  The staff were completely demoralized and the organization was hit by very high attrition.  The subsidiary was in financial distress, which was this in turn threatening the stability of the parent company in India.  The Solution To turn around the subsidiary, we deployed a highly reputed interim CEO with longstanding relationships with key customers.  The interim CEO took the following steps to turn around the company: Initiated judicial management for protection against lawsuits. As a result, a judicial manager was appointed to scrutinize the issuance of cheques. Took charge of pending projects and personally supervised their completion. Increased salaries to retain staff. The Result At the end of the six month assignment, the interim CEO had accomplished the following:  Essentially completed all pending jobs, except one that had to be re‐tendered. Collected money from buyers and avoided liquidation, without requiring injection of funds from parent organization.  Restored staff  At the end of the six month assignment, the Client asked the interim CEO to stay on. However, the interim CEO declined due to other commitments.

Rapid Business Turnaround For Two Steel Plants The Situation Achieving performance improvement missions at an Indian family-controlled steel business. Heavy losses led our client to seek significant cost reduction in its two steel plants.  Plant A: New investments had increased capacity significantly, but mean time between failure (MTBF) was low.  Plant B: This was a new steel plant, but its hot rolling was a bottleneck. The objective was to increase throughput by 50%.  The Solution WIL Group 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 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.  Second phase of improvements at Plant B continues with selective capital expenditure. 

Ensured Compliance The Situation A major pharmaceutical multi-national urgently required the implementation of a compliance system. Indian subsidiary was under pressure from its German parent to act swiftly. The Mumbai‐based subsidiary urgently needed to adopt a statutory compliance framework in preparation for a global audit by the European parent. The key deliverables tasked to the WIL Group were: 1. Review local Statutory Compliance framework vs. parent company’s policies. 2. Define Compliance Checklist to pre-empt violations.  3. Recommend process for efficient handling of compliance violation investigation and preventive mechanism.  4. Develop and recommend Risk Matrix.  The Solution The WIL Group set up a multi‐functional team comprising of a finance manager and a legal professional to review the local statutory compliance environment and benchmark it against the parent company’s compliance framework. The team interviewed various stakeholders within the organization to understand complexities and challenges; reviewed existing company policies, identified applicable local laws and developed a preventive and investigative mechanism to manage compliance violations The Result The WIL Group team structured a comprehensive compliance framework forthe company within three months. The final report included the compliance structure, a process for handling and mitigating compliance violations and a Risk Matrix for the company. The recommended compliance framework adopted by the company successfully cleared the global audit by the European parent and was implemented by the local subsidiary. 

A Turnkey Power Project The Situation An international power leader needed high level expertise to execute multiple power distribution projects in Saudi Arabia. The assignment was handled by an expert executive interim CEO from India. 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 This assignment was handled jointly between the WIL Group’s France and India offices. The WIL Group provided a very senior and highly qualified CEO from India. The WIL Group’s executive interim leader reviewed existing project management processes and set new timelines with a system of internal project controls. He provided leadership to multi-national projects 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 relationships improved as the team became more responsive. The Client issued completion certificates at the end of the engagement.

Evac Group, acquired by Bridgepoint Capital in 2017 The Situation Mission: Interim Chief Transformation Officer & Deputy CEOEvac is the global market leader, with a 55% market share, in the provision of environmentally friendly waste, wastewater and water management systems for the marine, offshore, and building industries. Established in 1979, Evac is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It provides fully integrated sanitation systems from producing fresh water to processing polluted water and dry waste on board virtually every type of vessel. The cruise sector is Evac’s principal market. With a turnover of €160m and a €31m EBITDA the company has employees in 14 countries across 19 offices. It owns assembly and manufacturing units in China, France, UK and USA. Its challenge is to build a €1bn operation while maintaining 25% margins Other challenges included the integration of new acquisitions, the creation of new delivery capabilities and the setting of KPIs. The current management team was good but overstretched. An injection of leadership and new thinking was required. The client asked that the candidate be an ‘innovator,’ a ‘change agent’ and able to create an ‘engine of continuous improvement.’ The Solution It was agreed that a transformational chief operating officer was needed to take strategic deliver from ‘good’ to ‘great’. WIL Group worked with the client in London and Helsinki to create and refine the brief. Dr. Reinhard Schiebeler was subsequently appointed from our German talent pool. Reinhard comes with a strong industry background: 8+ years as Vice President Operations & Supply Chain at GLATFELTER GmbH (Composite Fibers Business Unit) – a $1.7bn business with 4,300 employees. Previously, he was Director of Operations at Phillip Morris International. The Result Reinhard launched a major project called ‘New Horizons’ to eliminate operational inefficiencies. The project had a clear structure that received full leadership backing. The project is a major step forward for Evac and will vastly improve its market position. Reinhard and his team identified and scoped out 100 key elements to the transformation programme. He also worked closely with the CFO to implement a new ERP system across the organisation. Coaching and support was provided to colleagues at all levels within the organisation to help retain key people and encourage all colleagues to embrace and drive change. Reinhard also supported the new CEO and even after the assignment ended continued to provide guidance and advice.

Turnaround of Indian EPC Company’s Offshore Division The Situation 1. From the inception of the project in May 2013 until the contractual completion date (Nov 2014) only 5%project progress had been achieved. 2. Original contract value was $30 million less than the cost to complete (CTC). 3. No working capital was available from the customer to complete the project. 4. No proper project organization was in place, and there was a lack of procedures, competent resources and operational assets. 5. The completion date and insurance had lapsed. 6. There was mistrust between the our Client and its Saudi customer. The Solution We 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 additional time to complete the project. 4. Revise the project schedule with Client’s  approval. 5. Set up project office. 6. Find subcontractors with the right capabilities. 7. Develop a specific execution plan including subcontractor involvement for pipe laying and offshore surveys. 8. Convince the Client’s Saudi customer to provide additional working capital and cover the gap between contract value and CTC. The Result The WIL Group’s interim executive quickly rebuilt trust with the Client’s Saudi customer and achieved the following results: 1. The 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 customer.  3. A detailed revised project schedule and execution plan was presented and approved.  4. Agreement was reached with the customer to support the project with working and to look for ways of covering the CTC gap. 5. Long lead procurement items sourced.

Scaling up a new division for an Indian chemical company The Situation A startup nanotechnology division of an Indian chemical and pharmaceutical company wanted to create and implement a strategic plan for sales, distribution and growth. The company was aiming to double revenues and achieve profitability within 9 months. The new division had a substantial pipeline of innovative products but was struggling to upscale the business. It needed a better understanding of customer needs and to create a compelling proposition. Overall, the division lacked a focused strategy for customer acquisition. The Solution The company sought WIL Group’s expertise in addressing the challenge. A team of interim executives with extensive customer strategy experience was rapidly identified and appointed. The team then split the assignment into two phases: • Implementing a diagnostic study to understand customer pain points, needs and constraints as well as the quantifiable benefits of adopting of the division’s innovative technologies.• Creating a strategy and execution plan to drive customer acquisition and deeper engagement with newly acquired customers. In addition, the team segregated responsibilities within the sales and marketing team to significantly reduce approval times and improve post-sale customer contact. The Result A central part of the strategy was to engage with existing customers to cross-sell new products and innovations. The approach paid handsome dividends, doubling revenues within 4 months. With focused effort on a few large accounts, a compelling value proposition and stakeholder mapping enabled the team to reduce approval cycles from 18 months to 6 months for new business. The organization achieved a net positive run rate within 6 months.

A French telecoms client needed to audit a potential supplier based in China The Situation A fast-growing telecom network client wanted to expand its supplier base in fibre optics. The aim was to complement existing European suppliers with new, Asian companies, to optimize cost and quantity. The client identified and selected a supplier in China, but wanted to gain assurances around quality, reliability and adherence to time deadlines. The client decided to entrust a WIL Group partner in China to audit the supplier. The Solution WIL Group’s French office shared the precise objectives and audit parameters with the China office, which identified a highly experienced fibre optics expert from its local talent pool. He was pleased to accept the project. The Result The executive interim was ideal for the assignment, thanks to his technical expertise and cultural alignment with the supplier. He was rapidly able to: • Explore and confirm the supplier’s standard processes and organizational structure • Assess the various technical and operational risks that needed to be mitigated • Ensure smooth cooperation with the supplier

Improved The Performance of a Publisher The Situation The Client had multiple challenges. Their editors found it difficult to administer their websites and the news and information were not easily migrated across the same language sites around the world. Each article had to be copied to each website, leading to a significant productivity loss. The websites were also very slow, leading to high advertising revenue loss. There had been a 40% drop in traffic in the 6 months prior to engaging with the WIL Group. Also, documentation was almost non‐existent. The Solution The WIL Group provided a Global CTO to take over the code and re‐engineer it to address the key issues. The CTO set up a team in India within a month and was able to take over the global IT operations. The CTO and his new team redesigned the websites and re‐ wrote major modules. The Result The Client was able to increase traffic by 10% per month and achieved a 40% increase in revenue by the end of the engagement.

Crisis Management The Situation Bidvest Logistics (now Best Food) are the leading supplier of logistical and supply chain solutions to the UK hospitality and restaurant sector. Customers include: KFC, Pret, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Pizza Express and Nandos. •One of Best Food Logistics key customers (KFC) left due to poor service levels •This £1.4bn division of the South African-owned Bidcorp needed serious help to manage transformational change and avoid a crisis. •The division was heavily loss making with multiple sites and >1500 people providing solutions to >9000 restaurant chains. The Solution Russam placed Paul Whyte as Interim MD (and now permanent MD) to lead on the turnaround. Paul set a 5 stage strategy to move from “Surviving to Winning“: 1. Develop leading class service offer 2. Dispose of 13 of 16 loss making contracts 3. Remove £29m of cost/right size the business 4. Increase price to fair and profitable levels 5. Attract and win stable, growing customers The Result •From a loss of -£37m in 2017 to now generating a profit and  recently completed the sale of Best Food Logistics to Booker, part of Tesco PLC. •Renegotiation of a long-term deal with KFC that saw the customer return to Bidvest for supply to their restaurants from the north of the UK, where Paul had capacity to help. •This time, however, it was on profitable terms, and the transition back was “seamless.” The Managing Director of Bidvest Logistics, Grant Cox, has said of Russam, “You have provided us with so many wonderful individuals who are doing a fantastic job of fixing the business.”