http://www.solvingefeso.com Martin Poszgay of Heineken Solving efeso will host a workshop about "Operations Excellence in the End-to-End Supply Chain".
You will learn:
- How to shape and brand a global programme
- Ways to expand Lean and TPM concepts to the end to end supply chain
- To develop a “fact-based” management approach
- To overcome the change management and implementation challenges
- To achieve greater engagement and empowerment of teams
- To build a Global way of working
- To improve KPI management to focus on what really matters


]]> increasingly important...
For further info read our press release ]]>
TPM Excellence Award

• Tetra Pak Packaging Solutions AB Supply Chain Operations - Capital Equipment Lund, Sweden, Europe
• Tetra Pak Packaging Solutions SpA Supply Chain Operations - Capital Equipment Modena, Italy, Europe

Excellence in Consistent TPM Commitment

• Grupa Żywiec S.A. Browar, Żywiec, Poland, Europe
• Heineken Netherlands Supply Heineken Brewery 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, Europe
• Tetra Pak Packaging Solutions AB CE Sealing & Creasing, Lund, Sweden, Europe

Read the List of Awards gained by our customers for a complete overview ]]> Corniche Al-Maadi, Cairo
tel.: +202-2528-0366
info.egypt@solvingefeso.com ]]> Mushtaq Mohammed Khan
Expert in Strategy and Marketing

Mushtaq has over sixteen years of research, advisory and strategy consulting experience assisting startups, mid-sized and large companies in the development of business, growth, marketing, competitive and customer strategies, as well as providing hands-on implementation support. He consults companies that are typically revisiting and updating their strategy, starting new business, embarking on diversification or expansion programs, or aspiring to enter global markets. His recent projects include development and implementation of marketing strategy for a large consumer food manufacturer, developing a global expansion plan for a company operating in the energy sector, setting the business strategy for a furniture company that was acquired by a large business conglomerate and market growth strategy for a leading telecom data solutions provider. He has advised many large and medium size global and local companies operating in the South Asia, Middle East and North Africa regions. His consulting experience spans such diverse sectors as Environmental Technologies, Building Technologies, General Engineering, Power Supplies, and Metal.

Mushtaq has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Bharathidasan University, India, and general management education from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Prior to joining Solving Efeso, Mushtaq was Director of Consulting at Hands-on Management Consulting, Cairo between 2009 and 2012, and before that he was Deputy Director and Head of Frost & Sullivan’s Environmental & Building Technologies practice for South Asia and Middle East regions for 5 years in India. Mushtaq has been widely quoted in leading national business dailies in India and Middle East, industry journals and internet based publications on subjects such as electronic security, energy and power. He has been a speaker at various national and international events and conferences.
]]> Ahmed Aboulmajd
Expert in Healthcare, Strategy, and Marketing

Ahmed Aboulmajd is an experienced consultant with expertise in strategy, marketing and healthcare consulting. His experience spans sectors such as healthcare, retail, furniture, food products and consumer goods.

His primary area of focus is healthcare consulting where he assists hospitals, medical services companies, and healthcare management companies in developing strategy, project feasibility studies, and services marketing plans.

Ahmed is a medical doctor graduated from the School of Medicine, Cairo University. He has a M.Sc. in Neuropsychiatry from Ain Shams University. He later earned his MBA from the American University in Cairo (AUC). He has also completed a Diploma in Healthcare Management from the Institute of Management Development (AUC).
]]> Hesham Dinana
Expert in Strategy, Marketing, Healthcare Management, and General Management
Vice President

Dr. Dinana has over twenty five years of experience in service marketing, product management, information technology management, strategic customer care and hi-tech manufacturing. He is an expert in the areas of strategic management, marketing, IT management and customer care, and has hands on experience in strategy and marketing consulting covering such diverse sectors as healthcare, ICT, real estate, insurance, food and agro industries, furniture, and FMCG.

Before coming to Egypt in 1999 to start hands on Management Consulting, he has held various managerial positions at Philips Medical Systems, North America. Hands on Management Consulting was merged with Solving Efeso in early 2012. Dr. Dinana teaches Strategic Management and Marketing courses at the American University in Cairo and Arab Academy for Science & Technology. Besides, he is a member on the board of Chamber of Information and Communication Technology (CIT).

He has a DBA in Healthcare Management, a MBA and bachelor’s degree in Systems & Biomedical Engineering. He is a Certified Management Consultant by the Institute of Management Consultancy, UK; a Certified Board Director by the Capital Market Authority and The Institute of Directors, and holds memberships in various management and industry associations.

Dr. Dinana has given numerous interactive talks/training courses to senior and middle managers and served as a speaker at numerous international conferences.
]]> Solving Efeso made its foray into Egypt by merging with hands on Management Consulting, a leading international consulting firm that started its operations in 1999 with permanent offices in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Today, Solving Efeso Egypt brings together a strong lineup of strategy, marketing and operational consulting experts as well as experts in training and organizational development. The hands on industry and consulting experience of consultants in diverse but interrelated areas of consulting has made it possible to offer complete, practical, market-centric solutions for clients’ business problems, as well as support them in implementation and managing change. This ‘Strategy in Action’ approach provides solutions that are sustainable, even long after we are gone.

The Egyptian team has strong experience working across different industry sectors and on a diverse set of complex business challenges. It has developed pragmatic business turnaround solutions for companies operating in the FMCG, food and agro, consumer goods, insurance, healthcare, retail and franchising, furniture, real estate and engineering sectors, as well as developing sector-level strategy for key national sectors such as IT hardware, private healthcare insurance, medical equipment, and medium and small scale industries.

The Egyptian team is always on the lookout for adding bright and highly qualified individuals who like to work in thriving competitive environment and have the natural ability to understand business aspiration, issues and challenges of companies, and deliver long lasting workable solutions. Solving Efeso Egypt offers a sound platform for professional growth and developing a rewarding career.
]]> Innovation to revive brands is a must in the next years as a solution to the crisis due on one side to the loss of interest by the side of the consumers and on the other side due to the need to cut costs that sometimes also affects the creative area of companies.
Jolanta Bak, Vice President of Solving Efeso and Expert in brand strategy, explains in the interview to ItaliaOggi, an Italian business and economics newspaper, that “from food to fashion, all companies need to keep the right empathy with their customers, just like entertainment companies do. The strategy of the brands must change both for the products and for the distribution starting from a new creativity. In this phase, the biggest brands are suffering most and it not only depends on their dimension but also on the great bureaucracy that slows their capability to implement the soft-innovation”
Bak gives some examples of her theory.”It took twenty years for Coca-Cola to launch a new product on the market like Coke Zero, after Diet Coke, which dates back to the ‘80s. And also Nivea and Nutella must protect their uniqueness by enhancing their history. Most brands will have to make a choice between cutting the costs or managing their brand in the best way”.
The luxury sector that still can invest in innovation. The reason is that the growth rate of rich people (14%) is higher than demographic rate (12,6%). Moreover in the emerging countries the target of rich and single women is growing more and more powerful, the so called “me-generation”.
Outsourcing production is a means that has enabled many companies to produce more with lower costs, but for the luxury brand there is a high risk to disillusion your customers. “European brands are known for their great craftsmanship and probably the customer will soon be willing to know exactly where a product has been made”.
Another group that brands should consider is the new creative power of middle class Europeans and Americans around 40 years, who suddenly change their career. In the US every 11 seconds a new one person company is born: a great incentive to brands to think about creativity.

Read the full article in Italian ]]> Client Situation

• A major real estate investment institution based in Abu Dhabi, UAE
• Joint investment with a Qatari company, to purchase and develop a 100 hectare plot of land located in Doha, Qatar
• Vision to develop the land into an Entertainment City
• First draft of master plan and projected investment cost: $3 billion

Important Issues

• The client’s development is a large scale mixed-use development, comprising 18 principal zones offering a mix of themed hotel, serviced apartment, food and beverage, spa, meeting, retail, entertainment, resort-style residential and boutique office accommodation
• The concept, lifestyle and theme had to fit the overall City master plan developed by the Qatari partner

Activities

• Lead consultant on all project components, and supervision of specialized consultancies appointed by Solving Efeso to undertake detailed market research and analysis on the retail and entertainment components; The rest was performed by Solving Efeso consultants
• Site inspection and intensive field research into the 9 key markets of relevance
• Designed and prepared 56 separate financial models (P&L and cash flow statements) pertaining to each district of the city, including KFI such as NPV, IRR and payback periods

Benefits Delivered

• Challenged the existing development program, based on our own market analysis and findings,
• Proposed a revised development strategy and supported the specification of the new master plan
• Prepared presentation to the Qatari partner on behalf of the client
• Supported the client’s teams in preparing the PPM (Private Placement Memorandum)

]]> Borg al Qanonien, 13th floor, Suite 154
Corniche Al-Maadi, Cairo
tel.: +202-2528-0366
info.egypt@solvingefeso.com ]]> press release for furher details ]]> The Accelerated Solution Lab is the right tool to face it all.
Imagine the Marketing Department working together with Production, Logistics and Top Managementin a two, three, four days of intense laboratory, in a wide creative environment with facilitation methods borrowed from various fields of knowledge where who knows can work with who does and with who decides without any hierarchical constraint.
In a few days you get the results a company would expect in at least one semester.
"Just like an artist drawing a portrait, we start making a draft to progressively define outlines and details.The activity pace is marked by music and spaces are constantly modified to steer creativity and make people think out of the box” says Matteo Andreacchio, Vice President Solving Efeso interviews by Persone & Conoscenze, the Italian review addressed to HR Managers and Trainers.
Once the solution are identified, Solving Efeso can work in tandem with the client for their implementation with the aim of creating at the client mastery and autonomy, the only guarantees for a permanent change.

]]> “Through intensive 2 or 3 days collaborative sessions it is possible to reach concrete solutions that suite the company’s needs” explains Matteo Andreacchio,vicepresident of Solving Efeso to Affari& Finanza of La Republica, one of the major Italian Newspaper. The approach that enables to save months of work to get quick and best fitting solutions is the Accelerated Solutions Lab, ASL.
First developed in the Seventies is nowadays gaining great success since itperfectly responds to the contemporary economic context. Intesa San Paolo, Abb and Unieuro are some examples of big groups which have experienced ASL as amean to reorganize quickly with the best efficiency their competitiveness with a low investment.
ASL is a different kind of consulting based on the founding principle that a groups have higher potential than individuals, or sum of multiple individuals.
ASL proposes a new concept of training, based on the involvement of all fields of a company inorder to find global solutions by activating all different points of view to consider a problem. With 8 hour nonstop sessions involving from 20 up to 150 people, the meeting agenda is inspired by different interaction models, such as brain working procedures, as well as by social networks, insects communities and Montessori pedagogic method, that's why we introduce toys in our environment, to eliminate barriers and involve everyone.

Read the full article in Italian


]]> Solving Efeso is pleased to announce, in cooperation with Maema in Italy (dedicated to the introduction of Japanese management methods in Western Companies) and Hirayama Consulting Co., Ltd. in Japan, a New Kaizen Japan Study Tour which will take place from April 15th to April 22nd.
By joining this tour you will get first-hand insight and experience as you visit leading plants of leading Japanese organizations, participate in practical training sessions, and engage with your peers.
For more information about this tour please contact Mariagrazia Peraboni at Solving Efeso via mariagrazia.peraboni@solvingefeso.com
Download the Rich Programme

]]> LLamasoft, the company that provides software and expertise to design and improve supply chain network operations.
The partnership adds LLamasoft’s Supply Chain Guru® application into Solving Efeso’s supply chain services.

Read our press release for further details
]]> Management Review. "Armen Petrossian succeeded in creating a famous brand, as famous as the leading haute couture fashion houses", says Philippe Jaegy, of Solving Efeso, a consulting company specialised in luxury.
]]> ]]> La Lettre des achats" on its research done in the biscuits, chocolate and confectionary industries in France.
]]> press release ]]> Client Context

• A French investment bank, specialised in the management of financial services, offering account keeping and custody activities for its clients.
• The regulatory evolutions have an impact on the service level agreements between the bank and its clients, needing either an update or a re-writing of agreements.
• The bank is engaged in a deep restructuration of its information system, including in particular a large data migration programme, aiming at transferring its clients to tools offering new functionalities and technical specificities. The evolution of the information system has an impact on the sharing of responsibilities between the bank and its clients in the account keeping and custody activities.

Main Issues

• Take into account the recent regulatory, functional and IT evolutions in the writing and validation of procedural annexes on behalf of the retail banking clients of the bank.

Approach

• Preliminary phase:
  • Project framing, scoping of offerings, of the regulatory evolutions to take into account and building of a target retro-planning
• Phase 1 :
  • Writing or updating (according the situation) of service level agreements in cooperation with the business experts working within the bank
• Phase 2 :
  • Planning and management meetings for the internal validation of procedural annexes with the cross-functional services: legal, compliancy, risks, etc...
• Phase 3 :
  • Validation of the annexes with the client

Achieved Results

• Bank's clients have signed the procedural annexes.

]]> Accelerated Solutions Lab is a Problem Solving method which facilitates the process of obtaining rapidly shared decisions regarding very complex themes. The actors involved can vary from small to very big cross-functional groups accustomed to work in different departments, which usually means slow decision-making processes and communication issues.

In the Accelerated Solutions Lab people work together 8 hours for 2-3 days, facilitated through the use of specific techniques e.g. the Montessori Method, De Bono lateral thinking and Buzan mind mapping amongst others to steer and accelerate participants’ thinking process.

In the same perspective the ASL environment is continuously transformed as it adapts to the different phases of the work flow: this is possible thanks to multiple rolling WhiteWalls™, which can be assembled in different shapes to create small acoustically isolated working spaces where a multitude of sub groups can work in parallel.

“Today’s companies don’t lack competent resources: what is often missing is a facilitating element which connects different functions, especially in environments were many functions and roles and complex problems have to be solved in reasonably short times. Corporate projects, whether they are organisational, strategic or technological, are usually implemented by following a sequential process where every function and role treats a specific part without having the overall vision of the process”, according to Matteo Andreacchio, Vice President of Solving Efeso and expert in ASL in an interview with Il Mondo, a prestigious Italian weekly business review magazine.

“In an ASL the challenge is approached from multiple angles in parallel by cross-functional complementary groups of people resulting in a common shared decision that is immediately implementable as all stakeholders have already agreed to the shared decision: this saves months and months of work."

Solving Efeso clients who have successfully used the ASL approach to achieve fast and profitable results include:
- ABB, to re-engineer and integrate their sales force
- GEA, to align a group of managers on important strategic issues and
- Unieuro, to redefine and create new client services with a team of 60 participants from supply chain, purchasing, sales and HR.

Read the complete article in Italian

]]> Sebastian Diers
Expert in WCOM™ - Excellence in Production, Excellence in Service and Administration

Mr. Diers is graduated in business economics. After he graduated as master cabinet maker (handcraft) he went on to study economics with a focus on production. In parallel he already consulted start-up businesses. For about 10 years he has been involved in optimization and change projects in the operational and administrative environments. In 2006 Mr. Diers joined Solving Efeso where he leads WCOM™ (World Class Operations Management) projects across the entire supply chain as well as programs for Excellence in Service and Administration. Mr. Diers is responsible for improvement programs in various sectors particularly in the food industry and the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry. As program and key account manager he is responsible for the geographical roll-out and project success at global corporations and mid sized operations. Besides his role as Senior Manager he is the Director of Marketing and Sales in the German-speaking territory (DACH). Mr. Diers is an expert in the development and implementation of Performance Control Systems, used by clients to successfully manage the target planning and target control system along the entire organization. ]]> Client Situation

• The Client is the Dutch rail infrastructure provider, and it is responsible for:
  • the quality, reliability and availability of the infrastructure
  • a fair, non-discriminatory distribution of the capacity of the infrastructure
  • control of the traffic on the infrastructure
• 2010 Turnover : €1.8billion, staff: 3954 FTE
• Solving Efeso has performed over 30 assignments over the last 10 years

Important Issues

• The Client worked for over 8-10 years on a new system for providing traffic information to travellers. The project has had serious delays and financial set backs. As the system is being rolled out, management needs:
• a revised business case, stating the expected cost changes and organisational changes after implementation
• the expected effect of this new system in the traveller satisfaction surveys

Activities

• Analysis and quantification of the effects of the implementation of this new system on the involved BU’s:
  • integral approach of the Client with the largest Dutch train operating company
  • process flow scheme of generation of the travel information before and after its implementation
  • workshops for input and to get different BU’s on the same page
• Quantitative (data analyses) and qualitative (workshops) approaches were used to estimate the effect of this system on traveller satisfaction

Benefits Delivered

• The research gave management insight and sense of urgency to reduce personnel costs in order not to exceed budget further
• Benefits of the new system were to be found in improved quality of information, rather than lowered costs. All in all implementation continues
• The Client is aware of the replacement costs of the new capital intensive system

]]> Client Situation

• The Client is the Dutch rail infrastructure provider, and it is responsible for:
  • the quality, reliability and availability of the infrastructure
  • a fair, non-discriminatory distribution of the capacity of the infrastructure
  • control of the traffic on the infrastructure
• 2010 Turnover : €1.8billion, staff: 3954 FTE
• Solving Efeso has performed over 30 assignments over the last 10 years

Important Issues

• The tariffs to be paid by the train operating companies to the Client (such as cost/trainkm, cost/passenger) are based on the costs variable with usage of the infrastructure. However as the use of the railway (and thus revenues) went down in ‘09, the ‘variable’ costs didn’t
  • what are the costs variables with the usage of the infrastructure?
  • how can management signal a change in usage and effectively steer on the related costs?

Activities

• Data analyses to quantify fixed and variable costs:
  • allocating costs to different services and activities
  • regression analyses to search into relation between costs and drivers
• Develop manageable unit P&L’s to help managers actively steer on variable costs
  • unravel current combined division P&L into smaller unit P&L's

Benefits Delivered

• The research has given input and insights in different dimensions:
  • negotiations about future calibration of the height of the tariffs
  • drafting management contracts, so managers have the means to signal changes in infrastructure usage and steer on the variable costs related
  • allocation of costs in order to pursue lower overall cost structure

]]> Client Situation

• Rail transportation service operator for passengers and trucks with a global turnover of € 700 Millions. Group's strategy is to focus on core activities operational excellence, in order to secure the service reliability, to increase the turnover and to finance a strategic growth on freight transportation.
• Rolling stock is a strategic asset for this transportation service.
• Pressing need to renew some key rolling stock equipments.
• The 3-year plan investment renewal represented 61 M€ split in 30 technical systems

Important Issues

• A 20% turnover decrease due to the economic slowdown, increasing number of breakdowns on the rolling stock equipments.
• An increasing fierce competition on a non-growing market created a need to rapidly increase the reliability and the competiveness of the transportation service.
• The cost reduction target of - 20% had to be quickly reached, in addition to securing the reliability and the availability of the trains.
• To meet CEO’s expectations, a secured optimization plan had to be built in 3 to 4 months.

Activities

• The optimization phase was mobilized in 4 steps with supporting cross functional workshops throughout:
  • Needs and functional analysis
  • Search alternatives
  • Compare and select solutions taking into account risk, technical performance, costs and lead time, compare the solutions and select the best design
  • Improve the business process of cross functional project work towards ambitious target costs

Benefits Delivered

• Optimised investment renewal plan
• 39% CAPEX costs reduction (representing 25% of annual operating margin)
• Business process improved

]]> Client Situation

• The client has to maintain 100 km of tracks during 5 years including the replacement of 272 km of tracks
• Request for quotation for the supply and the laying of the necessary equipments
• The price of raw materials (including steel) is bullish
• The market of rail suppliers is relatively limited

Important Issues

• To obtain the best price for equipments (furniture and laying) towards suppliers
• To ensure a buying price by taking into account the possible evolution of the steel price
• To limit the breakdown of the rail traffic during maintenance operations
• To limit the storage costs

Activities

• Support in the writing of the specifications and of the request for quotation
• Support in negotiation of the suppliers’ proposals
• Comparison between insourcing / outsourcing of maintenance operations
• Analysis of the network in order to evaluate the kind of necessary track and limit the cost of tracks
• Transfer of part of the storage cost and of the supplier risk

Benefits Delivered

• Savings achieved:
  • 25 % on the general maintenance contract
  • of which 15 % on the price of the supply of tracks
  • 5% thanks to the partial transfer of storage cost and of raw materials’ risk to the supplier

]]> Client Situation

• The client (French-UK rail operator, turnover: 800 M€) has a high debt: a huge reduction of its expenses is a vital condition to a turnaround
• +50% to +60% of electricity expenses within 9 months
• A poor knowledge of the energy market
• Poor quality level of relations with suppliers

Important Issues

• The client suffers the consequences of the evolution of the market price
• The relations with suppliers don’t allow to diminish the phenomenon of increase
• No background work about consumption reduction
• The working habits have not been reconsidered for 12 years
• The equipments haven’t been optimized from the energy point of view

Activities

• Transformation of the relations with suppliers into real partnerships
• Price offers become clearer and more flexible
• Risk sharing and detailed follow-up of the market
• Systematic search for consumption reduction
• Adjustment by taking into account the energy issues

Benefits Delivered

• Achieved savings in expenses: 27 % whose:
  • 12% linked to consumption reductions
  • 10% linked to the choice of power supply
  • 5% linked to a purchasing optimization in relation to the average market price(monthly purchases by blocks and by power blocks)

]]> Client Situation

• The client (French-UK rail operator, turnover: 800 M€) must reduce its investment of 35 % in order to reach the minimum payback.
• Feeder cables allow to reinforce the catenaries and to reduce electricity costs by optimizing the localisation of the current source
• The supplier market for cables is limited
• The technical mastering has been outsourced although the supplier isn’t performing

Important Issues

• The need for intensity of current per zone is not optimized
• The currents between catenaries and feeder haven’t been optimized
• A big working project about the functional specifications must be launched
• Supplier market needs to be open
• A reconsideration of usual technical choices needs to be developed

Activities

• Search, identification and selection of a supplier with a stronger technical potential
• Balancing of the currents with the catenaries allows to reduce the sections of the cables
• Benchmark of total costs between materials (copper and aluminum) Activities has been carried out

Benefits Delivered

• Reached gains for the expenses of feeders : 55 % (from 6,5 M€ to 2,8 M€), from which:
  • 35 % due to optimization of diameters (challenging of the needs)
  • 20 % due to the choice of materials (aluminum instead of copper)

]]> Client Situation

• A software company (revenues: 150 M€), offering solutions in the following domains: Asset Management (AM), Personal Insurance, Employee Savings and Credit.
• The company has decided to carry out, as part of its strategic planning, a Customer Survey in order to get a better understanding of the way its products are viewed.
• The scope included 8 products, 6 for AM (Front office: 2; Back office: 4), 1 for Personal Insurance, 1 for Credit

Important Issues

• The objective is to provide a clear vision of the company’s product range positioning, as it is viewed by the customers

Activities

• The Survey is based on interviews of customers, selected by the company
• A questionnaire was sent beforehand to the selected customers in order to provide them with the interview framework, so that they could prepare it.
• For each interview, the questionnaire, once filled with the customer’s answers, was sent to the customer for validation in order to make sure that the answers were correctly & faithfully reflected.
• Then, a synthesis of the answers was drafted, presenting, product by product, the main trends and lessons to be learned from the customers’ answers to the survey

Benefits Delivered

• 39 interviews performed in 8 working days
• A worldwide survey, with customers from North America (16) Northern Europe (12), Southern Europe (9), Asia (2)
• A detailed transcript of each interview as well as a synthesis presenting, product by product, key findings and major trends - delivered on time.

]]>