Operations
Revenue growth
The selling process is becoming much more complex. Connectivity has facilitated mass customisation and created new routes to the customer, but it has also raised people’s expectations. They now want goods and services that are tailored to their individual preferences, a consistent service and single point of contact.
The traditional "product push" is simultaneously giving way to a more consultative, long-term key account approach, and procurement functions are becoming increasingly professional. So suppliers have to improve their sales techniques. Yet many companies are struggling to get a clear picture of their customers because they have different systems for different channels, lines of business and geographies or lack of good data altogether.
How we can help
Selling is primarily about people and skills. But processes and technologies also have a role, and it is the complex interplay of all these components that determines the productivity of sales channels and their impact on growth. We can help you:
- Understand your customers' needs;
- Evaluate new markets and test different product, pricing and distribution options;
- Improve your sales channels and sales management processes;
- Develop effective customer-segmentation, -service and -retention strategies;
- Measure the profitability of different customer segments and markets, and enhance your productivity;
- Review your accounting systems to maximise your VAT recovery and reduce your taxes; and
- Win over key staff to ensure that your organisation’s systems, processes and culture reinforce the changes you make.
Nearly every aspect of an organization can impact revenue growth. We focus on five areas and provide a framework and supporting skill sets to assist our clients with the challenges they face.
Sales force and channels effectiveness: Growing your revenue by delivering a consistent and value focused experience across direct and indirect sales channels.
Marketing and trade promotion effectiveness - Focusing on your largest expense items: How to do more with fewer investment dollars in direct spend on marketing, sales and advertising.
Customer service optimization: Helping you deliver to your customers to exceed their expectations.
Customer insight and intelligence: Utilizing a consumer-driven, "outside in" approach to understand your customers' preferences, behaviour and value to your company.
Innovation
Continued revenue and margin growth, increased market share and strong enduring brands are the primary goals of most companies today. To achieve these objectives in traditional domestic markets and increasingly in global markets requires a routinely refreshed portfolio of competitive products, services and business models. Increased competition means that portfolios need to be refreshed faster than ever before, allowing the leading companies to get new products and services faster to market and with an optimal blend of incremental, radical and break-through innovation.
How we can help
Our experience in innovation strategy and implementation consulting spans more than 30 years. Regardless of the challenges a company faces - investing in the right projects, choosing the right partners, delivering breakthrough products and services, discovering and fulfilling unmet customer needs, or building the right kind of corporate culture - we help clients make critical changes to improve their innovation management efforts and overall business performance. We can help you:
- Craft a China-specific product strategy;
- Develop a cross-enterprise innovation management process;
- Transform your approach to portfolio management;
- Enhance your product lifecycle management process along with associated pricing models;
- Evaluate your product development operations;
- Measure and improve R&D productivity;
- Strategically manage your R&D resources; and
- Improve your IP management practices.
Supply chain management
The ever-evolving landscape in which supply chain operates is currently undergoing dramatic changes, creating new complexities and risks. Today’s management is tasked with harnessing the opportunities of an integrated supply chain while managing its complexities. Inflation is driving up costs throughout the chain and speed-to-market creates greater challenges.
We support across the full spectrum of the supply chain:
- Supply chain planning;
- Sales inventory operations planning (SIOP) process;
- Procurement and sourcing;
- Logistics and warehousing;
- Supply chain technology;
- Tax efficient value chain; and
- Lean process improvement.
Our work helps companies avoid supply disruption, quality issues and brand degradation.
Strategic Procurement
Procurement functions in emerging markets are maturing, but not without difficulty.
Many companies now regard the sourcing of materials and parts in developing economies as a key means of reducing their costs and reaching high-growth mistakes. Offshore locations are emerging.
However, strategic sourcing isn’t easy. Our research shows that 35% of companies fail to realise all the benefits they anticipated from going offshore, and many companies admit that they struggle to manage such projects. The biggest challenges include ensuring quality control and continuity of supply, but ethical issues are also coming to the fore. Working conditions in offshore locations are a source of major concern, as are the implications of moving jobs out of the home country.
How we can help
A holistic approach, which integrates the management of working capital with the transformation of the supply chain, is essential to realise and maintain the full benefits of sourcing in a borderless world. We can help you:
- Analyze your spend and prioritise opportunities re-design and re-structure your procurement process, technology and organisation structure;
- Determine which materials and parts are suitable for sourcing in developing countries;
- Analyse the potential of different locations, including the impact of different tax regimes;
- Identify and evaluate suppliers;
- Negotiate the best terms and create the most efficient arrangements;
- Manage intellectual property issues, quality assurance and risk;
- Monitor your suppliers; and
- Ensure regulatory compliance.
Shared services and outsourcing
Many companies have outsourced IT and back-office functions or established captive in-house shared services centres for major business processes. Many others are still to achieve this. The business objectives for doing this typically differ across geographies and sectors. The rationale for outsourcing is changing; a growing number of organisations see it as a means of obtaining strategic advantage, improving controls, providing a standard template and scalable operation for acquisitions, not just as a cost-cutting measure.
More and more organisations are successfully establishing shared service centers across Greater China. PwC has helped numerous centers go live over the last few years in China.
The scale and complexity of outsourcing is increasing. The earliest outsourcing contracts were long-term, one-to-one arrangements. Today, with greater connectivity, the trend is towards multi-sourcing - where a lead supplier functions as a contractor and orchestrates other suppliers or where a group of suppliers collaborate to provide a collection of services.
How we can help
The shared services journey consists of six phases, each with its own set of challenges. We focus on the big picture, and look at the full term of the deal as well as the issues arising in each phase. We can help you:
- Identify which activities to insource, share or outsource;
- Define your requirements and assess appropriate source or potential suppliers;
- Design, in detail, major process, system, location and organisational changes and communicate with employees about alterations in their working environment;
- Identify political, regulatory, compliance and operational risks;
- Review and manage existing contracts; and
- Draft service level agreements or contracts covering performance criteria and penalties for non-performance.
Transforming your operating model
As companies in China have grown over the past decade, so has the complexity in their businesses, particularly with the changes in the regulatory environment. Many companies have found themselves with an inefficient operating model, for example, with decentralised operations where decisions are duplicated at a provincial, business unit, or subsidiary level, and with fragmented and costly back office support functions. This has inhibited their ability to respond to market challenges decisively and swiftly.
This operational inefficiency is frequently compounded by an overall disconnect between the management, legal and tax structures, often creating significant tax, legal and compliance risks, and unnecessary overheads.
How we can help
We help clients articulate a future operating model, simple yet innovative, which will deliver their strategic goals, and which is aligned with efficient tax and legal structures.
Transforming the operating model is a task which affects every member of the business and effecting this change will require a compelling case for change, a clear vision of the future model, which is shared by all stakeholders, and a defined transition plan to the new model. We can help you:
- Create a future business model, based on an understanding of your strategic goals, drivers and what you'd like to change. This combines expertise from our Consulting and Tax teams;
- Assess the implementation challenges of the operating model, develop a case for change, and work with you to prepare a transition plan; and
- Implement the operating model, applying our rigorous methodology to make sure the change happens with the support of those affected by it.
Contact us
Sustainability Strategy & Transformation Lead Partner, PwC China
Tel: +[86] (21) 2323 5349
