Helping create a new business within an established group

A senior executive in a major financial services group was charged by the board to build and lead a new consultancy business. His experience was broking rather than advising clients and he felt at sea. He asked Nigel Pantling to help identify key business issues and to draw up a business plan to present to the parent board.

Nigel worked with him to:

• Clarify the thinking behind the board's instruction
• Analyse how the new company was expected to contribute to group strategy
• Create hard objectives for the client and his business with time scales and milestones to measure progress
• Market test the proposed consulting services with potential clients
• Use this information to distinguish the business from the competition by offering premium value-added services

At the end of the assignment Nigel had delivered a fully argued business case for the new venture, a programme of commercial due diligence, a financial assessment and a board paper summarising issues, identifying risks and anticipating likely objections.