A compelling rail infrastructure strategy forecasting significant revenue growth and margin improvement through market, product and service developments was delivered, gaining wide acceptance

Priorities

Our client was the largest fixed rail infrastructure contracting company in the world. With over 7000 committed rail specialists, they deliver innovative and custom-built solutions in more than 30 countries across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. Their business helps customers to plan, build and maintain railway infrastructure: a total service for the whole life of the asset.

The business had been engaged in a lengthy process to update their insight and knowledge of the rail market through an intensive period of market analysis. This work had reached a point where a cohesive strategy was needed to be formulated drawing on their accumulated market knowledge. They recognised that they had potentially reached a point of data overload, and that a strong methodology was required to extract and consolidate key information as the basis for a renewed business development effort to both defend and expand their market. 

TRIMENTIS were invited to deliver a service to develop the rail business strategic intent. This would include documenting and helping communicate clear, striking and authoritative messages to stakeholders to achieve wide understanding, commitment and motivation. The strategy would also be translated into a rigorous, integrated and workable operating plan to secure ownership within business units. Finally, an ongoing performance review process was required at both the strategic and operating levels.

TRIMENTIS were selected to support this programme based on our experience as senior line managers and consultants, our expertise in strategy formulation, business and operational planning best-practice, together with our knowledge of rail projects.

Approach

TRIMENTIS lead the implementation of our core Strategy Formulation Process. Guided by a series of workshops that introduced concepts, tools and techniques; the business unit teams were guided by experts from TRIMENTIS and completed analytical stages of the process employing our spreadsheet based best-practice toolset.

Strategy formulation was conducted as an iterative series of meetings and workshops involving a wide range of stakeholders to capture the teams' experiences, aims and ambitions. Finally, an extensive programme of documentation to produce a robust strategy was delivered together with support to communications to gain wide understanding and commitment to the strategy.

The ongoing review of the strategy and its operational implementation was developed based on our widely implemented approach to performance review structured around 'The Five Questions of Performance Leadership'.

Results

• A compelling rail infrastructure strategy forecasting significant revenue growth and margin improvement through market, product and service developments was delivered, gaining wide acceptance.
• The strategic intent documented as a Vision and Mission supported by 5 Strategic Goals and an overall Business Proposition gained wide acceptance amongst key stakeholders.
• The Managing Director held their annual Senior Management Conference to communicate and share the vision and detailed plans to take the business forward, establishing a high degree of confidence amongst the team in the future of the business.
• The strength of the strategy and plans would be subject to a continual, robust process of review to check that things were being done properly, and to check that strategic assumptions were proving correct.
• This would enable the organisation to adapt to changing circumstances, exploit opportunities and reduce threats in a timely manner, greatly increasing the probability of overall success.