Five-year strategic growth plan for a global 3PL

Challenge

A global 3PL’s contract logistics business unit was seeking to ramp up profitable growth in a business which senior management believed was increasingly commoditized and unattractive for investment. Being a mid-sized player, it was being squeezed by the powerful industry leaders at the top and out-competed by the smaller more nimble, niche market competitors. The goal of the engagement was to identify attractive, differentiated service/customer segments and the business plan and financial rewards over the five-year strategic planning horizon.

Approach

• Market assessment: Surveyed the market and identified opportunities for differentiated services, with sustainable value propositions.
• Internal capabilities assessment: Identified the 3PL’s relative strengths and weaknesses relevant to the opportunities.
• Strategic planning workshops: Worked out the best options and relative merits in collaborative workshops with the client’s senior and functional management, establish key buy-in to the strategies and changes required.
• Five-year plan: Established business unit strategic vision, projected financial outcomes, required investments and action plans to move forward.

Results

• A clear strategy and action plan to move the company to more attractive business segments.
• In the two years after the plan was adopted, the business unit handsomely exceeded industry benchmarks for growth and EBIT and became the model for successful business unit repositioning and profitable growth within the company.