MANAGEMENT FRONTIERS Liberating Potentiality

The Development Consultancies include;

• ► Project formulation
• ► Project implementation
• ► Project monitoring and evaluation
• ► Project impact and benefit monitoring
• ► Project assessment and auditing
• ► Project staff training and supervision
• ► Privatizing and Corporate restructuring

The central theme in our services is enhancing the Sustainable Economic Development (SED). We help clients analyze and identify fundamental issues and key areas where development projects should be undertaken and advise, formulate, implement, monitor the development projects and also carry out Post-Project reviews and evaluations to measure the impact of such Projects.

Impact is the Key

Success of any Development Project will be measured on its Impact with regard to pre-identified objectives. It is a common issue among many Projects where the community is involved, particularly the community development projects that the impact with regard to its specific objectives is hard to achieve. We help in formulating, implementing, development of procedures and systems, monitoring, assessing and auditing etc. so that the objectives of the Project are achieved effectively and efficiently.

Sustainability through Participation

In the arena of Development Projects aimed at SED, a unique challenge has been the sustainability. Economic and social sustainability is essential to ensure the long-term impact of Project which could only be possible with effective community participation. Our strategic thinking workshops and brainstorming sessions have enormously helped the clients to discover avenues to ensure community participation and economic and social sustainability.

Project implementing is a challenge. The territory, political, social and economic environment, resource requirements and sources of funding are factors that influence the success of Project implementation. We excel in blending and maneuvering these factors to make the Project a success.

Other areas where MF specialises in are;

• ► Irrigation
• ► Agriculture
• ► Water Sector restructuring
• ► Transportation studies
• ► Transportation sector restructuring
• ► Housing and construction

Management Frontiers (MF) has a wealth of experience in infrastructure and Engineering consultancies though it is new area of focus of the Company. The Consultancies in Water and Sanitation sector undertaken in the past three to four years have been entry to IEC’s by the firm. Rural Water Supply and Sanitation sector in Sri Lanka is one such area where consultancies are in progress at present. Some of the Water Supply Projects where MF is involved are community based and participatory projects. Almost all these projects have been foreign funded, implemented with demand based approached and targeted to poor and vulnerable groups in the rural areas.

The Internet and, in particular, the World Wide Web have permeated into every aspect of human activity unlike any other phenomenon in recorded history. Today, over this global medium, people purchase unlimited array of goods and services, perform complex financial transactions, search vast stores of information, enjoy multimedia and also communicate in real time with anybody, anywhere in this world. So it has become a real need rather than a fashion to acquire larger or smaller amount of space in www or in other words World Wide Web for a company forging ahead in business competition. We help our clients to be the best among best of World Wide Web.

Recognizing the Optimum Solution

We believe that clients need more than they express. Therefore we use a unique method to recognize the optimum solution by viewing the client’s need in 3 different angles. Client’s point of view, the first approach, basically gives us rough idea and guidelines for recognition of the optimum solution. Secondly we look at the problem in consultant’s point of view, which is very broad and analytical. In this stage skeleton of the optimum solution is defined. Finally, we view the problem in the web master’s point of view. Here we check the technical feasibility of the solution and other practical issues. All three views finally lead us to recognize the optimum solution.

Maximizing ROI

Most of the web development companies forget or are ignorant of the term “Maximization of ROI”. We being a client-oriented company do not want our clients to maintain white elephants on the net. Using our expertise we tailor-make our strategies for each and every client to maximize his ROI. Search engine optimization, SEO copywriting, minimizing the download time, identifying and designing exactly for the target audience, creating user-friendly interfaces and enabling e-commerce through sites are some of our techniques which ultimately converts into our strategies on need basis in the process of maximizing the ROI.

MF specialises in impact assessment studies which includes benefit monitoring & performance evaluation and social responsibility audit and systems studies.

MF possesses necessary expertise in carrying out impact assessments of any kind of Project, viz Development Projects, Community Based Projects, Social project or Environmental Project etc.

The impact of course the result of Project which could be achieved over a long period of time. Therefore when evaluating the impact of project it is critical to focus on the outcome which are direct or indirect results of the interventions of the particular Project. An efficient and effective data collection, analysis and synthesis process is a key factor that should be planned, institutionalised and implemented by an impact evaluation study. This is an area MF has been excelling in the past few years.

A special area of expertise of MF is the Strategic Planning. Over the past five years the firm has undertaken a large number of strategic planning consultancies. These include Corporate Plan for Tea Association of Sri Lanka, National Gem and Jewellery Authority, Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute of Sri Lanka, Lanka Phosphate Ltd, University of Colombo, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and Review of Strategic Business Plans of about 22 Regional Plantation Companies under the ADB funded Plantations Development Project.

What is a Strategy?

A strategy enables a company or an individual to ensure that day to day decisions fit in with the long-term interest of the organisation or the individual. Strategic decisions have positive impact on future results. Therefore strategic planning is key for the future development and progress and it takes place at the highest management level of the organisation.

Are you a Strategist?

Strategists look at what is happening now in the context of where they want to go. A good Strategist is a team player, skilled communicator, keeps calm when unexpected occurs, balances short and long-term needs and sees problems as opportunities to improve. MF natures and develops business strategists.

BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING

Other service areas that the MF specialises in are Business Process Outsourcing which includes undertaking of specific business processes such as accounting, data processing and IT services and Outsourcing Studies to clients which evaluate proposed outsourcing activities in terms of cost, benefits and risks etc. The firm also specialises in the area of Process Reengineering studies.

Central theme of our corporate finance service offering is finance - enabling the corporate strategy. Our approach to corporate finance is modeled on the organizational life cycle of the client enterprise. Accordingly our corporate finance initiative focuses on three distinct areas:

• Growth Finance
• Enhancing Financial Competitiveness
• Financial structure reforms

APPAREL

Squeezed C&Ms, low worker productivity, absenteeism and turnover, speed demands of the buyers and disappearing entry barriers characterize the apparel industry. We have helped apparel sector in process reengineering, plant amalgamation and consolidation, procurement and consumption control and tracking systems, acquisitions and mergers, financial and operational information systems and strategic planning

The country’s leading employer and foreign exchange earner, an industry in cross roads, MgF’s service offering to the wearing apparel industry includes:

Strategy and Organization

• Corporate restructuring
• Plant amalgamation and reorganization
• Marketing plans
• SBU organization

Performance Improvement

• Balanced score card
• Enterprise Resource Planning Systems
• Process reengineering
• Strategic procurement and merchandising
• Plant utilization studies
• Inventory control systems
• Input – output tracking system

Corporate Finance

• Integrated financial and costing systems
• Business plans for new plants/Expansion of plant capacity
• Mergers and acquisitions/divestitures
• Management and performance audits

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

Innovation, Start ups, Venture funding, Creative destruction, Talent drain and scarcity, Heavy infrastructure investment and Value bubbles; these characterizes the ICT industry. We have served a number of ICT ventures in a wide array of service engagements. Our association ranges from fund raising for e-commerce infrastructure to restructuring sick ICT companies to management auditing ICT campuses. We have business consultants who understand the realities of ICT industry. We understand ICT from a business perspective.

The buzzwords’ industry. The industry at the core of the development strategy of any talent-only-resource country. We have a unique set of service offerings to the ever-exploding ICT industry

Strategy and Organization

1. Growth strategy
2. SBU portfolio rationalization and repositioning
3. Strategic partnering
4. e-Business strategy
5. Talent acquisition, development and retention
6. Expert compensation
7. ESOP’s/MSOP’s

Performance Improvement

• Process reengineering
• Balanced score card
• Product benchmarking
• Project cost control and management

Corporate Finance

• VC funding
• Business planning
• Preparing for IPO
• Project costing and billing systems
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Intangible asset valuation

SICK COMPANIES

They need help. Most of them do not get it when they most want it. We take keen interest to bail out sick companies if they hold promise. Capital restructuring, raising fresh capital, capital reduction, organizational reengineering, divestiture and liquidation have been our assistance to sick businesses. The true competitiveness of the sick enterprise needs to be explored and discovered. This is key to any survival plan. Our rigorous analysis help achieves this. This is the secret of our successful recovery plans.

Some sick enterprises need assistance to revive. Some need assistance for closure and maximize value realization. We offer assistance in both.

Strategy and Organization

• Corporate restructuring
• Split-ups, equity carve-outs and spin-offs
• Harvesting strategy
• Organizing for survival
• Retrenchment, downsizing and organizational rearrangement

Performance Improvement

• Process reengineering
• Cost and process benchmarking
• Zero based budgeting
• Outsourcing

Corporate Finance

• Mergers and acquisitions/divestitures
• Split-ups, equity carve outs and divestitures
• Capital restructuring
• Liquidation and recovery
• Financing downsizing

HEALTHCARE

Capital intensity, service quality management and early saturation are issues inherent in healthcare industry. Our expertise in healthcare has been in management auditing, process diagnostics and divisional management systems. Healthcare MIS is another area of our past exposure. Strategic investment advice, M&A, preparing for IPOs have been our corporate finance engagements in the sector.

A sector for long-term growth. Heavy capital investment. Rapid technological advances. Alliance based strategies. A sector, which is socio-politically sensitive. A sector that presents enormous immediate opportunities. We serve the healthcare sector in the following areas:

Strategy and Organization

• Business modeling
• Strategic plans
• Marketing plans
• Divisional performance management
• Joint ventures and strategic alliances

Performance Improvement

• Balanced score card
• Process reengineering
• Service strategy
• Strategic procurement
• Facility and service optimization
• Inventory control systems
• Activity based costing

Corporate Finance

• Integrated financial and costing systems
• Business plans for expansion
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Preparing for IPO
• Management and performance audits

PLANTATIONS

Fluctuating commodity prices, exposure to weather changes, poor agricultural yield and labour productivity, branding power of Ceylon Tea, continuous development financial assistance, political sensitivity characterize the plantations industry. We have helped plantation companies to restructure and develop their long-term strategic plans. Factory process reengineering, working capital funding, corporate restructuring and balanced score card implementation were some of our past service offerings to this sector.

Management Frontiers has a long-term relationship with the plantations industry, the country’s biggest net foreign exchange earner. Since privatization, MgF had association with the industry. The firm possesses a vast body of knowledge and expertise in a wide range of management issues of the industry. The firm’s range of service offerings to the plantation industry includes

Strategy and Organization

• Direct marketing and branding strategies
• Formulating brand strategies
• Marketing plan
• Formulate marketing organization
• Marketing information systems
• e-marketing strategy
• Cost Leadership
• Land productivity utilization studies
• Operational cost management system
• Process reengineering
• SBU Organization Structuring
• Strategic and corporate planning

Performance Improvement

• Factory process reengineering
• Performance measurement
• Field- Factory information systems
• Working capital management

Corporate Finance

• Business plans for field & factory development
• Working capital financing

TRADING

Procurement and inventory management, working capital turnaround, low overhead base are key factors of success in trading. Trading is an exceptionally large sector of Sri Lankan economy. Value addition is minimal and survival is tough. We help trading houses to design and implement procurement, inventory control and credit management systems. We also assist them finding working capital funding. Retail distribution planning and redistribution MIS are two strategic areas where we could help.

A major segment of the national economy. Procurement and inventory control, distribution efficiency, rapid turnaround and service marketing are key to success. Generally weak entry barriers but scarce long term profits. We offer services to the Trading sector in the following areas:

Strategy and Organization

• Business remodeling
• Supply chain management
• Marketing plans
• Distribution strategy
• Divisional performance management
• Product portfolio management
• Pricing strategies and strategic financing

Performance Improvement

• Balanced score card
• Process reengineering
• Strategic procurement and merchandising
• Distribution logistics and economics
• Logistics optimization
• Inventory control systems

Corporate Finance

• Integrated financial and costing systems
• Business plans for new product introductions
• Mergers and acquisitions/divestitures
• Management and performance audits
• Working capital financing

FINANCE

Finance industry could easily make investors and managers sightless. Debacle has always followed a thriving finance industry. Risk management and development orientation are two opposing forces that need balancing. Our experience in finance and allied services industry ranges from corporate finance interventions in mergers, acquisitions and capital restructuring to process institutionalization. Designing and implementing operational and control procedures have been a distinct area of our service offer to the finance industry.

The lead indicator of macro economic performance. Restricted entry and regulated. Yet intensely competed. An industry with shorter cycles of growth, shake-out and consolidation. We have the following distinct service offerings:

Strategy and Organization

• Growth strategy
• Strategic positioning and differentiation
• Marketing plans
• Strategic organization
• Penetration strategy
• Business modeling

Performance Improvement

• Process reengineering
• Cost and process benchmarking
• Activity based costing

Corporate Finance

• Mergers and acquisitions/divestitures
• Capital restructuring
• Financial systems and procedures
• Computerization
• Information memoranda
• Packaging and presenting for strategic investment
• Business and license valuation

CONGLOMERATES

Business portfolio management, portfolio rationalization, corporate overheads, divisional performance measurement and the eternal tug war between the parent and SBU are issues inherent to conglomerates. Our specific experiences have been in strategizing corporate offices and redesigning corporate management structures to unleash SBU potential. We take pride in providing winning solutions in transforming centralized structures to SBU organizations, designing and implementing corporate and balancing diversification and inter-SBU synergy to conglomerates.

Way to gain size and profile. Dieing business model. Inherent need for constant reshuffling the portfolio. Need to building and renewing corporate management competency. We assist conglomerates in:

Strategy and Organization

• Grand strategy
• Corporate planning
• SBU portfolio rationalizing
• Parent-SBU modeling
• Strategizing the corporate office
• Divisional performance management
• Internal venture capital
• Corporate branding

Performance Improvement

• Corporate and SBU balanced scorecard
• Corporate overhead control
• Corporate MIS
• Corporate cost recovery
• Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance

• Spin-offs, Divestitures, Carve-outs
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Business Valuations
• Synergy valuation
• Corporate treasury and risk management
• Gearing for the IPO
• Tax planning

FMCG

Power branding, barriers in reach, economies of scale, global consolidation; these characterizes the FMCG industry. We have helped homegrown FMCG companies to meet MNC competition and even to beat them in chosen segments. We have played pivotal roles in mergers and acquisitions in the domestic FMCG industry. Our consultants can clinically analyze the core elements of a power brand and to develop models to emulate, enhance or kill brand value. We take pride in advising indigenous FMCG companies to venture off the shores of Sri Lanka successfully.

FMCG: The industry that never dies. The industry where MNC’s and Home-growns always co-exist. Our expert service inputs to FMCG industry includes:

Strategy and Organization

1. Brand strategy
2. Marketing plans
3. Channel strategy
4. Strategic planning
5. Brand centered organizational reforms
6. Product development strategy and institutional capacity building
7. Internationalization plans

Performance Improvement

• Balanced scorecard
• Retail performance tracking systems
• Order to remittance information systems
• Inventory control and logistics management systems
• Product mix optimization models

Corporate Finance

• Brand/Customer profitability analysis
• Brand valuation and acquisition
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Product pricing decision support systems

LEISURE

Below break-even properties, wavered revenue streams, bottom-line vulnerability, swinging destination competitiveness, polarized industry structure, money- gobbling product portfolio but never declining industry life cycle; these characterize the leisure industry. Array of consulting services we have rendered the leisure industry includes process reengineering to capital restructuring to organization reconfiguring. We have also played matchmakers in local-foreign partnerships in building and marketing leisure capacity of Sri Lanka; the destination there is none alike.

The industry that always bounces back. An industry interwoven to the socio-economic fabric of the nation. A core industry Sri Lanka can never be without. We are experienced and geared to serve the leisure industry in the following distinct service areas:

Strategy and Organization

• Strategic positioning
• Marketing plans
• Corporate restructuring
• SBU organization
• Divisional performance management systems

Performance Improvement

• Balanced score card
• Process reengineering
• Cost and process benchmarking
• Activity based costing and cost driver analysis
• Zero based budgeting

Corporate Finance

• Integrated financial and costing systems
• Business plans for expansion and property upgrading
• Raising capital for business plans
• Mergers and acquisitions / divestitures / Capital restructuring
• Management and performance audits

STARTUPS

Venture funding, early burnouts, entrepreneurial culture, lack of management systems, high vulnerability and cash flow struggles characterize the start-ups whichever industry they are in. We help them sail through the difficult times with our personalized guiding and coaching. We also help them develop winning but realistic business plans and raising funds. Start Ups founded on solid business opportunity and inherent unique competency should be protected, nurtured and cultured. They will blossom. This is our philosophy towards them.

Strategy and Organization

• Business planning
• Entry strategy formulation
• Alliances, joint ventures and partnering

Corporate Finance

• Venture funding
• Systems design and institutionalization
• Accounting and financial management systems
• Preparing for IPO’s

UTILITIES

Liberalization, regulation and corporate restructuring characterize the wave of change in the utility sector. Our service offering to the utility sector ranges from corporate restructuring and business valuation to process reengineering and systems institutionalization. Our past consultancies have spanned across the broader utilities and infrastructure sector from power & energy to telecommunication to road transportation. Business planning for road transportation sector has been a major sectoral involvement of us.

Mega buck-buster. Endless opportunities and business models. Regulated. An industry undergoing fundamental remodeling. We offer the following

Strategy and Organization

• Strategic positioning and differentiation
• Marketing plans
• Strategic organization
• Penetration strategy
• Business modeling

Performance Improvement

• Process reengineering
• Cost and process benchmarking
• Activity based costing
• Service line profitability

Corporate Finance

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Computerization
• Business and license valuation
• Business planning and fund raising
• Integrated costing systems