“North Highland has broad capabilities that span strategy development through to operations management and process improvement, to people and change management, to technology advisory and enablement.”

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENTBy Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory

A REVIEW OF NORTH HIGHLAND’SCAPABILITIES FROM ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING ANALYST FIRMS

STRONG STRONG MODERATE MODERATE

ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATIONS

CUSTOMER INTERACTION MANAGEMENT

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

FINANCIAL OPERATIONS

CAPABILITIES SUMMARY

Here’s what Kennedy Research says about North Highland ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATIONS “North Highland is strong in this segment due to a highly experienced consulting model, which allows it to quickly facilitate operational change within client organizations.”

“Clients that prefer a lower leverage model (i.e., higher share of senior consultants) will often find that smaller consultancies, such as North Highland, are better suited to helping them.”

NORTH HIGHLAND’S EXPERIENCE “North Highland has broad capabilities that span from strategy development, through to operations management and process improvement, to people and change management, to technology advisory and enablement. North Highland seeks to provide clients with a unique consulting experience, with a more experienced set of consultants available to help clients in the areas where its clients are located.”

“... a more pragmatic approach to consulting engagements.”

NORTH HIGHLAND’S MODEL

“North Highland’s experienced hiring model allows it to utilize smaller consulting teams to more quickly help clients than under a traditional pyramid staffing model.”

“The partnership has grown to include eight consultancies around the world, a reflection of its successful ability to pull together local capabilities to provide more global solutions.”

NORTH HIGHLAND’S EXPERTISE “…the firm’s consulting approach resonates well with clients’ requests for deeper industry expertise, and the firm has a solid track record working with many leading brands. Additionally, for the past few years, the firm has consistently been selected as one of the best consulting firms at which to work, which will give it an edge for hiring skilled talent.”

“… strong ability to combine strategy, OM, and technology skills to provide clients with ‘solutions’ rather than one-off projects.”

“North Highland has particular depth of expertise in Enterprise Performance Management, Process Improvement, and Organizational Change Management. NH’s experienced consulting approach lends itself well to successfully helping clients with organizational change.”

CASE IN POINT: Helping The American Red Cross Improve Donor Experience and Gain Market Share

Client Issue: The American Red Cross Blood Services division’s revenues had fallen due to an inability to generate enough supply (i.e., fewer blood donations). As a result, the Red Cross was facing a challenge of declining market share (down roughly 10% over the last 10 years) and increased competition from other non-profit and for-profit blood collection organizations and competing blood banks.

Firm Selected: North Highland was selected to work with the client to develop and execute on a strategy to improve the customer experience of donors and sponsors. As the client put it, “North Highland brings expertise – we like them because they get much more involved in the execution and success of projects than just providing advice. They bring far more practical expertise to the table than others we’ve worked with in the past.”

Solution/Work Done: The problem was that the Red Cross was internally focused and did not have a customer-centric approach for acquiring and retaining customers (e.g., donors and sponsors). North Highland developed a new customer-focused vision for the Blood Services division, along with a roadmap with 16 initiatives and associated recommendations for donor and sponsor recruitment and retention. North Highland developed a customer lifetime value model that analyzed customer propensity to donate blood. The Red Cross subsequently altered its strategy to focus on donor retention rather than donation frequency.

Results: The Red Cross expects to yield over $10 million in revenue, conservatively, simply through a one-percentage-point improvement in donor retention. The Red Cross improve(d) its customers’ experience by better targeting marketing to its various donor segments, better allocating marketing spend and campaign metrics by customer value and behavior, and consolidating its marketing initiatives and call centers to improve consistency of the customer experience. In addition, by developing a comprehensive approach to managing customer experience and utilizing a more customer-centric marketing approach, the Red Cross hopes to regain market share and improve its ability to meet the needs of hospitals and patients.

Lessons Learned: The Red Cross has developed a long-term, rewarding relationship with the North Highland Company, and decided to work with the consultancy again to help it improve its customer interaction approach and processes within other of its divisions, such as within the Humanitarian part of the organization.

From Operations Management Consulting Marketplace 2010-2013, Key Trends, Profiles and Forecasts, Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory, Ashley M. Newton and Erick Burchfield. 2011.

Thousands of professionals from nearly 50 offices, in the US and around the world, work for North Highland. Each of us brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our respective industries and service areas. But we don’t work in silos. Through our unique, interdisciplinary approach, we collaborate across skill sets to bring fresh perspectives to your business. Then we hone in on producing innovative, results-oriented solutions.

VASTLY FOCUSED

Over the next three to five years, clients are really focused on bringing their strategic direction down to the tactical operations. So it’s very important to clients for consultants to be able to translate strategy into execution.”

-Andy Mayfield, North Highland

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© Copyright 2011. North Highland. www.northhighland.com 450-0200A-000 6/11

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