A STATEMENTOF EQUILIBRIANPHILOSOPHY & CAPABILITY

E X P E C T I N G ?performancewhat level of

are you

The sales performance of any business is a function of every aspect of strategy, planning, manpower, behavior and culture. This is not just a sales department role, but one that affects every person within any organization.

You seldom find a business owner / leader that is completely satisfied with their company’s sales performance.

Seeing the huge opportunity that exists for most businesses to improve in sales, the owners of Equilibrian left their ‘C’-level and Director level roles in corporate life and embarked on a mission to deliver independent, confidential and hands-on support to businesses in a way that makes a real impact.

In careers spanning some 30 years, they have successfully delivered high performance to employers and now bring together the best skills and experience in the market, to partner with organizations that want more.

Never lower your expectations to

meet your performance. Instead

raise your level of performance to

meet or exceed your expectations.”

“

P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E

Nicholas Ledingham

Following 5 years as a military officer with the Royal Navy, Nicholas Ledingham started his illustrious career in business management and performance development, which has now spanned more than 30 years.

Throughout this time, Nick has held CEO and COO positions in a diverse range of organizations within the automotive, hospitality, financial services and consultancy sectors both in Europe and for the last 12 years, in the Middle East and Africa. Working within start-up, turnaround and rapid-change environments, successfully achieving sustainable revenue, profit, and business growth objectives for his employers, has lead Nick to become the inspirational business leader he is today.

Nick’s rich business experience includes building, leading and motivating multi-cultural teams of more than 12,000 employees and leading businesses with revenue exceeding $800 million.

Highlights of Nick’s career include the rapid development of an underperforming Middle-Eastern business group with brands such as Shangri-La, Bentley, Audi, Mitsubishi; developing a transformational strategy for a large African Family business with brands such as Wyndham, Ramada, Peugeot, Hyundai, Tesla, Precision; designing a 10 year strategic plan to re-establish a family owned group of businesses as the market leader with brands such as Toyota, Volvo, Michelin; pioneering the creation of a global business academy for Audi; and establishing a new leasing and rental business, which achieved over $200M in it’s first year of operation.

Some of Nick’s key capabilities include strategic business planning, designing and implementing formal corporate structures, creating or repositioning company brands, building market leadership and recruiting exceptional talent to name just a few.

In 2012 Nick began development of the Business Genetics Group – an organization dedicated to building an outstanding portfolio of business offerings, including Equilibrian – which focus on supporting organizations in various ways to develop robustness in their sales performance. In 2015 he started to bring together high-caliber professionals who share the sales development vision.

Nick’s deep understanding of critical drivers in a multitude of business environments, his success in building strong relationships with upper-level decision makers, capability to seize control of critical problem areas, and his innate capacity to deliver on customer commitments, uniquely positions him to take on any performance-related business challenge our clients may be facing.

New horizons, clear direction for Kunech Group’s automotive division

From early stage development as an entrepreneurial enterprise and a future full of uncertainty, to a position of guaranteed profitability across all operations and assets worth 12 times the value invested, the transformation of Kunech Group’s automotive operation is a truly unique success story.

The Challenge

With increasing importation regulations, currency exchange instability, highly competitive markets squeezing profitability and a sales team failing to grow sustainable revenue streams, Kunech Group’s various performance issues were quickly challenging the organization’s outlook.

A family owned business with interests on 4 continents and operations within the automotive, hospitality, construction, oil & gas, ICT and import/export sectors, Kunech Group enlisted the support of Nicholas Ledingham as new Group COO, tasked with the development of the entire organization.

Following a strategic review, it became clear to Nick that a multi-level approach would be required to capitalize on market developments and a 5-year growth plan for the group automotive interests was designed to diversify risk, increase ROCE and uniquely position the business in the market to pursue long-term investor returns.

The Solution

With Nick’s direction and compelling management style, 4 key areas of activity were undertaken in succession, to deliver a comprehensive solution to the issues Kunech Group was facing.

Stage 1 – began with the rationalization of the various automotive offerings, focusing on brands where a competitive advantage could be leveraged in the short and medium term

through principle relations, market positioning for dominance and negotiating an investment strategy that enjoined the principle in the success and profitability of the venture. This entailed development of new brands in an architecture that could be franchised in the future, plus the finalization of negotiations for a master franchise for an international aftermarket leader.

Stage 2 – saw the development and roll-out of a multi-site aftermarket repair network, well positioned for future franchising across Africa and the Levant. This aftermarket structure enabled diversification outside of the core market, created opportunity for massive scale in parts and consumables distribution and provided supplemental income through franchising revenues and fees. Additionally, positioning strategies were designed for of each of the core automotive offerings, followed by integrated brand development programs, laying the foundation for market leadership for the group. On the back of this foundation, vehicle sales agencies were negotiated at preferential terms that would guarantee government / parastatal volumes which in turn delivers predictable profitability.

Stage 3 – entailed the recruitment and development of commercially and culturally aligned management and sales teams to grow the individual aspects of the organization in a sustainable manner. Through careful pre-selection, use of predictive and psychometric assessments, use of group

interview processes and weighted performance related remuneration, the highest calibre of talent available was attracted into the African operations to participate in the venture, affording them substantial opportunity to pursue their own career & wealth development.

Stage 4 – delivered increased capability to the new teams through ERP systems, documented policy and procedure as well as structured training programs designed to empower staff to act and make the right decisions in pursuing new business. Through a mix of online and face-to-face sales training workshops, performances levels sky-rocketed and net departmental deliverables were able to meet targeted values.

The Outcome

Kunech stakeholders now enjoy IP assets (in brand rights) worth 12x the value invested, a distribution network for automotive parts and accessories grown from zero to $25M in revenue in less than 2 years, and a vehicle brand platform that has a 10 year guaranteed annual revenue of 9x the first year’s investment – all successfully managed by new teams capable of the day-to-day leadership of the segments of the business that did not exist before.

Nicholas Ledingham / Case Study 1 – Automotive

Nicholas Ledingham / Case Study 2 – Automotive

New horizons, clear direction for Zubair Corporation

From a disparate collection of showrooms run simply as ‘shops’ for customers to buy cars, to a fully integrated and aligned automotive group, delivering a unique buying experience and actively selling across an impressive 17 dealership sites.

The Challenge

Organizationally, Zubair Automotive Group’s showrooms functioned as individual entities that had a ‘passive’ approach to serving walk-in customers and missed vital opportunities to do business and significant margin possibilities as a result of limiting behaviors and leadership.

The Solution

With Nick’s direction and compelling management style, 4 key areas of activity were undertaken in succession, to deliver a comprehensive solution to the issues that Zubair Automotive Group were facing.

Stage 1 – began with a market review of growth potential and current provision, such that a suitable Strategy could be developed. This was developed to consolidate the Group and provide a 5-year roadmap of progressive development to instil a culture of Sales performance and the necessary infrastructure and product architecture to achieve the required market share.

Stage 2 – entailed the recruitment and development of commercially and culturally aligned management and sales teams to grow the individual aspects of the organization in a sustainable manner. Through careful pre-selection, use of predictive and psychometric assessments, use of group interview processes and weighted performance related remuneration, the highest calibre of talent available was attracted into the business.

Stage 3 – entailed the commissioning and execution of a training and development academy that motivated, delivered and supported a transformation to a new sales focused organization that prioritized customer service excellence. Acquiring retail and service real estate supported the goals of growing market share, such that principle brands were satisfied and supportive. The aftersales infrastructure heightened the confidence of buyers, resulting in more opportunities to do business.

Stage 4 – required the implementation of a structured, common, managed sales process that opened up-sell opportunities, maximized the profit, delivered management control and predictability to the sales forecasts. Additionally, the implementation of an industry specific ERP gave control to performance measurement, economies of scale, better stock management and ultimately closer knowledge of the organization to enable focused growth activity to be defined.

The Outcome

During the roll-out of the strategy, net margin increases of 28% accompanied volume growth of 43% in passenger vehicle sector. The retail network grew by 7 sites, with renovation enjoyed by another 12 sites. A new aftermarket brand was launched to promote tertiary market penetration, plus average CSi score across 17 brands increased from 52% to 91% satisfaction.

Ultimately, the organization became aligned and focused to being a sales-led business that brought great efficiencies of scale, even through the times of recession.

Nicholas Ledingham / Case Study 3 – Hospitality

Building market leadership for Kunech Group’s hospitality venture

From early stage development as an entrepreneurial enterprise and a future full of uncertainty, to a leadership position in an emerging and fast developing hospitality sector with a pipeline of outstanding landmark projects.

The Challenge

With a partially built 4-star Hotel property, another closed 3-star motel and a land-bank for future builds, new energy needed to be brought in to the definition of a robust hospitality strategy that capitalized on the market opportunity and positioned the offering for future strength and growth.

The Solution

With Nick’s direction and compelling management style, 5 key areas of activity were undertaken in succession, to deliver a comprehensive solution to the issues Kunech Group was facing.

Stage 1 – began with a market review of growth potential and current provision, such that a suitable strategy could be developed. The strategy was then developed to re-position the existing projects and plan future roll-outs to build a strong platform for growth. The strategy entailed the planning and build of a portfolio of food & beverage outlets that could be scaled outside of the hotels, giving economies of scale and brand presence.

Stage 2 – saw the rationalizing of the relationship with Wyndham Hotels (Ramada) and Corinthia Hotels to better position the main project to be a full 5-star resort and re-working of the project management and planning functions to produce a tight delivery schedule for the finished product. The re-planning and re-design allowed the projected yield of the property to be increased by 125% and de-risk the room revenue exposure.

Stage 3 – entailed the resolution of interior design and procurement systems to reduce the cost-base of providing an increased quality of product, by design and build sub-contracting to China and employment of specialist contractors from Europe to deliver on-site in Africa to international standards.

Stage 4 – delivered the formal positioning, branding and marketing infrastructure necessary to build the new hotel resort, establish strong master franchises for the F&B outlets, plus position the group for the pipeline of complimentary hotels to follow on strategically important land-bank.

Stage 5 – entailed the recruitment and development of commercially and culturally aligned management and sales teams to grow the individual aspects of the organization in a sustainable manner. Through careful pre-selection, use of predictive and psychometric assessments, use of group interview processes and weighted performance related remuneration, the highest calibre of talent available was attracted into the African operations to participate in the venture, affording them substantial opportunity to pursue their own career & wealth development.

The Outcome

Kunech stakeholders now enjoy IP assets (in brand rights) worth approximately 22x the value invested, a brand portfolio of F&B outlets, and an emerging 5-star anchor Hotel project that has an annual projected revenue that gives a 6-year payback on funds employed – all successfully managed by new teams capable of the day-to-day leadership of the business that did not exist before.

.

The highest levels of performance

come to people who are centered,

intuitive, creative, and reflective –

people who know to see a problem

as an opportunity.”

“

With almost 30 years of experience, Jo Andrews’ early career began with a series of sales roles in both B2B and B2C arenas, moving on to manage regional sales teams in the real estate and financial services sectors of the UK.

Jo spent the next 10 years in blue chip companies moving on to manage, and drive development of, client portfolios for GE Capital and American Express, driving sales and the profitability of sales functions across EMEA.

During her time at American Express Jo made the move from a more traditional sales leadership role to a commercial and operational one, realising that a strong sales background would be invaluable to the operational decisions businesses make around sales, and was responsible for driving the viability and effectiveness of the entire sales function of the commercial card business across EMEA. Here she developed her passion and conviction for a principle based sales performance approach that would benefit organisations across all sizes and industry types.

Jo furthered her experience driving sales performance in an IT lead generation company, a global travel services company and more recently a market leading global financial services provider.

Jo is a passionate and committed advocate of employing sales performance practices in todays marketplace and brings a vast knowledge of building and developing sales infrastructures across a range of industries in both the B2B and B2C worlds, driving results and affecting transformational change in large, complex and multi-disciplinary environments.

P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E

Jo Andrews

Developing a cohesive sales strategy for American Express

Improved sales team performance, reduced cost of new business and a signifcant cultural shift towards higher employee engagement and retention highlight the successful outcomes of a comprehensive and cohesive sales strategy introduced by Jo Andrews.

Jo Andrews / Case Study 1 – Financial Services

The Challenge

A global blue chip company with an established sales force, American Express Commercial Card was facing an increasingly competitive marketplace with a disparate sales infrastructure across the EMEA region.

An irregular performance distribution across a large sales team (c500) with a decentralized approach to the sales function was resulting in missed opportunity, forecasting inaccuracy and lack of employee engagement.

The senior leaders of the business were convinced of the need to develop a cohesive sales strategy across the whole region which included not only the sales team structure but also all sales operations.

The Solution

Jo had a vision of the Point of Arrival for the sales function and joined the commercial leadership team to build a roadmap to achieve this. An improvement in the ROI of the sales function was achieved via a multi-tiered approach.

Phase 1 – involved building and operationalizing a principle based targeting methodology ensuring fair and equitable targets appropriate to the sales conditions and the individuals market, segment and tenure ultimately resulting in normalised distribution of performance. Significant stakeholder management coupled with internal focus group input enabled the right balance of simplicity and fit for purpose.

Reward and recognition principles were aligned with business goals to introduce motivational and profitable sales incentive plans. The natural extension of achieving a fair and equitable targeting methodology was a motivational yet achievable variable incentive scheme.

Phase 2 – saw the design and delivery a new sales training academy, leading to greater focus on personal development. A commitment to a benchmarked, consistent and aspirational training program was required to match the continuing improvement expected in an individual’s performance.

Best practice structures were promoted across the entire EMEA region resulting in improved team performance, reducing the cost of new business in 25% of teams by more than 20%.

Phase 3 – promoted the culture of performance management through introduction of a framework to drive greater focus on sales performance by spotlight on continual improvement.

Market differences and cultural nuances were addressed without straying from the principled based approach. Allowing for cultural and market differences enabled the potential to be maximized without compromising delivery of an agreed company structure that fit the product set, commercial standing, customer demographic and economic outlook.

Phase 4 – centralised the sales operations for the region resulting in audit and control improvements. Objective gate-keeping for the large variable pay budget and for escalation

purposes enabled an environment of absolute transparency and fair dealing, a key pillar of the company’s code of conduct and in keeping with the integrity of the overall business.

The Outcome

It was clear throughout all stages of the program that there would be no one solution that would drive the measured improvements sought, indeed the success of the program was achieved by a combination of improvements in each of the interdependent components that make up the sales infrastructure.

Alongside the improvements in hard numbers, a significant cultural shift was also achieved whereby the sales teams were able to align with the company values of having a fair and equitable performance and remuneration structure, a focus on continual performance improvement and a considerable shift in positive communication lines. These improvements not only resulted in increased return on investment but in increased employee engagement and retention.

Bringing fresh energy to IG Group’s sales function

Faced with a changing competitive landscape and plateauing of sales, market leading IG Group undertook a complete overhaul of their sales function, leading to renewed momentum in business performance.

Jo Andrews / Case Study 2 – Financial Services

The Challenge

Following years of double digit growth and dominance in the market, the business leaders acknowledged that their approach to sales was too passive, without in strategic direction and had contributed to a complacent sales force. This was exacerbated by the fact that much of the leadership had brought the company through its continued successes, with experience in only one company and while this company was highly successful, reduced the fresh and market relevant input.

In addition, a heavily regulated environment and reliance on tax rulings meant that it was critical to maintain their position as being not only highly respected by, but also a voice for, the derivative market with the regulatory body.

The Solution

Upon joining the company’s leadership team, Jo was able to provide a much needed fresh perspective with her sales performance expertise. Having no background in this particular niche of the marketplace was a distinct advantage, bringing IG Group a completely objective view on the business as a whole.

Jo performed an analysis of the business workings and how the sales function interacts both internally and externally to form a sales strategy that addressed the desire to scale for growth and make use of best practice. On observation it was clear that there were fundamental but simple issues which needed to be addressed to maintain a path for true north.

Phase 1 – involved defining what sales meant to the business and what it should be achieving, allowing a common understanding of what ‘good’ looked like. Definition of philosophy, targets and the competencies required to achieve meant standards could be benchmarked and all parties were working towards common goals.

Additionally, a targeting philosophy was introduced to ensure that a strategic sales mentality was achieved. Due to the regulatory restrictions on approaching new clients, the business had taken a very passive approach to selling. A key driver in addressing this was to capitalize on brand language and tone, and balance it with a competitive and competent environment.

Reward and recognition principles were aligned with business goals to introduce motivational and profitable sales incentive plans. The structure of the incentive plan was key in driving the behavioral changes necessary for a forward shift in performance of the sales team, particularly focused on the first contact stage of the sales cycle.

Phase 2 – saw the redesign of the structure of the sales and client development teams to ensure best fit for business needs. Both the team members and team management were addressed to ensure leadership hierarchy was effective, resulting in greater sales but also in better succession planning and an aspirational team structure.

All business and management reporting was rationalized to ensure clear, concise and usable data and analysis of performance. Removal of noise in the data and centralizing

the issuance meant that single data definition and source were achieved and outputs and actions could be agreed.

A modular-based learning and development framework was then designed and implemented, followed by the embedding of a competency framework to enable proper performance management. A true sales management structure was created which included personal development together with consequence for poor performance – a real cultural shift for the business.

The Outcome

Success was driven in a consistent and sustained improvement program which was an amalgamation of changes to the different facets of sales with the group. IG Group needed to be set up for growth, scale and market changes and along with achieving efficiencies in the sales function it was able to let sales, and not just product, set them apart from the competion.

The ambition running alongside all these commercial changes was to give the sales function a voice within the company, enabling better business and product decision-making and also improving employee engagement.

The salesperson’s job is not to

convince people. The salesperson’s

job is to build an outstanding

buying experience so that they

are convinced on their own.”

“

Throughout a vibrant career in sales spanning almost 20 years, Kelli has experienced a wide range of sales and customer service roles involving some of the largest organizations here in the UAE and the UK and Ireland.

Being involved in some long sales cycles selling Customer Relationship Management software to complex business she has had to spend time with her prospects to gain a good understanding of their practices and processes and working with them to evolve a streamlined structure to ensure they were getting the most efficiency out of their systems and their investment in her products.

In 2005 she become an Account Manager for a UK based software house which was specifically written for the construction Industry selling CRM solutions, this meant she had to fully understand the sales cycles and processes not only for the construction companies themselves, such as their Tendering & Bids Process but also the sales processes for the properties they were building and selling. She spent time inside their business to fully understand all aspects of their sales processes. She was selling to some of the biggest names in the UK construction industry such as Barratt Homes, Taylor Wimpy, Laing ‘O Rouke and Balfour Beatty to name a few.

In 2008 Kelli took up a more new business focused role as Business Development Manager for the same company and worked on some of the largest deals the company had seen to date, and the largest deal in the company’s history was closed in 2009 at almost 3 million GBP.

After moving to Dubai in 2013 she was employed by another software company to focus on CRM sales where she was given some of the company’s largest accounts to maintain such as Arabtec Holdings –who benefitted from her knowledge of sales processes from some of the biggest organizations in the UK.

Her experience has since branched out into other industries such as retail, manufacturing, real estate and hospitality, she fully understands what an optimum sales structure should look like and can easily identify how an organization can gain the best efficiency from having the right structure in place.

P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E

Kelli Diener

Creating Structure and Transparency for Arabtec

A complete overhaul of their performance related IT systems has lead Arabtec to winning large new contracts and the delivery of the structure and reporting transparency they were previously lacking.

Kelli Diener / Case Study 1 – Construction

The Challenge

The initial challenge was to bring the islands that had been formed within the business together, and this was the objective of the holding company and the business leaders. However upon further investigation it was apparent to Kelli that there were many more underlying issues that needed to be overcome before Arabtec could achieve their goal.

After several scoping meetings with the CIO and department heads it became clear that over the years the company had made many acquisitions of small construction related business but had allowed them to still function has they had previously. Over time, this meant that the holding company had no global reports and were totally reliant on reports from each of the companies being submitted. So they never had a true and accurate picture of the overall business performance from all angles, finance, human capital, expenditure and most importantly, profit.

The Solution

Kelli brought all the companies CEO’s and leaders together to discuss the overall benefits of a unified global solution that would allow each company to function independently but allow the holding company to review each company separately as well as a whole entity.

After overcoming a certain amount of resistance from the subsidiary companies and several presentations of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and also Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Kelli was able to demonstrate how the structure and the processes of the software would address so many of the issues these companies were experiencing.

Each of the companies were using different software – each with its own specific limitations. Some were not made for construction specific processes. Some did not allow for sub-contractors and none of the systems allowed for the management of the labour camps where many of the employees were allocated.

With Kelli’s advice and guidance, software modules were introduced, that were to become mandatory for construction companies in the UAE in the following year.

The Outcome

With Kelli’s support, Arabtec completely changed their IT infrastructure to accommodate the proposed solution. In a roll out that was to take 12 months, Kelli continued working with the CIO and other C-level management to ensure a smooth implementation process whilst discussing with them the best practices that would maximize the return on their investment.

Today Arabtec are winning large contracts and entering into joint ventures where they are making their collaborators implement the software also, for greater transparency and cost reductions on their joint projects.

P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E

Maitland Telke

Educated at Auckland University, New Zealand, Maitland initially joined the team at Van de Roer, one of New Zealand’s top corporate identity consultancies, where he went on to become a senior designer working on national identity programmes, solidifying his knowledge of high-impact communications methodologies.

He progressed to work for Interbrand as the design director at Imagination New Zealand, widely recognised as the world’s leading consultancy for creating and managing brand value, where he completed major identity, brand positioning and implementation programmes including Sky City Entertainment, Mercury Energy, AgResearch, Telecom New Zealand, Cadbury Pascall and Royal & SunAlliance. Through this experience he saw first hand the value of aligned, holistic communications throughout an organisation to enable it’s performance.

Maitland left New Zealand in 2001 to pursue his goals of building a new paradigm creative agency with an educational focus, working with UK professional service firms to help them build successful communications strategies, supporting the growth of their businesses.

Heading up Creativity’s London Bridge office, both creatively and strategically, Maitland has completed successful rebranding and positioning communications projects for many mid-tier professional service firms throughout Europe. He is continuing to follow his passion for using branding and communications as a fundamental tool in growing business revenue performance.

Maitland brings to his clients a vast knowledge of communicating in both consumer and business markets. He has a strong belief in building long term relationships with his clients in order to understand their business model and develop an understanding of the internal and external communications issues they have, ultimately creating cut-through communications that enhance organisational value, awareness and credibility.

It is an immutable law in

business that words are words,

explanations are explanations,

promises are promises - but

only performance is reality.”

“

Equilibrian

2nd Floor, O14 Tower

Burj Khalifa District, Business Bay

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

04 514 8243

info@equilibrian.com

For a free ‘Performance Discovery’ assessment, contact us today