Client has 5 business units in UK, within each units they have range of industries which aims to provide training and work experience for the members of community who have committed crimes. This opportunity is provided in the hope that they will learn new skills which will assist them to seek full time employment. Therefore, aim is to outsource range of service/skills capabilities that are available within each business units to local industries, where the prisoners in effect become extension of local company work force.

Brief/Issues

Brief: The main brief was to recover and transform the revenue for the business and to install management process into the business, as well as increasing number of engagement from local companies. I was recruited for an initial period of three months, this then ended up being extended to 13 months.

Issues: Each site were working independently and there was no joined-up strategy in terms of delivering growth, hence the number of engagement with local companies was reduced this in effect had an impact on revenue and amount of work available to keep the prisoners engaged.

Execution:

The initial few weeks were spent examining the business, people and its existing processes, which lead me to conclude that there was:

No clearly defined strategy in terms how to market the service, types of company to target.

No process

No performance indicator

No clear structure

No team culture/low morale.

Priority 1 – Develop a detailed strategic growth plan for the business; which segment should the client be targeting, what types of accounts, how should the message be delivered, etc. Plus, a clear direction for the business, in terms of where are they now, where do they want to be and how are they going to get there.

Priority 2 – Develop a detailed marketing plan; how should the service be marketed. Develop a clear understanding of core competencies for each site, therefore develop each site as a centre of excellence.

Priority 3 Develop/implement a clearly defined structure with roles/responsibilities

Priority 4 – Focus on process, and team building. Also introduced performance indicator, which track /measured all the key data. The team where then given ownership to check/review the data and where appropriate carry out root cause countermeasure in order to continuously improve/further develop the process.

Having a clearly defined strategic plan, along with a clear structure provided the business unit and its staff with a clear focus, and ensure the team were working towards a common goal.

The transformation programme generated improvements in the company’s performance and staff communication, as well as morale within each business units.

Introduced “new go to market strategy” Inc setting up a tele-marketing team. Pipeline improved by 35%

Secured major contract from a major commercial account valued at c£100k

Implemented best sales process/tools (e.g. drive lead generation improvement by 25%)

Set up new textile/fabric manufacturing cell, resulting 50% cost saving on bedding for prisoners

Secured additional work from wider Corporate division, adding £100k incremental revenue

On target to deliver 25% sales growth

Overall increased number of companies willing to engage with prison industries by 15%

Clients feedback:

“Rakesh was asked to deliver on a challenging brief of delivering change transformation, he was both resistant and patient with stakeholders in successfully delivering transformation”