Guiding business and management back on track

Interim Management

About the company

The Antwerp-based business in this case study has been a household name in the stationery world for over eight decades. What started as a family business is now a major international manufacturer of stationery-related items and filing systems.

Industry: Printing

Project duration: 8 months

Challenges

The family-owned company in this case study had been facing a host of issues, including a decline in sales, a lack of insight into activity-based costing (resulting in suboptimal contracts with customers), problems with senior staff members and an increasing disconnect between the owners and their business.

Solution

Essensys introduced Senior Interim Executive Eric W. to take over general management of the business on request of the owners. Key focus areas:

General company management and leadership,
Overall business case analysis,
Operational and bottom-line improvements,
Introduction of an activity-based cost allocation system.

Results

In an 8-month time span, the Essensys Executive Interim Manager achieved to:

Renegotiate contracts with customers through better insight in P&L accounts,
Reorganize the management team, including sales and marketing departments,
Define an overarching business strategy for long-term success.

In addition, the business owners requested that the Essensys Executive Interim Manager stayed on board after the successful completion of the initially fixed-term assignment. The fact that the Executive Manager in question is still leading the company today, stands as a testimony to the results.