Overview of our services: We assist multinational industrial companies with commercial issues that have a major impact on their competitive effectiveness

These subject-areas are all interconnected, so changes in one have consequences in the others. This gives rise to complexity: it is why companies experience difficulty in identifying the root causes of problems, and is a key reasons why implementation of apparently quite straightforward changes and improvements so often fails.

Cerebra has a wealth of experience across these areas, gained in many “different but similar” industrial companies. Most of our assignments are initially in response to a single issue, but part of our uniqueness lies in our holistic understanding and approach – which means we:

• Can untangle causes and effects, and so precisely define the root problems,
• Design a complete package of improvements (so that changes do not fix problems in one area, but create new problems elsewhere) – supported by a programme of practical actions

Our approach – another facet of our uniqueness – ensures:

• Appropriate people in the organisation ‘own’ the improvements, and
• Changes are adopted and sustained.

Our involvement is usually triggered by one of the following:

• Acquisition(s), prompting an integration programme
• Change of strategic direction (e.g. desire to become more customer focused, or more differentiated or ‘specialty’)
• A change programme recently executed in one area, which has had unforeseen consequences in others
• Problems in a key area – e.g. declining innovation/product development; poor global engagement with key accounts; failure to realise synergies across international operations
• Internal behavioural and organisational issues – e.g. poor motivation, disaffection, poor cooperation, ‘blame culture’, excessive internal politics, conflicts between corporate functions and geographic operations