Business advisory services

Strategy and problem-solving involve ascertaining where an organization or business unit wants to be, how to get there and determining what the obstacles to success are.

Here is how we do it:

Our team visits the company and discusses with Senior Management responsible for delivering desired outcomes. ABACUS360 then gains an understanding of your business by desk research, interviewing the directors and key management, asking difficult questions, reviewing reports and walking about the business to get a “feel of things”. Deeper discussions also occur at the “shop floor”, to obtain valuable insights that rarely filter upwards to key decision-makers. After obtaining the information and data about the company, our analysts will perform data validation and inquiries to ascertain the accuracy of the assertions the data presents.

Every consultancy assignment is unique and sometimes requires the input of specialists, such as engineers, mathematicians or computer software specialists. Our regional and global network enables us to obtain specialists as and when required. The strength our team presents is local knowledge of the business environment that we operate in and our experience in Southern Africa is a key asset that imported consultants lack.

Some of our achievements:

Product mix

Our consulting team reviewed the sales mix of a large poultry farm and determined contribution per product and contribution to overheads. Within two weeks we had determined that the company should drop all but one out of five product lines to attain profitability and positive cashflows. Our client grappled with the pain of dropping revenue by 40%. With guidance from our team, the client gradually dropped the other product lines to focus on its most profitable product. Revenue caught up two years later and the client’s debt ratio has significantly improved.

Make or buy?

A farm client produced stock feed for his livestock since he wanted to control costs and reduce cash outlays. Our team reviewed the costs of production and associated costs such as running and maintaining a hammer mill, running two trucks for buying maize in rural areas, staff costs associated with production and delivery of feed inputs, electricity, and fuel.

We determined a 27% reduction in costs if the farmer purchased rather than bought his feedstock.The farm is now more productive, has fewer employees and the quality of bought-in feedstock has resulted in much healthier livestock.

Operations management

Our client, a pub and restaurant, wanted advice on how to increase revenue. We performed job reviews of each person engaged in production and support and noted performance gaps and advised how these could be closed. Discussions with staff revealed service and delivery bottlenecks that were primarily caused by the restaurant design.ABACUS360 performed walkthrough tests of the service and delivery process and engaged an architect to redesign the restaurant, bar and kitchen area. The results showed increased bar sales, faster delivery of food from the kitchen and a 32% reduction in staff numbers.

Highly successful companies never stop experimenting or constantly improving operations and systems. To create more value in turbulent times requires adopting a culture of challenging the usual way of doing things. ABACUS360 helps clients increase value by assisting them in overcoming behavioural barriers that stagnate growth.