Our international outlook helps our clients adapt to cross-cultural and multi-channel challenges as well as the opportunities that increased globalization brings.
The work we do embraces a wide range of skills and disciplines and takes in the full spectrum of business change management.
Change centered about selecting and embedding the right systems and processes at the heart of the business.
Learn More →Major shifts in market positioning, downsizing, rebranding, mergers – programs that address a need for rapid step change.
Learn More →Values, relationships, structures, policies – addressing the human behaviors that fundamentally underpin business change.
Learn More →Uniquely positioned to measure, understand and articulate a company’s digital culture due to our combined digital and anthropological expertise.
Learn More →We have worked across a range of sectors including healthcare, betting, public sector and global sourcing.
Learn More →To be the most sought-after transformation consultancy in the retail and consumer sectors, bringing tangible value to our clients' businesses.
In a fast-moving business environment where time to market is crucial, the right IT platform can give you a major competitive edge.
Often, the catalyst for companies to start a far-reaching organizational change process is an outdated, or even failing, system. But you can’t just upgrade a platform, plug it in and expect results. For a new system to act as an enabler for lasting change, the change program must successfully engage with the whole organization.
CMG handles systems- and operations-led change programs from full ERP solutions to individual system implementation.
We have a solid understanding of retailing operations across all processes and categories, from fresh food to clothing. This diverse fund of experience has helped us to document and design operating models for a number of major multi-national businesses.
Our approach is down-to-earth and hands on. From developing a business case, through process design, user testing and training to business implementation, we work alongside the client’s internal team to transform their systems. We build awareness and buy-in at all levels, ensuring that the whole organization is engaged throughout the change program. As a result, the company inherits a soundly embedded, joined-up set of systems and processes, well-trained staff, a smooth-running supply chain – and real operating efficiencies.
When market forces demand it, companies must adapt to survive.
Major shifts in market positioning, wholesale restructuring, downsizing, mergers – these situations require a step change. But large organizations are like trains: set up to run efficiently in one direction. It takes skill and careful planning to change the route map and get back on track.
When it’s clear that nothing less than major restructuring is necessary, we help our clients refine their business case and vision.
Then we break down the “big picture” objective into manageable initiatives and clearly defined processes, and put them back together to create a clear roadmap for change. And perhaps most importantly, we provide the combination of project management expertise and deep retailing skills necessary to manage the change program.
At CMG, we believe that step change requires an outside viewpoint. But we also understand that genuine transformation can only come from within the organization. That’s why we use consultants with real commercial experience, with the confidence to roll up their sleeves and become part of the business for the duration of the change program.
Business Transformation programs call on the full range of our talents: from process mapping and supply chain analysis to stakeholder communication strategies, and from the boardroom to the shop floor. Throughout the engagement, we’re generous with our expertise, sharing our tools and methodologies freely.
Why do certain companies thrive while others fail? What makes one business survive a downturn while others struggle? There might be individual reasons but at the heart of the matter lies the culture of an organization.
Organizational culture is crucial to the performance of a company, but in many cases business leaders are unaware how it can be optimized.
Assessing the culture of a company with a view to improving it can be difficult. Culture, by its nature, is intangible. Internal teams tasked with defining it can struggle to be objective.
CMG’s roots are in people science. We were founded by an anthropologist and as such can deploy ethnographic methodologies to understand and articulate individual cultures. We can help people measure, understand and articulate the metaphors, myths and rituals which companies observe, and produce an action plan to improve the culture going forward.
CMG uses qualitative and quantitative analysis to evaluate relationships between groups of people, both within the organization and beyond: customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.
We help our clients identify the customer experience they want, to define their values and to embed new ways of working. Our approach to culture change is collaborative and pragmatic. We understand that, while we act as an essential external catalyst, sustainable change comes from within the company. So, we concentrate on creating "pull" within the company rather than pushing from the outside.
CMG's roots are in digital. Our extensive digital experience and rich network of technology partners gives our clients access to creative minds and practical solutions.
What is Digital?
The retail landscape is changing at a phenomenal speed. Relentless innovation is disrupting the market and changing the way consumers interact with organizations.
Our world is now hyper-connected with new technologies, new customer expectations and new business models disrupting the status quo. The challenge we face is inspiring new ideas and driving innovation today, while anticipating and adapting to be relevant in the future.
Doing nothing is not an option. In fact, it is often the biggest risk. However, legacy technology constraints can hold organizations back.
At CMG, we’re here to help retailers negotiate the digital maze, inspiring new ideas and driving practical innovation. We're experts at optimizing existing solutions to ensure our clients are seizing all possible opportunities.
Our team is uniquely positioned to measure, understand and articulate a company’s digital culture due to their combined digital and anthropological expertise. Here's how we can help:
Online strategy and digital design
Since the day we launched we’ve been helping businesses focus on online strategic goals, defining digital marketing strategies and putting customer experience at the heart of their digital transformations. Sometimes that means re-engineering every process and skill set, or it could just be a simple move to a new technology platform.
Store of the Future
We’re seeing a period of tremendous disruption in retail which offers vast opportunities for the in-store experience and the retail model generally.
Digital technology has the potential to elevate the retail environment, delivering a sleek, modern, contemporary experience to today’s sophisticated, uber-connected consumers. Endless aisle, flexible POS tech, web walls and bluetooth headsets for team members all offer an immersive brand experience for the customer. Digital tech also allows retailers the opportunity to look "outside the box" and develop improved operating models, processes and supply chains.
A carefully considered in-store digital strategy is important. Retailers must evolve to succeed and partnering with CMG is the first step in this transformation.
Digital Operating Models
Organizations know what they are aiming for. They want to be more agile, more effective and deliver a great customer experience. However, there is a tendency to adopt the latest initiative to implement one-off projects in a particular area. The result? Disappointment, temporary gains and no sign of the major impact which was hoped for.
In today's increasingly virtual, scattered workplace, organizations need new ways to innovate, allocate resources and reinvent processes.
Here at CMG we specialize in delivering all aspects of digital change, realizing transformation strategies through structured business analysis, project and program management. We have deep experience in enabling organizations define new, innovative target operating models, driving the business transformations needed to achieve success.
CMG has worked across a wide range of sectors including healthcare, telco, betting, public sector and global sourcing. Examples of our work in these areas may be found here.
Implementing a Balanced Scorecard into a Newly Acquired Business
Our client, one of the world’s leading betting companies, had acquired a new business and engaged us to help manage the integration and implementation of a new operating model. The scope included the definition of a new vision and the design and implementation of a business balanced scorecard.
Read More →Merger and Business Rationalisation Programme
We were engaged by the global leader in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of spices and specialty foods to manage the merger with another European company and return the group to profitability. As part of its growth strategy across several continents, the client had acquired a European company specialising in the manufacturing and marketing of seasoning products in a new domestic market.
Read More →Marketplace Transformation Mapping and User Survey
We were engaged by a public sector executive agency that was finishing the first phase of a new digital marketplace project for the public and non-profit community. They needed to communicate progress and secure commitment from their executives for the next phase. In addition, they wanted to gain input from users of the new tool that would provide input to success/opportunity feedback, along with user-based priorities, to build into the future tool roadmap.
Read More →IT Strategy for a 'Burning Platform' NHS Trust
Our client, a leading hospital Trust, faced a 'burning platform' and needed to develop an IT strategy within a short timescale due to their existing outsourced IT service being on the point of being closed down. We delivered a high quality, comprehensive IT strategy document and practical roadmap for implementing the strategy, which improved the day-to-day operations of the Trust.
Read More →PLM for a Hong Kong-based Interational Sourcing Operation
The Hong Kong based sourcing operation of our client were implementing a Bamboo Rose PLM solution and were concerned that the programme would not meet all of the business’s requirements. CMG were engaged to complete a health check review of the programme and provide guidance on how to ensure the programme not only met the key milestones but delivered on the commitment agreed with the vendor.
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