Restoring a line of credibility to a telecom company in transformation

A European telecommunications operator with over £10 billion in revenue and 45+ million customers had recently undergone a significant merger. The client was attempting a business-wide transformation and cost-out program. However, previous attempts at driving costs out were unsuccessful and current transformation savings were significantly below expectations.  

The new chief operating officer (COO) needed to establish credibility and to bring a fresh view on the feasibility of the existing plan. AlixPartners was hired to validate current improvement opportunities, identify radical cost-out solutions, and develop comprehensive project plans to attain validated financial benefits. 

Our team launched a radical cost-reduction program to identify value creation opportunities and assure implementation maturity in the firm’s three-year plan process. We conducted a targeted review to baseline their current financials and transformation portfolio, enabling us to design multiple radical cost-out and revenue opportunities. We developed improvement levers across their call centers, field operations, retail channel, field sales, and supply chain.  

Our identified value levers helped the COO to establish credibility with the business’ executive committee. We provided detailed initiatives and implementation plans with a clear line of sight for delivery of the company’s three-year strategic plan.   

Our six-week review of the operations division resulted in a value creation target of around £230 million­—a 33% reduction from the £700 million baseline. Additionally, we established an end-to-end tracking mechanism to ensure timely, accurate tracking of bottom-line impact and business performance. We deployed our active “Execution Management Office” approach to ensure the right governance was in place to deliver the full value of the transformation.