Boxwood
Boxwood is an award-winning consultancy known for delivering unreasonable and lasting results. We achieve this by bringing together our broad industry knowledge and expertise with our partner’s in-depth knowledge of their business and markets.
This highly-geared collaborative and results focussed model has proved to be hugely successful and we know (because we insist on measuring it) that our combined endeavours have added several billions to the bottom-line value of our partners’ businesses.
The work we do is typically transformational – in terms of top-line growth, in terms of operational effectiveness and efficiency, and in terms of sustained improvements in profitability. Our successes have been achieved across a number of sectors and industry groupings, and with organisations of all sizes.
In some ways, we fit the label of “management consultants”: indeed we have won the UK Management Consultancies Association’s premier award for excellent work. But we think we are different to most, and the people we work with think so too. People have said to us “I wish my team was as committed to our business as your people are”, “You seem obsessed by results”, and “I feel hugely positive about the impact you are having on my business”.
Latest news from Boxwood
Success for Boxwood at the MCA Management Awards 2010
Boxwood won the Best Small Firm Award at the 2010 MCA Management Awards for its work with Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering (BBGE) on an ambitious programme of transformational change to increase revenue and profit and transform the way the organisation worked. The project also received Highly Commended status in the Change Management in the Private Sector category.
Boxwood was also recognised in the Operational Performance in the Private Sector and Innovation categories, receiving Highly Commended status for its work with The UNITE Group Plc.
The MCA Management awards recognise the very best management consulting firms who have delivered outstanding results for their clients, and the Best Small Firm Award is one of four best overall project awards.
Boxwood partnered with BBGE and together they designed and implemented a structured programme of change impacting all areas of the business from site operations to internal business processes, customers and suppliers. The journey was long and tough but after 20 months of working alongside Boxwood, BBGE could see that real change had taken place. Turnover had increased by 40% to £115M, net profit had doubled at 7.9% and BBGE had a workforce with new skills and a new way of working to continue the upward trend.
Graham Wren, Managing Director of Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering said “Working with Boxwood was a breath of fresh air – they were direct and honest, making us address issues we were avoiding or ignoring. They got under the skin of our organisation and really made things happen differently so that our goal became a reality.”
Justin Perry, Managing Director of Stent (a division of BBGE) “When we set our targets with you at the start of this programme, nobody actually believed that they were truly achievable and yet here we are 18 months later and those same targets start to look unambitious – that is the true measure of just how much this business has changed.”
Sarah Powell, Programme Lead for Boxwood, said “It is a huge honour to win this award and demonstrates that true partnership is instrumental in delivering lasting results.”
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case studies
Embedding new ways of workingOur client, a UK pub chain, was facing a tougher trading environment as a result of the economic downturn. To maintain its profit levels, the organisation needed to reduce waste in the pubs, while striving to provide an exceptional customer experience to shield them from the competition.
Working with Boxwood, they devised a programme that...
Business transformation modelling
Our client, an international retail and real estate organisation, had grown extensively and established themselves as one of the biggest franchise retailers in the Middle East. With an impressive stable of over 50 global brands and an inspiring real estate portfolio, they wished to undertake a growth programme to realise their ambition of...
Procurement cost reduction
A fast growing, entrepreneurial FTSE 250 Property Company had many different ways of doing the same thing. Boxwood was engaged to design and implement an overall business transformation programme to reduce overhead and operating costs and to reengineer core business processes, including in procurement where we found that spending was 73 times...
A better way of building buildingsOff Site Manufacturing (OSM) for the construction of buildings has been an idea full of promise for a long time, but has not become a generally accepted technique. The idea is simple – manufacture components, finished rooms for instance, in a factory and then assemble them at site. Not only are efficiency, quality and safety benefits available,...
Transforming Service in Student AccommodationThe UNITE Group plc pioneered the creation of a new financial asset class dedicated to student accommodation, and manages co-investments in excess of £2 billion on behalf of institutional investors. These funds are invested in 130+ properties housing almost 40,000 students across 23 cities. The key driver of value creation for these investments...
Boxwood and Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering (BBGE)Winner of MCA Awards 2010
Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering (BBGE) was showing solid performance in a competitive market but wanted to break out of a pattern of steady but unspectacular growth and marginal profitability. With Boxwood as their partners, they embarked on an ambitious programme of transformational change to increase revenue and profit...
Getting the fundamentals rightAn organisational redesign alone is not enough to radically improve service delivery and to surpass customer expectations.
A large public sector organisation had a capable and loyal IT department, yet they struggled operationally to meet customers’ expectations. The lead time for work requests was lengthening, and the delivery of project work...
Service transformation in an Acute TrustTribal Boxwood was asked to transform the performance of a mid-sized Acute Trust. The Trust had significant ambitions to improve productivity and increase capacity, but there were huge barriers to delivering the improvement required.
We found there was considerable scope for improvement in many areas which when delivered would allow a significant...
Reducing purchasing costsOur client, a major retailer, was becoming increasingly uncompetitive as a result of their poor supply chain.
All internal attempts to improve efficiency and cut costs had failed.
We developed a process for removing ‘avoidable’ costs from the supply chain, and embedded it into the organisation of 120 buyers.
Over 48 months...
A project for avoidable cost eliminationSignificant opportunities existed in the Buying Department to drive out product costs and negotiate better terms with the supplier base.
The project focused its delivery in a number of areas – Strategy; Capability Enhancement; Savings Delivery; Process Integration; Tools & Techniques
Savings equating to a 1.5% addition to gross...
Reducing the cost of office stationeryOur client, a major high street retailer, contracted a single supplier for stationery used at offices in their stores, warehouses and head office.
Using Process7™ we worked with the client purchasing group for non merchandised products and tendered the contract for a reduced catalogue of necessary, office stationery products. Assuming...
Driving promotional valueAn automotive importer and retailer suspected that the promotional value of its demo car fleets could be achieved at lower cost.
We uncovered the true end-to-end costs and identified the root causes driving those costs.
Working with the client and a key supplier, we identified the maximum number of vehicles required, and quickly removed the...
Restructuring store renewal teamsA significant national retail group (£5 billion turn over) was managing a major programme of store renewals, fascia transfers and divestment.
Each business unit fascia managed its own Store Renewal team with central management support. Different processes, manuals and meetings/ reporting structures existed.
Greater flexibility was required...
Optimising store management structures drives out £4.1m savingsFaced with a deteriorating trading environment, a major high-street retailer needed to reduce the overall cost of labour in its national chain of stores.
We found that although there were several distinct managerial positions within store, it was unclear whether each role was adding the value intended by the respective job profile.
Working...
Change Management in the Private SectorGroup Information Systems (GIS) had been hugely successful in supporting Carphone Warehouse (CPW) through its spectacular expansion. However, rapid success was starting to stretch IT capability. So, keeping pace with growth aspirations required a step change in performance and relative reduction in escalating costs.
The business case was...
Implementing a Project Portfolio Management processThe organisation had achieved efficiency benefits across its 4 major business units. Its new focus was on achieving effectiveness targets.
Boxwood developed a PPM tool providing a prioritised programmes and projects list, determined by weighted efficiency and effectiveness factors aligned to the organisation’s strategy. Transferable resources...
Developing a common approach to best practiceOur sponsor, Director of Transformation, was responsible for the merger of two brands. He knew that in order to successfully drive this merger globally, a wealth of challenging and complex projects would be commissioned - he needed a consistent approach to delivering projects. He also wanted to seek out best practice and share this across his teams...
Improving offshore delivery for a global telcoFollowing a major internal restructuring of a leading global telco, all IT development was outsourced to several leading offshore providers. Two years later significant delivery issues were eroding confidence in the offshore model. Boxwood was contracted to examine the situation and make recommendations.
In six weeks we worked across the UK, India...
Combining 2 ISPsDuring the recent consolidation of the UK ISP market, Boxwood was asked to assist with the post-acquisition merger of a large volume of broadband customers into an existing ISP operation.
Working with the small acquisition team, we scoped the merger and teased out essential information from the wider organisation that was necessary to guide this...
Building a Platform for GrowthOur partner, a successful player in a competitive part of the construction industry, wanted to break out of a pattern of steady but unspectacular growth and marginal profitability.
We worked together to articulate the vision and goals, identifying key areas of improvement where value could quickly be realised and which would provide a solid platform...
Service improvement in an Acute TrustTribal Boxwood were asked to improve the performance of the Radiology Department of a large, multi-site acute trust. The specific goals were to improve waiting times, scan throughput, capacity, patient experience and cost efficiency.
A programme of interviews, observations and analysis was undertaken leading to workshops and then action plans being...
Improving underground rail maintenance productivityIn 2003 Metronet, a consortium of Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, RWE Thames Water and EDF Energy, won two 30 year Public Private Partnership (PPP) contracts for upgrading two-thirds of London Underground's infrastructure. The contracts total £17bn and cover trains, stations, signalling, track and tunnels.
Under the PPP Metronet is committed...
Delivering sustainable cost savings in ‘Purchased Services’Two major PLC companies had recently merged bringing together their respective people, assets and consolidated annual budgets. Boxwood was engaged to assist with a cost cutting exercise required to bridge a £25m profit expectation gap.
Working with the joint client team we pieced together data from all corners of the business. A revised...
Success for Marks & Spencer and Boxwood at the National Training Awards 2007In 2004, Stuart Rose was appointed Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer (M&S), with the job of rejuvenating the company.
Improving employee ability and confidence to do their work was a key part of M&S’s turnaround strategy. Development of M&S’ General Merchandise (GM) Academy (in partnership with Boxwood), was just one...
Fixing a Core ProcessA major UK plc launched a fantastic and compelling new service but struggled to meet customers’ expectations. As competitive pressures were relentless, there was never time or enough capable resource to ‘go back and fix things’ perpetuating a vicious cycle where fire-fighting and manual workarounds were business as usual.
We created...
IS Process ReengineeringA multi award winning European technology retailer had experienced significant year on year growth. As a consequence the internal information systems department had been expanding rapidly. This caused productivity to fall and costs to spiral as complexity, legacy and the sheer pace of change impacted the organisation’s ability to maintain and...
Assessing Management CapabilityA multinational business needed to reduce costs by transferring UK-based project work to Africa. The key task was to establish the capability and development needs of the 53 African project managers before they took on the more complex work.
We developed an assessment process that measured a common set of competencies for each individual against benchmarks...
Implementing IT GovernanceA financial institution with a key role in the UK financial market was in the midst of an IT transformation programme to improve a number of core processes and procedures.
There was an urgent need for a review of IT Governance, to assess how well the strategic and operational IT management processes were conducted, and how well they supported the...
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thought leadership
“In nine cases out of ten, organisations understand very well what needs to change. They just don’t know how to change.”
In an environment where markets and competitors are changing faster than ever, huge amounts of money, resources and management focus are being poured into business transformation programmes. Despite this...
Managing change well – A ‘must do’ activity for all businesses
Change is just a fact of life in modern business. Nowhere is this more true than at The Carphone Warehouse (CPW).
CPW has experienced phenomenal change since its inception in 1989, when Charles Dunstone founded the mobile phone retailer. Since then, the firm has grown...
