ANNUAL REPORT 2010
MAGNETIC CENTRE
CONTENTS
5
Message from the Board
7
Magnetic centre
10
Quartz+Co Manifesto
12
Quartz+Co facts and figures
16
Reinforcing our Nordic presence Case - Vestas Wind Systems Case - A.P. Moller – Maersk Case - Novozymes
26
Establishing a stronger Swedish footprint Case - ArjoHuntleigh Case - GĂśteborg Energi
34
Continuing the Norwegian trajectory Case - Ferd Capital Case - Avinor
42
Consolidating our Danish market position Case - PANDORA Case - The Metropolitan University College
51
Agenda-setting themes 2010 Shipping 3.0 - After the storm Pursuing the winning formula Quartz+Co in the press
60
Onwards
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
Quartz+Co
5
MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD The year gone by was surely the most important one in our consolidated history. Three significant Scandinavian management consulting companies, Copenhagen Consulting Company, Kihlstedt & Partners and Quartz Strategy Consultants merged and became Quartz+Co.
The delicate discussions that led to the final decision and the rigorous execution of the post-merger plan, while keeping focus on clients and delivering on budget, have by no means been easy, but when we look at the result, it has been worth the effort.
Let us for a brief moment revisit the latest annual report from Copenhagen Consulting Company. On the final page it states the following:
Indeed it is our belief that the formation of Quartz+Co has already shown its potential by delivering deeper impact on broader projects as the combined strengths of the three merging companies have created a stronger proposition: a flexible engagement model delivering competences from classic strategic analysis to large-scale corporate transformation including a few spikes as we will see from the client cases in the following pages.
“At the end of 2010, we aspire to present our stakeholders with a company that has an even stronger ability to serve Nordic companies locally and globally. Consolidating our position as one of the top three consulting brands in Denmark, building a position in Norway that equals the one we have in Denmark today, and establishing an undeniable foothold in Sweden.” Although Kihlstedt & Partners and Quartz Strategy Consultants did not publicly declare such intentions, these were more or less the same, although the country priorities obviously would have differed. We feel it is safe to say that the consolidated Quartz+Co team has delivered on these aspirations. Sacrificing much of what was well-established, well-known and safe in order to take a quantum leap towards the dream of creating a “small Nordic giant” – wanting to change the industry from within by joining forces to build something new and even more relevant to our clients and employees.
Some of the core beliefs that we wish to keep nurturing are our ability to listen rather than talk, to adapt our approach and team formations according to specific client situations, to see a human in every client and not a client in every human – and by doing all this delivering relationships as well as results. We would like to thank our clients as well as the Quartz+Co team – consultants and support, old and new, movers and shakers – for a fruitful year. We look forward to a 2011 with the merger well behind us and an even stronger client focus.
CHRISTIAN HVIDT (Chairman)
JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP
PETER LORANGE
General Rtd, Former Chief of Defence
CEO, The LEGO Group
Dr., former President of IMD
TORBJÖRN KIHLSTEDT
NICOLAI ØRSTED
MARCUS ALEXANDER
Executive Chairman, Kihlstedt & Partners
Managing Partner in Plesner
Professor at London Business School
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
September 30 at 4 pm Near the basket court at Ryesgade, Copenhagen
Quartz+Co
MAGNETIC CENTRE
The quartz mineral has a very distinct set of characteristics which can briefly be summarised as follows: Quartz can be found worldwide, is known for clarity and precision and has a natural ability to accumulate a substantial electrical charge when subjected to pressure. Hence, each geographical point where quartz is put under pressure is by definition a natural power centre – a source of energy. An additional, but not less intriguing fact is that the energy pattern radiating from quartz always aligns itself in relation to the magnetic North. As a management consulting company with offices in three Nordic power centres and a global aspect to most of our work, the above qualities certainly capture the raison d’être of our name. Clarity. Precision. Energy. From a power centre. Found globally, but aligned towards the North! In the seminal work “The Future of Management” (2007) professor Gary Hamel states the following: “Diversity produces creativity. In a city, it’s the diversity of cultures, perspectives, skills, industries, building styles and neighborhoods that stoke the fires of innovation. When like meets like, there is no creative spark; but when like collides with unlike, there is often a small stir of inspiration. If cities produce more innovation than suburbs it’s because they are more diverse – they possess more raw material for the machinery of human imagination. This helps explain why a few cities, like New York and London, have long been nuclear reactors of human creativity – their diversity, along with a constant flow of new arrivals, fuels an ongoing chain reaction of discovery and invention.” Hamel, in other words, sees cities as magnetic centres. And with our offices located in hyper-urban Ryesgade in Copenhagen, super-central Inkognitogata in Oslo, and ultra-prestigious Birger Jarlsgatan in Stockholm, we certainly second this viewpoint. Indeed, like the cities we thrive in and in line with our name, we as a company aspire to be a “magnetic centre”. 2010 was a year where the Quartz+Co magnetism forged and reaffirmed connections and relationships across the
Nordic capitals – with new and old colleagues as well as with potential and existing clients. We attracted more than 700 guests to a client event at our Copenhagen office in October; a highly memorable moment which can be added to the long list of internal unforgettable moments: the merger party, the traditional summer trip to Baastad, the partner summit in Hamburg and the Christmas celebrations to highlight a few. Most importantly, however, we saw a wide range of iconic
“IT IS OUR PROCLAIMED ASPIRATION TO INFLUENCE THE TOP MANAGEMENT AGENDA AND ACT AS LEADING ADVISORS TO INTRIGUING CLIENTS WITH A NORDIC HERITAGE, AND IN DUE TIME ALSO WITH A MUCH BROADER GEOGRAPHICAL ORIENTATION.”
moments on the projects with our clients; moments that we commemorate carefully as they represent immense value to us. Obviously, quite a few of these will forever remain undisclosed, but a number of them are described in this report. We trust that readers will enjoy moments like when we helped establish a global trustmark, backed by both the United Nations and WWF, called WindMadeTM, as well as when we saw through the IPO of PANDORA which for us was an iconic culmination following a continuous five-year effort. With clients and projects like these, it is safe to say that Quartz+Co came out of 2010 stronger and more magnetic than ever, not only in financial terms but also professionally, creatively and culturally. When reflecting on what we have been through, this state of affairs was not a given, and we are grateful that our Board, colleagues and clients made 2010 a year that we will never forget.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
October 8 at 5 pm Passing through a tunnel by the lakes, Copenhagen
Quartz+Co
“EACH GEOGRAPHICAL POINT WHERE QUARTZ IS PUT UNDER PRESSURE IS BY DEFINITION A NATURAL POWER CENTRE – A SOURCE OF ENERGY. AN ADDITIONAL, BUT NOT LESS INTRIGUING FACT IS THAT THE ENERGY PATTERN RADIATING FROM QUARTZ ALWAYS ALIGNS ITSELF IN RELATION TO THE MAGNETIC NORTH.”
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
QUARTZ+CO MANIFESTO
NEXT PRACTICE CONSULTING
In the autumn of 2010, the Quartz+Co Partnership gathered in Hamburg to define our shared aspirations and translate these into a set of lasting principles for the way we lead, operate and engage. The result was a Manifesto for Quartz+Co. The Manifesto outlines our shared ambition and key beliefs that we as a team are willing to fight for. These beliefs shape the core of our value proposition to our clients and our employees. In the Manifesto, the foundation of a lasting, game-changing first-tier management consulting company is laid as a basis for challenging the traditional consulting approach by introducing a new model in professional management consulting. The Next Practice We recognise that a new generation of executive decision makers in today’s capable and globalised corporations require a widely different type of flexibility, insight and experience from their advisors than just a few years ago. We also acknowledge that the next generation of talented professionals want widely different career challenges than earlier. As a consequence, we believe that the time has come for new ideas in professional management consulting which we embrace by introducing a more flexible, pragmatic and people-centric engagement model that appeals to the dynamic settings of today’s executives and matches the requirements of a new generation of talented business professionals. This new model is centred on the ability to solve complex business issues quickly and with the flexibility required by executive decision makers to tackle their ever-changing priorities in a highly turbulent world. It also entails a career model that offers client exposure and leadership responsi-
bility much faster than the industry norm while embracing diversity as an asset to enable optimal match-making both internally and externally. We call this model Next Practice Consulting or merely Next Practice. Next Practice will be our mantra – our point of reference. In a sense “Next” Practice is like tomorrow: it is never there. The term is meant to convey the notion of genuinely new approaches rooted in practical understanding. As such Next Practice is disciplined imagination. Aspiration In the light of all this, our aspiration as a new company is to: • Build a distinguished world-class management consulting company from a Nordic base • Influence the top-management agenda and act as leading advisors to intriguing clients • Change the management consulting profession We aspire to build a first-tier management consulting company recognised for our ability to act flexibly in multiple settings and combine complementary skills across strategy, operations, commercial impact, transactions and transformation. We aspire to a position as leading advisors on critical business issues by harnessing the power of combining skills, experience and insights and engaging through a considerably more people-centric approach than our closest industry peers.
Quartz+Co
We aspire to prove that management consulting is not just about growth and profits, but also about personal growth for clients and staff – embracing diversity as an asset – and about offering talented business professionals an opportunity to see the management consulting profession as a career as opposed to a stepping stone. Beliefs Along with our aspiration, a number of core beliefs guide us in our work: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
team constellations by matching insight, experience and personalities to the business challenges at hand. We want to build enduring working relationships with our clients, and we want to be remembered. We will challenge ourselves to always create memorable consulting experiences externally and establish iconic moments internally. Everything we do is about delivering success as opposed to just ensuring successful delivery.
Relevance before size Diversity before uniformity Civilisation before organisation Followership before formal titles Flexibility before standard approaches Delivering success before successful delivery
Our journey towards Next Practice challenges us to rethink many of the traditional ways of leading, engaging and operating to increase our relevance to clients and candidates. We do see relevance as more important than size, just as we see the establishment of a civilisation as more important than building an organisation. We will continuously challenge ourselves to build a civilisation of interdependent team players – a civilisation of like-minded entrepreneurs who want to be part of something bigger than they can accomplish alone. We want to build a company based on a leadership philosophy of followership. Followership comes from creating leadership opportunities for others – clients and staff. We want to be good match-makers internally as well as externally. We believe in listening and giving sincere advice and less in standard methodologies and fixed engagement models. And we strive to continuously configure winning
For the full version of the Manifesto please go to our website: www.quartzco.com/manifesto
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
QUARTZ+CO FACTS AND FIGURES
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA
2010 was a year in the aftermath of the financial crisis. To our clients, uncertainty was replaced by decisiveness and increased financial visibility. The business environment did not necessarily improve dramatically in all industries, but it became clearer which strategies and initiatives to pursue to regain growth and right-size the business. Towards the end of the year, we saw strong indications that optimism was back. For several of our clients growth re-entered the agenda, and private equity slowly emerged from its hibernation. Quartz+Co came out with a top-line growth of 6% (consolidated) in 2010, bringing us close to the 2007/08 level, which was record high. Single-digit growth does not necessarily match our ambition, but we take comfort in the
fourth quarter of 2010 which showed significant growth compared to last year. Our foundation One of the key motivations for creating Quartz+Co was the complementarities of the old companies in terms of clients, industries, services and geography. Quartz Strategy Consultants served one part of the energy sector; CoCoCo served another. Quartz had a strong position vis-Ă -vis FMCG players and grocery retailers; CoCoCo had a similar position with branded manufacturers and specialty retailers. CoCoCo had strong capabilities within transportation; Quartz likewise within telecom. CoCoCo had operations in Norway, while Quartz was working with Kihlstedt & Partners in Sweden. And so on.
REVENUE
SECTORS
MDKK
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL 2009-10 REVENUE
Please note that the figure shows Quartz Strategy Consultants financial year: 1 July-30 June and CoCoCo financial year: 1 October-30 September. In 2010, CoCoCo closed the books three months early – thus a three-month
CONSUMER GOODS 9%
estimate has been added for the sake of comparability.
PRIVATE EQUITY 8% FINANCE 9%
244 225
238 PHARMA 7% TRANSPORTATION 11%
171
RETAIL 6%
154
PUBLIC 5%
92 INDUSTRY 11%
71
TELECOM & MEDIA 4%
42
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
ENERGY 15%
OTHER 15%
Quartz+Co
“At Quartz+Co, we are aiming for the stars! In every sense, we want to build the most recognised high-end management consulting brand in the Nordic region, and to do this we need to attract the most talented people to our small civilisation. Not because size is a goal, but because excellence is.”
Aiming for the stars In 2010, we welcomed more than 57 new people to our team, from junior consultants to business supporters and partners. Both Quartz Strategy Consultants and CoCoCo had worked hard to attract the most talented students from the best Scandinavian universities, and we are thrilled to see that this magnetism has remained unchanged after the merger. Quartz+Co will continue to develop and hire the best talents from Nordic business-oriented universities. While recruiting and developing young rising stars, we still celebrate and strive for a large share of seniority. Partners in Quartz+Co are and will continue to be deeply involved in working hands-on, day-to-day with our clients.
At Quartz+Co, we are aiming for the stars! In every sense, we want to build the most recognised high-end management consulting brand in the Nordic region, and to do this we need to attract the most talented people to our small civilisation. Not because size is a goal, but because excellence is.
EMPLOYEES
SERVICE LINES
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES AT THE END OF 2010
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL 2009-10 REVENUE
ORGANISATION & TRANSFORMATION 15%
48
48
OPERATIONS 14% 38
COMMERCIAL IMPACT 20%
31
TRANSACTIONS 12%
SUPPORT
CONSULTANTS
EXPERIENCED CONSULTANTS & MANAGERS
PARTNERS
STRATEGY 31%
OTHER 8%
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
THE ALTERNATIVE FACTS AND FIGURES “NOBODY REALISES THAT SOME PEOPLE EXPEND TREMENDOUS ENERGY MERELY TO BE NORMAL.” Albert Camus
NORDIC “MAN BITES DOG” IS THE NAME OF A PRIZE AWARDED EVERY MONTH TO THE PROJECT THAT HAS DELIVERED THE MOST ICONIC MOMENT AT OUR CLIENTS’ SITES
NORWAY “12,000” IS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF STEPS 15 CONSULTANTS EXPECT TO TAKE TO COMPLETE THE 17.9 KM RACE HOLMENKOLLSTAFETTEN IN MAY 2011 “25” IS THE KILOGRAMS OF BROWN CHEESE CONSUMED BY THE STAFF IN THE OSLO OFFICE EACH YEAR “3” IS THE NUMBER OF BABIES DELIVERED WITHIN ONE WEEK IN JANUARY 2011
SWEDEN “1” IS HOW MANY OF OUR CONSULTANTS IN THE SWEDISH OFFICE THAT WERE BORN IN STOCKHOLM (DESPITE 13 NATIVE SWEDES) “14” IS THE NUMBER OF CONSULTANTS FROM THE OSLO AND COPENHAGEN OFFICES WORKING FULL TIME ON PROJECTS IN SWEDEN DURING 2010
DENMARK “8” IS THE NUMBER OF DANISH CONSULTANTS THAT ARE PARENTS TO TWINS “1.1” TONS IS HOW MUCH CANDY IS EATEN IN THE COPENHAGEN OFFICE IN 2010 (~8.5 KG CONSUMED YEARLY PER EMPLOYEE) “9” IS HOW MANY SOCIAL CLUBS WE HAD AT THE BEGINNING OF 2011 (RUNNING, WINE, WHISKY, LITERATURE, CYCLING, COOKING, SQUASH, SOCCER AND SKIING)
Quartz+Co
ENOUGH ABOUT US. LET US TURN TO OUR CLIENTS, GIVE YOU A FLAVOUR OF THEIR CHALLENGES AND OF HOW THEY RIGOROUSLY DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THEIR BUSINESS POTENTIAL. WE PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON OUR PLATFORMS IN SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK WITH A NUMBER OF CASES WITHIN EACH MARKET TO GIVE YOU A PEEK AT HOW WE DELIVER VALUE THROUGH OUR NORDIC MODEL.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
THE NORDIC ARENA
REINFORCING OUR NORDIC PRESENCE
Quartz+Co
Quartz+Co has taken a giant step forward towards becoming a full-blown Scandinavian player with close to 175 employees including about 140 consultants working out of our three offices located in Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. This extended presence provides us with an opportunity to not only serve our clients with their business issues in the local markets in which they operate, but also to leverage a broader set of capabilities to provide even more qualified assistance on projects with a Nordic or even global scope. To give you a sense of some of our projects with a truly global scope and magnitude, we reveal three inspiring cases describing the visionary and ambitious approach taken by global market leaders such as Vestas Wind Systems, A.P. Moller – Maersk and Novozymes. In the case of Vestas, the development of WindMadeTM, the world’s first ever global renewable energy consumer label, is introduced. It is a fascinating story of how, through a visionary approach to business development, Vestas is partnering with NGOs and global consumer brands to provide transparency to consumers about what kind of energy the products they buy are made from – thereby increasing the awareness of their core product.
With the A.P. Moller – Maersk case, we move from business development to global HR strategy. In a push for better results and increased agility, A.P. Moller – Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, identified the need for revitalising their talent management approach. The aspiration was to provide the line business with a talent and performance management platform that would enable the management teams to align the human capital with the business strategy – without necessarily having elaborate HR insight. Novozymes is an example of how a global company rooted in the Nordic region plans, thinks and acts in a global context. In this case, we learn how Novozymes transforms a regional structure to a global structure in one of their core business units to better exploit their global resources. This is a key lever in Novozymes’ ambition of constantly investing in growth-related activities while in parallel freeing up resources to fuel growth. The case includes a look at how resources are pooled via global competence centres to leverage competences, increase efficiency and enhance knowledge, while at the same time moving tasks to lowwage countries, i.e. captive off-shoring. We hope you will find the cases relevant and inspiring.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
CASE - VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS
CREATING THE WORLD’S FIRST GLOBAL RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMER LABEL
Quartz+Co
Vestas set out on a challenging journey when deciding to develop WindMadeTM and gain traction among citizens and global consumer brands like Google, LEGO, Microsoft and Nike. By using this visionary and novel approach to business development, Vestas hopes to break down barriers for wind energy investments and demonstrate how a true industry leader takes responsibility for building their core market.
Develop the first ever global consumer label for a single renewable energy source. Create a coalition of the world’s most credible NGOs like WWF and international strategic policy initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact together with globally respected businesses, e.g. Bloomberg, the LEGO Group and PwC. Build a robust label standard which satisfies conflicting needs of consumers, NGOs and global consumer brands. Establish an independent organisation to host the label, and then hand it over to the Global Wind Energy Council, the global forum for the wind energy sector representing 99% of the globally installed wind power turbines. Announce the initiative in the zenith of global attention at the World Economic Forum in Davos – the yearly gathering of the world’s most influential business executives – to an extensive crowd of global press, environmental organisations and executives from consumer brands such as Coca-Cola, Estée Lauder and General Electric. Receive significant praise for the initiative from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, in his official World Economic Forum introduction speech. And gain publicity through more than 500 articles in leading global media, including front page stories in the International Herald Tribune and USA Today, TV interviews on CNN and Reuters as well as both major Danish TV networks, and reach out to millions through Twitter and other social media. Seems like an overwhelming task? Nevertheless, this is exactly what Vestas set out to achieve led by Group SVP and CMO Morten Albæk, the creative mind behind the concept, approximately 12 months before the WindMadeTM label was first presented to the general public in January 2011.
WindMadeTM: A truly novel marketing, CSR, philanthropy, PR, sustainability and business development initiative Vestas, having pioneered the wind industry more than 30 years ago and in the process installed more than 43,000 turbines across six continents, believed that creating a global movement for wind energy was not only necessary in order to sustain their business in a situation where the traditional market driver, governments, had failed to do so at the expected rate, but was also Vestas’ responsibility as the committed creator of the wind energy industry. By bringing resources from corporations and NGOs together in a emerging model designed to overcome the flaws of the failed purely capitalistic market model, Vestas saw an opportunity to combine global marketing, CSR and philanthropy with solid business development. In perceiving capitalism and humanism as each others’ prerequisites rather than antagonistic forces, Vestas hopes to create new market opportunities in liaison with core partners from the corporate and non-corporate sphere to unite behind a shared objective of ensuring a clean, prosperous future for next generations. The idea, although complex and highly ambitious, is to drive the global adoption of wind energy by convincing the world’s largest consumer brands to stick a label on their products informing about the source of energy. This is good news not only for the future of the planet we inhibit, but also for Vestas’ future profitability. Global Wind Study As part of the rigorous analysis preceding the actual concept development, Vestas surveyed more than 25,000 respondents across 20 markets in a Global Wind Study conducted by TNS Gallup to investigate the consumer interest and sentiment for the WindMadeTM label.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
The survey base proved a strong interest: 76% responded positively to “renewable energy as a good solution to mitigate climate changes”, and 60% saw a consumer label such as WindMadeTM as “important to have on products as consumer guidance”. Vestas will continue to monitor the global consumer interest for wind power in general, and WindMadeTM in particular, to ensure that future decisions are based on the same level of rigour as in the first phase of the project. Global Corporate Wind Energy Ranking As part of the process, Vestas also pioneered the creation of a Global Corporate Wind Energy Ranking to report on the largest global consumer brands’ procurement of wind and other renewable energy sources. With the significant gap between corporations’ promise to use renewable energy and their current level of consumption, Vestas saw a benefit in providing this transparency to consumers to catalyse the demand for products made from wind energy at the retail shelf. Developed in co-operation with Bloomberg, the official data provider of WindMadeTM, the ranking will be released together with a whitepaper outlining the major trends and developments of corporate investments in wind power. The surveyed companies are selected from the Bloomberg 500 Index (global companies ranked by market capitalisation) as well as the MSCI World Index (an index of approxi-
mately 1,660 companies from 24 countries). The data come from extensive Bloomberg research, aggregated Bloomberg energy data, Carbon Disclosure Project, Environmental Protection Agency (US) and other sources.
“There has already been substantial progress in implementing the UN Global Compact Blueprint. [For example,] the world’s first consumer label for products made with wind energy has been created. It is called WindMadeTM. We hope it will accelerate a transformation towards green growth.” 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon (Davos, World Economic Forum, January 28, 2011) Significant press coverage Referenced by a highly successful online US media headed by Tina Brown, Chief Editor of Newsweek, as “the shiny new brainchild of a unique consortium of leading businesses and organisations,” WindMadeTM generally received overwhelmingly positive coverage in global media. Even the critical press seemed to accept the initiative as a brilliant way for Vestas to accelerate the demand for wind
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, DAVOS, JANUARY 28, 2011 Sitting on stage at the official announcement of WindMadeTM in the Kirchner Museum in Davos, host of the prestigious World Economic Forum, was a powerful coalition of founding partners in support of the WindMadeTM initiative. The partner organisations were represented by their top executives, i.e. UN Global Compact Executive Director Georg Kell, WWF Director General Jim Leap, GWEC Secretary General Steve Sawyer, PwC LLP Chairman Bob Moritz, Bloomberg New Energy Finance CEO Michael Liebreich as well as the representatives from Vestas, CEO Ditlev Engel and CMO Morten Albæk, the initiative’s originator. The panel discussion was lively, with the WindMadeTM partners providing a balanced but strong support of the initiative and expressing their specific role and reason for participating. Global press was represented by some of the most influential global media such as the New York Times and Danish TV networks were on the premises to cover the reflections of Vestas’ CEO Ditlev Engel straight after the announcement. As one of few actionable initiatives tied to the World Economic Forum’s overall focus on the climate and energy January 28 at 8 am, Davos, Switzerland.
challenge, WindMadeTM and Vestas could not have asked for a better
Tina Brown, Chief Editor of Newsweek, and selected panellists.
beginning of their journey.
Quartz+Co
power. Despite Vestas’ obvious commercial interest in success for WindMadeTM, the spirit of the initiative is synthesised by an online media stating: “Grain of salt aside, it’s hard to argue that such encouragement is a bad thing”. Press coverage was extensive with mentions in international media such as the New York Times, Reuters International, The Guardian, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post. Television coverage was also extensive with the Danish public service stations DR1 and TV2 both running lengthy features and CNN and Reuters broadcasting interviews with Vestas’ CEO Ditlev Engel. Finally, as maybe the strongest indication of the potential for catalysing a global consumer movement, WindMadeTM also made a huge splash in the social media space with millions informed through twitter mentions and hundreds of blogs written about WindMadeTM. The extensive press coverage proved to be a successful platform since Vestas’ investment in WindMadeTM during the preceding 12 months, including a donation to establishing the NGO, was all recouped in PR value in less than three weeks. Vestas’ motivation for developing WindMadeTM WindMadeTM is an excellent example of how Vestas via a totally new approach is pursuing visionary, innovative and novel business development. In a context where the wind power industry holds far more potential than is currently realised, a true industry leader committed to progress is not afraid of questioning existing business models and pushing the boundaries for growth.
This is exactly what Vestas is doing with WindMadeTM in an attempt to pave the way for an emerging customer segment consisting of consumer brand companies. Vestas is demonstrating true industry leadership by forging unprecedented partnerships to break down barriers to corporate wind energy investments. This segment holds a potential for both wind energy and Vestas beyond pure megawatts. With the “brand of wind” struggling to gain traction and awareness among ordinary citizens, global consumer brands like Google, LEGO, Microsoft, Nike, etc. offer a platform to vocally support wind as a renewable technology that is far more powerful than any campaign Vestas could ever develop on their own. The journey ahead for Vestas and WindMadeTM Following the announcement, Vestas was contacted by numerous wind energy stakeholders, including noteworthy global consumer brands, indicating a strong interest in WindMadeTM. With the project having positioned Vestas as the innovation leader when it comes to developing the wind energy business, the focus is now on ensuring that the consumer label is implemented with the same rigour as the initial announcement. And subsequently that more wind turbines are erected and plugged into the grid with a significant share of these being manufactured by Vestas.
WINDMADETM FACTS AND FIGURES WindMadeTM is a global initiative dedicated to increasing corporate investments in wind power by educating consumers about a specific corporation’s use of wind energy and raising the demand for products that are made from this clean and renewable energy source. WindMadeTM draws attention to the fact that we cannot continue to consume products that are made from energy sources that cause so much harm to the environment. The label is a step forward in the process towards raising consumer awareness and displaying the importance of sustainable, renewable energy. Using a physical entity, a label, ensures that the public simply cannot ignore the effects that their purchases have on the environment.
WindMadeTM founding partners
The participating companies will decide whether the whole corporation or only specific physical locations and/or products are to be certified. The final standard is developed by a technical committee of renewable energy and label verification experts and will be subject to a public consultation beginning in the spring of 2011. WindMadeTM will be managed through an independent NGO which Vestas – as the lead sponsor for WindMade™ – will fund for the first three years of operation. The aim is to launch the first version of the WindMadeTM standard on the Global Wind Day in June, 2011.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
CASE - A.P. MOLLER – MAERSK
A.P. MOLLER – MAERSK – PLACING HR AT THE HEART OF THE BUSINESS
Quartz+Co
The A.P. Moller – Maersk Group operates in some 130 countries, has a workforce of more than 110,000 employees and operates in business areas as different as energy, logistics, retail and manufacturing. Common to all A.P. Moller – Maersk’s business areas is that they operate in highly competitive environments. This makes the human factor an important strategic weapon in staying ahead of the competition. Whether relating to the exploration of oil or the ability to get a container from A to B in due time, people are the differentiating factor for A.P. Moller – Maersk. Consequently, fully leveraging the potential of the group’s employees is a core priority for Group HR. In 2008, the continued push for better results and increased agility made it clear to Group HR that the talent management strategies which had worked in the past were not enough to deliver future results. The tradition of making talents attend stand-alone programmes driven by HR did not sufficiently contribute to enabling the organisation to win in the market place. This called for action and led Bill Allen, Head of Group HR, to set a strong priority for the HR agenda: to create an approach that provided the organisational “lifting power” to win in the highly competitive market place by creating a transparent overview of the global talent pool. Creating HR that delivers on the business requirements Instead of inventing new radical strategies and sophisticated HR tools, Group HR decided to strengthen the core disciplines of performance and talent management. The aspiration was to build simple, intuitive and scalable tools, which would enable each management team to bring human capital to the epicentre of the strategic discussion without having elaborate HR insight, and in addition create the needed flexibility to meet the highly diversified needs of the business units across the conglomerate. The pioneering step was the introduction of the People Strategy Session (PSS), scoped as a recurring strategic meeting where the top management goes through the process of: 1. Linking the current positions to the strategic must-win battles to know which position is most critical for achieving the strategy 2. Matching the job content of the positions to the performance of the person holding the job to identify gaps and development needs 3. Deciding on necessary actions for each individual to ensure the capacity to deliver on the strategic requirements Having parallel discussions in the management teams of how to align the human capital with the business strategy
in Canada, Congo or Copenhagen has delivered full transparency of the talent pool across the conglomerate. This provides the ability to have a truly global perspective on how to get the most out of the talents and encourages the management teams to make difficult decisions – both in dealing with the less effective performers and in letting local talents move on to more critical positions. The PSS also led to a new opportunity for HR to demonstrate its value add to the business. Facilitating the PSS requires HR to understand the business context and brings a strong strategic rationale into the decisions on development and training activities. The results ... and the next move Today, the PSS runs once a year in all management teams across the globe, resulting in a stronger outlook and a more solid foundation for tackling the global market place. On group level, the PSS has given A.P. Moller – Maersk a much better overview of the talent pool across the organisation and significantly improved the ability to put the right people in the right positions at the right time. However, this does not mean that the journey has ended for Group HR. The next step is to apply the same principles to the performance management process for A.P. Moller – Maersk to optimise the value creation of all employees, teams and business units.
The rationale behind the new HR strategy and why it has proven to be a success in A.P. Moller – Maersk across the markets: It is truly strategic and links the HR intelligence on human capital to the strategic business needs It is simple and intuitive as it follows the logic of the strategy, making training of business leaders unnecessary It is f lexible as each management team focuses on the human capital issues most urgent to them It is based on training HR to facilitate the process, so the business leaders perceive the process as a strategic human capital session rather than an HR initiative
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
CASE - NOVOZYMES
LEVERAGING GLOBAL EXPERTISE AND RESOURCES TO FUEL GROWTH In their 2010 annual report, Novozymes presented an all-time high revenue of DKK ~9.7 billion and an operating profit of DKK 2.1 billion (22%). This makes Novozymes a highly attractive business in the Nordic region. With 5,200 employees and ten factories worldwide, Novozymes markets more than 700 products in 130 countries.
Quartz+Co
In 2010, Novozymes’ management set forth an ambitious target of 15% annual growth backed by favourable business conditions and an impressive growth track record. As the world’s leading enzyme manufacturer, Novozymes has an obligation and a constant ambition to stay ahead. One of the methods to effectively reach the target is to constantly invest in growth-related activities and in parallel free up resources to fuel growth. As Novozymes is part of a sophisticated and highly complex industry, it is difficult to achieve acquisitive growth. Novozymes must therefore focus on growing organically and is crucially dependent on the skills and experiences of their employees. Sophistication of global production support functions A key backbone in Novozymes is a production unit called Multi Purpose Production (MPP) which is responsible for all production with ten factories across the world, among others in Denmark, the US, Brazil, India and China. In total, 1,200 of Novozymes’ 5,400 employees work within MPP. As a key business unit within Novozymes, MPP has a vital role in reaching the growth target of 15%. MPP has for many years contributed with significant cost improvements through continuous focus on refining the production processes. However, less focus had traditionally been put on the support functions related to production. This called for an exploration of additional growth enablers within these functions. In spring 2010, MPP thus initiated a three-year strategy process to identify all relevant elements with the potential of contributing to the ambitious growth targets which Novozymes is committed to reach. Two key levers of growth within production support were identified:
The talents were selected from Denmark, the US, Brazil and China, and thus the global mindset was present from the beginning in terms of getting input from all sites. Naturally, the team constellation also took into consideration the obstacles that occur when working together across regions, including language barriers as well as different time zones and cultural backgrounds. The analysis performed by the strategy working group showed that the most effective lever to reduce costs is to move support activities to low-wage countries where Novozymes is already present, i.e. captive offshoring. With salary levels on index 20-50 for low-cost relative to high-cost regions, there is significant potential in moving labour-intensive, trivial tasks to low-cost regions. Knowledge intensive tasks which depend on education level and experience of the employees should be kept in the current regions to ensure the continuous development of Novozymes. The analysis revealed that current support within maintenance, projects and data management were fragmented in Novozymes because all sites have their own support function. The strategy work identified a considerable potential in creating global and virtual Centres of Excellence to leverage the local knowledge and experience. Spurring a global mindset Being a leading global company, Novozymes has come a long way in leveraging the global competences present in the organisation. The current growth focus has provided the incentive for building further upon these competences, and Novozymes has now embarked on a journey to create top-line growth of 15% with an ambition of considerably slower growth in the underlying costs. The activities needed to achieve this have been initiated, and with persistence and clear focus, this will help realise the three-year strategy ambition going forward.
1. Pooling global resources to leverage competences and increase efficiency by establishing global competence centres that combine and enhance knowledge 2. Freeing up resources by moving tasks to low-wage countries, i.e. captive offshoring As these levers require profound analysis and insight into Novozymes’ business processes as well as buy-in from the organisation and consideration of the existing global structure, MPP decided on a comprehensive bottom-up process involving top management and key employees. A primary concern for Novozymes before initiating the work was to take on a truly global perspective. The current organisational structure is regional, and the initial hypothesis from management was that this regional structure would be a major inhibitor for realising the gains of globalisation with sites and employees in multiple locations. Applying a global Novozymes mindset In order to address these two considerations, the MPP management initiated a Talent Programme where Top 16 Global Talents in MPP were selected to be part of a strategy working group focusing on identifying growth potential within MPP.
NOVOZYMES A/S
ENZYME BUSINESS
BIOBUSINESS
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
FINANCE, IT, LEGAL & INVESTOR RELATIONS
STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
.SE STRATEGIC PRIORITIES Our presence in Sweden has greatly increased during the last year with several high-calibre recruitments and a solid footprint now established in the market. Focus will be to continue the collaboration with our other Nordic offices to further build our local platform.
Quartz+Co
March 18 at 4 pm Birger Jarlsgatan, Stockholm, opposite our office space
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
SWEDEN
ESTABLISHING A STRONGER SWEDISH FOOTPRINT As the next logical step in the Nordic expansion strategy, Quartz+Co strengthened our position in the Swedish market in 2010 by joining forces with the Swedish company Kihlstedt & Partners. With this move, we established a solid foundation for expanding in Sweden and a solid client base within the transportation industry, the consumer goods industry as well as within the industrial sector, just to mention some.
Our clients During 2010, the Stockholm-based team has had the opportunity to serve several of our key clients by solving some of their most complex and challenging issues. Among other things, we:
Our ambition is clear: by 2015, we want to be recognised as one of the leading management consulting companies in Sweden and an attractive alternative to our established international competitors based on our next practice model and uncompromising dedication to delivering success to our clients.
• Prepared and assessed a brand new operating model within air traffic management for Avinor
Our people Our Stockholm team is growing rapidly. In August 2010, the team counted less than 10 employees, while in early 2011 that number has doubled including the three transfers from the Copenhagen office. We will also continue our search for talent to reach our aspiration of becoming a team of about 25 employees by 2011/12.
Our priorities In 2011, we intend to expand our senior executive relationship base and continue working with interesting and challenging issues. We will also intensify our branding efforts to create more public awareness of Quartz+Co in the market and at selected top business and technology schools, a key prerequisite for recruiting young professionals.
• Participated in establishing a strategic partnership between SAS and Copenhagen Airport
• Developed a corporate strategy for ArjoHuntleigh • Prepared a growth strategy for Arla Sweden
To further support our growth ambitions, we have recently established an Advisory Board consisting of prominent senior executives such as Håkan Samuelsson, former CEO of MAN and Board member of Siemens and Volvo Cars, and we are delighted with the inspiration it has provided. We have the utmost respect for the challenges facing us, but nevertheless we are convinced that the Stockholm team together with our colleagues in Copenhagen and Oslo can and will fulfill our ambitions and win the desired market position. To give you a sense of our work in Sweden, we have documented a
We have already taken several measures to boost our Swedish platform. In September 2010, we moved into new premises in Birger Jarlsgatan 7 with plenty of space to grow our business and welcome new consultants. But even though we see growth as a relevant parameter, we will never compromise our view of what is most important: the high quality of our client services.
few stories about our clients and the challenges they have overcome. One case tells the story of Göteborg Energi and the company’s vision of actively contributing to “a sustainable Gothenburg” in terms of developing more sustainable energy solutions. The other case is about ArjoHuntleigh, a leading global player from the healthcare industry and how the company has struggled with declining growth rates during the financial crisis.
Quartz+Co
March 18 at 4 pm Birger Jarlsgatan, Stockholm
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
ARJOHUNTLEIGH - SWEDEN
STABILISING THE BUSINESS AND REGAINING GROWTH
Quartz+Co
ArjoHuntleigh was established in 2007 through the merger of ARJO and Huntleigh Technology, thereby creating a world-leading healthcare player within mobility-related equipment. With an annual turnover of EUR 750 million and more than 4,400 employees serving the needs of hospitals, long-term care and home care in 100 countries, the company is number 1 within their field.
Historically, ArjoHuntleigh has achieved above market rate organic growth of 4-7% p.a. However, the global financial crisis combined with inward management focus on postmerger cost optimisation as well as increased sophistication of customer buying behaviour have resulted in declining growth and eroding profits. Fundamentally, the belief was that ArjoHuntleigh operates in an attractive industry due to ageing populations around the world, a shortage of care personnel in most markets and new growth markets such as the BRIC countries. Negative growth in 2008-2009 was thus an entirely new and unthinkable situation for the organisation. In late 2009, a new CEO, Alex Myers, was brought onboard with the task of stabilising the business and restoring growth to fulfil the pre-merger ambitions. Establishing a new direction With the new CEO, ArjoHuntleigh decided to launch a combination of a short-term stabilisation strategy focused on efficiencies (“Fit 4 Growth”) and a new growth strategy (“Go 4 Growth”). The goal of the strategy was to identify ways to deliver the target of 5% annual growth while lifting EBITA from 15% to 19%. Furthermore, the ambition was to design the strategy process to give the organisation a needed energy boost and set clear direction in order to regain momentum. ArjoHuntleigh still operates in an attractive industry, although increasing Asian competition and larger customers will continue to put pressure on prices in the future. Thus, focusing on low costs will remain a key requirement for winning in this industry. Future growth, however, will require ArjoHuntleigh to improve commercial skills as well as the quality and rate of innovation and to execute an effective go-to-market strategy and achieve a stronger market position in the US and Asia. In order to strengthen ArjoHuntleigh’s future position and regain growth, top management has decided on four overarching priorities under the “Go 4 Growth” umbrella: improve commercial focus and execution, customer orientation and
innovation capability, achieve a decreased cost level and create a global market footprint. For each of these priorities, a number of specific initiatives were charted; all incorporated in management business plans and budgets. Ensuring future growth Although market conditions have remained very difficult in 2010, ArjoHuntleigh has managed to achieve a significant boost in profitability, thereby meeting their long-term EBITA target ahead of plan. Thus, focus has turned to regaining growth. At the moment, ArjoHuntleigh is working on executing a number of key initiatives: 1. Improving front-end commercial excellence capabilities and execution in key markets 2. Developing stronger innovation management and a pipeline for key product areas 3. Accelerating growth in Asia and the US Despite the new strategy and implementation of growthaccelerating initiatives, there is still some way to go before ArjoHuntleigh regains the targeted growth level of 5% p.a., but the decline has been halted, and a number of key markets are beginning to deliver positive results. A strong focus on growth and product innovation is therefore needed in 2011 to reach the targeted growth level.
ABOUT CEO: Alex Myers Market leader within the healthcare and life sciences industry Established in 1957 Selling medical equipment and integrated solutions for patient hand ling and hygiene, medical beds and therapeutic surfaces, wound healing, DVT prevention, disinfection and diagnostics. Geographically, ArjoHuntleigh has a strong base in Northern Europe, North America and Australia with an emerging position in Asia.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
Gﾃ傍EBORG ENERGI - SWEDEN
AT THE FOREFRONT OF DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SOLUTIONS
Quartz+Co
The global climate changes and increased environmental awareness in society have put immense pressure on the energy industry. The EU and the Swedish Government have set ambitious renewable energy targets for Sweden with the aim of increasing the share of renewable energy by at least 10% by 2020. Göteborg Energi has taken this challenge seriously and decided many years ago to be at the forefront of making the energy consumption in Western Sweden more environmentally friendly. A sustainable Gothenburg Göteborg Energi’s vision is to actively contribute to “a sustainable Gothenburg” while maintaining economic value creation and profitable growth. Implementing this vision requires a long-term approach and focus on developing sustainable energy solutions that will meet future customer requirements and political objectives. To make this happen, the company has invested significantly in developing infrastructure for district heating based on waste as well as renewable energy and environmentally friendly fuels for the transport sector. Driven by their vision, Göteborg Energi is also actively participating in R&D projects to develop new energy products and solutions for the future such as biogas, wind energy and energy-efficient solutions for properties and households. Göteborg Energi co-operates with a broad set of players in the different projects, such as E.ON, Chalmers University of Technology and Volvo. The battle for better energy solutions continues Göteborg Energi has been a major contributor to lowering the emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxide by 99% and 89%, respectively, in the Gothenburg area since 1985. During the same period, the carbon dioxide emissions have been halved despite district heating delivery almost doubling over the same period. Simultaneously, the company has realised a significant revenue growth (260% in the period 2000-2009) with stable margins while continuously developing new products and services in response to market needs.
Over the next 10-20 years, the company will continue to focus on developing renewable energy solutions on the journey towards a sustainable Gothenburg. The question of which energy supply technologies will be used in the future is a matter of both strategic choices and maturity. There is, however, no doubt that the financial strength, know-how and strong customer focus of Göteborg Energi will be used to stay at the forefront of developing the most promising alternative energy sources as a basis for future profitable growth.
SUPPORTING THE VISION Göteborg Energi is Western Sweden’s leading energy company delivering a broad portfolio of energy solutions and services to customers in the region ranging from energy trading, supply of district heating, cooling, electricity, gas, transport fuels and other energy-based services. In order to support the vision of contributing to a sustainable Gothenburg, Göteborg Energi has engaged in a number of projects: •
GoBiGas (Gothenburg Biomass Gasification Project) aims to develop technology for large-scale gasification of biomass to be able to replace 30% of the current natural gas consumption with biogas in 2020 and supply biogas as fuel for the transport sector
•
Development of charging stations for electric cars to provide the infrastructure for charging 30-40,000 electric cars before 2020
•
LNG GOT aims at supplying LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) to the marine sector in the Gothenburg harbour to replace heavy fuel oils with LNG as fuel for ships
•
Wind power investments aiming at supplying 10% of Gothenburg’s electricity consumption through wind power in 2015
•
Participation in R&D project to develop new solar cells with lower production costs
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
.NO STRATEGIC PRIORITIES Established in 2007, our office in Norway has come a long way in building solid propositions to relevant market segments and creating strong relationships with leading clients. But the journey does not end here. Clear client priorities combined with highly skilled and motivated consultants will form the basis for continuing growth in the years to come.
Quartz+Co
November 10 at 10 am Inkognitogata, Oslo
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
NORWAY
CONTINUING THE NORWEGIAN TRAJECTORY 2010 represents a significant shift in Quartz+Co’s operation in Norway. We continued to build our position in the market for management consulting in Norway. Achievements like the frame agreement with Posten Norge have proven that also in Norway, Quartz+Co can be considered a major challenger to the traditional firms – offering services within key industries like power, oil & gas, transportation, fast moving consumer goods and retail. Our brand position Unlike in Denmark, where the former Quartz Strategy Consultants and CoCoCo had their strong brand positions, the new Quartz+Co brand was unknown in Norway and called for the use of substantial resources in order to raise brand awareness among existing and potential clients, potential team members and other stakeholders. In addition to direct communication with existing relations, various press initiatives gave much needed coverage. Furthermore, an ad campaign was initiated in August as well as other initiatives targeted at the major business schools and the Association of Norwegian Students Abroad (ANSA) in order to attract the most talented students and increase the number of qualified applicants. In combination with our overall PR strategy focused on positioning Quartz+Co in the Nordic market for management consulting, it has proven to be a good way of “spreading the gospel”. Our clients The energy practice in Quartz+Co is one of our largest industry segments and a major part of the operation in Norway, involving close to half of the consultants. Both the oil & gas industry and the power sector are key drivers in the Norwegian economy, with oil & gas-related activities comprising more than one fourth of the total GDP. The industry is undergoing constant change with an increasing focus on the arctic areas of the Norwegian continental shelf, tail end production in the southern parts of the country and a rapidly growing oil service sector. Correspondingly, the need for management support is substantial, and Quartz+Co has ongoing projects at leading Nordic and international players within corporate strategy development, entry and
growth strategies, operational improvements as well as pre- and post-merger activities. Our ambition is to further grow this practice, both in terms of turnover and consultants in the year to come. Based on current clients in Norway and years of relevant experience in Sweden and Denmark, Quartz+Co will also continue to strengthen our position within fast moving consumer goods/retail in Norway. We believe that our experience from working with manufacturers, distributors and retailers provides a holistic perspective on the industry dynamics and the challenges ahead, especially within the food industry. The private equity players are back after the financial crisis, their activities having picked up substantially during the last part of 2010. In Oslo, Quartz+Co has been working on commercial due diligences for both Norwegian and Nordic players looking at potential targets in Norway. Services also include post-merger support on both a strategic and operational level, and clients include EQT, Ratos, Ferd, FSN Capital and Hitec Vision. Our priorities 2010 has been the first step of a journey towards 2015 in which the Oslo office will count at least 35-40 professionals, and Quartz+Co will be considered a household brand among the most attractive clients in Norway. Growth in itself is not the ambition, rather the proof that fostering long-term relationships based on mutual trust will position Quartz+Co as one of the leading management consulting companies in Norway.
To give you a sense of our work in Norway, we have documented a few stories about our clients and the challenges they have overcome. The first case is about Avinor, a Norwegian air traffic services provider, forced into transition due to a new industry landscape. The other is about the private equity fund Ferd, the largest fund in Norway, expected to acquire companies worth NOK 4-6 billion over the next couple of years. n the next couple of years.
Quartz+Co
December 22 at 11 am The National Theatre Railway Station, Oslo
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
FERD CAPITAL - NORWAY
NOT THE TYPICAL PRIVATE EQUITY FUND Ferd Capital is a Norwegian private equity fund focusing on buy-out and growth company investments with a portfolio value in excess of NOK 5 billion equity capital and NOK 4-6 billion in committed capital for new investments. This makes Ferd Capital the largest Norwegian private equity fund.
Quartz+Co
Ferd Capital has launched an ambitious investment strategy for the coming years of acquiring companies worth NOK 4-6 billion in equity capital before gearing. This means an increased investment activity in both structured processes and own generated deal flow.
Learnings from tough transformation processes Ferd Capital has been through tough transformation processes with several of their portfolio companies over the last couple of years. Aibel (oil services) is an interesting example to highlight.
Not the typical private equity fund Ferd Capital is not the typical private equity fund characterised by a fundraised capital structure comprised of institutional investors, pension funds and private investors. Hence, Ferd Capital’s fund structure rests solely on Johan H. Andresen Jr., heir to a Norwegian tobacco fortune.
When reflecting on the Aibel case, the two key words realism and execution power are mentioned several times. By realism is meant the ability to avoid wishful thinking and the need to face reality in any given situation, and when all factual assessments have been carried out and conclusions drawn, execution power is key to a successful delivery.
However, this is not the only way Ferd Capital stands out. First of all, the company prefers a balanced partnership with other investors and does not necessarily demand control. This is quite contrary to many other private equity funds that often emphasise the importance of having exclusive control not only of equity shares, but also of shareholder agreements. Most of the investments are made with other investors (e.g. Telecomputing, Aibel and WTG) where Ferd has ownership shares between 33% and 80% (direct and indirect).
“However, this is not the only way Ferd Capital stands out. First of all, they prefer a balanced partnership with other investors and does not necessarily demand control.”
The typical company ownership period of a private equity fund is 5-7 years. Ferd Capital is also different in this respect, seeing themselves more as a long-term investor with a high degree of flexibility with regard to exit timing. If the financial exposure is right and Ferd Capital continues to consider themselves as the best owner of the company, there is no pressure to exit. It is, of course, important that the long perspective does not lead to complacency when the ownership horizon exceeds industry standards. In order to avoid complacency and owner fatigue, Ferd Capital performs regular assessments of their ownership strategy and corresponding value creation plans for the companies with all investments potentially up for sale. It is important to perform market tests once in a while; what is the perceived value under Ferd Capital’s ownership versus the perceived value at a sale? Two of the portfolio companies, Elopak and Swix, have been under Ferd Capital’s ownership for a long period (+20 years), but Ferd Capital believes in their development potential and is therefore actively investing in them. These special characteristics combined with the legitimacy that comes from being in business for more than a century appeal to owners and sellers that are interested in a longterm equity partner.
In the Aibel case, it was necessary to launch a share issue of NOK 600 million to provide new capital to the company. Ferd Capital delivered NOK 537 million. One of the partners in Ferd worked almost full time on supporting the management. One of the most important levers to turn the company around was a restructuring of a division that served the Norwegian continental shelf and an international business. The latter operation was closed down or sold off. 20 months later, Aibel won orders worth NOK 12-13 billion due to their superior technical solutions and competitive price. These orders will keep all employees, along with 1,000 yet to be recruited, busy for the next 4-5 years.
ABOUT Ferd Capital is part of the Ferd Group, who is a family-owned industrial and financial group. The group has existed since 1849 when the first Johan H. Andresen bought J. L. Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrik. The company has been owned by the Andresen family ever since. However, their operational involvement in the tobacco industry ended in 1998. Ferd Capital actively manages the group’s long-term interests in fully owned businesses as well as significant part-ownership interests in listed and unlisted companies.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
AVINOR NORWAY – NORWAY
PREPARING TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF THE SINGLE EUROPEAN SKY
Quartz+Co
The aviation industry has undergone dramatic changes over the last decade, in particular airlines. Now, the time has come to air traffic services. In 2004, EU launched the Single European Sky Initiative (SES), which is an ambitious transformation programme encompassing the entire air traffic management industry. The SES objective is to cut air traffic management costs by 50% before 2020 along with an ambition of tripling the airspace capacity, improving safety by a factor of 10 and reducing the environmental impact by 10%. Reaching these goals is critical for having a competitive European air transport sector in the future. To fulfil the SES objectives, fundamental changes of the air traffic management industry are required. Structural changes, new solutions and cross-border collaboration among national service providers are examples of such changes. This will alter the current industry logic as we know it. With the implementation of the SES package II in March 2009, the real change process has taken off. A new industry landscape is emerging Today’s fragmented upper airspace (divided into the boundaries of national borders) will be replaced by large cross-border airspace blocks. To realise the potential efficiency gains of the new airspace, the Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) need to collaborate and consolidate their businesses. This consolidation does not affect tower services, which in contrast will be affected by deregulation and competition in the future. In some countries this is already a reality, as in Sweden where a privately owned tower service company won the bidding contest for the tower services at three regional airports at the first open tender in Sweden in the autumn of 2010. A situation that will spread to Norway and the rest of Europe in the future. It is clear that SES will impose significant challenges for all European ANSPs. But, the changes will also create new, interesting opportunities. Proactively facing the new reality Avinor, a state-owned Norwegian company, is providing air traffic services in Norway and operates 46 Norwegian airports. More than 40 million passengers depend on their services each year; a figure that is expected to grow over the next couple of years. , due the characteristics of the network with many small airports, it is challenging to keep the unit cost for air traffic services competitive. Rather than being reactive to the changes in the industry, Avinor has taken a stand not only to proactively work with new and more efficient solutions together with other ANSPs and technology providers, but also to look for more efficient ways internally to provide their services. Together with eight other ANSPs – LFV (Sweden), Naviair (Denmark), Finavia (Finland), ISAVIA (Iceland), LGS (Latvia), IAA (Ireland) and NATS (UK) – Avinor is working to establish one single airspace block for the service area covered by these members. The aim is to provide seamless, cost-effective service to customers across the entire airspace, in line with Single European Sky, and this is expected to be in place by the end of 2012.
In addition, Avinor has conducted a pre-study assessing the potential of a new operating model for tower services, “Remotely Operated Towers”. This concept changes the way tower services are provided and is in particular suitable for airports with relatively few aircraft movements. In short, the service is provided remotely from a tower central through the use of technology (camera, sensors, etc.) instead of having air traffic controllers working locally at each airport. The concept is brand new, but not yet certified. Thus, a lot of challenges still remain before it becomes operational. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the Norwegian airport system and a competitive unit cost, the remote tower concept might be a key solution. Avinor’s ambitions are clear: they wish to take a leading role in the transformation of the air traffic services in Europe and in fulfilling the SES objectives, creating an efficient European air transport sector. So the journey continues.
ABOUT Avinor is responsible for planning, developing and operating the Norwegian airport network and operates 46 airports in Norway, thereof 12 in co-operation with the armed forces. Operations also include air traffic control towers, control centres and technical infrastructure for aircraft navigation. Avinor has around 3,000 employees and is a limited company, 100% government owned. Each year, approximately 40 million passengers travel through Avinor’s airports. AIRPORTS IN NORWAY OPERATED BY AVINOR
SVALBARD
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
.DK STRATEGIC PRIORITIES In Denmark, Quartz+Co has entered a new stage by becoming one of the most significant management consulting companies in the market. Our focus now is to ensure that the breadth and depth of our capabilities are translated into a valuable proposition for our clients; thereby consolidating our position in the Danish market place.
Quartz+Co
August 5 at 3 pm At Ryesgade, Copenhagen
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
DENMARK
CONSOLIDATING OUR DANISH MARKET POSITION In June 2010, we publicly announced the merger of CoCoCo and Quartz Strategy Consultants creating Quartz+Co, now one of the largest management consulting companies in the Danish market. Although mere size has never been an aim in itself, there is no doubt that by combining our strengths and capabilities we have become a more relevant partner not only to many of our existing clients but also to a range of new clients.
staff consists of six well-defined power teams: finance, HR & Recruitment, House Support, Communications Support, Business Intelligence and Staffing, which provide services to our three offices.
Our clients During the past 12 months, three sectors have driven approximately half of our accumulated Danish office turnover. Within Energy, our strong experience with and extensive knowledge of renewable energy has been the cornerstone of a range of exciting engagements across the value chain with subsuppliers, manufacturers and utilities. Likewise, our sector insight into both slow- and fast-moving consumer goods has generated a range of exciting engagements from jewellery and shoes to many aspects of the food industry. Last but not least, long relationships and strong experience within shipping and rail have been sources of interesting transportation projects both nationally and in a global context.
1. Drive top-line growth by strengthening our position with key clients and building long-lasting relationships with a range of new and intriguing clients
Externally the merger was an instant and giant step forward whereas internally we have, of course, invested a lot of time, resources and management attention in converting two extremely strong and independent units into one unified and motivated team. We have come a long way and are emerging on the other side of a rewarding learning experience – ready to confront the many interesting challenges that are still ahead of us. Our people To accommodate all employees, CoCoCo’s urban location in Ryesgade 3A was expanded and refurbished during the summer. Consequently, Kohavevej in Vedbæk, which had served as the headquarters of Quartz Strategy Consultants for eight years, was abandoned for good. As of January 1, 2011, approximately 125 people are working out of Ryesgade – 97 consultants and 28 internal support staff. The support
Our priorities To strengthen our platform in Denmark, our priorities for 2011 are centred on three key priorities:
2. Focus on people integration through rigorous cross staffing, ongoing communication and education as well as a long list of exciting social activities 3.
Push our employer branding to the next level with the explicit aim of becoming one of the preferred employers in Denmark among talented students from all relevant educational institutions
With a redefined Danish platform and set-up we have high hopes, combined with a humble attitude, for the many opportunities we are facing in 2011. We will never forget that building relationships and delivering results with clients while providing opportunities for our employees is the cornerstone of our business.
To give you a sense of our work in Denmark, we have documented a few stories about our clients and the challenges they have overcome. The PANDORA case elaborates the company’s journey towards becoming the third-largest jewellery brand in the world – a truly exceptional story. The other case deals with the creation of a common strategy for the newly merged Metropolitan University College, an institution that encompasses a large number of diverse professional educations.
Quartz+Co
October 11 at 4 pm On the way to a meeting, Ryesgade, Copenhagen
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
PANDORA - DENMARK
PANDORA – A TRUE NEW INTERNATIONAL JEWEL How do you manage to almost double the size of an already large company with profits keeping pace?
Quartz+Co
PANDORA’S GROWTH CURVE Number of produced units in millions
Active markets
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PANDORA seems to have found the way. The company was founded in 1982 by Danish goldsmith Per Enevoldsen and his wife Winnie. In 1989, own production was established in Thailand, and in 2000 their now well-known charm bracelet concept was launched in Denmark. These were the first in a long series of impressive milestones resulting in one of the most successful IPOs in recent European history. PANDORA is the third-largest jewellery brand in the world (measured on 2009 estimated retail sales) with an expected turnover of DKK 6.2 billion (Q3 2010 outlook) for the 2010 financial year. With an estimated EBITDA margin above 40% for 2010, the profits are no less impressive. Entering a new league PANDORA has been on a long journey from being a productoriented supplier to becoming a global jewellery brand. Today, the company’s products are sold not only through more than 10,000 points of sale, but also in more than 1,000 PANDORA branded concept stores and shop-in-shops where the assortment, service and brand experience can be controlled. Peers are no longer local players, but super brands like Cartier and Tiffany & Co. with a century-long heritage. PANDORA has entered a new high-profile league with stores located in the most exclusive high street locations in the world’s most lively shopping destinations. Here, consistent high performance, brand building and retail execution are the entry tickets along with the product itself.
majority of franchise stores and selected own stores. Reaction time as well as lines of communication from the “front line” to production and supply chain are short and effective
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Strong financial performance. PANDORA has reinvested their positive cash flow to continuously develop the business in new markets, new product lines and categories, retail support, etc.
Keeping the right balance Naturally, the mere speed of growth and “the rules in the new league” have set new expectations to PANDORA’s production capacity, ways of working, best practice tools, systems, organisational design, people and culture. It has therefore been crucial to PANDORA to keep the right balance between maintaining and fuelling the entrepreneurial spirit that created PANDORA while building scalable business structures and creating transparency. PANDORA has become a true new international jewel – for women (and their husbands), retailers, investors and employees. Although PANDORA’s development is a unique story of success and immense growth with the latest IPO as the culmination of their journey, the dish of the day is still crystal clear focus and sticking to the strategy that has been defined to retain both the high growth levels and PANDORA’s impressive market position.
Clearly, PANDORA’s great success can be attributed to persistent hard work and to consumers’ unmatched fondness for the PANDORA jewellery. However, the stable growth would not have been possible had it not been for a number of commercial building blocks: ABOUT • A global footprint and successful new market entries. Today, you can find PANDORA in more than 50 markets across six continents • A vertical business model. Today, PANDORA owns and controls design, production, distribution and sales subsidiaries, and controls retail sales via a
PANDORA was established in 1982. Eighteen years later, in 2000, the famous charm bracelet concept was launched on the Danish market. The PANDORA brand with its collection of currently over 1,600 unique jewellery designs is sold directly or through third-party distributors to around 10,000 points of sale worldwide, including more than 320 PANDORA branded concept stores.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
THE METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE – DENMARK
SUCCESSFULLY ALIGNING LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY
Quartz+Co
The merger of a high number of vocational schools in 2008 resulted in the creation of The Metropolitan University College with more than 1,000 employees responsible for the education of 10,000 students in Copenhagen. The merger was part of a political decision to consolidate the sector in order to reduce costs, improve professionalism and ensure continuous progression to the benefit of students and employees. The educational focus of the new, consolidated Metropolitan University College was quite diverse and included basic and advanced education of teachers, nurses, social workers, midwifes, etc. – fields with very distinct outlooks, challenges and opportunities. The question was: how could Metropolitan University College craft a common and unifying strategy across this diversity – without compromising the individual fields? Joint sense of purpose To the executive management team, the dilemma quickly became clear. What made each part of Metropolitan University College unique and appealing – the passion for each profession, distinct cultures and close contact to the academic and professional environments – was also what potentially made it difficult to create a joint sense of purpose for the new Metropolitan University College. In many ways, the executive management team itself reflected this exact conflict of being responsible for an individual field on the one hand and being responsible for the interests of Metropolitan University College as a whole on the other. Using strategy as an integration tool Based on this insight, the management team decided to conduct an unorthodox strategy process that encompassed the needs and complexity of the organisation. Instead of a classical top-down or bottom-up approach, the executive management team chose to use the strategy process as an integration tool, focusing on both strategy and leadership development at the same time. The strategy was developed at two levels: an overall strategy for Metropolitan University College as a combined entity and a number of local level strategies based on each field’s specific situation. The goal and challenge were to ensure a strong connection between the two levels and no clear
hierarchy. In order to implement this in practice, each level of management was given full responsibility for crafting strategies for their own areas, but also for ensuring alignment and consistency through the leadership teams in which they participated. All schools had to relate to, contribute to and challenge the common strategic themes, which created a natural dialogue across Metropolitan University College on topics such as student retention. In this way, co-operation across professional borders was encouraged, and silos were made permeable.
“What made each part of Metropolitan University College unique and appealing – the passion for each profession, distinct cultures and close contact to the academic and professional environments – was also what potentially made it difficult to create a joint sense of purpose for the new Metropolitan University College.” The strategy has been very successful in mobilising and uniting the diverse management group around common goals, but also in appreciating local uniqueness. However, there is still some way to go. The institution is now in the process of applying these insights to the crafting of new leadership evaluation processes and training programmes that help realise the vision of delivering “Knowledge that works – knowledge that challenges” to all students and employees.
ABOUT Metropolitan University College was established in 2008 with the merger of several professional colleges including the University College CVU Øresund, the Frederiksberg College of Education, The Danish School of Public Administration and SUHR’s School of Domestic Science. In January 2009, the two major nursing educations in Herlev and Copenhagen followed. Metropolitan University College is headed by rector Stefan Hermann.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
Quartz+Co
AGENDA–SETTING THEMES 2010
As has been the case in previous years, consultants from Quartz+Co have invested significant time and effort when immersing themselves in a number of critical business themes during the year – analysing, documenting and presenting findings to our clients and other stakeholders. We successfully launched two such themes in 2010: a farsighted perspective on the shipping industry and a more general scrutiny of the winning formula for a successful future. Both resulted in extensive press coverage. With our long experience as adviser to the shipping industry and with almost one fifth of the global commercial shipping fleet being controlled by companies under Scandinavian flag, Quartz+Co was in a unique position to develop a whitepaper on the emerging business models in the shipping industry. The whitepaper “Shipping 3.0 – After the storm”, which is summarised in the following pages, is a result of these efforts.
Furthermore, our long-standing partnership with the leading Danish business daily Børsen led to an extensive analysis called “Pursuing the winning formula” which was based on in-depth interviews with leading Danish executives and a survey among more than 400 Danish decision makers. The quite interesting results of this undertaking are found in the following pages. We trust you will enjoy this food for thought, and we aim to provide our stakeholders with even more in the year to come as we are in the process of conducting thorough analyses of topics such as “Globalisation after BRIC” and “Next Practice Customer Lifetime Value”.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
Quartz+Co
THEME - SHIPPING
SHIPPING 3.0 – AFTER THE STORM
Even by shipping industry standards, the last decade has been a ride of unprecedented highs and lows. After the super cycle of 2000-2007, the financial crisis redefined the marketplace for all shipping companies. The short-term answers to these challenges were cost-cutting, new vessel order cancellations, slow streaming and reconstitution of the financial structure. Today, things are beginning to look brighter. Working with strategy is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. It is time to plan ahead and define the future route for shipping companies. But what exactly does this imply? In the summer of 2010, we dedicated 100 days to analyse the thinking and actions of the leading shipping companies in Scandinavia. We interviewed the CEOs of companies such as A.P. Moller – Maersk, Nordic Tankers, Clipper, Norden and TORM to get their views. Together, they represent close to 15% of the global shipping capacity across segments. We also talked to key academics and industry experts. Input from the interviews reflects a quite challenging reality, but also provides a foundation for some very interesting solutions. We call it Shipping 3.0. On the basis of this analysis, we published a whitepaper in November 2010 entitled “Shipping Strategy 3.0 – After the Storm”. Defining the shipping strategy of the future in co-operation with some of the most influential CEOs in the industry is an integral part of our ambition of Next Practice. Our ambition is to set the agenda and share knowledge with our clients to help them build and maintain a successful business. The conclusions from the whitepaper were published in the Danish business daily Børsen and later succeeded by a number of VIP sessions in the Nordic region. The result of the interviews as well as our experience with the shipping industry have led us to believe that in five years shipping companies in Scandinavia will be: •
More global. Obviously, the shipping industry is global, but many Scandinavian shipping companies still have an international organisational set-up with a strong
national origin. In the future, the companies will become much more decentralised with more dispersed power
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More focused. Since markets change very fast and often based on market psychology more than actual changes in the fundamentals, a company must be very close to its market to be able to time actions and decisions. As a consequence, companies will focus on selected segments and/or more narrow and sharply defined roles in the value chain
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More professional. Scandinavian shipping companies are already professional. But in the future they will design and support internal processes in a more professional manner, run customer relations in a more systematic and consistent way and handle risks through highly sophisticated processes
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Driven by different kinds of leadership. Different times require different leadership. We expect more leaders from outside the industry, more leaders from outside the company, more leaders from outside Scandinavia and also more women in top positions
• Characterised by clearer and simpler business models. We think that a keyword in shipping will be suppleness. It is not difficult to define complex business models, multi- imensional strategies and unlimited to-do lists. But strategy is not about planning – it is about doing Our point of view is this: we believe that five years from now the Scandinavian shipping industry will be very different. It will not be a radical paradigm shift but a step-by-step transformation. Each step might seem to be similar to the current way of doing things, but seen over time, the changes will transform the industry in Scandinavia and beyond.
For the full version of the Shipping whitepaper please go to our website: www.quartzco.com/shipping
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
THEME - GLOBALISATION
PURSUING THE WINNING FORMULA 2010 was year “one” after the financial crisis. It was time to reflect, take stock of the situation and set the priorities for the future – priorities aligned with a new reality in a business environment much more focused on fundamentals and core values than in the past. This was the theme of the thirteenth edition of our annual barometer – this year called “Quartz+Co Barometer”. In co-operation with the Danish business daily, Børsen, Quartz+Co conducted a survey among 417 Danish companies across a variety of industries with the objective of identifying what it takes to be tomorrow’s winner in a globalised world and assessing the expected future competitive challenges. The results of the survey were discussed in a panel debate hosted by Quartz+Co with the participation of eight influential top executives. The conclusions were published in Børsen’s DK1000 business magazine in September 2010. Despite differing viewpoints, there seemed to be alignment on the essence of the future challenges as well as several elements in the recipe for success in the future.
“INCREASED PRICE COMPETITION AND CHANGES IN CUSTOMER NEEDS AND PREFERENCES ARE SEEN AS THE BIGGEST FUTURE CHALLENGES.” Increased price competition and changes in customer needs and preferences are seen as the biggest future challenges. The result is top-line pressure and margin erosion. Furthermore, the changes in customer preferences increase the volatility of the customer base and put pressure on the quality and relevance of the products and services offered. The levers for mitigating these trends are widely recognised across most companies. In the short term, companies highlight that they focus on reducing the cost base while increasing its flexibility to counter the increased price competition. In parallel, commercial impact is strengthened through more targeted initiatives across core markets. In the long term, most companies plan to focus more on value segments/markets to improve the commercial effectiveness and reignite or accelerate future top-line growth.
Simultaneously, innovation and product development are seen as top priorities to comply with the increased demands to products and services. The statements from the top executives confirmed the findings from the survey. Lars Rasmussen, the CEO of Coloplast, underlined the need for more flexible business models: “Globalisation means that our traditional business models simply are no good any longer. Back in the days, a solid business model would be good for 20 years, but today you need to make changes every two years because of the constant market movements. This places heavy demands on our ability to adapt. The player who first adapts its business model to match the market conditions will come out on top”. The need for a more customer-centric orientation was also confirmed by Chief Strategy Officer Eva Berneke from TDC: “I consider the increased customer orientation to be one of the most significant outcomes of the crisis. Customers have higher expectations, and this along with the rapid market changes requires quicker adaptation. The pace has picked up and the demands have increased, which means that adaptation is constantly necessary – at a pace which is very challenging to follow.” The road to the winning formula is clear: the business model continuously needs to be challenged in order to meet tomorrow’s customer demands.
The eight top executives from the panel debate: Eve Berneke, Chief Strategy Officer, TDC Peter Straarup, CEO, Danske Bank Jesper Møller, CEO, Toms Gruppen, President of DI Lars Rasmussen, CEO, Coloplast Thomas Hofman-Bang, CEO, NKT Søren Olesen, CEO, Flügger Allan Søgaard Larsen, CEO, Falck Steen Weirsøe, CEO, DT Group
For the full version of the article from DK1000 please go to our website: www.quartzco.com/news
Quartz+Co
June 11 at 6 pm On the way home from Birger Jarlsgatan, Stockholm
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
QUARTZ+CO IN THE PRESS
2010 was the year of the merger, and the story of two management consulting companies joining forces made headlines in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Wanting to create a strong Nordic platform naturally also means creating a strong profile in the media, and with our new name the importance of strategic PR has become even more evident.
Directly following the announcement in the Danish press, the Norwegian business newspaper Finansavisen ran the story of the merger and our new solid position in Scandinavia under the heading “Taking up the battle”. Shortly after, the magazine Kapital and the online newspaper E24, both important Norwegian business news providers, also covered the merger.
Consequently, great efforts have been put into ‘manifesting’ the Quartz+Co name in the business community. We believe that sharing our insights and experience in the press is a good way to influence the market while adding to the awareness of our name. We have highlighted a couple of stories to give you a flavour of our press mentions in 2010.
In Sweden, the story was released two months later awaiting the news of the consolidation with the Swedish management consulting company Kihlstedt & Partners in August. “Nordic management consulting company aims high” was brought in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri in August, stating the establishment of a solid presence in Sweden and the beginning of an ambitious adventure.
Revealing the merger In early June 2010, Børsen brought the first story about the merger between Quartz Strategy Consultants and CoCoCo, thus breaking the story to the wide public. Until this date, information about the merger had been restricted to employees and clients. The story “New major player in the management consulting business” was based on an exclusive interview with Hans Henrik Beck and Torsten Hvidt and stated the reasons behind the merger along with Quartz+Co’s future ambitions. The merger made way for a new player in the field, creating a groundswell of concern in the industry – or so we have been told. “We do not wish to continue to play the part of the small terrier who bugs the large players in the market. We want to become big ourselves while maintaining our profile.” Torsten Hvidt, Partner, Quartz+Co Børsen, June 4, 2010
The winners of tomorrow Quartz+Co’s first big expert feature followed in September when Mandag Morgen (Monday Morning), a leading independent think tank in Scandinavia, chose to publish “The growth generals of the Danish business community: Denmark must think big”. The focus of the story was how large Danish companies managed to regain growth after the financial crisis and what it takes to become tomorrow’s winner. Shipping 3.0 – After the storm During the summer of 2010, numerous top executives and experts within the shipping industry were interviewed about the future of shipping. The conclusions were elaborated in a Quartz+Co whitepaper on the shipping industry and published in both Danish and Norwegian newspapers, reverberating through the business world.
Quartz+Co
“A top executive must be willing to adapt and able to handle conflicting tasks, e.g. make a turnaround and deliver growth at the same time. Today, it is necessary to handle several agendas simultaneously. You have to go full speed one minute and shift to reverse the next.” Hans Henrik Beck, Managing Partner, Quartz+Co Mandag Morgen (an influential Danish media), September 17, 2010
In connection with the release of the whitepaper, Børsen printed the article “The Nordic shipping companies off course” in November 2010 which was succeeded by the story “The end for Norway in shipping” in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. Additionally, the story was featured in the globally leading shipping newspaper Lloyd’s List in December under the heading “Scandinavia set for shipping revolution”. It is a strong recognition of Quartz+Co’s shipping insights to have the conclusions brought in a globally recognised media. “The vehemence, the surprise and the sheer magnitude of the shift from record-setting markets to downright awful ones have made everyone consider future strategies. Even for an industry used to radical changes and rollercoaster-type cyclical ups and downs, the crisis that hit the world economy and consequently shipping had proportions beyond anything seen before.” Lars Bo Hansen, Partner, Quartz+Co Lloyd’s List, December 1, 2010 Focusing on the climate In November 2010, another of our surveys was released and widely published in the media. As in earlier years, we conducted a carbon footprint survey on consumer behaviour in Scandinavia. The article “Opening the wallet for the climate” was brought in both Finansavisen in Norway and in the Danish industry magazine Dansk Handelsblad. The survey revealed that consumers are in fact willing to pay a premium for climate-friendly products, even in the shadow of the failed COP15.
“Companies should consider what part the climate plays in their business strategy. A company will rarely reap long-term advantages if it invests in a large-scale climate strategy merely to increase its turnover or for the greater good.” Marit Aamold, Consultant, Quartz+Co Finansavisen, November 25, 2010 Maintaining a strong position In 2010, Quartz+Co was the fourth most quoted management consulting company in Børsen. With the merger and the new name, we have an opportunity to maintain our strong position in the business media and to ensure that our expertise on relevant business topics is made available whenever relevant. We have an objective of being perceived as a leading expert in our field and to share our knowledge and experience with others, thus helping them to become more successful. After all, this is the essence of what we do.
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“DIVERSITY PRODUCES CREATIVITY. IN A CITY, IT’S THE DIVERSITY OF CULTURES, PERSPECTIVES, SKILLS, INDUSTRIES, BUILDING STYLES AND NEIGBORHOODS THAT STOKE THE FIRES OF INNOVATION. WHEN LIKE MEETS LIKE, THERE IS NO CREATIVE SPARK; BUT WHEN LIKE COLLIDES WITH UNLIKE, THERE IS OFTEN A SMALL STIR OF INSPIRATION.” GARY HAMEL
Quartz+Co
November 11 at 2 pm On the way back after an inspiring meeting, Copenhagen
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
ONWARDS
This was the 2010 Annual Report from Quartz+Co. Thank you for reading – we hope you found it worth your while. As we turn to 2011, our outlook for the year to come is a positive one. We came out of 2010 on a high note, both financially and culturally. And we have a strengthened team to pick up on this momentum as we will expand our partner group with three important new colleagues during the first two months of the year. Peter-John Liberoth has worked closely with large international companies in solving strategic operations related issues for the last 18 years. Fredrik Gustafson has 13 years of experience especially with private equity-related work, and will be a vital part of delivering on our ambitions in Sweden. Finally Pär Malmberg, who has worked as a top management advisor for more than 20 years, will strengthen Quartz+Co’s expertise across a range of areas, the public sector being one of them. All in all, we feel confident that we will be able to present our stakeholders with an even more relevant company at the end of 2011.
Because our relations with the Nordic business community will have continued to grow in strength, and perhaps in number as well. Because we will have deepened our insight into chosen industries and relevant strategic issues. Because we will have left the post-merger days behind and have become an even more coherent team. Because we will conclude our own, recently initiated, stra tegy process. The Manifesto from 2010 coins the fundamental mission for Quartz+Co, and likewise the formal strategy of 2011 will articulate a clear vision of where, when and how we are to move Quartz+Co forward. We look forward to this, and to the year in general, and hope to connect, engage and collaborate with you all before next years’ edition of this report goes into print.
Team Quartz+Co
Quartz+Co
September 10 at 6 pm Quartz+Co bike number 4, Copenhagen
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010
COPENHAGEN
STOCKHOLM
OSLO
Ryesgade 3A
Birger Jarlsgatan 7
Inkognitogata 35
2200 Copenhagen N
111 45 Stockholm
0256 Oslo
Denmark
Sweden
Norway
T: +45 33 17 00 00
T: +46 (0)8 614 19 00
T: +47 22 59 36 00
www.quartzco.com
www.quartzco.com
www.quartzco.com