Business transformation through commercial strategy

Interim Chief Commercial Officer maps a strategic five-year plan to increase profitability and market share at CAMRA.

The Situation

CAMRA, a national membership organisation, was in desperate need of an interim with rich experience in commercial strategies and business transformation.

On appointment as Interim Chief Commercial Officer, Richard’s objective was to create a five-year plan to increase profitability and market share. He recognised early on that the organisation lacked meaningful member intelligence and an understanding of market size and dynamics. Importantly, it had an uncollaborated approach to member recruitment and retention.

The Solution

He split the assignment into four distinct areas of activity:

Business as usual

As with any interim activity it was imperative to deliver the already agreed plans and to enhance performance and results from existing resources and activity.

Research & Development – a three phase approach

Phase 1: He reviewed existing research and analysed market positioning, messaging and demographics to identify core customer groupings. He scaled the size of the overall market and identified the scale of opportunity. Using Ansoff’s model, Richard visualised the opportunity, devising strategies for future growth.

Phase 2: He took the initial findings and delivered a further and more detailed set of activities that filled knowledge gaps, ascertained the barriers to engagement and helped gain clarity on views of existing products and services. He also sized the market for new customers and developed a detailed recruitment strategy.

Phase 3: Based on the findings from Phase 2, he introduced a further set of activities that ran parallel. This created a clear set of marketing and communications messages, as well as a detailed digital engagement strategy. It set out a new and refreshed look and feel that was market facing and customer focused.

Operational Efficiency

To ensure that the organisation was fit for purpose, a review of operational activity was undertaken. The results included an improvement of customer relationship management, increased efficiency of cost and operations and the creation of a training programme for call centre staff.

Improving income and impact from events

The organisation’s 170 events have an annual turnover of £10m and are visited by over 500,000 people. They are delivered by volunteers and, at the time of Richard’s joining, were operated almost entirely independently of one another. There was a clear opportunity to review them as a whole, allowing a set of activities to be identified. Once the research and development project was completed, a new National Events strategy was delivered.

Results

Through this phased approach, Richard was able to create a five-year commercial strategy that will increase the membership base by over 50% and earnings by 20%.

Richard has a strong track record in delivering evidence-based approaches that put the consumer at the heart of the decision-making process. He is driven by results that transform an organisation, enabling it to achieve target growth and increase its position in the market.