We list below three examples of Interim type work that we have carried our successfully:

Major UK Utility Company

Project Managed change programme geared towards achieved £20.1m annualised savings over a period of 18 months through re-structuring, cost reduction, better asset management, profitability improvements, reduced debt and efficiency savings in all areas of the business.

Significant Chemical / Wood Pulp Operation in Norway

Led a cost reduction measures and achieving $32m in a Norwegian wood pulp and chemical process plant. Working with cross functional teams to introduce radical changes within operational and support functional units, specifically reducing variable costs, re-structuring the organisation, increasing throughput and quality and introducing planned preventive maintenance management.

Telecoms – Mobile Phones Business in Sweden

Six Sigma Programme Leader accountable for developing materials and training/coaching over 100 people and their project teams over two years in major Swedish telecoms business operating globally to achieve savings in excess of $18m across the business.

Essentially, the non-executive director’s role is to provide a creative contribution to the board by providing objective support on board matters and not straying into ‘executive direction’, thus, providing an independent view of the company that is removed from day-to-day running.

Non-executive directors then are appointed to bring to the board;

• Independence
• Impartiality
• Wide experience
• Special knowledge
• Personal qualities

Chairmen and chief executives should use non-executive directors to provide general council – and a different perspective on matters of concern. They should also seek their guidance on particular issues before they are raised at board meetings. In fact some of the main specialist roes of a non-executive director will be carried out in a board sub-committee.

The key responsibilities of non-executive directors can be said to include the following;

• Strategic direction – as an outsider the non-executive director may have a clearer or wider view of external factors affecting the company and its business environment that the executive directors. The normal role of a non-executive director in strategy formulation is therefore to provide a creative and informed contribution and to act as a constructive critic in looking at the objectives and plans devised by the chief executive and his or her executive team.

• Monitoring – non-executive directors should take responsibility for monitoring the performance of the executive management especially with regards to the progress made towards achieving the determined company strategy and objectives.

• Communication – the company’s and board effectiveness can benefit from outside contacts and opinions. An important function for non-executive directors, therefore, can be to help connect the business and board with networks of potentially useful people and organisations. In some cases, the non-executive director will be called upon to represent the company externally.

Small to medium sized enterprises, those individual companies that employ up to 250 people account for over half of the working population in the UK (58% to be exact or 12.9 million people) with a turnover exceeding £1,200 billion. The 4.3 million SME’s and a cruciual part of the UK economy both now and more importantly in the future as they grow. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Gem) places the UK ahead of rivals Germany, France and Italy when it comes to entrepreneurial activity.

The UK Government sees the time has never been better with low inflation, and interest rates rate to invest and grow. This is where the non-executive director can help.

The Hampel Committee Report, commissioned through the European Corporate Governance Institute highlighted many key attributes that non-executive directors bring to SME’s; over 75% said that outside objectivity was an important contribution and that almost everyone said they were helpful.

“...particularly in smaller companies, non-executive directors contribute valuable experience not otherwise available to management”
- Hampel 1998 page 25.

The report also said that some smaller companies have claimed that they cannot find a sufficient number of independent non-executive directors of suitable calibre. This is a real difficulty, but the need for a robust independent voice on the board is as strong in smaller companies as in large ones.

Currently nearly 50% of medium sized companies have a non-executive director and the belief is that many more really do need to consider them if they are to challenge the competition and improve business performance.

These days, if you are not growing your business then you are at risk, and a non-executive director can provide that ‘wood from the trees’ objectivity and experience to take that quantum leap beyond where you are at present. A non-executive director can provide the inspiration and assurance to achieve great things, enable networking with key people for new perspectives on possibilities, as well as opening doors to new ways of working.

At Innovation Consultancy Partnership, we have the expertise and breadth of experience of working within some of the world’s largest corporations, as well as supporting small to medium sized companies, particularly in the UK. This experience has been gained over 25 years.

We are all professionally qualified, mature and able to provide the objectivity, and innovative thinking needed for your business to grow.

We are world leaders in change management and business improvement. An example of some of the larger corporations we have worked with includes; Sony Ericsson, BT, Intel Corporation, Northumbrian Water, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, DHL, Siemens, Orkla, Sun Life Assurance, Fletcher Challenge, Pirelli, Highland Distillers, and Exxon Mobil Oil. In addition, we have worked with over 200 UK companies

Our assignments have taken us throughout the UK as well to many parts of the world; from North America to China, Scandinavia to South Africa.

We have held senior management posts within many manufacturing and service UK companies, and including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.