The Assignment
Lakehouse is a UK based property services business. Between 2012 and 2015, Lakehouse grew from circa £100M TO £350M through acquisition of a number of SME’s. Lakehouse floated on the AIM in 2015 and was challenged in meeting it’s performance targets. AWP Consulting were asked to review the operations of the business and make recommendations for improvement.
Our Approach
In operational reviews, the first phase was a desktop study to understand the business which included detailed reviews of such things as board reports, business plans and performance indicators. This review enabled a comprehensive and focused agenda of staff interviews to be designed.
The interview was the critical phase, designed to relax the audience, then gently delve deeper and deeper into the underlying issues. This process is dynamic as issues are uncovered. Use of a third party consultant was seen as less threatening and enabled senior staff to open up.
There then followed a process of feedback through individual and collective engagement workshops. This was designed to test findings and recommendations for improvement.
The Outcomes
The project resulted in a comprehensive set of recommendations for improvement which were taken to the main board for approval. The improvements included significant changes to the overall leadership structure along with the sales and commercial control processes and organisation. In essence, creating a detailed integration plan for 10 separate SME’s into a single corporate entity.
