The XSallarate Philosophy

 

Participative: Active participation of staff, management and key stakeholders is used to harness their extensive knowledge and experience and to combine this with new insights to determine an optimized strategy.

 

Practical: Where a business has short term imperatives, XSallarate can provide some short, sharp assistance as part of the overall strategic approach. For example in closing major commercial deals, generating short term cashflow, delivering on a major contract getting a project back on stream or assisting with key staffing changes.

 

Value Focused: Wherever possible and with little expended time insights, observations and recommendations will be made about different areas of the business. For example while reviewing a business’ website as part of the Internal Analysis, there is little additional effort to note areas for potential improvement with usability, copy, workflow and presentation. These observations can then be discussed with management and an agreed action plan implemented in parallel with the strategic and capital raising work being undertaken.

 

Business Model Focused: The core for any XSallarate strategy work is to find a business model that will drive growth…where once presented everyone says: “…yeah that’s great!” A great business model will have:

  • A product or service that is well differentiated from competitors and “sells itself”
  • A sales model that either self funds or has well defined and attractive ROI metrics
  • A strong distribution strategy
  • Low customer churn
  • Solid margins
  • Good annuity revenue streams
  • Exceptional customer service
  • Delighted customers
  • Strong and reliable growth options with additional capital
  • A passionate and cohesive team
  • Is fun to be around

 

Strategy through Hypothesis Testing: Smart and insightful strategy work is important however, testing these insights is even more important to prove that the strategy is in fact a good one. XSallarate follows a hypothesis tested strategy approach. For example a strategy that involves increasing distribution can be largely tested by sounding out different distributors to see if they would re-sell the product and how much they might expect to sell. Opportunistic strategy is probably the best example of this where for reasons possibly unknown, a product happens to sell well in a particular market – the key here is to recognize it, understand it and then capitalize on it by re-focusing the strategy in these high growth areas.

 

Focus: XSallarate encourages businesses to focus on whatever they decide is their core business and to stop all other activity. Razor sharp focus throughout the organisation maximizes the chance of success (this Steve Jobs returning to Apple in 1997).

 

Customer Driven: XSallarate concentrates organisational and operational strategies on the customer. Happy customers (as can be measured through a positive Net Promoter Score) have been shown to be the most reliable predictor of profit growth in a business (HBR 2003).

 

Diplomatic: XSallarate often operates in delicate environments between partners, with staff and management or with other stakeholders. Taking a non-emotional and empathetic approach helps find middle ground and deliver a result.

 

Leveraged: XSallarate works with a large number of venture capital and private equity firms to present them with “clean” opportunities that fit their requirements. A number of other specialists are available in areas such as digital marketing, direct market testing, financial structuring and operations.

 

Creativity: XSallarate not only deploys standard analytical processes but also brings to bear a highly level of creativity around business models, marketing approaches and structuring. In many cases, XSallarate is happy to include ideas from its own “Business Ideas List” into the new business strategy.

 

Exclusive - Potential Stars Only: XSallarate will only work with businesses that it believes can be made to achieve a substantial increase in value and where it can add value.

 

Professionalism: Professionalism and trust are cornerstones of XSallarate’s relationships. This manifests itself in defining clear project timing and deliverables before engaging on a new project, being realistic and flexible and above all doing what was promised.