Manufacturing

Delivering sustainable advantage and growth

Manufacturing businesses have often grown by acquisition, leading to a complex reporting structure that includes a range of products, geographic markets and sectors. It can be difficult to identify which parts of the business have the most sustainable competitive advantage and where there are good prospects for profitable growth.

While masses of financial data are frequently available, it can be difficult for non-financial managers to understand the underlying performance of the business and a challenge for senior management to drive greater economic value.

The Metapraxis approach offers senior managers rapid insight into performance across the business, from the largest to the smallest subsidiary. It highlights areas which are under-performing, as well as making it obvious which parts of the business are growing most rapidly and most profitably. While a small subsidiary will only ever contribute a certain amount of profit, it is capable of making serious losses. Avoiding this ‘iceberg effect’ is critical in a large and complex organisation.

Key questions that can be addressed include:

• Which subsidiaries are growing and which are declining?
• What are the main drivers of RONA?
• What is the implied increase in assets – the gap between declared operating profit and operating cash flow?