Establishing an industry growth programme
True client focus needs an industry lens
Start reading now
How an industry approach will benefit you
Choose your chapter
Get in touch
Contact us
1. Pre-work
The right team
2.
3. Industry strategy
Investing for success
4. Opportunity landscape and pipeline
Team objectives & measurement
6.
Plan & team commitment
7.
About the programme
This site has been developed to help Grant Thornton member firms establish a successful industry go-to-market approach in your own markets. The programme enables firms to balance the three organisational factors – geography, service line and industry – and focus them on driving profitable growth and brand position in a defined market. It’s important to keep in mind that to be truly successful in implementing a new programme like this, you will need to invest in driving organisational change; fundamentally, it’s about how you understand, talk to and engage with your clients. This change does not always come easily and will take time and effort to embed.
Our clients are operating, and competing, in an increasingly complex environment. Clients want to know that, not only do we have the technical competence to solve the challenges they face, but we also understand – and can respond to – the plethora of issues that affect them. We know that not every firm currently has a formal industry programme. However, talking the language of our clients – and understanding the broader commercial issues and trends affecting their businesses – will be critical to winning and expanding international client relationships in all geographies. To enable all our people to be more successful in doing this – in the industries and sectors relevant to them – they need to be able to:
1
2
3
4
Find the right people with relevant industry expertise and credentials
Access information and share insight on the latest industry trends and developments
Assess collaborate and contribute to a global opportunity pipeline
Find, share and collaborate on industry-specific value propositions and methodologies
Hover to reveal
5
6
7
Get In Touch
1.
3.
4.
Choose Your Chapter
Pre-work
The Right Team
Industry Strategy
Opportunity Landscape and Pipeline
Investing for Success
Team Objectives and Measurement
Plan and Team Commitment
Click to download
Creating a vision
Tools & resources
Team charter
SWOT analysis
Firm plotting your industries
Investment plan
Goal setting
Measurement matrix
Growth plan
In this section you can access all the relevant tools and resources required for each chapter of your industry growth programme.
5. Investing for success
Outcome Activities Consider Tools Contact
Outcome
Activities
Collate and share the following
Understand our existing capability and relationships in the industry
"
Things to consider
Any third-party reports or analyses that provide insight into the dynamics of the industry, competitive pressures, and key leaders.
Information on your existing relationships, revenue and pipeline opportunities.
Any recent ClientVoice or proposal debrief reports from clients in the industry.
Revenue billed in the last 18 months.
The leadership team must endorse and support the principle of implementing an industry go-to-market approach, it should form part of the firms’ overall strategy.
What additional resources or contacts can we engage with to expand our knowledge of the industry?
Do you have leadership buy-in?
Next chapter
Back to home
Industry strategy
Opportunity landscape and pipeline
Team objectives and measurement
Plan and team commitment
2. The right team
Bring together the right team
Agree team mission - everyone should be in agreement on what the team is trying to accomplish.
Agree size of team - when a team exceeds the ideal number of 8 people, consider making some team members part of the extended team.
Identify a sponsor – you should identify an individual from your leadership team to be the main sponsor of the programme. This person will be responsible for ensuring that everyone in the firm understands the strategy behind the implementation and can address any issues during both implementation and ongoing execution.
Define roles so everyone knows why they are on the team and what their contribution is expected to be. This team should include managers or directors from the business, as well as marketing or BD professionals. They will work with the sponsor to set the strategy for the industry programme, assess the challenges and opportunities as well as create tools to help the programme become a success.
Decide how the team will communicate in a predictable and consistent way.
Establish regular team update meetings / calls and agree frequency.
Agree frequency of action plan reviews.
Does the team have the right skillset?
Are there any skill gaps we need to work on?
Previous chapter
Pre-Work
Any third-party reports or analyses that provide insight into the dynamics of the industry, competitive pressures, and key leaders
Information on your existing relationships, revenue and pipeline opportunities
Any recent ClientVoice or proposal debrief reports from clients in the industry
Revenue billed in the last 18 months
The leadership team must endorse and support the principle of implementing an industry go-to-market approach, it should form part of the firms overall strategy
Decide how the team will communicate in a predictable and consistent way
Click to Download
Tools & Resources
Next Chapter
Back to Home
The team should discuss and challenge the information shared in the pre-work
Understand what’s currently trending in the market
External: market positioning, competitive challenges, industry and business drivers.
Internal: the teams knowledge and relationship with industry clients; overview of revenues.
What is the firm's industry strategy?
Have you reached out to the network to see what other member firms are doing?
Previous Chapter
bring together the right team
Agree team mission - everyone should be in agreement on what the team is trying to accomplish
Agree size of team - when a team exceeds the ideal number of 8 people, consider making some team members part of the extended team
Review of any client feedback reports (ClientVoice or Proposal debrief) or review of previous strategic clients in the industry.
Internal: the teams knowledge and relationship with industry clients; overview of revenues; review of any client feedback reports (ClientVoice or Proposal debrief) or review of previous strategic clients in the industry.
Map and prioritise the opportunity landscape for the industry
Identify: where your member firm is currently generating revenue; where our competitors are currently generating revenue; where new opportunities may exist.
Identify strategic targets that will help build your client base.
Prioritise opportunities according to: existing capability; (profitable) revenue potential; relationships within the industry such as associations, governing bodies; etc.
Successful programmes have taught us that starting small, with one or two industries, is a helpful way to learn what works and what doesn’t, before you expand your programme.
Which industries, and how many?
2/11
Profitability
Previous
Next
Long or short-term opportunities
4/11
Capabilities – do you already have existing strength in the service lines most needed by clients in this industry? Are you willing to invest?
The strength of your client base – do you have strong credentials and client advocates that can help you grow?
6/11
Market trends – is this an industry that will have the potential for sustainable growth in the mid-market?
Global collaboration opportunities – how international are the target clients in this industry?
8/11
Which other member firms are invested in this market?
Deciding on where you need to invest to support strategic growth in your chosen industries is fundamental. Some investments may need to be made to support the firm-wide implementation of an industry approach and others may be specific to markets.
10/11
Each industry may be different and may require different levels of investment as well as different investment areas.
11/11
Developing an investment plan will help you decide where you need to focus and what you need to do to achieve it.
External: market positioning, competitive challenges, industry & business drivers.
Internal: their knowledge and relationship with industry clients; overview of revenues; review of any client feedback reports (ClientVoice or Proposal debrief) or review of previous strategic clients in the industry.
Identify strategic targets that will help build your client base
1/6
2/6
3/6
4/6
5/6
6/6
SWOT Analysis
What investments we need to make to grow the client relationship
Articulate the critical risks that could impact on the development of our industry (e.g. capability gaps, team performance, competitor activity, team commitment, investment requirement, stakeholder changes).
Develop solutions or actions to address/mitigate these risks.
Identify any additional needs the client may have that we should consider investing in (e.g. thought leadership, innovation workshop, peer - group networking).
1/4
Do you have a clear plan to support the delivery of all the goals you have set yourself at both programme level and for each of your focus industries?
2/5
What tools are required to execute this process? Have you clearly identified milestones that will help you achieve success and assigned roles and responsibilities for all the major workstreams?
Raising the profile
Align marketing budget to industries
Differential treatment for key clients
M&A
Lateral hire
Collaboration with other MFs
Industry alumni groups
Attendance at industry conference/tradeshows
Training
Identify: where Grant Thornton is currently generating revenue; where our competitors are currently generating revenue; where new opportunities may exist
Successful programmes have taught us that starting small, i.e. with one or two industries, is a helpful way to learn what works and what doesn’t, before you expand your programme.
5.
Participate in global industry groups
2/4
3/4
4/4
Have you aligned marketing budget to industries?
Are you developing capability material?
Are you developing and executing thought leadership campaigns?
Could you activate global content?
Have you optimised and amplified your social media presence?
Are you hosting client events/seminars?
Have you successfully rolled out the 6 box model approach?
Have you activated global value propositions aligned to industry needs?
Are you taking an account based marketing approach to nurture and convert opportunities?
Have you aligned key accounts to selected industries?
Are you developing a client experience programme?
Are you building capability through?
Could you utilise podiums at tradeshows?
Develop and execute thought leadership campaign
Activate global content
Optimise & amplify social media presence
Host client events/seminars
Podium at tradeshows
Roll out 6 box model approach
Activate global value propositions aligned to industry needs
Account based marketing approach to nurture and convert opportunities
Align key accounts to selected industries
Develop a client experience programme
Building capability through
Click above to reveal
Set strategic, financial and relationship objectives for the next 1-3 years and how you will measure success
Agree objectives for the team as a whole and for each individual. These can be both quantitative and qualitative.
Ensure you have agreed on how you will measure the success of the group.
Communicate with your people so that they understand why an industry approach is important, why you have chosen to focus on particular industries and what their role is in making it happen.
Are the objectives realistic?
Is everyone invested in achieving them?
All people should be aware of what industries have been chosen, who the leaders of those industries are, and which clients are being focused on in those markets. The strategy will only be successful if all of your staff are engaged and encouraged to do their part to drive strategic growth.
Develop solutions or actions to address/mitigate these risks
Identify any additional needs the client may have that we should consider investing in (e.g. thought leadership, innovation workshop, peer - group networking)
Decide what tools will be required to execute this process, clearly identify milestones that will help you achieve success and assign roles and responsibilities for all the major workstreams.
You must have a clear plan to support the delivery of all the goals you have set yourself. This is both at a programme level and for each of the industries you have decided to focus on.
Things To Consider
1/2
2/2
An agreed strategy, a plan of action, and clear accountability
Recap on the ambition for this group - the objectives, pipeline, opportunity landscape and relationship matrix - and create an action plan.
Measuring success against your objectives, and celebrating achievements, will help keep momentum going. An industry programme is rarely linear. Regularly assessing where you are in your strategy, and learning from what is working and what isn’t, will help keep you on track.
Whether this involves assessing the roles people are playing, the industries you’re focusing on or the rewards you give for success, reviewing your strategy will help you close the gaps that may not necessarily be seen at first glance.
Who is responsible for what?
1/3
How often will you report on progress?
When deciding how and what to measure, keep in mind process and results from both an external and internal point of view, such as:
Has industry revenue increased?
Increased awareness in the market
Feedback from the clients and your people
How often will you communicate?
Net promoter score (NPS)
2/3
3/3
