Shortline Partners Services

Strategic Assessment and Plan Development

Make Sure You Know

Our strategic assessments dig deep to identify the strategic context, value creation opportunities and key risks.  We pressure test the critical strategic and operational assumptions underlying the investment thesis and put a clear value creation plan in place.

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Strategic Assessment:

• Market/competitive environment and trends

• Company capabilities and gaps

• Steady-state financial trajectory, including revenue and cost drivers

• Infrastructure and facility readiness 

• Leadership team capabilities  

Value creation plan:

• Competitive strategy: target customers, offering and value proposition

• Financial projections/ plan

• Primary strategic initiatives to deliver the plan (detailed)

• Resource requirements (capital and human)

• Transition Services Agreement (if required)

• Major risks and mitigation approach

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Selected Experience:

• Albertsons (Retail)

• Staples Solutions (Business services)

• Fila (Consumer)

• Bowlmor (Consumer)

Business Restructuring

Preserve Value

In a crisis, preserving value means taking an honest look at the short and long term outlook. 

• What is the conservative forecast for the business (~80% likely to exceed)?

• How much improvement is required to maintain liquidity in the downturn?

• Are there non-core assets that can be sold?

• What aggressive cost-reduction measures can we take and still maintain the core value of the business?

• What is the cash flow and cash balance outlook under the cost-reduced scenario?

• What are the leading indicators to track that inform a need for further course-correction?

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The objective is to quickly create a comprehensive plan that ensures business continuity and maximizes value.​

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Selected Experience:

• Worldwide Flight Services (Industrial)

• BlueLinx (Industrial)

• Patriot (Financial Services)

• Frontier Spinning (Industrial)

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Profitable Growth Programs

Focus and Grow

Profitable growth starts with a clear understanding of your core capabilities, current and future market needs and competitive positioning.  We also build a clear understanding of the current sources of EBITDA contribution as a foundation for expansion.  From there we define “what we want to stand for”, and then determine the required capabilities to make that vision a reality.  In most cases, making real progress on growth requires a fundamental change in product/service offering, go to market approach and internal capabilities. 

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None of this work happens in a vacuum.  We gather insights directly from the market and work alongside your management team to ensure alignment on execution.  Most importantly, we create a clear execution plan with milestones to track progress.​ 

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Selected Experience:

• Talecris (Healthcare)

• Blue Bird (Industrial/ Automotive)

• WWE (Consumer)

• Isola (Industrial/Technology)

Operations Redesign

Drive Operational Effectiveness

Shortline works alongside the key stakeholders to assess the current operations and systems to evaluate the levers for sustainable performance and the capacity for meaningful continuous improvement. Key considerations include existing processes and controls, management practices, and the organization’s behaviors and capabilities.

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With the current state assessment, a future state vision is developed along with an implementation roadmap. These activities are consistent with strategic goals and include a change management system to evaluate progress. Measurement tools and effective evaluation techniques are developed, in parallel, to insure efficient capital and resource deployment.  Plans are deployed throughout the organization consistent with robust leadership and employee engagement and development. This approach spans functional capabilities and includes escalation processes and tools to eliminate roadblocks and quickly resolve issues.  In addition to corporate process evaluation, personnel development is aligned with new operational strategy focused on the customer.

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Selected Experience:

• Pride Mobility (Healthcare)

• Haulmark (Industrial)

• Coram Healthcare (Healthcare)

• CPG Building Products (Industrial)