Minding Margins

READ BETWEEN THE MARGINS

Making sure you’re not missing out on a single opportunity means maximizing profit margins at every turn. This is doubly important when you’re a multibillion-dollar retail and apparel company depending on new products to drive continued revenue growth. When this very same company needed someone to read between the lines by finding opportunities to drive margin expansion while facing margin constraints, they called ACME. With huge expectations from the top and a big task at hand, we couldn’t wait to dive in.

Big deliverables demand exacting focus. ACME started out by understanding the needs of the client and outlining an achievable scope, the biggest challenge of the project. Knowing where you’re going helps paint a picture of how to get there. Unfortunately, that path was littered with a long line of disparate and redundant tools, and manual processes. Better margins demanded a clearer path to the goal.

Transforming the way a company does business is no easy task. Hence, a logical and systematic approach was crucial to supporting real-time margin optimization. Easier said than done, but by relating to the client’s needs, identifying the detailed steps needed to accomplish our goals and using effective mentorship and feedback, we knew we could get there. We partnered with the IT team to help define the company’s new-product development process. Through research, planning and implementation, we were going to get there together.

In this case, “there” was a cross-engine process and toolset custom tailored to the client’s needs. It is part of a projected $1.2 billion bump in shareholder value reachable within three years.