United Kingdom

Improving or exiting a Joint Venture 

Rescuing failing or underperforming businesses is hard. In an alliance or joint venture it’s often even harder  – you typically have less control, more stakeholders and greater complexity to manage.   Our team works exclusively in this world, bringing international JV insight and experience, as well as technical and diplomatic skills to help identify and implement options, including exit.

Common underperformance challenges

  • Appreciating how re-setting a JV is different from turning around a wholly owned business
  • How to distinguish symptoms from causes.  Why has it really gone wrong?
  • How to persuade partner(s) that things need to change (without destabilising the relationship)

Recent projects and insights

Importance of leadership

In a recent energy JV turnaround, an inexperienced CEO had been put in charge of a new joint operation with staff drawn from very different cultures. In the absence of strong leadership, an environment of distrust developed, with each partner blaming the other for poor commercial results. Our intervention has led to a jointly agreed plan, involving recognition by senior stakeholders that new and experienced leadership is required.

Improve – to sell?

A major manufacturer was looking at a two year start-up delay, major quality issues and customers demanding compensation, but had invested US$600m. We were invited to diagnose the situation and identify specific, actionable areas for improvement. Once these were turned into a plan and implemented, the business achieved 90% production before eventually being sold successfully.

Stabilise and govern

An established gas joint venture was experiencing major safety issues, with spiralling costs and a command structure with no clear accountability. We were asked to investigate discreetly and identified major shortfalls in business processes and controls. After stabilising the JV, we designed and implemented a strong, practical governance capability and framework, sustainably improving performance, safety standards and risk mitigation.

Contact

Dr Marc Van Grondelle

Dr Marc van Grondelle

Head of the Global Joint Ventures Practice

+44 20 7694 4603

Email Marc

  

“An experienced ‘neutral’ can often help partners really get to grips with what it will take to get back on track.”                  

Steve Burch

Steve Burch

Global Joint Ventures Practice

+44 20 7311 8446

Email Steve

 

  

“Fixing things sustainably in a JV takes early cross-partner engagement to build consensus and create momentum.”

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