OUR CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Forum Analytica is a business consultancy, where experienced consultants help clients achieve a more successful market presence and a more profitable business. We do so by helping them optimise their brand management, their strategic marketing, transaction and finance strategy, corporate management and business IT.
Our partners and consultants share a history of successful business practices within larger and international organisations, but also within start-ups and emerging businesses. Their know-how is therefore deeply rooted in understanding the business environment and its limitations. However, they are also embedded in their respective fields, keeping in touch with the latest know-how available internationally, and banking on their extensive experience as consultants.
STRATEGIC MARKETING
To achieve a sustainable and profitable market presence, a strategic approach to marketing is key. The link between a good business and a marketing strategy to support it can create the opportunity for the company to generate substantial added value on their products or services.
Unfortunately, the contemporary need for constant and intensive market communication can leave a business focused only on the tactical marketing efforts. This can create negative long-term consequences. We help our clients avoid this pitfall by helping them establish the required strategic marketing processes, ensure the resources and help them create the marketing strategies to adhere to.
BRAND MANAGEMENT
A company’s brand is the source of its future profits. So, the question is not whether a brand is necessary, but whether the correct brand identity has been defined and whether it is managed in an optimal fashion to ensure long-term profitability.
Brand management is not advertising, and it is not graphic design. It is a set of complex activities that include business and marketing strategy, communication, new product (or service) development, tactical marketing and financial planning.
Large, successful businesses have mastered the craft of brand management through decades of trial and error. Unfortunately, most businesses can’t afford a similar luxury. The transfer of knowledge on brand management from our consultancy to the client can help speed up the process, with a successful implementation of brand management processes within a year.
CORPORATE SERVICES
Our main goal in corporate services for our clients is to achieve efficient simplicity within corporate governance. We help achieve this goal with a combination of strategic corporate services and required legal and business management.
Our Corporate Services consultants help define the structural design of a company’s corporate environment. We offer assistance with setting up an internal supervisory model, setting the organizational structure along with the functions, unit and role definitions, forming an efficient combination for the implementation network, and a reporting and supervisory structure in order to achieve an optimal business environment. This can also contribute in a major way towards an increased value of the company for interested stakeholders, for example while attempting to increase stock value.
Day to day legal and business services represent a direct support to our clients in their path to success whether they need legal advisory services, contract preparation and reviews, support in risk mitigation processes, or other legal advice. Our enhanced engagement with the outcome of our work represents a significant departure from the norm. We are happy to be taken on board as a permanent part-time lawyer or an interim legal counsel.
FINANCIAL STRATEGY
The overarching goal of our financial strategy consulting services is to improve relevant processes, reduce or mitigate risks, improve cashflows and improve margins.
Companies faces diverse challenges and risks during specific stages of their life cycle. These challenges may come about due to a number of external and internal prompts such as: a) a change in the business environment; b) a pivot of the business model; c) ownership changes; d) changes in risk appetite of the company or its owners; e) reaching the mature stage of growth; f) or simply growing from a small office to a corporation employing hundreds of people, with a footprint in numerous countries and presence on various different markets.
While embracing similar challenges, companies benefit little from uniform, rigid, “one size fits all” solutions currently present on the market. As the alternative, our experienced consultants perform a tailor-made Risks and Challenges analysis, suggest measures to enhance the company’s value and operations based on the findings of the analysis, and as the final step help implement them.
BUSINESS IT
Business growth often requires a step-wise adaptation of all the processes, including IT infrastructure and its management. Internal teams often struggle to keep up during the times of major business transformations, so our Business IT consulting services offer help. Our IT services include day to day IT support of the client’s services by offering efficient solutions and user-friendly IT services. We either work remotely or help the client at their premises and either on case by case basis or through service level agreement. Our business IT support also gives direct and clear information regarding the status of IT and the external IT providers which often leads to substantial savings and optimisation.
ISO CERTIFICATIONS
Our experts are lead ISO 9001 and 27001 auditors. We perform the implementation of internationally recognised good practice of Quality Management System certification ISO 9001:2015 and Information Security Management System ISO 27001:2013 and related 2700X (Tisax etc.) certifications. These are increasingly beneficial for an organization, not in the least because most major buyers require these certificates from their suppliers. We provide audit services of the company’s suppliers and within the company itself. Based on a gap analysis we prepare the plan of implementation centred around the nature of the client’s business. We offer complete support through every step of the certification and quality management system maintenance.
M&A AND TRANSACTION SERVICES
We support M&A attempts by identifying and understanding key value drivers, risks, and opportunities that matter the most. Our due diligence approach often goes beyond accounting and incorporates a detailed assessment of financial and operating risks as well as assessing the commercial side of the deal, assessing the business model as well as potential synergies that we could identify and implement. We cover the following topics:
- Overview of the business and comfort around the quality of financial information,
- Key findings and perspectives on major transaction issues identified,
- Insights focused on potential risks.
- Analysis of key business drivers and sustainability of free cash flow,
- Tailored review of operating results,
- Consideration of nonrecurring and/or unusual items.
- Databook schedules containing key P&L, BS, working capital, and cash flow analyses,
- Deep support for conclusions and recommendations,
- Organized financial information for ease of use.
FAMILY BUSINESS GOVERNANCE
We help preserve the family harmony and strategic company success by matching the interests of family members with the long-term interests of the company. When a company is owned among friends, we help protect the friendship by implementing the checkpoints that will help grow the company without compromising the relationship between partners.
A family business has great advantages in terms of dedication, drive, energy and knowledge usually invested in the organization. Years of hard work however can be easily jeopardized when the transfer to the next generation happens or when non-family employees are not recognized as important stakeholders. There are obvious as well as hidden dangers that need to be addressed in a structured well-thought-out manner in order to prevent disputes, loss of reputation and financial loss. To avoid a similar pitfall, a family constitution can be prepared, thus ensuring sustainable business and family relationships.
Similarly, companies founded by friends can be hindered by diverging interpretation of roles, non-transparent expectations, differences in activity and similar. We help protect the company and the friendship either in the very beginning (by addressing the expectations in advance with a suitable shareholders agreement) or in the following stages when mitigation and reorganisation processes may need to be implemented.