Expediting Partner Selection for Step Change Post-Divestiture
Company Profile – Global Mid-Cap Pharmaceutical Company
OVERVIEW & CHALLENGE:
Forming a new mid-cap company from a global pharmaceutical major divestiture required rapidly implementing new internal support structures, governance and delivery platforms. Limited operational support from the former parent corporate real estate (CRE) team and lack of interest from the inherited, long established global incumbent CRE and global project management (PM) provider only exacerbated the situation.
The newly appointed CRE (Real Estate (RE)/Project Management (PM)/Facilities Management (FM)/Security) global lead wanted to understand the opportunities that the current market practice offered and needed help to address immediate transfer projects and “business as usual” CRE activity, such as contract expirations, rent assessments, lease notices and third-party liaisons.
In addition, the new pharmaceutical company recognized its culture was and needed to be different from the parent it had just disconnected from, not only as a result of its mid-cap scale, but also because of its structure and leadership approach to the business. This meant less central control, more local engagement in CRE decisions and policies, plus greater flexibility in the application of space and furniture standards.
In order to rapidly build a global corporate real estate organization that would be aligned with the new company’s structure, culture and strategy, the firm needed a consulting firm with the global breadth and depth of corporate real estate experience and knowledge of best practices in how to design an effective CRE organization, process and capability. Trascent ran a series of market briefing workshops and business stakeholder interviews to clarify the “voice of the business”. Then it supported the CRE lead to create a business case for action.
Trascent helped to devise a new operating model for global corporate real estate strategy – both for in-house and external delivery of services. For third-party vendors, service silos were consolidated into one global service contract to increase commercial leverage while having a less structured approach for some elements like furniture procurement.
The structure of the proposed model was:
Trascent worked with the CRE lead to develop the business case and financial model including joining in to support the steering committee meetings and preparing all necessary materials for executive approval.
In parallel, the CRE lead brought on board a program manager to address the ongoing projects while the strategy was devised, and then new frameworks were put in place. This kept day-to-day operations moving and avoided distraction for the strategic project.
The executive committee approved the new global corporate real estate strategy, structure and business case. Based on this approval, the go-to-market strategy was implemented in a focused four-month RFS solutioning process. The tight timeline was driven by a client business imperative, and Trascent drove the process through bids, yellow pads, negotiations and onto transition.
Outcome benefits in cost, risk and efficiency to the in-house team and better engagement with the global business
