Case Study #01

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Pre-Acquisition:

Revenues: EUR 50-75M; Growth rate: <5% p.a.; Profit margin: <7.5%

Post-Acquisition:

Revenues (5 years): EUR 100-125M; Growth rate: 10-20% p.a.; Profit margin: 20%

Leading real estate and brokerage player in multiple countries with a unique B2B2C business model driven by high quality flow of leads for transactions generated from the partners. It had been started as a service division for a major financial institution and was an orphan in their overall portfolio.

Implemented three major drivers of value:

1. Refining, codifying and rolling out the identification, recruitment, and onboarding of new associates:
   In the five years after acquisition, the number of customer-facing associates has more than doubled and is on track to double again in the next few years thanks to a well-designed recruitment, onboarding and retention engine. The overall sales force structure has also been redesigned together with tools and processes for the associates to both penetrate existing partners and convert the transactions 
2. Acquisition and onboarding of new partners:
   Number of new partners has steadily increased, more importantly, the customer base served by the business partners has more than doubled.
3. Rightsizing and more carefully managing costs of the system:
   The non-customer-facing associates’ share as a % of total headcount has come down from over 40% to under 30%.

With the implementation of these initiatives, the transaction volumes and revenues of the business have doubled while the profits have more than quadrupled. The growth rate of the business went from under 5% p.a. to over 15% p.a., with margins growing from under 7.5% to over 20%.