EMBEDDING

SUSTAINABILTY:
THE EVOLUTION OF
INTERFACERAISE

EMBEDDING
SUSTAINABILITY: THE
Group III
Astha Aggrawal- 80011920009
Krishnang Sharma- 80011920094

EVOLUATION OF
Richa Kumar- 80011920090
Sachin Goyal- 80011920071

INTERFACERAISE
Shashank Gupta- 80011920153
Shreya Shivpuri- 80011920119
Shrutika Chawla- 80011920074
Q1 (A)
There are different types of
consulting firms - from MBB
to Big4 to others. In this entire
spectrum of consulting firms,
where would you place
InterfaceRAISE and why?
EXCLUDED DOMAINS

01 Functional Specialists
• Expert In A Specific Discipline.

02 Industry Specialists
• Works With Industrial
Operations To Ensure That
Manufacturing Facilities Work
With Peak Efficiency.
 InterfaceRAISE

Strategy &
Implementation
 MBB Vs BIG 4
Strategy Vs Implementation

BIG 4 MBB
MBB respond to consultants
focuses on “help me do stay
big it” question generalist
strategic type than to while Big 4
questions a “what consultants
should I do” specialize.
InterfaceRAISE: DOMAIN OF CONSULTING
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

DEVELOPING CORE ASSISTING CLIENTS

BUSINESS STRATEGY IN IMPLEMENTATION
Transferring their experience to other The implementation experience
company by creating a robust plan that ties InterfaceRAISE had increased their
with the client’s core business. credibility in the market.

Transformational process of embedding The experts were staffed in client’s team to

sustainability as a part of clients ensure a smoother transition into the
organizational culture and leadership sustainable journey.
practices “ Everyone InterfaceRaise brings to the table
“InterfaceRaise gave us the tool and the
has worked in the field [at Interface, Inc.] and
perspective. Now it’s our turn to spread the
lived with the outcomes long after design
gospel.” DiGaetano, CEO Wilsonart
and implementation.”
Q1 B
How are InterfaceRAISE’s
service offerings similar to
other traditional consulting
firms? And where do they
differ?
 Parameters InterfaceRAISE MBB Big4
Duration & Customized offerings- Customized service offerings Personalized and customer service
Flexibility  Workshops and Executive Typically take 2 – 4 months depending offerings Big 4 consultants can be
Immersions (1- 2 days) on the complexity of the problems being engaged with one client company for
 Projects (2 – 9 months) addressed. 6-8 months or even year-long,
 Mentoring providing oversight and helping the
client put their solutions into practice.
Specialists vs Recognized the need for specialized Currently recognizing the need for Big 4 consultants will often do more
Generalists expertise- Sustainability. specialized expertise. repetitive work due to their
specialization.
Strategy vs Strategy and Implementation Primarily Strategy Primarily Implementation
Implementation
Team Structure Currently, a small team of two full time A small team comprising 2-4 consultants Comparatively bigger team size
for an employees besides Hartzfeld. Interface including the project lead with a partner
engagement Inc. employees would join voluntarily. or two joining
Client Profiling No specific client profile. They assisted McKinsey’s clients are higher profile, but The Big 4 take on different clients.
organizations in transformation into a they work on a smaller % of the firm. Deloitte or Accenture are more likely
sustainable organisation. to work on the entire firm, with their
larger personnel resources.
Focus Area Sustainability consulting and also act as General strategy, organization, marketing, Most of the Big 4’s consulting work is
“advisors.” operations, digital, and M&A issues. concentrated in their ‘Advisory’
practice. In addition they offer audit,
assurance, tax and other similar
accounting services to clients
Service Charges Hourly rates Fixed fee, Time plus material & Hourly rates
Milestone based
Q2 A
At a high level, what are the
strengths and weaknesses of
InterfaceRAISE and its
consulting model?
 SWOT Analysis
• Limited manpower
• Experts in the field, experience, • Team Structure

WEAKNESS
reputation, leadership. • Only experienced people are put on projects
S • All the employees have knowledge in
the environmental sustainability
•
•
Compensation to employees
Accounting issues W
department • Could not gain individuality – Remained
• Cust/clients awareness • Revenue varied
• 20% (CTR F)

STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES

• Big firms that are leaders in

sustainability related to their industry; • Importance of sustainability in
i.e. PepsiCo, China’s textile industry. emerging market industries
T O
THREATS
• Costly to imitate – Takes a lot of time
• China’s challenge: Urbanization
& resources to train and educate
consultants. & Sustainability
• Water crisis
 PORTER’S 5-FORCE ANALYSIS

01 02 03 04 05

Competitive Buyer Power Supplier Threat of Threat of New

Rivalry Power Substitution Entry
• Changing
• Less mindsets of • Less • Low chance • High threat of
competition as corporates number of of new entrants.
relatively new and shifting suppliers. substitution. • Increasing
industry. towards • Less threat. • The solutions number of new
• Huge potential sustainability. and dynamic
provided are
of growth and • Demand unexplored. ideas in the
profit. rapidly industry.
rising.
Q2 B

InterfaceRAISE decides to hire the services of

McKinsey & Co. to advise its top management
(which included Dan Hendrix and Jim
Hartzfeld) on matters of business strategy and
its business goals for next five years. It also
wants concrete advice from McKinsey on
issues related to its structure and staffing. You
are an Engagement Manager at McKinsey, who
has been assigned this client (i.e.
InterfaceRAISE) and this particular project (as
stated above). How will you go about
executing this project? Give a detailed
approach (from beginning to end) and clearly
discuss all the steps involved.
 BUSINESS GOALS
• To create business possibility for clients through transformation in their business to
achieve competitive agility through sustainable consulting.

• Equip clients with tools, technology, and methodologies to help businesses achieve
the sustainability transformation alongside the generating a lucrative avenue.

• Streamline business processes and team structure to achieve expansion plan.

• Foster the organizational culture to change the way people work with lasting
impact through collaborative leadership & effective talent acquisition.
 Structured Dissection of Problem

1) Identify/ Define a Problem 2) Organize a team

• Irregular/Inefficient Staffing • We will get the team from

• Non-alignment of goals and efforts
McKinsey.
• Struggled to quantify the impact of its • A small team of 2-4 consultants
formal projects and informal Mentorship. including the project lead with a
• Estimating the number of required
partner or two joining.
Interface employee-hours and then
applying the Standard hourly rates
 From the POV of Engagement Manager

3) Study the current process 4) Determine root causes

• No formal team structure and compensation. • Reluctant to increase the funding
Drew staff from two major sources: • Still focused on giving adequate time to
SME(Subject Matter Experts) or partnered Interface Inc. ( issue with the top
organization. management mindset). “Hendrix asked
• Inadequate measurement of the output and Hartzfeld to dedicate up to 20% of his time
processes. in FY2011 to Interface Inc. events and
• Small Full time core team. appearances”
• Support from Interface.
• Cold calling prospects and no advertising or
marketing promotions.
• Just in time coaching
 From the POV of Engagement Manager

5) Identify improvement alternatives

6) Evaluating Alternatives
• Compensation or perks provided to the
additional employees. • Clients can be approached and suitable
• Formalization of processes and team size analysis can be done to check how the
• Focus on their top 20 % clients to bring in implementation of IR’s sustainability
the majority of their revenue. strategies have reduced the overall
• Improving relationships with top clients, environmental impact.
forming a CRM team. • Testimonials and recommendations
• Setting up goals and strategies to retain
competitive advantage.
• Adoption of better mechanism for
calculation of pricing of project.
Segment wise Bifurcation (80/20 Rule)

Focus on their top 20 % clients to bring

in the majority of their revenue.

It is evident from the graph that the

majority of the revenue pertains to the
Project (2 to 9 months engagements)

Also, least engagement was in the form

of Mentoring. This needs to be focused in
the 5 year plan so as to have a strong
focus on all 3 aspects.

Although, the day engagements were

more in number, the revenue per client
was comparatively low.
Advice on the Structure of the Organisation
In the near future, if the company does
not want to incur a fixed cost in the
form of salaries, then for advisory
purposes and/or to solve some
specialized consulting cases,
InterfaceRAISE can hire external
experienced consultants. They can in
turn act as a support in the consulting
career path.

But, for a long term perspective, the

Traditional Method should be the focus
with a pre defined hierarchical
structure along with a combination of
some external consultants.
Variation in Engagements/ Revenue

Anderson approach was as follows:

• XYZ “ I will spend 90% of my time in
business development mode for a
couple of months”. Then I will spend
90% of my time executing on paid
client projects”.

This resulted in quite variation in the

engagements and revenues from
quarter to quarter of InterfaceRAISE
as is evident from the graph.
 7) Implementing selected alternatives • Conduct B2B relationship-based marketing of
Interface’s business model and maximise
• Impact to be defined as increasing awareness of the opportunities to influence others to move to
Interface business model to achieve influence in sustainability, therefore fulfilling restorative aspects
sustainability and restoration. of the Interface vision.
• Develop a partnership with an established • Speaking engagements Workshops designed to
consulting organization to implement sustainable encourage clients to see through the sustainability
business practices in other companies. lens.
• Use the Interface umbrella brand and established • Strategic consulting projects – collaborate with
credibility to reduce perceived risk of switching to consultant partner to develop a program for a
sustainable business model. particular client, with a focus on industry expertise
provided by subject matter experts within Interface.
 8) Establish Control Mechanism 9) Analyze & Critique
to prevent retrogression
• Unique experience in embedding a culture of
• Employees would contribute towards specific
sustainability into business practices at all levels
projects and work and the sustainability
with resulting strong values alignment.
consultancy and their hours would be billed for by
• In terms of time and/or investment, there needs to
the consultancy. Interface would be asked to
be an agreed position that InterfaceRAISE is not
release employees for a number of hours.
revenue generating, but adds substantially to
• By removing the consultancy work but retaining a
Interface in supporting the brand. 
close working relationship, Interface RAISE can
• InterfaceRAISE did not have the structure or
make use of Interface’s clear brand strength,
support to be highly effectively in meeting its core
maintain alignment while meeting the restorative
objective, to further Interface’s restorative goals.
vision.
THANK YOU