Strategy consulting

NMG’s strategy practice works with financial institutions faced with ‘fork in the road’ decisions around where and how to compete. While every project is different, most engagements involve working with clients to:

Identify new markets and develop market entry strategy
Improve competitive positioning and business performance
Optimise portfolio composition and management
Execute mergers, acquisitions and alliances
Enhance risk management

Clients seek our help on complex problems that require an external perspective or specific in-market expertise. This has shaped our approach to strategy consulting:

We embrace complexity; we do not use standard frameworks or methodologies to simplify genuinely difficult issues
Our consultants are specialists focused solely on the insurance and investments sectors and working across multiple geographies
Within our strategy practice we invest heavily to build intellectual property around organisational effectiveness and business economics
We also work closely with the other NMG Consulting practices and with NMG Benefits, leveraging their insights and experience particularly around demand drivers and competitive dynamics

Between our extensive project experience, proprietary research and analysis and the resources of the broader NMG Group (a combination we refer to as our ‘information advantage’), we are able to significantly reduce project timelines and improve the quality and clarity of client decisions.

Identifying New Markets

Whether considering entering a new geography or expanding into a new customer segment or channel, there are many challenges to address.

We can help clients understand market size and segmentation, profitability and competitive dynamics, to identify the key success factors and risks and to identify and implement the right market strategy.

Improving Business Performance

Whether turning round a faltering business unit or optimising a successful one, institutions may seek external support to identify the root causes of underperformance and devise the most effective response.

Together with our Insights practice we can help clients:

Analyse objectively their competitive positioning and capability gaps
Identify truly profitable intermediary and consumer segments
Understand consumer needs
Respond appropriately to regulatory change
Ultimately, identify the most important levers and quantify the benefits of various strategic options

Optimising Portfolio Management

The larger the organisation the harder it can be to prioritise opportunities and to allocate investment and resource allocations across markets, functions and organisational units.

Utilising our proprietary analysis of market economics and competitive positioning, we help our clients to understand which business units are creating value and which are destroying it, where to invest and how to measure success. At the extreme, we can also help to build the economic rationale for portfolio re-organisation or divestment.

Executing Mergers, Acquisitions & Alliances

Mergers and acquisitions are powerful tools supporting market entry or portfolio optimisation, yet it is accepted that few transactions ultimately create value.

We can help clients evaluate alternative execution paths. Where M&A is the preferred path we can help with target selection and due diligence through to valuation, to integration planning and execution.

In addition we have helped many providers look to alternative routes of distribution via affinity and strategic partnerships which have become a core component of a multi-channel strategy.

Enhancing Risk Management

NMG SelectX provides a unique range of advisory services to life and health insurance and reinsurance companies worldwide. Services include audits of the underwriting and claims processes, optimising new business processes to meet clients' strategic requirements, developing and maintaining rules engines for streamlined insurance risk assessment, consulting on tele-interviewing solutions and producing underwriting and claims manuals. For further information please visit www.Selectx.co.uk.