The Challenge

The KTP supported EES in tackling the key challenges hindering their ambition to create a platform for sustainable growth.

Core barriers included a lack of skilled resource, slowing EES' ambition to scale. This included attracting and retaining the right engineering skills - but EES also recognised that new skill sets supporting new ways of working, and differentiating between engineers and professional support services, would support them to capitalise on market opportunity.

The KTP also evaluated and validated the internal and external value proposition of the business, enabling a strong brand narrative to be embedded. This will support employee recruitment and retention by evidencing the positive company culture and diverse and inclusive workforce. It also reinforces EES' vision and values and strengthens their position in their highly specialised industry.

The Approach

The KTP Associate, Bilkisu Donli, joined the EES team, and began by assessing and examining EES' operating processes and environment. The foundation of the KTP delivery was identifying and recommending best practices for improvement, and then embedding the necessary changes.

Bilkisu worked on an extensive succession and progression planning exercise, identifying people-related risks within the organisational structure. She has reformed the organisational approach to recruitment and selection, induction, and employee engagement - embedding a people-centred and agile culture with a positive attitude to addressing risk and knowledge transfer.

She has improved the integration of pro-active learning and development, and the communication of progression opportunities to employees. This work has all been aligned with the overall strategic plan for the business. Her detailed customer profile analysis and segmentation of the primary clients of EES has proved a crucial link into the strategic marketing and business growth plan for EES.

Bilkisu began the project with a fact-finding exercise to better understand the company's background, value proposition, unique internal and people related strengths, and market positioning. Using the assistance of the academic team and academic models such as the Business Model Canvas, TOWS, and BCG Matrix, she identified skills gaps, problems, and basic root causes within the organisation to support the results and recommendations. These recommendations are now being implemented.

Bilkisu built on EES's open communication culture through scheduling regular meetings, interviews, and discussions, and promoting genuine knowledge exchange, whilst boosting staff engagement.

The Impact

As a niche company with limited industry and market data, EES benefited from the application of academic models, gaining valuable tools to continuously assess its market position and competitive advantage. For the academic team, this project demonstrated how large business models and approaches can be effectively applied to SMEs like EES.

Staff involvement throughout the project led to valuable discussions and insights, informing key company decisions. These contributions have been formalised into important documents used for bids, audits, presentations, and strategic planning. Bilkisu organised a strategic formulation session for EES' management team, steering them to review their approach. The workshop enabled informed decision-making and resulted in the creation of the EES strategic plan and roadmap which is now used to track progress and monitor actions. This marked a significant milestone for EES, aligning with its objective of enhancing managerial capability in strategic planning.

The creation and embedding of the EES growth framework, a six-step structure, has helped EES to assess its current status and plan for the future, including operational and strategic initiatives for long-term growth.

Bilksu has also improved the communication and induction procedures within EES which were linked to low participation, poor information sharing and productivity. New meeting structures and induction programmes have improved the process and offer more value to staff.

Bilkisu has maximised her personal development trainings thanks to the KTP-dedicated budget, including achieving a qualification from the British Computer Society, and taking part in Agile Management and Mentorship programmes.