Project Portfolio

Edge Advisory’s project portfolio has been built up over years working on global projects.

Please browse a sample of projects per service area (click down arrow to expand). We have also included projects related to Operational Effectiveness should this be of interest. Kristian Smith has worked on all the projects below and would be happy to discuss details and applicability to your business.

Actionable Strategy

Corporate Strategy Definition and Support (London, Global)

  • Defined and supported refinement of global strategic pillars and related programmes of work for B2C and B2B businesses.
  • Supported CEO review for global B2B businesses, identifying specific actions to take forward.
  • Defined trends, themes and strategic questions for head of strategy and to feed into annual strategic planning process.
  • Critiqued investment proposals, developed corporate leadership team pre-reads and presentations.


Corporate Strategic Planning (London)

  • Re-defined and shorted strategic planning cycle to global corporate.
  • Developed options for re-structuring of Global Strategy and Planning Group.


Business Unit Strategy and Roadmap Definition (Beijing, London)

  • Defined multi-year strategy for Shell China JV, reporting to China Chairman and JV CEO. Board approved strategy & roadmap sees 7 fold increase in NIAT.
  • Led joint Shell/JV team of 5 in creating business model, brand strategy, target segmentation, geographic prioritisation, product positioning & architecture, channel & distributor strategy and defining and costing required enablers to deliver strategy & financial targets.


eBusiness and eCommerce Strategy Definition and Roadmap (London, Nürnberg, Utrecht)

  • Led eBusiness Strategy Review and Roadmap development for five of Shell’s lines of business.
  • Created long term eBusiness strategy for major German retailer (including business model, product strategy, process definition and financial model).
  • Developed brand strategy and interactive properties consolidation for global consumer brand.
  • Developed Virgin.com vision as part of Virgin Board team – including framework for business and technology integration.


Drive & Guidance of Internal Consulting Groups (London, Beijing, Singapore)

  • Acted as external guide to internal management consulting groups – participated in engagements related to portfolio concentration, cost efficiency framework & actions, growth opportunity prioritisation.

 

Growth and Innovation

Development and Roll-out of Innovation Framework (London, Global)

  • Designed and helped implement an Innovation & New Offer Development Framework to enable $4bln business to meet its future growth targets. Gained buy-in to extend Innovation Framework (including intranet portal) to other business units.


Definition of Organic Growth Priorities and Proposition Roll-out (London)

  • For Group Head of Innovation, developed Strategic Themes used to drive future organic growth.
  • Led team in market, industry, competitor, and customer trends and business case development to support the creation of new business/product/service propositions to launch with.


Support of Global Technology Innovation (London, Global)

  • Developed Innovation Process for global corporate to better leverage technology innovation.
  • Advised internal innovation group on innovation best practice.
  • Led development and roll out of CO2 reduction product/service innovation.


Innovation Challenges & Actions Workshop (London)

  • Led workshop to agree innovation programme challenges.
  • Advised team on best practice and actions to improve innovation performance.

 

Merger & JV Integration and Divestments

Upstream Post Merger Integration (London, Kuwait)

  • Integration/Transition Team for high profile multi US$bln M&A opportunity.
  • Team designed and set-up approach used to both define the new, merged, company’s business architecture and to manage the transition towards it (strategy, organisation & people, process & SCM, technology, facilities & infrastructure, drilling & completion, operations, etc.).
  • Led development and facilitation of a series of workshops in London, Dubai and Kuwait.


China Joint Venture (JV) Strategy & Integration (Beijing, Singapore)

  • Advisor – Post Merger Integration (PMI), capability improvement & change mgmt – Gained buy-in from Shell China Chairman to new PMI approach to use on stalled venture – Leveraging previous PMI experience to drive coordinated process, systems (SAP) & organisational improvements across the JV.
  • Reported to both JV CEO and Shell China Chairman and worked with rest of Chinese leadership team (Head of Marketing, Head of Sales, CFO) to develop and agree new venture integration and capability improvement roadmap.
  • For head of Asia business, advised on how to maximise group profit from China JV and standalone business (B2C and B2B) through greater coordination and execution of operational synergy options. Guided Shell internal consulting team resources.


China Retail Guangdong Joint Venture (Beijing, London, Singapore)

  • For head of Portfolio Implementation, advised on optimal JV integration and growth framework (work streams, roadmap, governance, ways of working, tracking & reporting) for large Retail JV in Guangdong Province.
  • Collaborated with team members (project and business related) in London, Singapore, Beijing and Guangzhou.


Divestment / Carve-out Implementation (London, Stockholm, Helsinki)

  • Ran Programme Management Office for $640mil divestment of Sweden and Finland businesses.
  • Coordinated 15 workstreams across the divested businesses (refining & marketing) to carve out the countries from Shell (functions and offshore services all within new ERP) and to sell them as a going concern to the buyer (Keele Oy).
  • Ensured robust project tracking, issue resolution, dependency management and challenge to the teams.
  • Leveraged classic integration/carve out frameworks to ensure programme delivered to tight and changing schedule.


Global Portfolio Group Support (London)

  • Conducted Peer Reviews & Value Assurance Reviews (including on deal >$1bln.) where objective support was required.
  • Developed global portfolio reporting of deals across the stages of the opportunity pipeline for Head of Global Portfolio.
  • Led development of knowledge management framework to increase speed and success of deals.
  • On call for support to Shell’s Portfolio team.

 

Capital Projects Performance

Capital Project & Technology Strategy Support (Dubai, London, Rijswijk)

  • For head of EMEA Projects CP (multi $bln capital project spend), advised on structure, operating model, metrics/reporting of group to enable top quartile project delivery (covering Europe, Middle East, Africa).
  • Set-up strategy & programme for replication & repeat execution of capital projects (with McKinsey).
  • Drove commercial/advisory mindset in contracting & procurement group to ensure greater value add to project development, project execution and business development groups.
  • Advised on and facilitated decisions on organisation and leadership structures.
  • Facilitated several multi-day global and regional leadership team face to face meetings.


Iraq Capital Project Support (Bangalore, Dubai, London, Rijswijk)

  • For Iraq Country Chair & EMEA Projects Head, led multi-stakeholder (Upstream/Projects/Functions) agreement on governance, accountabilities and organisation structure for Shell’s largest capital project in Iraq.
  • Facilitated project re-framings exercises  and subsequent decision review board material for major projects.
  • For Front End Development lead & Integration GM, drove field development planning initiatives such as concept options (subsurface, facilities, infrastructure) and integrated roadmaps.
  • Supported Majnoon Project Director in streamline execution initiatives & stakeholder engagement (internal and external Iraqi client engagements).
  • Drove forward various areas of capital project execution which needed adhoc leadership:  Logistics, Marine, Major Infrastructure, Contracting Strategy.
  • Supported Basrah Gas Company contracting strategy development (NGL Project & Rejuvenation) and provided lessons learnt on JV integration to commercial team.
  • Facilitated multiple strategy/project review workshops related to areas such as contracting strategy, project scope, and prioritisation.


Local Content Strategy &  Implementation (Dubai, London, The Hague)

  • For MD of Kazakhstan JV, supported development of local content approach & plans for a multi-billion dollar capital project.  Document very well received by government end client and is used as template for subsequent local content plans in other countries.
  • Developed local content implementation framework for Shell’s capital projects in Iraq, including Basrah Gas Company JV projects.  Work encompassed aggregating demand across projects, assessing local content potential and delta, prioritising and developing go-forward plans.


Contractor Engagements & Evaluations (FEED, PMC, EPC) (Dubai, London, The Hague)

  • For EMEA capital projects, and specifically for Iraq projects, held engagements with top tier FEED, PMC and EPC contractors as part of either pre-qualification or qualification exercises related to ongoing or planned major capital projects.
  • Gained solid understanding of operating model of capital project contractors such as Foster Wheeler, Worley Parsons, Fluor, Samsung Engineering, JGC, KBR.
  • Participated in CEO level contractor kick-off and briefing sessions.

 

Operational Effectiveness

Corporate Dashboard Development (London)

  • As part of strategic planning and quarterly CEO business reviews, advised on corporate wide balance scorecard.
  • Developed index or metrics to determine and track level of digitisation of oil and gas major.


Cost Reduction Framework Design (London)

  • Advised on corporate wide cost reduction framework.
  • Devised reporting framework for opex and capex cost take out from divestment programme.


Global Programme Management & Delivery Assurance (London, Paris, Beijing, Bangalore)

  • Advisor to Global Programme Delivery Director (>US$100mil budget) and CIO.
  • Intervened in several multi US$mil programmes (run by Accenture, IBM, Wipro) where programme turnaround and change management was required.
  • Developed change management sourcing framework to enable closer IT/Business coordination.


Shared Service Centre / Centre of Excellence Design & Roll-out (London, Stockholm, Melbourne)

  • Client advisor for the definition and scaling-up of a shared service centre for oil and gas major. Centre used global delivery model with India.
  • Engagement Manager – Led onsite/offshore team consisting of 4 separate consulting groups in the definition, planning, and set-up of a corporate shared service centre for regional telco.
  • Led strategy stream in a multidisciplinary engagement to restructure Australian telco’s IT development and delivery organisation into new technology solution driven units.


Outsourcing/Offshoring Strategy (Bangalore, London, Stockholm, Melbourne)

  • Advised on process and IT outsourcing/offshoring for several corporations. Accompanied clients on visits to Bangalore, India.
  • Delivered projects using Global Delivery Model.

 

Please contact us to discuss any of the experience points above in more detail.


 

  • Company Experience

    Accenture, Bank of Montreal, Bank of New York, Beijing Tongyi, BP, British Airways, Castrol, CIBC, GlobaLexicon, KarstadtQuelle, Royal Bank of Scotland, Sara Lee – Douwe Egberts, Shell, TeliaSonera, Telstra, Tesco, Virgin Group, Toppan

  • Country Experience

    Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UAE, United Kingdom, USA