To realise your ambitions and see real growth in your business, you must take a holistic and practical approach to your strategy.

For instance, your strategy development, implementation and evaluation are only as good as the people, technology and platforms you have to support them. Your profitability can only be achieved when your operations are performing and running effectively. And to reach any of your goals you must have solid financial foundations at your core.

The Grant Thornton consulting team brings together experts that cover the full range of strategy development, implementation and success: management consulting, technology consulting and financial consulting.

Our Consulting services

Management consulting

Our management consulting services team helps you to plan and implement the right strategy to deliver sustainable growth.

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Strategy Digital transformation Performance improvement Data and analytics consulting Project & program management

Financial consulting

We provide financial consulting services to keep your business running so you focus on your clients and reaching strategic goals.

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Outsourced CFO services Forecasting & budgeting Family business consulting Family financial consulting Payments advisory Family Office

Management consulting

Our management consulting services team helps you to plan and implement the right strategy to deliver sustainable growth.

SEE OUR 5 MANAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES
HIDE OUR 5 MANAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES
Strategy Digital transformation Performance improvement Data and analytics consulting Project & program management

Financial consulting

We provide financial consulting services to keep your business running so you focus on your clients and reaching strategic goals.

SEE OUR 6 FINANCIAL CONSULTING SERVICES
HIDE OUR 6 FINANCIAL CONSULTING SERVICES
Outsourced CFO services Forecasting & budgeting Family business consulting Family financial consulting Payments advisory Family Office
Michael Pittendrigh
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Michael Pittendrigh
National Managing Partner – Consulting
Contact Michael Pittendrigh Learn more about Michael Pittendrigh
Michael Pittendrigh
Contact Michael Pittendrigh Learn more about Michael Pittendrigh
Michael Pittendrigh
National Managing Partner – Consulting
Michael Pittendrigh
+61 3 8663 6000

Case study: Trading terms optimisation

Client challenge
Client challenge
Client challenge
David Jones had not formally reviewed its supplier trading terms from a corporate end-to-end view for several years and their trading income was not growing in line with sales. An initial ‘discovery’ phase quantified a significant opportunity across the business. Grant Thornton was engaged to undertake a comprehensive planning and execution engagement to deliver the identified supplier benefits. At the same time, the client was making significant changes to its supply chain operations and, therefore, these two activities were to be closely aligned.
The solution
The solution
The solution
David Jones required additional capacity to support them in the quantification, planning and execution of a structured supplier trading terms negotiation program. The team at Grant Thornton drove the following activities and tasks: establishing program governance; opportunity methodology and quantification of opportunity by supplier and trading terms; supplier engagement strategy and segmentation; preparation of supplier negotiation materials – the ‘playbook’ for each category; benefits tracking and capture.
The outcome
The outcome
The outcome
A key outcome of this engagement was to assist David Jones to run a program of works aimed at improving overall margin through collaborative negotiations with strategic partners (ie suppliers). As a result, David Jones was able to achieve their targeted in-year benefits.
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Case study: Operations transformation

Client challenge
Target Australia was facing stalling revenue and steadily growing costs, with core functions not aligned and working together across the business. The merchandise and supply chain functions were driving significant excess stock volume to stores. Unprofitable stores were driving cost into the supply chain, whilst inefficient distribution centre and transport operations were driving cost.
The solution
The Grant Thornton team worked with the Target Australia leadership team to instigate an end-to-end process alignment and profitability improvement program which we called FACTORY-TO-CUSTOMER. The program was designed to streamline operations from the source of a product throughout its journey into the customer’s hands. Program workstreams included Product Sourcing, Planning, Logistics, Online, Store Operations and IT Systems. Grant Thornton co-designed and led the program, managing the program governance and commercial benefits tracking.
The outcome
The project resulted in: major cost reduction through the supply chain, through improved operations, removal of inefficient process and the incorporation of automation in two major distribution centres; enhanced product margin through streamlined product planning and enhanced stock management driving out excess stock; reduced cost base through consolidation of organisational structure around product forecasting and replenishment.
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Case study: Workforce planning

Client challenge
Client challenge
Client challenge
Super Retail Group had announced a significant underpayment of employees over several years, based on inadequate processes underpinning time and attendance. The client wanted to lock down its compliance in this area, and then explore how improved tools could help them better plan their labour spend to customer demand.
The solution
The solution
The solution
The team at Grant Thornton worked closely with the core HR and project delivery team to establish a process by which the best system solution could be selected, and to develop an investment business case for the Board. The challenge of different processes across the different customer brands of the client added complexity to the project but also offered opportunities to streamline processes and optimise labour cost. We then worked collaboratively with the chosen software vendor to commence the rollout of the new solution across the business.
The outcome
The outcome
The outcome
The project resulted in a fully compliant system and process covering employee time and attendance and significant streamlining of processes which will drive significant labour cost savings.
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Case study: Responding to Japanese listed-Parent’s complex compliance regime

Client challenge
Our client was a subsidiary of a US-listed entity, which was then acquired by a Japanese company (Parent company). While its immediate parent was the US entity, the client was deemed out-of-scope due to size. Certain processes were tested directly by the internal auditor of the US entity for the US-SOX purpose. Once the Japanese Parent came into the picture, the client was scoped in for J-SOX purposes. The Australian CFO was notified of this fact in August for a March fiscal year-end. There was a bit to do and the timeframe was tight.
The solution
In the second year, Grant Thornton challenged the identified key risks and controls and optimised the matrix, which resulted in a saving of two-week people-hours. During the third year, the outbreak of coronavirus restricted site visits. However, because of the established framework and continuity of the team, Grant Thornton delivered the quality outputs that met our client’s expectations and as required by the client’s external auditor on time.
The outcome
The outsourced CFO services offering engaged by the Parent Company ensured they had the support of experienced professionals to manage all finance needs in the interim period. This also meant they had the time and space to enter the recruitment process for a CFO, allowing for a better understanding of the exact skillsets required of the role. The Grant Thornton team also managed the Australian entity's statutory compliance (ie income tax returns, PAYG withholding, GST, FBT and corporate secretarial matters), EOFY reports to the Parent company, and technical accounting support (adoption of lease accounting).
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