"Reese Partners helped Huhtamaki realize significant cost savings of over $2 million a year. The expertise provided by Reese Partners was superior to what we could have done internally, with respect to both quality and time. They brought an objective view that couldn't be replicated internally, worked within a tight timeline and presented what made the most sense given both current and future business trends."
"Reese Partners assessed our current state of effectiveness and efficiency at our Grant Park Engineering Center, benchmarked us to similar operations and recommended opportunities for improvement. They brought great industry knowledge that supported the benchmark, plus brought a fresh set of unbiased eyes to the assessment."
Strategic Financial Planning and Modeling for a World-Class University
Business Case
A prestigious University requested assistance developing
a 10-year strategic financial plan designed to evaluate the financial
feasibility of strategic investments to enhance the University’s competitive
position.
Their budget tool was complex and not well understood,
and did not allow the University to properly model the strategic financial
plan. In addition, they needed to
provide a financial profile that included the Medical Center,
which had not previously been integrated in their planning.
They had a short timeframe to develop the strategic plan,
evaluate the initiatives that would enable the University to reach its
strategic goals, and consolidate the information into a presentation for the
Board of Trustees.
Reese Partners Role
Reese Partners redesigned the University’s budget model
to adapt it to present various views of the strategic initiatives and multiple
“what-if” scenarios. We then worked with
University staff to gather costs and revenues associated with the strategic
initiatives and phase the costs into the redesigned budget model.
Reese Partners updated the model to include many new
variables that could impact the financial profile of the University, integrated
the financial plan for the Medical Center, and created variables that would
allow the planning committee to see the financial impact of changes in the
return on the endowment, understand the impact of gifts and budget adjustments,
and integrate sets of initiatives that will help the University accomplish its
long term strategic goals.
We developed presentations for the Board of Trustees
communicating the financial impact of the various scenarios that facilitated
the Board’s decision-making process.
Results
The project demonstrated the
feasibility of the University’s strategic initiatives and the financing
strategy employed to achieve its goals. The model will help the University measure its financial progress and
adjust its investment strategy in order to continue to provide the highest
quality educational experience for its students. In addition, it serves as a blueprint for the
operational budget for future years.
