While reducing overheads, winning new contracts at low margins, consolidating operating divisions and replacing key people might buy some time and provide for some financial headroom, these measures will not align and harness capability or provide for sustainable service delivery platforms upon which to grow these types of businesses into the future.

Collectively, the following emerging market themes have created a set of headwinds that will provide for a new mix of risk, complexity and opportunity moving forward:

Environment Social Governance Agenda: Brings a new level of complexity and cost to doing business requiring a significant organisational and cultural shift

Net Zero Target: Requires investment in decarbonisation-related technologies, operational practices and supply chain today in order to achieve mid to long term outcomes and return on investment

Client Positioning: Heavily focused on bundling services, driving price efficiency with increased performance outcomes and risk allocation along with the inclusion of sustainability, decarbonisation and innovation into the contract service levels

Capability Access: There is competitive tension around accessing the required capability and experience

Partners: Long-standing partners are repositioning in the value chain, with the potential to become competitors moving forward

Competition is increasing, with international players entering the market and smaller players starting to position around more innovative service offerings

Cost of Borrowings: Interest rates continuing to rise, significantly increasing the costs associated with current borrowings and reducing future borrowing capacity

These emerging themes will require ground-up strategic, commercial, operational, technical and financial consideration in order to establish a go-forward point of difference in the market.

We need to keep in mind that:

Accessing the “on the ground” know-how held by the dedicated people that deliver the day-in-day-out services and interact with clients, will be key in helping to address the emerging themes

The go-forward strategies will need to be calibrated to each organisation’s current positioning, capability and culture

The current capability mix, risk protocols and delegations of authority will require amendment to better enable successful delivery upon the new business mandates

Doing nothing and simply attempting to maximise short-term profits will erode future value potential

These types of business transformation and growth strategies can be expected to take 3–5 years to complete, depending on the current positioning of the organisation