LRG's data transformation: using commercial insight to unlock value in a buy-and-build business
Facing fragmented data after rapid acquisition, LRG's data transformation unlocked faster decisions, sharper analysis and greater confidence.
For businesses pursuing a buy-and-build strategy, acquiring companies is only part of creating value. Just as important is understanding what drives performance across an expanding group and where the next opportunities lie.
When Simon Worthington, Chief Operating Officer of LRG, joined one of the UK’s leading property services companies, the data was there, but getting to it wasn’t straightforward. Rapid growth through acquisition had created a patchwork of data sources, and drilling into the granular detail that informed good decisions required time the business didn’t always have. Management teams found themselves deferring calls to the next meeting, waiting for analysis that should have been at their fingertips.
Over the past two years, we worked together to transform LRG’s data and insight capability with the impact now being felt across how the leadership team operates.
“If you wanted to drill into more detail around a decision, you had to take that away and come back a week later. Now we can get to that insight in an hour and are able to provide much greater confidence and conviction in decision making processes.”
Simon Worthington, COO, LRG
At a glance:
- Challenge: rapid acquisition had created fragmented data sources, making it difficult to access the granular insight needed for confident decision-making.
- Approach: transforming the data and insight capability to give management faster, more granular visibility of business performance.
- Results: better-informed decisions, more precise acquisition and pricing analysis, and stronger foundations for automation and AI.
The impact
The transformation is already delivering value across the business, with three areas illustrating the impact particularly clearly:
- Acquisitions: LRG can now conduct analysis at customer-segment level, rather than relying on top-line averages, enabling more accurate forecasting and a clearer understanding of which types of acquisitions perform best and why.
- Organic value creation: LRG can now analyse fee-lift and pricing projects down to their precise revenue and contribution impact, including the impact of customer churn, rather than relying on headline numbers.
- Execution: LRG’s management teams can now make faster, better-informed decisions using consistent and accessible performance data. Questions that once required a follow-up meeting can now be resolved in the room, with analysis that previously took weeks now available within an hour.
Looking ahead
With the foundation in place, LRG’s leadership team have shifted its focus to unlocking even more value from its data. That means exploring performance metrics not yet fully analysed, pursuing automation and AI from a position of data quality, and moving from reactive to proactive customer management, using pattern recognition to identify retention risks before they escalate.
“If you’re working from a fragmented data source, you’ll be wasting time. Decisions will be inefficient, and you won’t have the strong foundations you need to move ahead with the automation and AI that will take your business to the next level.”
Simon Worthington, COO, LRG
If your organisation is navigating similar challenges around data, decision-making, or growth, please get in touch.
