Social Care Recruitment and Management Consultancy

2008 -2009

6 month contract to oversee and implement marcomms strategies prior to an impending merger, along with the review and streamlining of the company’s bid and tender strategy

  • Online/offline marketing strategy development & project management covering 5 divisions following takeover
  • Bid & tender management; defining new business opportunities; writing & production of responses and follow up
  • Refreshing of brand image across the business

Overview

Since becoming independent from its original parent company, this social care recruitment and management consultancy business had grown rapidly and diversified its service offering in a number of ways. A merger was intended with another company of similar size but with a specific, recruitment scope.

My remit was to ensure the rebranding and culture reform following the merger was successfully implemented, as well as redevelop and improve the company’s bid and tender strategy to suit its new focus.

However, the merger fell through at the 11th hour and, following the departure of the CEO, the business was re-absorbed into its previous parent company, subsequently being rebranded with different aims in mind.

A rapid change of focus

Prior to the intended merger, I focused on creating a new brand for the merged companies, working with senior management and the company’s in-house designer to develop a style appropriate to the new direction of the company. We began development of a new website and marketing collateral, ready for the launch.

To increase interest in the company following the merger, I embarked on a series of PR pushes to ensure the newly merged company’s launch would garner significant interest from the industry, including profiles in industry press and a successful presence at a major industry conference. Working with the CEO and business development director, I defined a new bid strategy, targeted mainly at social care recruitment and resourcing consultancy.

When the merger fell through, the company was left in serious financial difficulties and had little choice but to rejoin the company from which it had previously separated. This meant that the high focus on recruitment was no longer appropriate and the new bid strategy needed to be redeveloped once again to concentrate on management consultancy and their in-school education programmes. Additionally, most rebranding work would now be undertaken by the parent group’s in house team and a further new website, in line with the parent group’s suite of sites would be developed in house.

Handing over the reigns

From this point, I worked closely with the parent group’s communications and bid teams to hand over research and strategy documents and salvage any elements that could be useful to the company going forward. I also attended and presented at internal conferences to help communicate the growth and diversification the company had achieved since its original separation from the parent group, to ensure a smoother reintegration.
I continued preparing and submitting bids for a number of service contracts and re-tenders, winning 6 out of 7 over the six month period.

What I learned

Although it was unfortunate that the merger did not succeed, the work done on the rebrand and business development strategies did not wholly go to waste. Wherever possible, elements that still fit the company’s new aims following its subsequent takeover were worked into the strategy, saving time and resources that may otherwise have been duplicated had it been entirely scrapped.

Additionally, winning the re-tenders and new contracts during the takeover process allowed the company to maintain some leverage in negotiations and ultimately retain some independence from the parent group.

 

This contract was initially for 12 months, however without the merger and with the subsequent takeover, it was no longer necessary for me to remain for the full term and the contract was capped by mutual agreement at 6 months.

NB: I have omitted the name of the company and it’s parent group for specific reasons. Please do contact me if you would like further information on this piece of work and I will be happy to discuss personally.