How we helped a real estate investment trust plan for growth

	Company
Canadian real estate investment trust operating a coast-to-coast portfolio of multi-unit residential complexes
	Issue
Needed an organizational review to prepare the business for current and future growth
	Solution
Evaluated the current state of the operations and provided recommendations for improvement
	Benefits
Recommendations have been accepted and are expected to help realize both immediate and long term sustainable benefits

Company

Our client is one of Canada’s largest real estate investment trusts operating a coast-to-coast portfolio of multi-unit residential complexes, including apartment buildings and townhouses.

Issue

The client has experienced steady growth and had completed the acquisition of a competitor, almost doubling the size of its operations. As part of an internal assessment of the client’s ability to manage the transition to a larger scale of operations, the CEO and Board of Trustees expressed a concern that the business model, organizational structure, business processes, and enabling technology that were appropriate for the earlier days of the operations were probably not supportive of the business needs going forward, and felt the need for an organizational review.

The overall objective of this review, conducted by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Performance Improvement practice, was to develop a “blueprint” for the organization — one that outlined the strategic (executive team structure, roles and responsibilities, performance management) and operational (finance, marketing and legal business processes, supporting technology) areas of the business.

The terms of reference for the assignment included analysis and development of recommendations to create a stable platform for the new operations, and to set the stage to support planned future growth.

Solution

The PricewaterhouseCoopers engagement team began by creating a profile of the “to be” business model that would support the future needs of the client’s operations. This profile reflected both the strategic and operational levels and leveraged leading practices from PwC’s knowledge management system, Global Best Practices®.

The team also reviewed the business practices for the functions in scope and conducted a series of in-depth interviews with resources representing the various stakeholder groups, including the Board of Trustees, executive management, operational and line management, support functions, as well as key external service providers. The technology review involved an assessment of the suitability of continuing with the current application platform versus replacing it with other alternatives.

The profile, review and interviews formed the basis for evaluating the current state of the client’s operations and providing recommendations for improvement.

During the review, having identified the need for a strategic performance management approach, the team applied the principles of the Balanced Scorecard to help the client develop a Corporate Performance Management approach to the business.

The overall recommendations for the business were captured in the form of a business case. This engagement deliverable was designed to provide a vehicle to communicate with the client through several presentations and interactive workshops.

The workshops achieved the objective of “spreading the message” about the client’s vision and strategy throughout the organization. This enabled management and employees at various levels to personalize the implications of the changes and to start participating in the transformation journey.

Benefits

The recommendations provided by the PwC team affected many areas of the business, and centered around:

• Strengthening the executive team with new positions and enhancing the focus on business strategy;
• Developing a strategic performance management approach to help all members of the management team and employees understand how they can contribute to the overall success of the company;
• Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the various support functions through recommendations focused on process improvement;
• Providing a “route map” to enhance the use of enabling technologies; and
• Providing a framework for business operations that will provide a robust platform to support future growth.

The client has accepted PwC’s recommendations, resulting in an improvement portfolio that is being used to prioritize the many initiatives and develop an execution plan that keeps in mind the short and long term needs of the business.

The value of these recommendations are expected to help realize both immediate and long term sustainable benefits, and have been acknowledged by the client publicly in both the annual report and in discussions with investment analysts. The CEO has commented on numerous occasions to the engagement team that he feels the company is now “reinvigorated” to tackle the challenges of growing the company in a competitive marketplace, and that this is a function of having received an independent perspective from a trusted advisor.