The Challenge

Bowne Global Solutions (BGS) was a $131 M division of Bowne and Company (Bowne), one of the oldest financial printing companies in the world. BGS was a translation and localization service established in 2001 via two acquisitions.

The company had a broad global footprint & excellent client base, but struggled in the initial post acquisition integration. BGS lacked a comprehensive strategy around which to integrate their businesses, and suffered from inconsistent global processes and delivery capability. As an added complexity, by 2003 Bowne was under pressure from shareholders focused on increasing shareholder value.

The Solution

Bowne's Chief Transformation Officer, Jim Fagan, was asked to take the helm of BGS. Jim brought in ParCon to help design and deploy a rapid global strategic planning effort. ParCon partnered with he and his executive team to spearhead "Balanced Planning", a tailored approach that integrated balanced scorecard principles with long range planning, while simultaneously launching a global initiative to standardize and dramatically improve BGS's strategic processes.

The BGS team leveraged key ParCon delivery modules including; vision refresh, mission revitalization, core values renewal, and agile strategic planning to rapidly develop a plan for delivering higher levels of growth and profitability. In less than a month, the team finalized the plan and launched the execution effort to the entire organization in a carefully crafted mobilization event involving the top 200 managers of the organization.

The Results

In the ensuing execution phase, BGS executed the strategic plan, including the process standardization framework. As a result, customer satisfaction increased and revenues rose dramatically from $131 M in 2002 to $220 M only two years later. At the same time, profitability dramatically improved from losses of $4.4 M in 2002 to profits of $13.1 M by 2003.

The success of Jim and the BGS team culminated in 2005, when BGS was acquired by Lionbridge, enabling Bowne & Co. to release over $75 M in shareholder value through an aggressive stock repurchase program.