What Our Clients Say

Ultra Electronics had grown through acquisition, resulting in a fragmented operating model across 40+ business units. Facing an increasingly competitive global defence landscape, the Group initiated the “One Ultra” transformation under the leadership of a new CEO and CFO. Key areas of focus included:

• Sales Effectiveness
• Project Management
• Procurement
• Finance Function Redesign
• HR Transformation
• Group-wide Process Management
• ERP Rationalisation

When initial efforts lacked momentum and alignment, Experienced Management Consultants was brought in under a framework contract to integrate and accelerate the programme.

We deployed a high-calibre, multi-disciplinary team to support the Executive Committee and business unit leadership:

• Chief Transformation Officer – Embedded within the Exec, driving delivery, stakeholder alignment and board-level reporting.
• Governance Lead – Instituted a group-wide governance framework for coherent programme control.
• TOM Development Lead – Defined and aligned a unified Target Operating Model for all transformation workstreams.
• People Change Lead – Built internal change capability and helped Bus own and enact change.
• Process Management Team – Created a standardised group-wide process framework and addressed systemic inefficiencies.
• Procurement Transformation Team – Enabled strategic procurement with a focus on category management and savings delivery.
• Finance Transformation Lead – Oversaw deployment of a new Finance system and introduced a unified chart of accounts.
• ERP Strategy Lead – Shaped a rational, scalable approach to ERP integration across legacy systems.
• PPM Improvement Support – Operationalised group-wide Portfolio & Programme Management standards.

“Since being introduced in 2020, XMCS has worked with the executive to transform the way in which the programme was governed and reported, helped the Exec build stakeholder engagement and buy-in across the group, drove highly successful transformations in finance, procurement, sales and process management, turned PPM policy into practical processes supported by a competency framework and tools, helped create a coherent ERP strategy etc.

In 2022 Ultra received an offer from a private equity company to but the group. The XMCS team managed the Due Diligence information gathering process, working closely with the CFO and other Exec members to develop an enhanced articulation of the Group transformation programme to help shareholders to understand the true future value of the business under that scenario. This made a direct contribution to the private equity firm making an offer to buy Ultra Group at a premium. As a result, the board was able to recommend the offer to shareholders”.

-Jos Sclater, CFO, Ultra Electronics PLC

• A cohesive enterprise-wide transformation strategy across 40+ business units
• Full alignment between Executive vision and business unit delivery
• Clear governance and reporting processes, boosting programme confidence
• Operational enhancements in Finance, procurement, Sales and Process Management
• A well-articulated transformation narrative that influenced a successful PE acquisition at a premium valuation