Keith has worked for, and alongside, a number of large organisations in complex and sometimes sensitive areas to provide viable solutions and recommendations.

These solutions ranged from designing simple software programs to manage data and resources to investigating large acquisitions requiring absolute confidentiality. Keith has also worked on a great variety of projects to provide practical and effective solutions (i.e. better and improved outcomes) to client issues within these two extremes.

Manage resources options

A not-for-profit organisation had a vehicle fleet that had grown from a few vehicles to a relatively large fleet, which was difficult to manage effectively. This had become a point of concern for senior executives, who could not see any easy solution.

Keith was asked to suggest some possible solutions to this ‘problem’. Initially, he considered developing a solution using Microsoft Access and Excel, which would have worked, but Keith wasn’t convinced this approach would meet the long-term needs of the organisation for a number of reasons. His solution was to search for fleet management systems which would meet the data and operational requirements of the organisation.

Keith located two relatively simple fleet management systems and presented them to the executive team for consideration. Both systems appeared to meet the potential future reporting needs of the organisation and had the capacity to grow as the vehicle fleet expanded.

Regulatory reporting systems

A finance company was required to report to its regulator on a monthly and quarterly basis across a wide range of issues in a format set by the regulator. The company’s accounting system was fully computerised, but extracting, formatting and presenting the required data had to be done manually by a senior officer, a process which took up to two days every month.

Using very simple Microsoft Access database tables and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Keith built a semi-automated data retrieval and presentation system that reduced the extraction time from two days to one hour.

The system was built to be user-friendly. If the regulator changed the reporting requirements (which happened frequently), the senior officer could adjust and change the extraction process and tables to meet the new reporting requirements, without the process taking any longer.

Acquisition of a branch network

A major Australian trading bank received a confidential approach offering the opportunity to acquire the South Pacific retail branch network of another  international bank. Keith, being responsible for this area, analysed the acquisition opportunity to make a recommendation.

Keith reviewed extensive financial data on the target network, then, with a colleague, made discrete visits to the target’s locations to observe its market fit and strength. Keith and his colleague later visited the target’s head office for preliminary discussions on a possible acquisition and to seek further details to expand  their financial data analysis.

The outcome was a recommendation to the bank’s board to proceed with acquisition discussions, which was accepted, leading to an eventual acquisition.