Providing Divestiture Support

Challenge

After the decision to simultaneously spin-off two major divisions, a leading pharmaceutical company was experiencing overwhelming divestiture activities. The client needed help developing an approach that would meet aggressive timelines for Day 1 for both divestitures. They needed help creating a support model that could leverage resources across divestitures to meet budget requirements. They needed to manage the complex priorities of internal and external stakeholders, and negotiate TSA agreements with buyers.

Approach: Think + Do

To prioritize and manage the multitude of divestment activities, we scoped the project and proposed a mix of resources from multiple organizations with the right skill sets to handle the aggressive timeline and avoid risks where possible. We designed a waved approach to proactively segregate conveyed colleagues from those remaining with the parent company. Once the divestment strategy was complete, we focused on developing strong relationships with application teams across global markets to manage a coordinated set of activities. We designed and supported the Project Management Office to ensure aggressive timelines were met. We managed cross-functional teams from multiple organizations, and we managed vendor relationships when appropriate to ensure that vendor resources were also working towards the pre-defined milestones.

Results

We helped successfully separate two divisions with over 5,000 employees in over 37 markets from the parent company within an eight-month timeline. We ensured all key milestones of the TSA for Day 1 readiness were met. The client experienced no operational problems during the divestiture process, which was successfully completed on time and on budget. The huge success of the project resulted in new sponsorship requests for our services from the divested company.