Andy Coaton

CFA, CEng, MBA, BSc(hons), DipM

Summary Experience

• Project manager: Have been responsible for numerous engineering and consultancy projects.
• Communicator: Strong written, oral and presentation skills.
• Business Process Analyst: Creation of efficient, effective business processes and systems.
• Strategic Thinker: Undertaken strategic planning projects for many technology ventures.
• Financial and business case analyst: Deep financial modeling skills using Excel and real option software; Creation of models to quantify uncertainty and changes to the market and business over the product life cycle; Real Option Valuation (ROV) and Decision Analysis experience.
• Market analyst: Undertaken many market and competitor assessments for due diligence and strategic purposes
• Negotiator: Assignment contract negotiations.
• Innovation analyst: Extensive financial analysis, business modeling, business plan preparation, valuation and strategy advice to early stage projects.
• Line manager/team leader: Line management responsibility for teams of professionals.
• Business valuer: Independent valuation opinions, tax valuations, intellectual property valuations.
• Range of industry experience: finance, technology, telecoms, media, retail, energy, education, wholesale, aerospace and manufacturing.

Publications

The People Project Triangle: Balancing Delivery, Business-as-Usual, and People’s Welfare by Stuart Copeland and Andy Coaton. Business Expert Press. EISBN 9781951527617

Driven by rapid external change, the modern corporation is lean and cost conscious. A consequence is an increasingly common project management situation of a medium important, medium complex business change project that cannot justify a full-time team. Consequently, it is resourced by in-house staff working on the project as homework, meaning in addition to their normal responsibilities. The authors term this a composite project.

This book postulates that composite projects are increasingly used to meet the demands of rapid business change. However, they are largely unrecognized as a separate organizational category of project, with particular characteristics, management needs, and risks.

Author of white papers on contract management and associated software solutions; Opportunities for IT players in video surveillance; and business opportunities in Africa.

Representative Work

Business planning and project management

• For an engineering company specialising in permanent building facade access equipment introduced project management processes.  The company fabricates and installs equipment on the top of skyscrapers.  Each job is a project that lasts from 6 months to 3 years and involves many suppliers, contractors and staff, however the company employed no formal project management techniques.  I provided seminars on project management and MS Project as a tool, workshopped them to create a ‘generic’ project to act as a template, created a MS Project template project plan and provided instruction and user guide to use on live projects.
• For a major communications manufacturer solved the issues of an out of control defect correction process. Conducted business process analysis and redesign, selected a software solution, developed the business case and gained key stakeholder approval, carried through to implementation.  
• For a leading CCTV distributor developed a strategic response to significant disruption in the marketplace. This included primary market research and the use of conjoint-analysis and the design and introduction of services.
• For a potential satellite/IP TV start-up in the UK developed the business strategy, financial strategy and marketing strategy including detailed financial model and business plan document and design of business processes.
• For a leading electronics manufacturer introduced a new process for software development in the production control department.
• For a leading institutional fund manager the management. Management suspected that the Business Continuity Management (BCM) arrangements were inadequate and, in addition, wanted a global approach to BCM as at the time it was tackled independently in each national organisation. Tasked with providing a current state assessment and with providing recommendations for improving the BCM process. The Executive management adopted the full range of recommendations around the structure of the team and internal/outsource split; BCM software tool use; business process approach; and integration of suppliers into the BCM process.
• For a leading business process analysis software company. Assisted with creating a marketing strategy for a new product, including senior management workshops, market opportunity assessments and internal competency analysis.
• Gateway Communications had become the largest wholesale satellite capacity supplier to mobile operators in Africa. The company wished to start a new venture in Africa drawing on its technical expertise and familiarity of Africa. This project was the creation of a consumer satellite pay-TV service across sub-Saharan Africa. Undertook the core market analysis which along with and a detailed technology plan developed an extensive financial model to confirm the project’s viability. From this created a business plan and the investor presentation and supported the President at investor presentations. The business model formed the basis of the project plan that we took to service launch. 
• For the leading supplier of networking equipment & network management for the Internet. The Marketing department wanted to ensure propositions are in tune with the client’s IT landscape and the propensities of the CIO and the IT function. Designed and conducted a survey of client account managers. The quantitative results were processed and statistically analysed. The data was analysed in aggregate and by country to determine key characteristics of the client population. Marketing management were able to design a communication strategy based on the propensities of their clients and individual account managers were armed with a valuable tool helping them position the company’s offers.
• For IT management of a major bank built a strategy for taking forward an underperforming team. Uundertook a high level review of the team and reported on: What they did and how they operated, options for moving forward and the right size of the team. Found the team members to be conscientious, hardworking and capable, and to make them effective we made key recommendations concerning leadership, organisation and process.
• For Presidio, a small technology development company, assisted them develop an exploitation strategy, financial model and business plan and find and negotiate with partners to license its patented power saving technology.
• For Workplains, a start up providing full range of business process management software  - helped management develop a robust business plan to allow it to raise finance. Assisted management develop a strategic road map based on a quantitative evaluation of the business prospects and given their understanding of the uncertainties facing the business. Based on the analysis of the market and competitive environment identified the most value adding expansion path.  Workplains was able to incorporate this into its business plan and presentation to investors adding weight to its bid for funding.
• For Realogy, a technology company with a core competence in highly efficient embedded software.  Realogy wished to determine how best to exploit this core technology by determining which application areas in which markets would maximise its value and then to raise funding to develop and commercialise these applications. Analysed the capabilities of the company and quantitatively assessed its potential in the established real time operating systems (RTOS) market and the emerging internet device market.  Although, the management had been keen on the internet device market we determined that the optimum strategy was to focus on the RTOS product but with a watching brief on the internet device market to be ready if it took off.  The story to financiers was that this was a company with a competitive advantage in a solid market but with a ‘side bet’ on a really massive, although highly uncertain, market. Realogy made a successful private placing allowing it to implement its strategy.

Selection of training courses

Project Management; Business Development Initiative programme; Winning Presentations; Selling skills;  Improving your influence; Acting with Presence; Interviewing skills; Effective Time Management; Personal Impact; and numerous technical courses on valuation and real options.