Demonstrating his leadership skills as a strategic finance consultant for a Global Logistics company, Mayur Bawa established what is now a long-term relationship with the client in his new role as VP Corporate Development. Katalyst Group guided Mayur from day one, matching skills and interests with the client’s needs. Knowing that there would be a learning curve, Katalyst Group served as a liaison, aligning feedback and sharing with both Mayur and client the expectations to progress from consultant to full-time M&A growth leader.

The Katalyst Group Approach

“Katalyst doesn’t just focus on one-to-one skills matching, but rather on what a consultant can do for the client, which sets Katalyst apart from other staffing agencies.” – Mayur Bawa

Gaining trust and credibility as a consultant was a key consideration for the client to invest in Mayur to take on the new challenge of building out the client’s M&A capabilities and processes to accelerate execution of its inorganic growth strategy.

COVID-19 Shutdown Timeframe Embraced as Transformation Opportunity

Due to macroeconomic uncertainty in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the Spring of 2020, the client indefinitely halted its M&A initiatives, resulting in a reduction of Mayur’s consulting hours. Consistent with its agile organizational culture and commitment to innovate, the Global Logistics Company embraced the pandemic-rooted disruption, pivoting to utilize and train existing resources in support of process efficiency and cost optimization projects.

Recognizing Mayur’s demonstrated acumen and prior experience, the client redirected his talents away from leading its M&A activities towards spearheading a global labor cost study. With this new mandate, Mayur supported the client’s objective to increase efficiency by 50% in 50% of its tasks, benefiting the company by establishing a path forward on workflow automation and offshoring.

More specifically, Mayur made an impact by:

  • Developing an activity-based methodology to create transparency on current labor costs efficiency across finance & accounting (F&A) and operational support processes.
  • Managing, in partnership with a 3rd party advisory firm, a global Managed Services RFS to contract process with a series of rapid delivery phases, including discovery, process design, vendor selection, and negotiating/contracting.
  • Liaising, as Global Program Manager, with the selected offshore Managed Services partner to develop and implement an aggressive transition plan for F&A.

Currently in Go-Live phase, the first phase of the Company’s Transform Finance program will be fully transitioned by end July 2021.

M&A Activity Heats Up Again

Strong industry tailwinds by late 2020 signaled to the client that the timing was ideal to resume its inorganic growth strategy. Bolstered by this positive trend, Mayur set out to rebuild the company’s M&A pipeline while formulating a refreshed M&A strategy. The company’s pipeline is now larger than ever, and Mayur is leading the way as the company embarks on simultaneously pursuing multiple growth opportunities.

As the client’s corporate development leader enabling accelerated growth, Mayur joined the Global Logistics Company full-time as of April 1st 2021, positioning its corporate development function to execute an M&A strategy critical to achieving the company’s year 2021 and future goals.