We take businesses from concept through to reality

A team of ex-McKinsey managers partnered with captains of industry

FutureForesight was founded by ex-McKinsey (probably the world’s most elite and expensive strategy consulting firm) managers. The objective was to combine leading strategic skills, with awesome SA networks, and to focus on small-cap opportunities where we could receive equity in lieu of fees. This was done by partnering with captains of industry in our chosen fields of focus, all with the financial means to accommodate our unique fees mechanisms (significantly delayed income).

With core strengths in business-building…

Start-up expertise is not industry-specific, but rather requires a set of skills that one rarely (never) finds in one place. We believe we have brought them all together:

• Strategy: 9/10 businesses fail. We claim that they were dead before they started, and our McKinsey experience qualifies to identify these, whilst ensuring success for the live ones. Everyone knows someone who was poised to make millions but got hammered by industry; that’s what we know how to avoid.
• Financial modeling: We firmly believe that strategy is impossible without a deep understanding of the industry, and that this requires a business model (spreadsheet) of uncompromised depth. We have built some of SA’s most sophisticated models spanning distribution, telecoms, mining, and HIV, and our unique scenario management tool is now used by some of the largest companies in the world.
• Partnering: No business succeeds without partners; the dotcom insurgent days are largely over, and existing business always has the greater right-to-play. We understand this clearly enough to ensure that the FutureForesight team is always balanced between consulting expertise and highly-networked individuals.
• Empowerment: Whilst several firms position themselves as empowerment brokers, we firmly believe that empowerment is a step within business-building that cannot be managed in isolation; it is important to understand how empowerment partners will add value to the business, and then one needs to be able to select and appropriately include the best possible team. Rarely should this be done before the above three steps are complete.
• Finance raising: A combination of the above strategic expertise, industry networks, empowerment partners, and financial modeling positions us to open up creative options (eg Right-to-Care was purely grant funded), and to manage dilution with well understood funding rounds (eg and Octosmelt will be equity funded by Samancor with non-dilutory debt to follow easily).
• Growth: Surprisingly all the above is relatively easy when compared to the brutal mechanics business building. All FutureForesight partners have built and run businesses in their past work lives.
• Exit: Where an exit strategy is desirable, our industry networks serve to ensure that we have the credibility to maximise value and identify the most appropriate exit strategy.

     …and key networks in Telecoms, Mining, HIV/AIDs and empowerment

FutureForesight has focused on SA’s most significant areas of growth; telecoms, mining, HIV/AIDS and empowerment. Although our networks are unquestionably strongest here, we invariably find that any business can benefit from them. We have also done a lot of work in biotech and SA tourism.

Using creative fee models to take our skills to where they are usually unaffordable

Our fee models were designed to ensure that small cap companies, who could not typically justify McKinsey fees, would be able to afford our input through delayed payment. However, we have found that large businesses (MTN, Aquarius Platinum, Siemens, Eskom to name a few) are attracted to a team where they may not be able to raise a budget for an early opportunity, but have no difficulty once the business is proven.

We offer:

• Straight fees
• Lump sum payment upon a deliverable (usually coupled with a ‘hygiene fee’ to avoid abuse of our time)
• Equity or a similar mechanisms such as revenue share

Most of our clients find it easy to justify a meaningful equity arrangement; it's easy to believe that having us around will increase the project NPV through strategy, minimise dilution through J-Curve management, maximise value through appropriate partners and BEE arrangements, increase the probability of success, and improve the exit value. To any one of these one can attach a credible percentage improvement, which can be readily turned into comparable equity.

Most importantly, we only get paid if our clients succeed