FutureForesight has a wealth of experience within the startup/business building arena, a skill set we believe spans any industry. In addition, we have four key areas of focus where our networks and understanding are particularly adept, in fact country-leading for HIV and telecoms. Most of our work since 2001 is listed here, and underlined items can be clicked for more details (offsite links are shows as 'WebLink>>').

Startups

FutureForesight has helped build over* 19 businesses to date. Of these, 16 can be adjudicated of which only 1 is not highly profitable. That's a 94% success rate, and the non-success is by no means a failure**.

* This list excludes work the team members conducted prior to joining FutureForesight (eg FlySAA.com, Woolworths.com or InTheBag.com, MTN Networks, several MTN BU's, etc), and also excludes FutureForesight projects that are not strictly business builds (eg MTN Iran successful bid, MTN lottery business, OBP re configure, and startup consulting).
** Quickies has suspended trading but was not foreclosed. All IP remains registered with FRAPA and is poised for implementation.

HIV/AIDS

• Businesses building we have led:
• CHRU: Our work started with the country's first HIV clinical trials unit which has done the phase 3 trials of every HIV drug in use in country, and was the first site outside of the US to achieve ACTG status qualifying them for NIH grant funding. WebLink>>
• Right-to-Care: This is SA's first and only non-profit treatment engine, and is the powerhouse behind several of SA's large workplace and government treatment programmes. RTC is an IT-based centre of expertise managing HIV anywhere in SA with support models ranging from single GP's, through rural settings, and onto SA's largest urban treatment site. WebLink>>
• Helen Joseph Hospital Government Pilot Site: This is the largest HIV treatment facility in country, and perhaps the world. Using our RTC learnings and systems, HJH is the lowest cost-per-patient model in country, on the largest scale, with the highest levels of compliance (measure of treatment efficacy)
• RightMed Pharmacy: Management of HIV requires in-depth knowledge of ART (anti-retro viral therapy) but more importantly secure distribution systems and access to non-registered drug. RightMed remains the only HIV-specific pharmacy in country, and manages post-trial compassionate treatment for clinical trial patients from the country's largest pharmaceutical groups
• Direct AIDS Intervention: Alexander Forbes runs the country's leading (defined as having a true cost/benefit return) workplace programme for companies to treat their employees. We conceptualised and built this programme making extensive use of the above infrastructure. WebLink>>
• TherapyEdge SA: All of the above businesses are underpinned by a leading edge HIV IT system that we sourced internationally, brought to SA, and managed through a complete 2-year re-write for SA use. WebLink>>
  
  
• Thought leadership we lay claim to:
  • Workplace consulting: We have consulted to over 80 companies, including 3 of the JSE top 5, on their HIV workplace programme. Most of these companies have subsequently moved into treating their HIV-positive employees
  • Models: In conjunction with a McKinsey team, we have built the country's leading models on workplace impact
  • Press coverage: Business Report ran a series of articles, over eight weeks, covering our work and guidance for companies. These can be found in printable format here or at Business Report's website (WebLink>>).
  • Conferences: Between 2002 and 2005 we were very dominant on the HIV conference circuit where our work on the 'Five Key Value Drivers Necessary to Ensure Economic Viability of Workplace Treatment" was a top billed agenda item
  • www.hivExperts.org.za: We built, and run, SA's leading site for HIV positive people where questions are answered directly by the country's leading HIV medical experts. WebLink>>

Telecommunications

• Business building we have led:
  • SNO: Winning license bid (NeoTel)
    The Second Network License competes against the incumbent state monopoly fixed line operator. This team led the bid for the BEE stake in the license, beating eight other consortiums backed by international operators such as SwedeTel & BT. The process included building a complete model of SA telecoms, pulling together broad-based empowerment structures and partnerships, raising funding commitments of ZAR2bn (one of SA’s largest transactions ever), and compiling a substantial and professional tender document. BT later stated that FutureForesight’s winning bid was of “international operator standard”. WebLink>>
  • MTN: GSM bids for Algeria, Iran & Saudi Arabia
    Following on from the above project, FutureForesight led GSM bids for Algeria (deliberately lost), Iran (won) and Saudi Arabia (won technical component, lost in final tender amount). All projects involved detailed country information gathering, establishing local partnerships at the most influential levels in country, compiling detailed business plans and risk analyses, and compiling gold-standard tender documents complete with detailed technical implementation plans to later be used as license commitments. MTN Irancell WebLink>>
    
  • MTN: National State Lottery bid
    FutureForesight led the recent bid for the operation of the South African National State Lottery. The process involved forming influential partnerships, business modeling, identification of creative mechanisms to maximise national benefits, formation of a broad based empowerment structures, and creation of a substantive bid document. The consortium did not win the the operator license, but our work ensured that MTN secured the carrier opportunity which represents 80% of the value creation opportunity for MTN.
  • Vodacom & Telkom: HIV strategy
    This team has not worked extensively with Vodacom nor Telkom in areas that conflict with MTN and the SNO. However, the team led the complete strategy and implementation of their employee HIV management system – considered the most advanced in SA. In SA, HIV is managed at executive level. FutureForesight’s founding work involved setting up most of SA’s groundbreaking HIV treatment in an environment that was not open to treatment, and had not even began to understand how to implement programmes, let alone persuade companies to pay.
  • Confidential: Several wireless deregulation opportunities
    Several start-up opportunities, some from large IT players, have been brought to FutureForesight for consideration and support. The firm helped assess the business opportunity, identify problems and risks, and debate market entry strategies. NDA’s preclude FutureForesight from revealing details, but the firm’s knowledge on the various options for entering SA has been expanded through these exercises.
  • Incomplete (projects not yet public knowledge)
    CONFIDENTIAL, BTC
    
    
• Projects we have led
• MTN: Internationalisation strategy
  Mobile Telephone Networks is SA’s 2nd GSM licensee, and with 40% market share and ZAR100bn market cap, is considered equal to Vodacom (ZAR107bn market cap) in national presence and credibility. FutureForesight led the internationalisation project to identify GSM license opportunities, and together with Morgan Stanley, evaluated international and African M&A opportunities. Numerous countries were run through business models to rank opportunities and initiate bid proceedings.
• MTN: Orbicom satellite business strategy
  A complete business plan and strategy evaluation was conducted for MTN’s satellite network in Ghana. This involved evaluating options for its use such as providing backhaul capacity for ISPs, providing data transmission services to large corporates and developing the network into an electronic payments system.
  
• Cell C: Complete business model (plan)
  Commissioned by Siemens in order to better understand their client, a complete and detailed GSM business model of Cell C in SA was constructed. This was done with Cell C’s blessing, but without their assistance. The final result was presented to Cell C and achieved such credibility that within two weeks, Cell C were re-positioning their consumer penetration estimates to the market, using the model’s results.
  
• Cell C: 3G market entry strategy
  3G is not a lucrative opportunity in SA, with geographic spread making an economic return problematic. However there are competitive reasons for having to enter this technology, and whilst FutureForesight’s modeling included estimates of 3G data revenues, the real benefits arose from being able to understand and model the impact of consumer churn in various market segments.
  
• Siemens: CelTel Africa business development
  This project involved assisting Siemens to develop its business with CelTel. A complete subscriber-driven model of all the CelTel operations throughout Africa was developed and used to suggest strategic options for Siemens. Extensive interview work with CelTel was also conducted to identify problem areas in the relationship and service areas that required improvement.
  
• Siemens: African vendor financing strategy
  Siemens commissioned FutureForesight to help them understand the importance of vendor financing in winning business from operators. An extensive online survey was developed and conducted in order to derive insights into African operators’ opinions of the importance of vendor financing and how Siemens compared to other equipment vendors in this regard. The exercise concluded by comparing the views of customers with those of the internal Siemens teams in order to identify mismatches.
  
• Siemens: Fixed Networks Africa strategy
  The project involved a complete scan of all Southern African countries to build curves of their future telecoms requirements across all market segments (business/residential, data/voice, all data technologies). The demand was then mapped to Siemens products to determine the financial opportunity, and in a final screen, country-specific relationships were used to create a relative ranked priority list which culminated in a strategy session and the next year’s budget.
  
• Siemens: Mobile Networks Africa strategy
  This strategy work was far more complex than for the above project, and required that country demand for most of Africa be mapped into core, base station, and network sales opportunities. The resulting strategy guided Siemens on what country infrastructure to fight for, and where it was better to allow other vendors to subsidise sales. The results were detailed enough to cascade into budgeting exercises.
• Incomplete (projects not yet public knowledge)
  Big O, TeleCel.

Mining

• Projects we have led:
  • Procurement programme for mining client.  We helped our client understand how their spend pattern impacted on their operations and jointly with them developed a programme to improve quality and reduce overall cost
  • Operations turnaround for platinum player’s open pit operations.  FutureForesight worked with the client to value the operation to determine its future viability.  Operations were shown to be the key reason for underperformance and FutureForesight worked with the client and contractors to successfully turn the situation around and help the client capture the up-cycle in the PGM prices
  • FutureForesight worked with Mintek and one of its technical alliance partners to help optimize a platinum producer’s recoveries through its process plant.  The solution developed required minimal capex and improved the value of the operation by up to 30%
  • Facilitated a strategic alliance workshop for the world’s largest mining house in one of their South American operations in the bauxite industry
  • Facilitated an economic development workshop for representatives of mining houses and juniors operating in Africa.  This was on behalf of TechnoServe who hosted the workshop

BioTech

• Business building we have led:
  • BioPAD: When the Government DST wanted to implement a new method to distribute BioTech funding through the NRF, we proposed a VC model to ensure accountability. BioPAD is now the vehicle for SA's biotech funding, and is an integral part of the BRIC strategy. WebLink>>
  • Incomplete (projects not yet public knowledge)
    Pharmscape, TRRG steercom: , ERWAT BioSURE
    
    
• Projects we have led:
  • OBP: FutureForesight more than doubled the profitability of Onderstepoort Biological Products (Oupies) within 6 months, moving them from non-viability into a strong future with sufficient funding to develop new technologies. Identified opportunities continue to be implemented to grow sustainability still further. WebLink>>