Global animal genetics company: Go-to-market transformation

1 min read

Cattle grazing across rolling green farmland at sunset, illustrating livestock agriculture and rural production landscape

Our client is a global animal genetics production and services business operating through a highly localized regional model. In a competitive market, ongoing improvements in genetic quality reduced demand for units and constrained topline growth. At the same time, heavy investment in sales and field service teams to defend share drove Cost of Sales to around 35% of revenue, putting pressure on operating profit. Leadership recognized the need for a go-to-market transformation to realign resources, improve leverage, and strengthen financial performance. As part of a broader three-year program, we developed a clear view of investment levels, returns, and where value could be unlocked through commercial and structural change, helping position our client to deliver $40M in total EBITDA uplift.

Outcome 1: Developed a clear view of current investment levels, associated returns, and where value could be unlocked through commercial and structural change
Outcome 2: Operating Profit more than doubled by Year 2, increasing from ~$13M to $34M, driven by sharper resource allocation and reductions in Cost of Sales
Outcome 3: The broader three-year go-to-market transformation program is now in its final year and positioned to deliver ~$40M in total EBITDA uplift

The challenge

The legacy go-to-market model constrained profitability and scalability. A highly localized, people-intensive structure limited the organization’s ability to flex resources and capture operating leverage. Further, our client lacked clear visibility into the returns generated by commercial and support resources across markets. Leadership had limited line of sight into resource productivity, cost-to-serve variability, and the relative performance of different regional models. To restore margin performance, our client needed to rethink how customers were served. This required identifying more indirect and scalable service models, selectively centralizing key support functions, and redesigning the GTM structure to better align investment with value creation.

The approach

We began by mapping resources, roles, and costs across more than 30 markets to define existing investment levels. This diagnostic created a consistent baseline view of commercial deployment, support structures, and cost-to-serve variability. We then introduced a Return on Resources (RoR) productivity metric to evaluate gross profit generation relative to cost. This shifted leadership discussions from volume and revenue to resource productivity and value creation. The insights informed targeted GTM redesign, including reduced direct presence in structurally low RoR areas, adoption of more scalable service models, and selective centralization of key commercial and support functions.

The impact

The transformation delivered a material and sustained improvement in financial performance. Operating Profit more than doubled by Year 2, increasing from ~$13M to $34M, driven by sharper resource allocation and reductions in Cost of Sales. Resource productivity improved as commercial investment was redirected toward higher RoR markets and customer segments. Lower-return structures were streamlined, and indirect service models increased scalability without eroding customer coverage. The program, now in the final year of implementation, is positioned to deliver ~$40M of total EBITDA uplift while establishing a more efficient, value-driven go-to-market model.