A major Gulf manufacturer faced a wartime interruption to a critical input — while simultaneously contesting an existing legal challenge to that same supply. The client needed to keep production running, protect its position in the dispute, and find durable alternatives, all at once and under time pressure.
We built a strategy to sustain the existing supply for as long as possible while identifying viable alternatives. Working from a set of client-proposed options, we used contacts in other regions to explore and price new sources, and investigated hybrid multi-party sourcing, innovative futures contracts, and upstream investment as additional routes to security of supply.
The analysis was supported by a deep bench of senior experts: former ambassadors and commercial counselors to and from the countries in question, senior industry analysts, sanctions specialists, experts on the relevant export and loading infrastructure, and specialists in complex financial and loan instruments. Their inputs were coordinated through Big Red™ so that commercial, logistical, financial, and regulatory considerations were weighed together rather than in isolation.
We set the client on a clear path through a problem that had looked intractable: a near-term plan to hold the existing line and a ranked set of vetted alternatives, each priced for cost, feasibility, and risk, ready to act on. Sourcing the same depth of expertise independently would have cost far more and taken far longer — if it could be assembled at all.
"It was like having a pop-up specialist division of 30 experts tailored specifically to our project needs, suddenly available to super-charge our investigations. The team moved quickly, worked together extremely well, and delivered recommendations we could act on."
SVP Operations — Industrial client, supply chain