About the project
The Department for International Trade (DIT) is a United Kingdom government department responsible for striking and extending trade agreements between the United Kingdom and international markets, as well as encouraging foreign investment and export trade.
Key challenges
DIT sought a new Export and Investment Strategy that would reflect the UK’s new strategic trade and investment priorities against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing global landscape.
How OCO Global supported DIT
OCO Global was tasked with leading or contributing to investment strategy, specifically:
- economic priorities for investment
- maximising the UK’s competitiveness through policy offers
- organising resources to deliver investment through a new service offer and operating model.
Outcomes
OCO Global delivered business consultancy services, appraised DIT’s current strategy, and provided research, insights and recommendations on:
- the UK’s key sectoral strengths
- how the pandemic had affected sectors and markets, and changed consumer and business needs around the world
- which sectors and markets presented the greatest opportunities for the UK
- which sectors and markets DIT should target
- what forms of investment DIT should pursue.
OCO Global developed a new policy offer positioning the UK as a competitive and favourable investment destination going forwards. This involved:
- reviewing the policy landscape in the UK and highlighting areas for new or redeveloped policies that would increase investment
- developing a shortlist of new policies that would foster a more favourable investment environment.
We completed an organisational review of business processes, business functions and DIT’s organisational structure that included:
- highlighting a need to prioritise greater resource to higher value investors who could have more impact on the UK economy; we mapped out how this would look in terms of an updated service offer, and reorganised resourcing to reflect this change in priorities
- developing “as-is” and “to-be” organisations models with costings, job roles and teams
- developing a business case, in accordance with the UK Treasury Green Book and Five Case Model, which articulated the case for change and the benefits which could be delivered from the preferred option
- supporting DIT in the development of a blueprint for the new Office for Investment, a unit that will focus on supporting the highest value projects from top-tier investors.
