Practices

ENERGY

As we consider the state of today’s energy and utilities industry, we see a variety of opportunities and challenges participating companies must contend with. The reluctance of public capital markets to participate in the sector, the lack of clarity on key regulatory issues such as wholesale market structure and environmental requirements/compliance, combined with a sluggish and if not erratic restructuring of retail markets make it difficult for utilities to set and execute a meaningful and consistent growth strategy. At the same time, sector participants need to ensure they avoid the mistakes of the industry’s past, pursuing rational growth with appropriate and transparent governance. Adding to this challenge is the weakening US dollar and the continued geopolitical volatility in much of the developing world; only two of the factors that makes many of the sector’s smaller companies increasingly attractive to predators with North American expansion appetites. In our view, companies in the energy sector must look at and understand external industry dynamics more than ever before.

The Borska Group is deployed by its energy sector clients to provide decision support in light of these industry challenges.

AEROSPACE/DEFENSE

Adapting to the new realities of a post Cold War era is an ongoing challenge for the players in the aerospace and defense sector. The military must respond to geopolitical conflicts with enhanced capabilities in surveillance, reconnaissance, long range precision strike, and advanced battle information management. The military’s varied transformation initiatives place demands on its key contractors to overcome their previously silo-ed organizations and work more cross-functionally, if not synergistically, to satisfy challenging demands such as flexibility, faster product development, reduced lifecycle costs, and protection against technological obsolescence. Competition for large military contracts is fierce, requiring sophisticated bidding strategies, shifting alliances, and the need for flawless execution. Consolidation within the sector over the last two years has resulted in a top tier of players that now accommodate land, sea and space-based forces, all with networked information-centric technologies

The Borska Group is deployed by its defense sector clients to provide program capture support in light of these industry challenges

HEALTHCARE

The health care industry is experiencing unprecedented change that will impact all sector participants – biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospitals, medical device companies, managed care organizations, pharmacy benefit managers, and patients. The substantial downward cost pressure on all companies involved in the healthcare value chain comes at the same time as rising costs for research and development and the increasing deployment of information technology in drug discovery and delivery are rapidly expanding the expenses associated with the delivery of healthcare. The increasing and significant power of managed care organizations to influence the drugs prescribed and treatment protocols through their reimbursement programs has enormous impact on all industry participants. These changes are occurring during a time of great uncertainty in both political agendas and the regulatory environment. To succeed, healthcare industry stakeholders must have a comprehensive understanding of the industry forces, while conducting substantial scrutiny of all capital investments.

The Borska Group is deployed by healthcare sector companies to support their investment initiatives in the face of these great changes and uncertainty.