Education

We can assume interim C-suite and leadership roles within the organisation. This may involve embedding turnaround specialists into operational teams within the organisation or taking on specialised interim management or board positions to provide leadership support and project management capabilities.  

Leveraging our extensive experience with complex stakeholder management at all levels (including government, financial, political, and media), we help guide organisations through sensitive and high-risk transformations. Our team also supports organisations under intense financial, media, or political pressure who need to act quickly to protect their performance and reputation.

We provide commercially focused, strategic, and financial advisory services. This includes business plan reviews where we independently assess the strategic plans and financial outlook of higher education sector organisations. Our team conducts financial analysis and forecast reviews, as well as strategic and commercial reviews where specialised support is required. We evaluate financial projections and outcomes, assess risks and mitigations, consider the market outlook, and undertake peer comparison. We also provide third-party contract support, including reviewing high-risk contractual situations (for example, Public Private Partnerships), and support contract negotiations. 

An effective organisational framework is a critical enabler for sustained success. We design and implement changes to organisational structure and human resources practice to deliver substantive changes. This can include modelling labour framework scenarios aligned to operational needs, funding sources, and financial objectives, and implementing management and recruitment controls to optimise the labour base. Our experts also help clients to manage industrial relations challenges, including strategy, negotiations, and implementation of transformation reform. 

Performance improvment and cost out

We prepare and implement cost reduction strategies and streamline operations. We facilitate performance meetings for operational departments focused on clear and measurable KPIs and structured reporting. We gather information, evidence, and insights to provide visibility of organisational performance. This may include building dynamic operational performance dashboards and streamlining performance reporting from multiple data sets into a centralised hub. 

Financial management and cost control

Identifying an organisation’s key drivers of financial performance is crucial to better inform decision making and improve financial management. We review and improve an organisation’s processes, policies, and procedural changes to better manage finances and associated operating controls. We review and develop ground up budgets and forecasts, and design and implement procurement controls to rapidly reduce spending. Additionally, we can provide CFO services such as team structuring, organisational controls, working capital management, and risk management reporting.

Procurement

We provide strategic sourcing, total cost optimisation, supplier management, and contract negotiation, ensuring value for money and a return on investments. Our advanced procurement technologies, AI, and data analytics capabilities streamline processes and enhance transparency.

We understand the nuances of compliance with government policies and funding guidelines across education. Our approach covers complex procurement projects, sustainable practices, and strong supplier relationships. We offer insights and advisory services, training, and support to optimise procurement processes. We prioritise the key overarching strategic objectives of clients to work towards delivering better outcomes for education institutions and students.

Acquisition and disposal strategies

KordaMentha helps universities and education institutions meet the fiscal and capital efficiency challenges of delivering on contemporary campus demands. While the optimal strategy will be contingent on our client’s specific circumstance, we are guided by the proven principle of owning strategic assets and leasing operational facilities. We assess footprint requirements, financial liability, and legal and commercial leverage. We produce asset, development, and divestment strategies to unlock capital and, where required, exit negotiation and wind down plans. 

Asset management and optimisation

We work with each client to evaluate their current asset portfolio and identify opportunities to optimise performance with an appropriate budget targeting high-value, high-return capital activities. This includes due consideration of both operational asset needs and strategic business objectives. We consider the asset condition, useful life, degradation profile, whole of life costs, and available funding, and review the impact of assets on performance, service, and risk utilisation. Our team helps clients analyse asset renewal options and identify triggers for asset replacement.

Investor, tenant and partner attraction

Our experts help clients leverage significant investor interest in educational assets. We advise on the most effective investment vehicles and structures focused on optimising returns while managing risk throughout the investment horizon. Our strategy is rooted in our long-standing relationships, thorough research and due diligence, nimbleness, and active management to deliver targeted returns.

Tenant and partner attraction

The ‘innovation hub’ model is well established and offers real estate-led operational efficiency in the onsite accommodation of academic research disciplines. The model is based on co-locating education institution functions, research institutions, and industry bodies, supported by an experienced and well capitalised real estate partner. When paired with the right real estate partner, design-led productivity gains provide additional infrastructure efficiencies. Leveraging our extensive networks and experience, we help clients attract the right partners and tenants to their facilities.

Major projects advisory

Our capabilities span the project lifecycle from early strategic advisory and planning to project delivery and operationalisation. We evaluate financial projections and outcomes, assess risks and mitigations, consider the market outlook, and undertake peer comparison. We also provide third-party contract support, including reviewing high-risk contractual situations and supporting contract negotiations.

Our team assesses the organisation’s sanctions risk profile from a domestic and international perspective considering the evolving geo-political landscape. We work to develop a Sanctions Compliance Program and can assist with the challenges of implementation. We assess the risks posed by third and fourth parties and the types of activities in which they are involved that may expose the organisation to sanctions breaches. 

Special investigations 

Our clients rely on us to uncover, analyse, and clarify facts. We understand the potentially sensitive nature and organisational impact of employee investigations and we conduct each investigation with utmost discretion. We quickly address allegations of improper staff or research activity, which may include misappropriation, forgery or alteration, theft, computer fraud, and inappropriate behaviour such as discrimination, bullying, harassment, and sexual assaults. Our reputation is built on the rigour of our investigations, credibility of our expert analysis, and deep subject matter knowledge and expertise. Our forensic approach ensures our work is defensible and can withstand scrutiny in legal proceedings. Drawing on related knowledge, experience, and specialised training, we ensure all investigations are conducted with a culturally sensitive, trauma-informed approach.

Wage underpayments

Employee underpayments present serious risks to any organisation. While often occurring due to genuine mistakes, the result can be costly. Clients rely on our specialists to help prevent, manage, and respond to these often complex and stressful situations. We help our clients and work with legal specialists, applying the most appropriate legal, forensic auditing, data analytics, and payroll systems/application expertise to suit our client’s situation. Collaboratively, we address the challenges of legal privilege, Award/Enterprise Agreement interpretation, legally defendable employee entitlement quantification, and payroll audits. Helping to mitigate risks and provide understanding of our client’s responsibilities, we establish revised payroll controls and identify potential legislative amendments to payroll applications.