Business Strategy/Innovation/Project & Business Development

The Client

The Service we Provided

Sustainability Consultancy

Background

As a startup with people, plant and purpose in our hearts, we make drinks in the zero alcohol and health & wellness drinks space. We are a carbon-neutral business.

The Brief

We have a gap in experience and how to integrate through our business model. We need a consultant to help set out the road map to Net Zero by 2030 and give us achievable solutions.

Our Solution & The Results

Review and audit the current status and stakeholders
Split strategy into: - Native/Urban Rewilding - Supply Chain Opportunities - Consumer and Industry Leadership
Focused on the most relevant impact in and for our industry/community
Strong comms plan and industry partners agreed
Agreed on a 5-year partnership of rewilding and restoration
Committed to financial investment through the supply chain
Helped to gain crowdfunding & private investment
Driven on and off-trade with retailers to connect with us to gain listings and advise on their sustainability journey

The Client

The Service we Provided

Sustainability Consultancy

Background

Ak2030 is on a mission to reverse climate change by restoring 500 million hectares, educate 1 billion children and help fund climate crisis capital projects and innovations by 2030.

The Brief

Help was needed to bring experience and action into the operations team to get ready for launch in 2021 for the UN Eco restoration decade and COP 26.

Our Solution & The Results

Became a founding member of the cause
Drive awareness on social media
Define go to market strategy and brilliant basics
Ambassador and Advocate of Simplicity and Transparency
Secured £100+ Investment for restoration projects
First 2 eco-restoration projects in Ireland
Delivered brand partnership with The Plant NYC
Grown founding members and global awareness
Achieved a feature in The Oscars gifting area
Partnership now on-going

The Client

The Service we Provided

Due Diligence & Operational Fixing

Background

Voltra Lighting Ltd is a new start up business designing and producing luxury cordless table lights. The company is run by a designer, manufacturer and lawyer trio, with over 80 years’ combined experience in design, manufacturing and hospitality.

The Brief

When Voltra was launched to the market in 2018, the leadership team were looking for an experienced consultant who could help them bring their innovative concept to life.

The brief was extensive, with the company requiring everything from collaborative working between the shareholders to launching a website. Voltra was looking for a senior, hands-on consultant with the ability to work across a wide range of business functions.

Our Solution & The Results

Within two months, Coco Airlie had brought together a global team, working across various time zones to form a new company. We used SLACK, the process and project management tool, to create organisational structure and ensure team engagement
The scope of work has included shareholder agreements, marketing strategy, commercial planning/modelling, manufacturing, production, process & systems, NPD and website launch. We’ve overcome language and time-zone barriers to deliver the project on time and on budget
Coco Airlie’s Rhona Morrell has now been asked to act as consultant CEO to oversee the next phase of NPD, optimisation and growth

The Client

The Service we Provided

Project Management

Background

Bee Midtown is a not-for-profit organisation which is responsible for improving the prospects of businesses located in the Midtown area of London (Holborn, Bloomsbury, St. Giles, Farringdon and Clerkenwell).

It is elected to work on behalf of local businesses to improve the district through relevant initiatives. These fall into three categories - Services, Events and Projects. It acts as lobbyists with local government and councils to ensure its members’ interests are heard and supported.

The Brief

Bee Midtown was looking to increase value to its members by undertaking a root and branch organisation review to become more efficient, improve its processes and systems and introduce more flexible ways of working.

Coco Airlie managed the project, working as part of freelance network the Hoxby Collective. The extensive brief included a full audit of existing ways of working, process and procedures and organisational structure.

Our Solution & The Results

Project management of transformational organisational change
Restructure of the entire organisation to build a new flexible way of working
Recruitment of all roles for the new structure
Built internal systems and processes to enable this new way of working
Saved money, time and resource for a NFP organisation
Re-branding work for all Bee Midtown touch points

The Client

KD Capital

The Service we Provided

Due Diligence & Operational Fixing

Background

KD Capital is a leading investor in international start-up businesses. It is a growing company with a passion for delivering value-added investment in cross-category businesses from coffee and health apps to wine and lighting.

The Brief

KD Capital wanted to implement a robust and consistent process for the evaluation of potential investment opportunities. The objective was to facilitate quicker, better and more informed decisions, for the benefit of both KD Capital and the potential investment company.

Our Solution & The Results

Audit of existing due diligence procedure and process and feed back on potential issues and areas for improvement
Creation of a due diligence document for all future investment, including all business functions and analysis
Recommendations that all future investments follow this process to reduce risk and ensure the business ‘manage out’ weak investment opportunities
Trial of the new due diligence process on two potential opportunities which saved both time and money for KD Capital. Also resulting in one further successful investment agreement
Coco Airlie has now been appointed to work as part of a brand development team for KD Capital

The Client

Neuvo Safe LTD

The Service we Provided

Investor Start Up & Due Dilligence

Testimonial

We approached Coco Airlie and Rhona to help us look at a prospective investment opportunity and how she may be able to help with the analysis and setting up the strategy.

Rhona immediately impressed us on many fronts.

Her knowledge and experience is on show from the start. The scope of Rhona’s knowledge and volume of work she can process is impressive in itself, yet she does all of this at speed.

Rhona has a method whereby she identifies issues, isolates and ranks them, then systematically eliminates them.

Her approach was exactly what was required. She allowed us to make a decision to exit the opportunity much faster than we would have done without her. Saving us all time and money.

Rhona delivered on all elements we thought we needed and taught us about the ones we did not know and delivered those.

Any business would benefit from Rhona’s presence, work ethic and analysis. She is able to achieve the same as a small team of people, in a small amount of time.

If you want results, you want Rhona.

To find out more about how your business could benefit from a partnership with Coco Airlie, get in touch.

Rhona has been an integral part of the Naked Collective Journey as a sustainable start-up and a brand that champions people, plants, and purpose. Rhona's ability to be agile has helped the Executive team to focus on what has been required at times of change and she has given us the guidance and pace on how to pivot. Most noticeably Rhona has driven our sustainability agenda and challenged us on how we could do better, driven transparency and reporting in this space. Rhona embraces change as the norm and has a unique ability to drive this at pace and take people with her. Her passion and determination to encourage those to make the start of their sustainability journey on protecting the planet and its inhabitants are both infectious and rewarding to be a part of, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend bringing Rhona to your organization to drive change and sustainability strategy and action.

Niall Phelan: CEO The Naked Collective

Rhona first joined Ark2030 as a founding member and soon became a global ambassador for the mission. Rhona has since become an integral part of the operational team in driving our go-to-market strategy. Rhona understands that this is a journey to 2030 and it is not about shaming and bringing down consumers, brands, or organisations but a road map to end climate change that addresses the challenges previous attempts have had and breaks it down into actionable change. Rhona has consistent energy, the ability to talk in real actionable terms (especially for SMEs wanting and trying to bring sustainability into their business). As she says, 'it's ok to start the journey, know where you are now, where you want to go, be transparent, and report, but it's not ok to put off starting' I would highly recommend anyone to reach out to Rhona to help them on their sustainable journey.

Stephen Fern: Chairman Ark2030

iSportConnect have worked with Rhona for over 6 months now and her ability to network and build strong relationships across senior level and board management is second to none. Rhona has a natural ability to connect with people in a fun, engaging way, whilst delivering effective work and total integrity.

Sree: CEO & Founder iSC

Danny Ayton: Drinks Category Director Greene King

Rhona helped develop a cross-functional NPD process for launching key products across multiple stakeholders in our business - including category, marketing, and operational teams which galvanised the needs of each area for driving maximum awareness, buy-in, and sales of major new drinks.

Danny Ayton: Drinks Category Director Greene King

Anthony Clarey: Head of Route to Market – Kopparberg UK

Rhona is an excellent operator who brings an element of calm and confidence to any challenge; she always plans thoroughly and executes with a tenacity which is alarming! Her drive to see projects through is one of her greatest strengths along with her absolute commitment to the task and her ability to work well with others in a stretching environment.

Anthony Clarey: Head of Route to Market – Kopparberg UK

Rhona has been instrumental in turning Voltra Lighting from a project, into a business. She is a highly organised, efficient executor, and has kept the entire team focused on the goal. When everyone had their head down doing their job, it was Rhona who pieced all the pieces together. When tasks seemed too audacious, it was again Rhona who took a step back and broke it down into small enough chunks for the team to tackle. I would recommend Rhona for a project or BU that needs a project manager of high execution ability to get things done.

Lewis Cheng: Co-Founder – Voltra Lighting

Rhona - the best most super thing that you've been able to help us with is this Go-To-Market landscape understanding. The layers and the players, you really know your stuff and you've helped me translate the terminology, alongside working well, fast and have pivoted at short notice, all with sense of humour and challenger mindset - certainly kept me in check.

Julian Sanders: UpFlow Brewing Company

Jeremy Curwin - CEO at Canterbury Cricket Club

I first met Rhona when we worked together at Red Bull covering event management and commercial sales. Since then our paths have crossed in various roles where she has consistently impressed in her ability to manage teams, large and small and be creative in her ability to solve any problems that come her way.

Jeremy Curwin - CEO at Canterbury Cricket Club

Emma Ross GM, Head of International Growth at Incite/Board Member/Keynote Speaker

Rhona has consistently proven herself to hit any challenge head-on, she can cut through the haze and break things down for teams at all levels to keep things moving forward and at pace! She has an ability to bring companies culture and ways of working into the future and whilst respecting the past, challenges the norm at board level to get alignment and create an innovative solution - I know during the current climate this skill would be invaluable to anyone looking for solutions to the 'new world' after all she has been doing this for years, I look forward to working with her again on future projects.

Emma Ross GM, Head of International Growth at Incite/Board Member/Keynote Speaker

I had the pleasure of working with Rhona over an eight month period for the launch of UpFlow Brewing into the UK market. Rhona brought a great wealth of commercial skills, deep industry knowledge and an ability and passion to constantly find and implement solutions in the rapidly changing market of non-alcoholic beverages. On top of her experience and skillset, Rhona is a great human, incredibly trustworthy and has the ability to forge strong, respectful relationships with everyone that she works with. I look forward to working with Rhona again and would recommend her to any start-up or market entrant.

Alan Riva - Speaker/Author/Advisor

I have had the pleasure of working with Rhona on two occasions now, the first when she worked in the Innovation team at Molson Coors, developing new product concepts in the beer category. The second when she joined The Ticket Factory, a national ticketing agent in the events space, as Sales Director working in B2B to secure new ticketing contracts. Rhona is passionate and committed in everything she does from work to home to maintaining strong friendship groups. She is driven and determined to deliver results. Rhona has a great attention to detail and strong and structured project management skills. But, it is her energy levels that truly set her apart.

Nicola Young

No BullS*** approach to business, life and interesting debates around many day to day challenges.

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Energetic, Honest, Effective.

Coco Airlie Registered in England - Company Number 10681343

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