Case Studies
Case Study 1 - Cultural Integration at a high profile public body
A high profile public body was seeking to integrate a number of disparate organisations who had come together to work on the next phase of a multi-decade initiative. Each organisation had its own distinct culture and values and way of working and the new CEO was seeking to fully integrate the teams and create a new purpose, culture and values for the combined organisation. Our initial approach was to gather feedback from all staff to understand what was going well and what was not; what they wish to bring forward from their previous organisation and what they wished to leave behind and how they saw the future for the new combined organisation. This feedback was presented to the Executive Team and formed the basis for creating the new purpose, culture and values. This was underpinned by a new appraisal scheme and a leadership development programme.
Case Study 2 - Investment process consulting at a European asset manager
An investment team wanted to develop their sales and marketing materials as it felt it was not capturing the assets that its performance record deserved. We worked with the team to sharpen their sales story and in doing so encouraged it to be more explicit and precise about key elements of their process. This resulted in a greater level of shared conviction in the investment process itself as well as the revised story. The consultant was key in bringing sales and investment personnel together to road test the new materials and their applicability to different client groups. We also worked with relevant internal resources to develop tender documents and to embed the new agreed ideas throughout the organisation.
Case Study 3 - Executive Team coaching at a public body
A new leadership team was formed as a result of the merging of a number of entities and while this team had a broad agreement around the purpose of the new organisation, there were significant differences when it came to practical prioritisation of initiatives. This ambiguity was consequently reflected in a lack of clear direction elsewhere in the organisation, which the team itself labelled ‘silo working.’
We worked with the leadership team to strengthen the clarity of its collective purpose and then helped conduct 360° surveys on the strength of the leadership collectively and individually. This was combined with Hogan assessments to show how the team behaved when things went well, and when they were under the type of pressure and uncertainty that comes with the transition of a merger.
The commitment to a common purpose, underpinning values and everyday behaviours was then translated into individual coaching assignments with each of the top team. These were undertaken in a transparent way and there was a collective undertaking to provide a higher level of constructive feedback between leadership team members as a way of cementing new ways of working in place.
Case Study 4 - Operational effectiveness in Asset Management
A global Asset Management firm who was facing exponential growth had a wide range of manual processes which were impacting business controls, effectiveness, efficiency and customer service. Core processes were reviewed and streamlined and straight through processing technology was implemented. Immediate productivity gains of 37% were realised within the processing areas with a positive downstream effect of a 91% reduction in outstanding bank reconciliations year on year. These changes also provided a robust platform for scalable solutions as the business continued to grow.
Case Study 5 -Culture change in the Cellular Services sector
A Cellular Services business was looking to improve effectiveness and efficiency and to introduce and embed a customer service strategy. A culture change programme was designed and delivered along with a full restructuring programme within the Operations and Customer Services functions. Within one year, the customer base was increased from 66,000 to 93,000, turnover from £58m to £67m and net profit from £0.4m to £1m which equates to a 150% increase in profit from a 15.5% increase in turnover.
Case Study 6 - Automation within Market Research
A contract was in place to provide monthly Market Research analysis and reports to a large client from the automotive sector. The reporting was almost entirely manual and was handled across many different systems, by many staff, from initial keying of data, through analysis and output to tabulation then re-keying results into final reporting format and final QC. All aspects of this resource hungry process were automated and interconnected to provide a complete ‘Straight Through Process’. The end result was a new system which began with the initial scanning of client questionnaires, capture, validation and analysis of data and final automated reporting output to the client. This new fully automated process ensured that reporting was accurate, consistent and cost effective.
Case Study 7 - Business Transformation within the Security sector
A Security business was facing challenging financial performance in a difficult Industrial Relations climate. A transformation project was undertaken to improve the sales and customer service processes, improve productivity and to restructure the business in line with those goals. This resulted in the closure of 11 branches and redefinition of many roles and responsibilities, all of which was successfully agreed with the Trade Unions. Within one year, net profit was increased from £0.2m to £1.6m.
Case Study 8 - Culture change within the Telecoms sector
The Telecoms Division of a major international organisation was seeking to tackle the tough challenge of developing a new corporate culture that focussed on the Customer and to improve business results. Working in a challenging and yet collaborative way with the Executive Committee buy-in was secured from the top of the organisation and the management team was galvanised to demonstrate a completely new approach with the customer at its heart. This new approach soon cascaded throughout the organisation and this, coupled with realigned processes, achieved the required financial turnaround. Once this methodology was proven within one of the divisional companies, it was rolled out to other businesses within the Group, with equal levels of success.
Case Study 9 - Business closure and sale within Investment Management
A Global Investment Management firm was faced with two underperforming subsidiaries which were losing $40m per annum. There were significant service, systems and cultural challenges. The initial approach was to assess whether any elements of the business could be retained and made profitable. Following comprehensive analysis the decision was made to close one business and sell the other. The key focus was to lead the HR effort and to successfully consult with 450 staff, manage redundancies and redeployment and to TUPE 50 staff to the purchasing company. This was achieved whilst ensuring full regulatory compliance and without adversely affecting the reputation of the business as a whole. The losses were stemmed and all staffing issues were managed effectively.