Assignments - examples of past and present work
HR and Organisation Strategy
Providing long
term organisational support
As a result of legislative changes, this client was required to hand over its functions to a different entity and close. Thus the organisation and staff were under considerable long term uncertainty and stress. We supported the individual managers through their extended career transition and also advised them on best practice in the management of protracted closures.
Business transformation and restructuring
We assisted the transformation of a traditional plc by taking the role of interim HR Director and guiding the restructuring. We planned the process of selecting and training the new management and staffing teams, consulted and negotiated changes with the union, and trained the management in managing the change process. All targets were achieved and the organisation is now functioning effectively.
Support
for an international HR team
A world wide manufacturing company was planning its first
ever global HR conference for fifty HR professionals. While
much of the extensive agenda would focus on internal matters
and exchanging best practice, a need was also identified for
some external input. Our brief was to lead the team through
exercises designed to illustrate how best to sponsor change
management and to provide a culturally diverse team with a
set of common tools that each could use in their home country.
At an IoD
conference
An audience of about eighty MDs and FDs attending the conference
heard our presentation on "Managing the People
Issues" when buying or selling private companies. We collated
research that showed that some 60-70% of M&As fail to
meet their objectives, virtually never for legal and financial
reasons. We argued that the element missing - and now being
recognised as critical - is proper attention at an early stage
to issues such as cultural fit of the target company, clear strategies
for the retention of key people and effective integration. Acquirers
are often exhausted by the acquisition process with the result
that staff in the target company can be neglected during the critical
first days and weeks after acquisition day, during which morale
and motivation can plummet. The audience was given a comprehensive
acquirers' action plan to ensure a significantly higher success
rate and commercial return.
Organisation Effectiveness
An organisational
effectiveness review for a leading edge IT consultancy
Following acquisitions, this successful, growing company was encountering a number of internal stresses whose combined effect was to create some disfunctional behaviours - in different parts of the organisation. We used Insight to evaluate data from all levels within the organisation and helped the management group to identify a number of interlinked interventions to improve the effectiveness of the business. Even the initial communication of the plans produced a significant positive response from the workforce who had been looking for top management for clear direction and leadership.
... and a review
for an high profile public institution
This client had recently completed a major 5 year capital investment programme in excess of £50m and the project had dominated the thinking of both top management and the organisation as a whole for over 5 years. Upon completion, there was a pressing need for the management team to fill the vacuum and sense of anticlimax that ensued with a renewed, shared focus. We used Insight to help the team achieve consensus about the underlying operational and organisational problems that needed to be addressed. Via a two-day workshop the management team gained a renewed focus and created an action plan to re-establish the required energy and direction.
Reviewing
the governance of HR
We carried out a detailed review of the HR function in a major
financial services company whose Board had concerns about
the Governance of HR. We showed that their concerns were fully
justified: a number of relatively minor and apparently unconnected
factors were combining to produce outcomes that put parts
of the company at serious risk of public censure by its auditors
and regulatory body. We proposed a number of remedial actions
which would combine to address the different factors and provide
an integrated solution to the problem.
Organisation Effectiveness Reviews, three contrasting
examples
- A very large financial services / consultancy business
was concerned that post-merger benefits were not being realised.
We demonstrated that the company tended to under-plan and
under-measure. Thus many worthwhile initiatives lacked real
clarity, were under resourced and lacked adequate progress
reviews. In consequence a culture of under achievement and
blame was beginning to undermine the company's performance
targets. Management were able to introduce a number of operational
and cultural change programmes designed to eliminate these
deficiencies and set the organisation on an upward path.
- A specialist company whose design work,
manufacturing and distribution were handled by third parties.
The organisation's overall ability to succeed was totally
dependent on the relationships with these three suppliers.
We reviewed the effectiveness of these relationships and
identified key steps to improving and sustaining them. Feedback
was also given to the suppliers who had enthusiastically
contributed to the study.
- A major national charity was
concerned that their highly focused initiatives to improve
leadership through the organisation were proving less effective
than expected. Using Insight we demonstrated that, while the powerful culture of the
organisation and its staff produced an enviable focus on
the charity's beneficiaries, the sheer day to day pressures
on front line staff reduced the impact of management's initiatives.
We identified a number of low cost actions to more effectively
align the staff's energy and good will in the desired direction
and help the charity to evolve and grow, and compete more effectively
for available funds.
Personal and Team Advice
Ad-hoc sounding board (AHSB)
We are working with a number of CEOs who have themselves identified
a need for AHSB; they do not want what they perceive to be conventional
coaching or mentoring and they often feel that, in the first
instance at least, they cannot discuss the issues with immediate
colleagues, not least because they may be part of the problem.
However, what they do require is periodic opportunities to "think
aloud" about
issues currently confronting them, to have their ideas objectively
challenged, and thereby tap into the wide experience that we
have gained during our business and consulting careers. Typical
examples include:
- A CEO who wanted to test out some ideas
concerning the restructuring of his board in advance of starting
the next annual planning cycle and how best to persuade some
intransigent board members to make compromises for the common
good.
- The CEO of a top-rank legal Chambers who wanted to review and
dry-run his plans for dealing with the impact of changes to Legal
Aid funding on the Silks, Barristers and support staff.
- The CEO of a major management training establishment who wanted
to think aloud about gaining consensus from his academic team
for dealing with recessionary pressures on course fee income.
In all three cases our work involved a mixture of questioning,
challenging, reflecting, giving professional advice and input,
and coaching for maximum impact with the management teams involved.
Organisation Change in Practice
A
long term restructuring
We devised and implemented a briefing, training and communication
plan for a major financial services company which was planning
a radical, two-year restructuring. Our efforts ensured a smooth
transition - with minimal impact on morale, attrition or business
effectiveness - winning praise from both management and unions.
Selection
strategies and union endorsement
We created a totally original selection process for a bank whose management realised that its existing union-negotiated scheme was not appropriate for taking the organisation forward.
We guided implementation, avoiding alienating the workforce
or triggering legal action, while fully achieving business
objectives and complete client satisfaction.
These examples illustrate the range of
organisation change activities we have undertaken but many
organisations still face the need to downsize or undertake
major restructuring and reorganising, with consequent reductions
in staff.
ARA consulting has probably guided more businesses safely through this particular
minefield than anyone else in the UK, giving us
unique experience in the field of downsizing. In addition,
a number of these assignments have been carried out in South
America, Africa and the Far East. European examples include:
A restructuring
/ downsizing across nine European countries
Our specialist input was used to coordinate country activities
and establish common principles of best practice. We provided
a mixture of hands-on and advisory services that acknowledged
the differing cultures, practices and legal jurisdictions operating
in each country. By mentoring to maximise
the effectiveness of local teams we were able to demonstrate
our value for money approach. Further, skills were transferred
to members of management, who gained key experience for working
together on future challenges.
Relocation,
restructuring and culture change
We advised and project-managed the relocation of a leading
financial services company out of London. The project included
making some 90% of staff redundant and recruiting and planning
new training for all the surviving and replacement staff in
the new location. An interesting side project was to design
and win Inland Revenue and Auditor approval for a novel, tax-efficient
severance payments scheme.
Engineering
integration
A large, strongly unionised, engineering company had previously operated
as seven legal entities with strong rivalry between them. We advised
the management on how best to plan the phased integration
of the businesses and achieve an improved climate of cooperation
and trust. Against considerable expectations, the subsequent downsizing
component of the project was achieved without litigation or significant
trauma. |