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, 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 and Change

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

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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.

Ad-hoc sounding board (AHSB)
We are working with three CEOs who have themselves identified a need for AHSB; they do not want what they perceive to be conventional coaching or mentoring. What they require is periodic opportunities to "think aloud" about issues currently confronting them and thereby tap into the wide experience that we have gained during our business and consulting careers. A typical example was a CEO who wanted to test out some ideas concerning the restructuring of his board in advance of starting the next annual planning cycle.

Downsizing and Restructuring

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 approval for a novel, tax-efficient severance payments scheme.

Engineering integration
A large engineering company had, hitherto, 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 some expectations the downsizing component of the project was achieved without litigation or significant trauma.