Strategy development at a global life sciences company
After a few years with multiple changes in top leadership, our client’s business unit revenue was flat and they were facing operational challenges. When they brought in a new business unit president, we worked with her and her top leadership team to develop their strategy over two annual strategy cycles. We structured their strategy development process, engaged selected junior leaders, and helped them grapple with their key strategic choices. The joint consultant-client team produced a growth strategy that clarified their focus, and could be communicated out to reenergize a flagging organization. Over 2 years, revenue went from flat to above-market growth rates in their addressable market.
IT transformation at a global technology company
The CIO of a global technology giant had laid out an ambitious transformation agenda to shift to an IT- as-a-Service model to support the various business units. He wanted to be fast, flexible, and efficient. And he wanted to focus on areas that would strategically support revenue growth, rather than only be a ‘cost center’. The transformation team got off to a fast start. But after a year, progress had stalled, as the organization got pulled in different directions from competing priorities and ‘change fatigue’ set in.
At that point, we were brought in to work the CIO and his staff to redesign an effective transformation plan, accelerate progress, and generate concrete business outcomes that showed real evidence of ‘wins’ for the teams. Over the next 18 months, IT removed $100 MM in cost while providing better, more responsive service to the business units.
Executive Committee strategic alignment at an energy company
The CEO of a large energy company had successfully navigated large disruptions in their business model (such as deregulation in some of their energy generation markets), and executed smart acquisitions to build scale and geographic reach. Now, those business leaders from formerly independent companies served on a single Executive Committee. All skilled and experienced executives, they had different ideas about the right strategic direction and the right operating model for their company (for example, centralized functions like IT, HR, and Regulatory vs. highly-decentralized business units).
The CEO brought us in to diagnose the key issues and help align his team. We designed and led a series of strategy and operating model workshops for them. We helped them clarify and align on their strategic direction for the enterprise. We then helped them weigh options and tradeoffs in the organization structure and operating model for the separate operating units.