Strategic Planning
Client
UK Software development company producing operating systems for personal hand held devices.
Challenge
This company was experiencing rapid growth having grown from 16 to 700 people in 5 years. The course and direction of the company became harder to manage – the company had previously run on a financial plan alone, but now with the large number of employees there was a requirement for a clearly articulated and well understood strategy to be developed and cascaded throughout the company.
Solution
Serious consulting consultants worked with the CEO and his direct reports to articulate the strategy, including the company’s vision and mission and key result areas. These were then developed further and expanded for each department and broken down per each functional area. Individual employees had their performance management plans linked to their functional areas plan.
Outcome
As a result of having the strategy in place and articulated, all employees had clear goals and objectives to achieve linked to the company’s strategy. This created alignment throughout the company and resulted in a greater sense of direction and ownership of the company’s goals.
Cultural Change
Client
European consumer electronics company regarded as a world leader in sound reproduction, and entertainment systems. Their products can be found in a range or luxury environments from ocean going yachts to Aston Martin’s Vanquish.
Challenge
The newly appointed head of R&D was aware that significant changes had to be made in the way people worked together in-order to improve productivity and the quality of products the company produced.
Solution
It was clear that a cultural change program was required in-order to get the personnel at all levels of the organisation to improve their relationships with each other and for the leadership team to guide and steer the organisation more effectively. Over two years serious consulting worked with the management team as well as all employees via the facilitation of strategic planning sessions, training workshops, consulting and the implementation of performance management processes.
Outcome
The training workshops resulted in improved relationships and collaboration amongst all personnel. The introduction of the performance management system enabled easier performance measurement and feedback on business performance as well as individual performance. Product quality and reliability significantly improved. A new product platform combining both hardware and software was developed in record time.
Change Management
Client
Global Managed Services Company in the IT&T industry. This company recently took over the operations group of a major international telecommunications company. Responsibilities include all billing, content and network performance activities.
Challenge
Employees had to get used to a new method of working. They were now part of a global organisation with a long history in the IT&T arena. Employees had to shift focus from being a technology provider to a commercial service provider.
Solution
A program was designed to help employees integrate into the new organisation and help them manage the shift to a customer focus. Employees learned how to manage their major customer and add increasing value to the business.
Outcome
Performance improvement and innovation, a design feature of the program, enabled employees to improve network performance and pass on savings in excess of 15 times the investment in the change program. This business is regarded as the best Managed Services operation in the world.
Six Sigma
Client
Major Australian logistics and transport company
Challenge
Cost pressures and increasing competition in the parcels and logistics market was eroding margins for this business. They had embarked on a 6 Sigma program but the program was not delivering results, it was seen as overly bureaucratic and not adapted for the specific needs of the business.
Solution
A customised six sigma program was designed to tackle the specific needs of the company. The program featured a robust yet easy to use project management approach which allowed employees to assess the areas for improvement and implement solutions quickly. Areas for targeted for improvement were the ones which affected customer experience.
Outcome
Improvements in various systems from billing to bulk parcel handling led to significant time and cost savings as well as customer satisfaction. Due to its ease of use the six sigma program became integrated into the everyday work practices within the organisation.