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Why
we are different |
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We
are experienced at managing change by:
Creating Commitment to Change
Our capability in creating
commitment to change stems from one of our largest failures. We
had delivered a strategic action plan to British Bakeries which
showed the company how to achieve a £24 million per annum profit increase. One year later,
the company told us they had implemented many of our recommendations,
and were now making £10m per annum higher profit as a
direct result of our work.
Ita Walsh, one of our directors,
called a meeting. The subject was to discuss our failure. “Why”, she wanted to
know, “had we failed to inspire the company to implement
the other £14m per annum of possible profit improvement?”
Chastened
by her challenging approach, we analysed why. The reason was
that we had presented our plan to the company from the stand-point
that we were the experts, showing company management how it
should be done. That is bad psychology. No one likes to be
told what to do by experts, especially if it requires changes
in ingrained ways of working.
From that day (in 1988) onwards
we adopted a completely different approach to our work. We
made working in partnership with our clients our highest priority,
ensuring they understood, contributed to and shared in all
important recommendations.
Since then we have had a consistent
record of clients adopting our recommendations, with enthusiasm,
even where those recommendations required major changes in
ingrained behaviour. The essence of our approach is to create
commitment to change.
A year after our change of approach, following
a profit improvement study in Fine Chemicals, we were making
a presentation to BP senior corporate management. The most
senior manager present listened politely to our description
of the significantly higher profit levels possible, then asked “yes, but how do we
know these would actually be achieved?” Before we could
say a word the CEO of the subsidiary, who was in the room with
his key managers, leaped to his feet and said “But this
is OUR plan! We created it, and we know we can deliver on it.”
BP
subsequently sold the subsidiary. The buyers used the Cameron
plan to help raise the finance to buy the company. The plan
was then implemented successfully post-acquisition by the new
owners and under its new name Inspec, or International Speciality
Chemicals, became a huge success, making its largest shareholder
one of the richest men in Britain. The new CEO of the business
was one of those to provide feedback for this web site.
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Turning
Strategy into Action
Plysu, now part of Nampak, the UK’s
largest producer of plastic milk bottles, wanted to create
a strategic action plan. A key commitment we made was that
the strategy would be a blueprint for action, designed both
to stimulate action and monitor progress.
Our work – which included a European market study, a
customer critical success factor analysis, an evaluation of
management and a SWOT analysis identifying limiting factors – was
presented in the form of 6 proposed Company Initiatives each
addressing a key issue identified during the strategy process.
These were:
1. Entry into new markets
2. A motivated, well-rewarded workforce
3. Customers queuing up to buy
4. Optimising profit
5. Proactive management
6. Implementation
For each Initiative, we created the sections: Current Situation,
Response, Action Plan. The clarity of the Action Plans facilitated
successful implementation by management.
Creating a Vision
Bemrose, a USA and UK based printer and producer
of diaries (e.g. Letts) and promotional products, asked us
to help them formulate a Vision for their UK business. The
challenge was that their managers identified more closely with
the operating divisions and subsidiaries which directly employed
them than with the parent company. We facilitated a process,
involving the senior management of each division and subsidiary,
in which each created its own Vision, owned and inspiring the
management of that company, yet which nested within and contributed
to an over-riding Vision for the group as a whole. This over-riding
Vision was created by the entire senior management team. This
ensured ownership and commitment of middle and senior management
in all parts of the company. We were subsequently complimented
by a number of Bemrose Directors for the enthusiasm and ownership
this process engendered.
Culture Change
Johnson & Johnson Medical asked us to assist
them to shift the priority given to speed of reaction by their
management. A number of business opportunities had been missed
due to the thoroughness with which work was being done. They
did not, however, wish to compromise on the high quality standards
which lay behind this thorough approach.
We tackled this by
proposing the creation of a vision for their business which
would capture all the qualities sought; help a choice between
different strategic priorities; and increase the teamwork and
commitment level of their key managers. A project was completed,
which resulted in the alignment of their senior team behind
the Vision: “Passion, Pride, Pace
and Partnership”. This captured such values as management
enthusiasm, quality standards, speed of response to customer
needs and method of working with customers. The M.D. of the
company later estimated the value of the project as a 15-20%
increase in annual sales.
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