HELPING CLIENTS SUCCEED

28% INCREASE IN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Situation:

• New CEO came into a heavily siloed, authoritarian, low involvement, tactical, low performing culture. Previous leadership did not invest in strategy, technology or building strategic/human capabilities.

Solution:

• Developed a new strategy needed to improve performance, create teamwork and alignment across the organization

• Applied a high engagement strategy development approach to create a shared strategy map and scorecard with top 30 managers

• New strategy focused on 4 themes including organizational excellence (high-performance culture)

RESULT:

• A significant shift in Culture Performance

• Realization of Strategic Objectives

• 28% improvement in Customer Satisfaction Measures

INDUCTED TO STRATEGY EXECUTION HALL

OF FAME

Situation:

• The Utility was facing significant business challenges such as loss of key commercial customers, inflexible cost structure, constraining culture, no company-wide strategy, and limited resources or capabilities for strategy formulation and execution.

Solution:

• Working with the CEO and the senior leadership team we helped to plan and facilitate a process to formulate a business strategy that would address their unique business challenges and build alignment and commitment amongst the management team to execute the plan. Once the strategy was developed, we helped build internal capabilities to facilitate the execution of the strategy and strategic initiatives. We helped the company to implement a strategy execution governance process and steering group to oversee implementation of the strategy and facilitated regular strategy execution status reporting meetings with the senior leadership team to ensure results were meeting plan.

Results 

• Development and alignment around a common vision, mission, and strategy. The strategy was articulated in a strategy map and execution roadmap. A strategy execution scorecard was implemented, alignment sessions were facilitated with leaders and representatives across the company and clear communications from leadership helped every employee to understand how they could support the strategy. Personal objectives were linked to strategy to drive individual performance and tied directly to team compensation that rewarded behavior and results expected from the strategy. The Company's success at executing their strategy was recognized publicly by evidence of their induction into the Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy.

NEW CEO PROVIDES STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

Situation:

• Electric Distribution Utility hired a new CEO to lead the company to stimulate growth, improve safety, reliability and increase consumer satisfaction. 

Solution:

• Working with the CEO and his team of direct reports we planned and facilitated a strategic planning and organization re-design process. Interviews with the senior team and selected members of the Board were completed in advance of three separate one-day strategic planning meetings. Meeting 1 focused on understanding the external environment and factors likely to impact the Utility over the next 5 years. Meeting 2 focused on developing the Utility’s vision, mission, values, and high-level strategic goals. Meeting 3  focused on developing the company’s strategic objectives by key business area, identifying the actions required to achieve strategic objectives and construction of the company’s strategic initiative portfolio and execution plan

Results:

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• The Utility’s CEO and his senior team have aligned around their strategy and the new structure and have begun the process of executing their strategy. The strategy has led them to launch two new services to consumers and has already grown revenue and improved consumer satisfaction. The company is now positioned to take advantage of new technologies to modernize their operations and drive to higher levels of reliability. 

IMPROVING BOARD EFFECTIVENESS

Situation:

• Electric Utility with a Board of Directors effective at governing the status quo was facing a future of significant change. While leadership from their Board had been strong in the past, the Board had not been faced with the degree of change expected by the CEO and senior team. For the Utility to meet the challenge of change they needed to prepare their Board to provide stronger leadership.

Solution:

• Working with the agreement of the Board over a 12-month period, we provided and facilitated a three-step process to prepare Board Directors to provide stronger/more effective oversight and strategic change leadership. Step 1 we completed an assessment of each Director's current performance through self-assessment and confidential interviews with other Board Directors and Senior Staff. Feedback was shared confidentially with each Director so they could begin to identify areas where they could improve. Step 2 we worked with each Director to develop 3-5 leadership improvement goals and helped them to develop individual action plans to achieve those goals. Once completed, we assisted each Director to implement their plan and provided monthly coaching calls to offer advice and support. Step 3 we evaluated the progress of each Director, assessed and recognized increased effectiveness, identified continuous improvement opportunities and reinforcers for ongoing effective leadership behaviors.

Results:

• As reported by the Board Directors and the Senior Staff from the Utility, Board effectiveness and readiness to lead in the changing environment has been improved dramatically. Leadership, transparency, trust, communications and role clarity have all seen significant improvements. While dysfunctional behavior, conflict, risk, and apathy have been significantly reduced. The CEO and Board Directors feel more confident and ready for a future of significant change.