Case Studies

Telecommunications (Brazil)

A state-based Brazilian telecommunications monopoly was facing radical changes in the industry, due to government privatization and deregulation initiatives. The goal of the project was to develop a market focus, and capabilities to win in a competitive marketplace. Some key aspects of the project included:

  • A refocused business strategy, including a prioritized set of product/ market alignments.
  • Development of a new market-centered, process-based, business model aligned with the strategy.
  • Redesign of eight core business processes, including: business and operational planning, new product development, selling, service provisioning, service maintenance, information technology planning, network maintenance and load balancing, and billing.
  • Consolidation of multiple, fragmented, redundant functions.
  • Development and implementation of an account management function for strategic and top tier accounts.
  • Introduction of service delivery management and improvement teams.
  • Restructuring of the reward system.
  • Design and implementation of a massive communications program to manage the "rumor mill."

Development of a massive training effort to increase employee awareness of the new environment, and the new cultural and work values required to succeed. This project utilized a widespread employee involvement process to ensure buy-in and commitment to the project and its implementation.

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Healthcare Delivery

A leading hospital had tried twice in the previous 3 years to implement a new patient-centered scheduling system, to coordinate scheduling and delivery of service across multiple clinics and failed both times. Some key aspects of the project, which succeeded where former efforts failed, included:

  • Assessment of:
    • Strengths and weaknesses of prior implementation efforts.
    • Resistance to the new system within the various clinic sites.
    • Impact of the hospital’s business model as a source of resistance to the new scheduling process. The new scheduling process required open access to all clinic’s schedules, but each clinic was run like a separate business, and kept separate books. This created powerful resistance to change.
  • Development of a new scheduling workflow, together with new job designs, to support the new scheduling system.
  • Development of a simplified customer interface function.
  • Development of a change management strategy, including:
    • A phased approach, based on identification of clinics that were "natural partners."
    • Identification and enlistment of key physicians who understood the need for the change to serve as "change champions"
    • Development of a business case, and presentations, showing in clear terms the business impact (lost revenue from HMOs) of not proceeding with the new system.
    • Demonstrations of the new system prior to implementation.
    • Increased training for support staff.
    • Creation of a new scheduling and triage function.
    • Redeployment and retraining of displaced personnel.

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International Petroleum Corporation

The Senior Vice President of the Exploration and Production Organization of a major international petroleum company wanted to increase responsiveness and flexibility, and reduce overall costs, in the drilling operation. Drilling costs were reduced by 8-10% (approx. $35M) annually, and drilling cycle time was reduced by 15%. Some key outcomes of the project included:

  • Redesign of the exploration and production planning and realization (drilling) process.
  • Consolidation of multiple, fragmented, redundant organizations and functions into a shared services model.
  • Improved selection and planning of drilling sites, focusing heavily on improved cost/benefit calculations and payout projections.
  • Heightened introduction and utilization of leading edge technologies at drilling sites.
  • Development and implementation of an intranet for cross-disciplinary sharing of project design, engineering specifications, and drill site tracking and review data.
  • Introduction of multi-disciplinary teams to manage drilling projects, with shared goals and rewards.
  • Increased empowerment and risk-taking for front-line personnel, and increased authority for multi-disciplinary teams to make key project decisions.
  • Introduction of an organizational learning and knowledge management process, including post-project team reviews, development and implementation of a best practices data base, and annual project sharing events.

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High Technology

A leading international manufacturer of complex testing and measurement equipment and systems wanted to 1) improve its ability to make simple sales transactions easier for customers, 2) sell and project-manage installation of complex networked systems, and 3) improve its post-sale customer support function. Some key aspects of the project included:

  • For complex networked systems, a refocusing of strategy to emphasize and manage the total customer relationship instead of selling individual products.
  • Introduction of a project management function to manage the sale and installation of complex networked systems.
  • Development and implementation of an Internet-based selling process for simple product transactions.
  • Development of an integrated information technology solution to track and manage the sales and installation process from end-to-end.
  • Consolidation of fragmented customer support organizations, to provide customers with a single point of contact and coordinated support for complex systems.

As a result, sales volume increased by 10% within the first year of implementation, and customer complaints regarding post-sale support decreased by 15%.

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Financial Services — Insurance

A leading insurance company’s national training organization was transformed into a Performance Consulting organization, in order to take on increased accountability for measurable impact on business results. Some key aspects of the project included:

Merger/consolidation of three formerly separate training organizations that previously were functionally aligned (Sales, Underwriting and Claims).

  • A new organizational mission, vision and strategy.
  • Organizational restructuring.
  • Redefinition of service offerings for clients.
  • Creation, development, and implementation of a totally new Performance Consulting process, and detailed methodology.
  • Development of job support tools and training for the new Performance Consulting capability.
  • Creation of a totally new Client Management job function.
  • Retraining of organizational members.

This project was done in an innovative way: the client held tightly to the project goals, but "let go" of the process of meeting them. The organizational members were chartered and empowered to accomplish the transformation goals. The cultural merger of the former line training groups was enabled through the transformation process itself. The design team was composed of key managers and trainers from the three former organizations, and all project deliverables were co-designed and co-developed by all design team members. Through this intensive process, a new culture, and shared goals, gradually emerged and took hold.

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Healthcare — Medical Device Company

In response to increasing competition, the Vice President of R & D/Product Development for a major division of a national medical device company wanted to significantly decrease time-to-market for new products, and to increase reliability and consistency of process performance. We assessed the new product development process and the effectiveness of the organizations and teams involved, from Concept through Manufacturing Implementation. Some key outcomes of the project included:

  • Clarification and simplification of key process phases.
  • Increased emphasis on customer needs and business risk, and away from over-reliance on avoidance of regulatory risk, as project management drivers.
  • Tightened linkages between customer requirements and product design specifications.
  • Elevated priority of new product development projects in the performance management and compensation systems.
  • Enhanced linkages between the budget development process and the project planning process to ensure tighter focus on high priority projects and adequate funding of selected projects.
  • Implementation of formal, multi-disciplinary project teams with shared accountability for results.
  • Increased training of project team leaders and members in Project Management skills.
  • Increased empowerment (decision-making power) of project teams.
  • Implementation of a Project Review process and a Best Practices Forum for purposes of organizational learning and process improvement.
  • Increased cultural emphasis on experimentation and learning, as opposed to fear of "making a mistake."

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Telecommunications — Customer Service

To support introduction of a new product, a major telecommunications company realized that dramatic performance improvements were required in the customer service maintenance process. Some key aspects of the project, which included dramatic changes to operations, and to culture and management behaviors, included:

  • Redesign of the service maintenance work process.
  • Redesign of the information technology platform used by service personnel, to integrate fragmented support databases, and to create a user-friendly, process-driven, graphical interface.
  • Development of empowered teams in the new service center, who were also chartered with development and implementation of ongoing service improvements.
  • Training of customer service center personnel in process improvement methods and tools.
  • Coaching the work center manager to refocus his job to be more aligned with strategic and long term issues, garnering resources, and coaching of employees, rather than being involved in detailed operational considerations.

Results included an average reduction in service delivery cycle time of 25%, and an increase in customer satisfaction ratings of 5%.

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Small Business

  • The President and CEO of a young company were concerned that sales of their flagship product had been stagnant for nearly two years, and were beginning to decline. The company’s strategy had been to utilize revenue from sales of the flagship product to finance new product development, so no new products had been launched for over two years. It was also becoming apparent that unless something changed drastically, the company could possibly go out of business within a year. Here are the results of our work:
  • Realigned competencies, jobs & personnel
  • Restructured order fulfillment, saving nearly 50% of production costs
  • Switched to outsourcing of several operational processes, saving additional time and money
  • EBITDA went from the Red to the Black for the first time in several years
  • Sales increased by 23.6% over the previous year due
  • The company recaptured and revitalized its original vision (which had become lost in the dust due to constant short-term financial pressures). As a result:
    • The corporate debt burden was boldly renegotiated and restructured. They found creditors amazingly cooperative (at least one identified a "softening" due to the new vision).
    • Attracted new strategic partners with funding to help drive new product development.
    • Boldly planned an array of products driven from a menu developed in structured dialogues (within the Executive Team) during the project.

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Government

The internal training and organizational development organization in a large state government agency was struggling with factions and infighting, could not seem to come to agreement on a shared mission and set of products, and morale was low. Everyone was hunkered down in their own private bunker, trying to do their job, and just survive from day to day.

Through our work with them, this organization:

  • Moved from a set of three independent, conflicting subgroups into a more unified team, with shared committed to the unit's overall good.
  • Developed a clear, shared basis for organizational performance, including a shared vision, values, mission, services, customers, and performance assessment criteria.
  • Learned how to draw on the diverse backgrounds and perspectives available within the team as a means to improve project performance

In the words of the project sponsor:

  • "We began to enter a paradoxical state in which we see ourselves more and more as a unified team, but at the same time, we respect and honor the real differences among us, both as individuals and as subgroups"
  • "We are learning to leverage differences and diversity as a source of enrichment, learning, and change."
  • "A level of understanding was reached as to our need to continue working on ourselves to become a more 'healthy' team, so we can function with integrity when we service others within our organization."

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