Challenge

Although financially successful with strong market share, our client recognised that public perception of its industry was changing. The organisation’s Executive Team were highly experienced; however, were not aligned on how best to address the change in public sentiment. 

A second challenge was that the challenge did not fall within a clear remit of an existing business unit, and the “definition of success” in addressing the challenge was also unclear.  Finally, any potential strategy identified to address the primary challenge needed to support the organisation’s current core business.

Approach

The initial step invited each Executive Team member to engage in a “week in the life of” experience where they rotated through each other Executive Member’s portfolio to learn more about its strategic priorities and operational challenges.

Next, the Executive Team restated the challenge as an enterprise (rather than functional) challenge and developed an “ideal world” operating model for the organisation where the enterprise challenge was resolved.

Finally, the Executive Team established a set of strategic priorities and supporting change implementation principles for transitioning the organisation towards the preferred future operating model.

Outcomes

• Greater cross-functional alignment between members of the Executive Team in addressing a complex challenge. 
• The decline in industry-measured public perception of the organisation plateaued.
• The financial performance of the organisation's current core business was maintained in the 12 months post the implementation of the preferred future operation model.