Operations – Cambridge Advisory Partners

Case Study: Global B2B services client

Following 20 years of continuous growth, a successful market listing and establishing itself as one of the world’s top 5 organisations in its sector, our B2B services client wanted to capitalise on its global scale and the learning gained since its highly entrepreneurial beginning.

Developing both a revised Target Operating Model and associated governance structure, CAP utilised all four perspectives to:

Raise barriers to entry and exit through making investments only possible with size, enabled by the transition from autonomous regions to corporate structure
Create greater customer satisfaction through globally supported and consistent front, middle and back office structures
Create senior executive cohesion and significantly raise wider leadership motivation
Develop a cost leadership position through continuously aligning internal support to customer facing needs with a commissioning structure
Ensure greater effectiveness with a clear line of sight throughout the organization, with an agreed corporate portfolio mix and strategically aligned balanced scorecard

With our Organisational Development and Behaviours perspective and Motivational Maps, we profiled the whole Senior Leadership team, using this insight to understand ambition, aptitude and #UniqueContributions©. We engaged the whole team to identify the need for diverse career paths, different to the homogenous “me-centric” approaches of the past. With this we were able to utilise the Commercial perspective to look at alternative ways to contract, both internally and externally, and with a focus on driving the innovation and dynamism that the Digital and Data and Customer Experience perspectives demanded.

We accelerated the genuine appreciation of diversity and set the organisation well on the road to integrated collaboration, with a belief in the vision that No.1 status in its chosen markets is not only achievable, but expected.

Are you wondering is we can do this for your business? If yes please contact us and we'll be happy to help

by CAP

Case Study: Governance in £bn business

Our client is a high profile £bn+ business. Three months before we were engaged it had been involved in a major public incident that had seriously undermined its credibility and reputation, leading to a number of high profile exits. This bore heavily on remaining management and few were willing to put their heads above the parapet, resulting in a culture of long hours and decision making paralysis. At the point that we were engaged, the organisation was at a standstill with executives spending 12-14 hours per day in committee meetings and almost no time running the business. Decisions were being passed from committee to committee, everything was being escalated and morale was ebbing away.

Using our #UniqueContribution© suite of approaches, within a six week period we had managed to:

Free 60% of management’s time spent in committees
Unblock the decision making jam
Create clear guidance on what decisions could be taken where and by whom
Produce decision templates that forced clear articulation of “the ask”
Increase staff net promoter scores by 40% due to increased confidence in management

We knew that people don’t go to work to do a bad job, but are very often not empowered, directed or equipped to do the required job. Missing skills, capability and competence, to a greater or lesser extent, can all be developed. But if a person’s core skills, values and passions don’t align or there is inadequate direction or empowerment, they will simply not thrive, which is what was happening here.

Using our Organisational Development and Behaviours perspective we looked at a number of things:

Were management setting goals and objectives that were achievable with the resource, skills and talent that existed?
Was management supporting the development of a company culture to which the employees’ values aligned?
When goals were set, could they be delivered entirely within the control of those given the task?
Where control was not with those given the task, but required co-operation or enablement from others, was this feasible without undue stress?
When it became clear that goals and objectives could not be achieved either alone or with the support of others, was it possible to explore alternative options or to re-set goals and objectives?

In the case where goals and objectives could not be achieved either through existing means, alternative options, negotiating revised targets, or when doing so would compromise the individuals’ values, what choices were being made to prevent “overwhelmed” individuals and teams?

Based on the evidence we found, it was clear that there was nothing to gain from being a slave to a corporate business plan that was undeliverable in its current guise with the existing operating model.

Working with the leadership we utilised the #UniqueContribution© test to develop clarity about:

What are the goals and objectives and who sets them
What decision is required and where is it best taken
What delegations have been allocated and what empowerment is required

In addition, we defined what should constitute adequate management information, a process to reasonably identify and address risk, and proportionate assurance to give comfort that processes would operate as intended.

What had been missing is what we call “boundary” management. That is to say, before goals and objectives are set or accepted, that they are checked for achievability. If they require input or contribution outside of personal or team control, how can you get it? What empowerment is needed? Are there any “sacred cows” that can’t be challenged?

We ensured that when escalating a matter, there was clarity on what the “ask” was and why it wouldn’t be within an individual or team’s gift to resolve it. Equally, we ensured that when a decision was escalated, it was clear what was being asked and why it couldn’t be decided below, or what delegations and empowerments could be put in place to allow the decision to be taken sooner and “closer to the action”.

Six weeks on, the organisation started to function. Six months on and productivity is up by 30%, NPS continues to improve and churn is down by 80%.

What do the next six months hold for you? Contact us if you want to see these same improvements.

by CAP

Case Study: Services TOM

Working with a major national service business, we developed a Target Operating Model (TOM) which has fundamentally re-defined the customer relationship and expectation of value, whilst at the same time re-setting the industry standard of excellence. As a result:

Additional value-add services are being delivered, increasing both revenue and retention
Customer response times have been drastically reduced, with a more consistent positive user experience and at lower cost
Work in progress has been virtually eliminated, resulting in lower cost and reduced working capital
Back office costs have been reduced by over 60% whilst improving customer satisfaction
Reliance on individuals and retained knowledge has been eliminated

To do this we undertook a fundamental review of what customers really wanted and how existing processes contributed or detracted from this. Using this analysis we were able to identify that there was a fundamental mismatch of expectations, which was industry-wide. We also realised that the processes in place were not sustainable within existing ways of working, leading to excessive stress levels, increased churn and low levels of productivity. Having framed the problem and defined the desired outcome, we deployed a collaborative approach to build the solution.

Through our Customer and User Experience perspective we focussed on speed to fulfilment and effective communication (not cost per hour as was the perceived wisdom) as this allowed our clients’ customers to utilise their assets for longer and reduce their customer disruption. We used the Digital and Data perspective to demonstrate there was real value in collecting trend analysis, which could then be used to support pro-active maintenance.

This was supported by the Commercial perspective which not only drove the payment terms from hourly rates, estimated in advance, validated afterwards and billed monthly, to fixed price work packages authorised in advance and billed on completion, but also allowed the creation of trend analysis for defined work packages which simply wasn’t possible when all that had been previously captured was the number of hours charged. And finally we looked holistically at what was detracting from performance and motivation using the Organisational Development and Behaviours perspective.

Our client now has a discernibly differentiated offering, has established an industry “new norm” which it is exploiting through 1st mover advantage, and is rapidly creating clear blue water between itself and other industry players.

by CAP