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
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.
A transformative view
With a vision to challenge the Consultancy status quo, we aim to redefine how our clients achieve their business outcomes, creating greater value sooner and in ways that are difficult to replicate.
#ConsultancyRepurposed©
CAP knows that when the most relevant insights are assembled, shared and challenged from multiple perspectives, the best opportunities and outcomes will emerge. We do not re-invent the wheel unnecessarily, but instead use a range of techniques to capture, analyse and repurpose this breadth of insight, looking at where worlds collide and also the gaps between. A small but perfectly formed suite of approaches enhanced exponentially by perspective. Creative thinking across industry boundaries to give our clients transformational results, quickly. We have the inside-the-box thinking of the big consultancies, but the unique ability to deliver outside-the-box thinking without constraints.
#BusinessGrowthParadox©
When we look to grow and scale organisations, we talk about go slow to go fast. By this we mean helping businesses to move with speed, but importantly to get the right building blocks in place from the outset, #SettingUpForSuccess. This is an important part of business growth and we are proud to work as a critical friend to help challenge, resource and commission your path.
#UniqueContribution© and #SettingUpForSuccess
Entrepreneurs by their very nature are dynamic able individuals, capable of doing most things that they put their mind to. But just because they can do something, it does not mean they should do it, especially if it stops them from doing what only they can do. Equally, in larger organisations time is often wasted and poor decisions made where there is insufficient consideration of who or where it’s best to take a decision, where delegated authority is inappropriate or where the clarity of the “ask” is missing. Our #UniqueContribution© test addresses each of these concerns, as well as applying a behavioural layer to prevent people becoming overwhelmed.
We will help you to stop doing what others can do equally well and give you the time back to be unique. We know how to ask the right questions to get the right answers and we do it in an interesting and engaging way.
#KillingComplexity
How often does that ‘quick fix’ or ‘workaround’ become embedded? How many of those “but it won’t take a minute” compromises become the new norm? Add these together, layer upon layer, and you rapidly get to ways of working that are compromised in so many ways; unnecessary complexity. The impact on profitability is obvious, the impact on people is often catastrophic and your ability to comply efficiently with regulation, devastating.
At the heart of what we do is #KillingComplexity©. Technology itself (inside the box) may be extremely complicated and intricate, but there is never a good reason why any organisation’s processes need to be complex. A well thought through operating model, which is simple to operate yet “genius” to design, is the nirvana. And this is what we do.
Outcome focus is essential. This means being clear on what is to be achieved and open to the ways in which that is delivered. It needs to recognise the #UniqueContribution© of individuals and refuse to compromise on optimising these or their motivational drivers. Done well, this releases huge amounts of untapped potential, exponentially increases productivity and associated profitability, whilst at the same time eliminates untold levels of stress. We call it #KillingComplexity©.
For a different approach, come and talk to us and be part of the change.
Why Cambridge Advisory Partners?
CAP is all about creating industry leaders, ensuring clients achieve significant differentiation and secure unrivalled market position, and then driving home that advantage.
We don’t accept that it’s ever enough to merely survive, and we only work with clients with a burning desire to thrive.
We are expert practitioners in the #BusinessGrowthParadox© of going slow to go fast, believe in #KillingComplexity© and utilise everyone’s #UniqueContribution©. Our overarching approach is #ConsultancyRepurposed© - to define the very essence of business consultancy in the connected digital society.
CAP knows that when the most relevant insights are assembled, shared and challenged from multiple perspectives, the best opportunities and outcomes will emerge.
We help you achieve this with pace and energy, embracing lateral thinking and delivering practical and sustainable solutions in an ethical way, always focussing on the outcome.
CAP knows this is best achieved when you harness both behavioural drivers and technology differentiators to truly motivate, and when you are unbiased towards industry norms and perceived wisdom.
We will not compromise on quality. We will never commit to more than our partners can oversee and we see our greatest abilities in being able to understand your business more clearly, identify opportunities more quickly and unlock the greatest realisable value.
To join our exciting client base, let's discuss how we can work with you.
Our unique approach at CAP
CAP knows its strengths and unashamedly plays to them, and them alone. We deliver three types of assignment:
- Strategy and target operating model
- Governance, risk and compliance
- Operational effectiveness and supply chain optimisation
These are our “disciplines” and our partners are each renowned experts in these fields.
Where CAP is truly unique and where it defines #ConsultancyRepurposed© is its application of four inextricably linked “perspectives”:
- User and customer experience
- Digital and data
- Organisational development and behaviours
- Commercial
But, unlike others, we:
- Are industry agnostic, focusing on outcomes and how they are best achieved, regardless of sector
- Secure insights through combining “big data”, social/business media (inc. discussion forums), relevant networks and bespoke research
- Utilise opensource tools and techniques, but creatively, in ways others have yet to imagine
- Continuously look at where disparate worlds collide and where opportunities to re-define the accepted norm exist
For CAP, simply looking to “catch up” through benchmarking-led approaches is never enough. Our approach goes beyond this and ensures we set our clients apart from their competitors, delivering growth and scale, stability and progress, and transformation and market leadership.
Our disciplines
Strategy and target operating models
Why change unless you want to be the best? We see target operating model work as an opportunity for transformation. Whether you want to grow or evolve, we will define a strategy and ways of working to take you to industry leadership, allowing both differentiation and longer-term cost leadership to re-define your industry’s benchmark standard of excellence.
Operational effectiveness and supply chains
#KillingComplexity© is one of our mantras. With experience of working with owners on scaling for growth, successful businesses ready for listing, or established businesses re-inventing to take advantage of technology and market advances, we have the credentials you need. We have an intense focus on playing to strengths, finding the #UniqueContribution© and eliminating “time theft”. Our clients spend more time doing the things that differentiate them. Going faster because they partner with others who are specialists in their own domain. And having access to greater opportunities because they see the value in collaboration.
Governance, risk and compliance
There is nothing our team doesn’t know about this area. Whether you’re after compliance review or addressing governance with game changing thinking around flat structure leadership, we have the experience to make a positive impact. And we always ensure that more relevant insight is created at less cost with significantly less disruption.
Perspectives
Our value goes well beyond our finely tuned, expert-led discipline expertise. How we deliver this using our unique perspectives is transformational. We invest heavily in creating these perspectives, following the latest thinking, engaging in and leading the most relevant debates and creating forums for collaboration across sector and functional boundaries to tease out the very best ways for our clients to deliver their required outcomes; but we don’t merely replicate what others have done, we translate, re-imagine and repurpose to create sources of sustainable competitive advantage.
Customer and user experience
This perspective looks to help our clients optimise how they serve their customers and clients, understanding what customers are looking for, what they value and are prepared to pay for, how they prefer to interact, and the true nature and respective needs of the customer provider relationship. Fail to deliver what the customer needs and there will be no market. Over deliver where there is no perceived value and you’re incurring unnecessary cost and affording competitors cost advantage.
Digital and data
The world we live in is increasingly digitising and often in ways that we couldn’t have imagined even a few years ago. This pace of change is set to increase with AI, distributed privacy and big data gathering momentum. This perspective analyses how our clients can take advantage, not just of these developments, but also from the inherent value in its intrinsic data sets and how it can drive advantage (including “built in” compliance) from a well organised data architecture. Such is the importance of this area that not only does CAP have its own research capability, but it also has active partnerships with researchers in the university and beyond.
Organisational development
Whilst the impact of AI cannot be underestimated, people remain one of the greatest assets a company has. Aligned and motivated, it will feel like there is nothing that can’t be achieved. Without this, it’s always going to be a tougher ride. Our partners are passionate about people and people development, both at an individual and system level, and have worked with some of the largest talent management companies around. We have a network of specialists from numerous fields including, for example, psychologists, NLP master practitioners and motivation scientist. We have access to a suite of tools ranging from motivational maps through to resilience and mental toughness, which we routinely deploy to add a degree of richness that other strategy consultancies find hard to match.
Commercial
#KillingComplexity© and the #BusinessGrowthParadox© are at the heart of what we think about. Creating the environment where people and organisations play to their strengths, killing the “theft” of valuable time is essential, collaborating vs competing, and taking the right “Make vs Buy” decisions without ego because it is the right thing to do. Helping clients understand which assets are core and how they can be monetised in ways that they had never thought of is of very significant value, and an area of strength for CAP. Within our team we have accountants, lawyers, entrepreneurs, scientists and operations directors who are each passionate about discovering increasingly effective commercial models and are each committed to continuous learning.
Come and talk to us to understand how our disciplines and perspectives can help make your business unique!