The Situation
An international manufacturing company with retail locations worldwide reached out to The Northridge Group for help. The parent company was experiencing a great deal of growth, and as a result, their regional hubs were going to be held to a higher revenue goal.
To achieve these new goals, leadership needed to determine how to baseline their revenue and manage seven different operations throughout the world, all of whom had different operational and reporting practices with different leaders & priorities. They all relied on a single IT organization.
The Approach
We were asked to work with the leaders in each of the regions and gain an understanding of what their priorities were. In tandem, we needed to work with the IT organization to understand how they worked with each leader.
In both situations, we needed to identify what they think they their standards were and build a governance model that allowed them to really align strategic objectives – we needed to identify what is REALLY working in their operation vs. what they THINK is working and create a solid method, so everyone is communicating the same thing in the same way.
To build off a program they had already created, we asked the following:
- What is the form of organization that is needed to support their transformation?
- What processes and technologies can we implement that will support that transformation?
- What Change Management and governance need to be put in place that can be supported and execute that transformation?
As with all of our clients, we began to immerse ourselves in their organization, creating a partnership with a defined end goal.
We executed interviews with leaders, operations and other local experts/SMEs located across the globe. We asked a base list of questions so there was a standardized approach going into it. We kept them direct and allowed leaders to provide needs/wants sharing as well.
“It was a lot of meetings with different HR representatives, local and regional leaders,” said Suzanne Robinson. “We were trying to take all the information and common themes and pull that across all of the other organizations in an attempt to find nuggets of opportunities and then building from them so they would feel a sense of ownership.”
This was critical information so when we reached the suggestion phase, we were able to create a deeply customized approach based on what we had learned about their specific needs.
We came up with a standard roadmap: Do Now, Do Next, Do Later. This allows organizations to better plan strategize, reducing stress and missteps.
We suggested the following:
- Create a PMO (Project Management Office)
- Stand up a Steering Committee
- Formal structure where leaders from each region can discuss all the tools and a uniform, formal review process of the new work coming in, work that is being done.
- Overlay against strategic objectives to ensure compliance
- Technology build
- Opportunities to leverage what tools they are currently using to create greater efficiency across the different departments.
- Recommendations around certain metrics that aligned with their success.
- Standardized Communication Pieces
- Taking existing forms from each region and creating one standardized suite
- Meeting agendas to run efficient meetings
- Project management readouts
- Timeline for milestones
- Creating a formal escalation path
- Creating recognition for progress as projects are completed or at least work is completed on the path to. A single source tracker instead of multiple trackers.
- Taking existing forms from each region and creating one standardized suite
The Implementation
With the research and assessment complete, along with a detailed strategy of needs and solutions, we were able to provide the client with a well-structured journey map.
Then we suggested to source a PMO lead, allowing them to get ahead from an execution and adoption standpoint.
They asked us to help implement a steering committee with the assistance of another internal consultant. With him acting as office lead, we began organizing all of the intake items, creating a standardized approach for a steering committee, from proposal to execution.
The Outcome
Before we could implement and track outcomes, however, the company underwent a management restructuring.
The company was reluctant to move forward until the restructuring was complete. We compiled all our findings and action strategy and created an implementation guide that would allow leaders to move forward with a steering committee as well as all the other tools. We built out templates, examples, cautions, best practices, offering a fully detailed roadmap so they could act when ready.
“As good partners, we wanted to make sure we delivered over and above what was asked,” Robinson explained.
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