Client Case Study
Situation
Three years before the engagement began, this global pharmaceutical company with $25B+ in annual revenues acquired another large, global pharmaceutical provider, which resulted in a 70% increase in global operations – much of it in Europe. The VP of European Operations was charged with merging the operations of the combined company’s IT systems – and realizing major savings in the process.
Complications
Approach
The VP of European Operations moved to Europe for one year while she led this transformation.
Her first step: ask her boss if she could have a professional coach, explaining that her Number One goal was to change the state of their relationship by improving their communication. He said yes, and she began working with us on an individual coaching plan that centered on 360-degree feedback from members of her European team. After reviewing and processing the feedback, she stood in front of the team, shared what she had learned and described her action plan. After addressing her shortcomings, she outlined the expectations and goals she had for the team and the organization.
This meeting was followed immediately by the launch of a Senior Team Alignment Process – a series of offsite strategy workshops designed to:
Early in the process, we worked with her and her team to clearly define roles and responsibilities, re-think the organizational structure, and build a culture of openness that would facilitate continuous communication and interaction across the region during the transformation.
To ensure alignment, we walked her and her team through the process of developing a Strategy Communication Map that was linked to corporate IT’s Strategic plan. The European version of the document was designed to help everyone in the organization understand the objectives of the transformation, how the specific changes would contribute to these objectives, and how they changes tied into the company’s overall IT strategy.
Knowing that effective communication was a weak spot, she hired a communications expert to work with each leader on status reports, which are sent to her so that she can keep the CTO apprised of progress in Europe. We also encouraged her to initiate one-on-one meetings with the CTO every two weeks and to form a European advisory council composed of the business and IT leaders from across Europe
Results
In twelve months:
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