One Team, First Time On-Time, Every Time
The Challenge
Take two large, independent companies, both manufacturing similar products, each highly profitable and between them, owning 90% of the market.Now bring these two companies together in a merged company that should now control all of the 90%.Wow – a highly profitable organisation that can increase margins and still retain customers.A win-win situation!
So wrong!
This often happens in mergers.This was a merger of two very different cultures where one did not fit with the other; were “us and them” divided the resources into competing camps and the Customers suffered the consequences.As a result the Customers moved their business to foreign based suppliers: meaning that expenses increased, turnover and margins disappeared.Disaster!
In the three years after the merger the merged company had three Managing Directors, a management group that did not operate as an effective team and an increasingly disgruntled workforce. Key skills and experienced resources were lost to competitors. Quality and on-time delivery disappeared – the basics were lost.
Here is what some of the merged company’s key customers said about them:
“Overall they used to have 80% of our business.It is now 25% due to poor service and quality.We are not happy and have moved to new suppliers.This is based on quality and availability. All I hear from them is “I can’t.””
“They must focus on getting the basics right first. First be an excellent supplier, deliver consistent quality and delivery, and then move to partnership issues.”
“They over-commit and over-promise!”
“I have a feeling in my gut that we’re not being told the whole truth. They keep giving me excuses and promises that aren’t met.”
“The quality of communication creates more questions than it does answers.”
“Their hearts and minds are not in the new company because of the different culture mix of the two old companies. It’s their attitude – they need to re-create themselves.”
The advice to “re-create themselves” was taken seriously by the fourth MD who took over in year four of the merger.He developed a focused strategy, brought together a team of competent, experienced people and implemented six major process interventions.One of these process interventions was Argil’s “Developing a Delivery Culture” process which focused on changing the leadership style and behaviours/ culture in the company, which then enabled the delivery of promises made to shareholders and Customers.
This delivery culture process is being implemented in five phases over three to four years:
Phase 1:
Overall Organisation Culture Measurement – identify the current leadership style and the resultant behaviours within the day-to-day business.
Phase 2:
Individual leadership style and behaviour assessment, followed by the learning of the leadership skills required to shift behaviour to the most effective behaviour.
Phase 3:
Team assessments, and developing purpose and plan to become the most effective team using these leadership skills.
Phase 4:
Cross-team building – developing and creating powerful cross team partnerships using the the leadership skills to harness the synergy available in groups (result 1+1=3).
Phase 5:
Overall organisational culture measurement to re-assess the progress in shifting the behaviour from ineffective to effective.
The Result
After two and a half years, what are the results?
At a recent EXCO team effectiveness workshop the MD said “If we look at our business, we are good at what we do…we are a World Class Company – but getting to the top is the hardest part and the way we will get there is by changing our behaviour.”
In a note to his team after the seminar the MD wrote “I would like to thank you most sincerely for your participation and involvement in the team effectiveness seminar last week. It was really the most awesome conference I have participated in, in all my working years. The positive emotions of belonging to a special team were evident throughout the programme.”
What the customers are now saying:
“I can’t rate them 5/5 because of their pricing, but I will rate them 4/5 because of their innovation, quality and service.”
“Certain aspects they do well – like product quality.”
“Our process has never been held up by them for a lack of supply.Their executing is meeting our expectations.”
“There is still work to do in this merged company, but the shift in focus in the organisation’s culture to be customer driven is making a difference to the company results.”