Strategy and change
Strategy and Change
Background
Our client is a medium sized player in the Financial Services Industry. Their operations cover the provision of Investment, Protection and Pension products. Distribution is conducted primarily through two Company employed sales teams located throughout the UK and segmented into several customer-facing channels, with a growing contribution from the direct marketing operation.
The company was facing increased competition and the newly appointed CEO wondered what made them different from the opposition.
Consulting Assignment
The CEO asked us to help them become more customer focused. He felt that this was a potential source of competitive advantage.
Key Project Activities
We undertook a business analysis, reviewing the industry, competitors, segmenting the players and their customer base. A clear opportunity existed for this company to excel in customer centricity. They had a sizable customer base, which they had failed to properly explore in terms of how to create added value.
We discussed the opportunities with the executive team. Conducted several workshops on customer focus and the changes required. The CEO decided he would like to share the findings with the business and set the operational management the task of developing the future for the business.
Accordingly, we established the following change teams with the questions set by the CEO:
- Investment – how can we establish a track record in first quartile investment results?
- Sales/Marketing – how can we service our existing customers better?
- Operations – how can we leverage our operations to create better value for our customers?
- Culture/Structure – how can we become customer centric in everything we do?
The senior executives supported by middle management rose to the occasion and developed outstanding approaches/action plans for change. The organisational energy released by the process took everyone by surprise. In the words of the CEO…” we seem to have a released a sleeping giant…its now up to the executive team to make it come true.”
Client Benefits
The key benefits were:-