Business Realignment Case Study

Situation
XYZ Corporation is a $400 million + telecommunications company formed through the acquisition of small local carriers.  The corporate infrastructure was highly innovative and responsive to change.  The operations side of the company – primarily the acquired businesses – remains rigid and bureaucratic.  In the mid-term, executive leadership believed that the operations portion of the organization must be realigned to become more responsive and customer-centered.  However, leadership insisted that any realignment must not interrupt or adversely affect the day-to-day operations of the business.  There was also an expressed need to enroll or engage the senior leadership team in an understanding and agreement to the challenge questions before proceeding.

Solution
Based upon the client’s needs, ESP partners first facilitated a learning process for critical stakeholders by convening a dynamic inquiry meeting with each member of the senior leadership team.  The inquiries involved focused conversations and open-ended questions.  When complete, this step served as a starting place for a meeting of the team to discuss the business realignment question, or challenge question.

Thereafter, we began a formal facilitated planning process to attune the operations groups with the ideal reality.  This process was cascaded and replicated at both the division and department levels.  The exact nature and structure of the process was shaped by the previous meetings and conversations.

The purpose of this facilitated process was to guide stakeholders through the process of creating a plan for alignment of operations.

Outcome
XYZ Corporation’s structure and culture were successfully realigned without a disruption in operations, negative change to income, or significant loss of talent.