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Clients and Cases
Sample of Client Projects: (Read our in-depth success stories) These are divided
into three sections as follows: 1.) Organizational Level, 2) Mergers and Aquisitions, and 3) Operational Management Level 1. Organizational Level Confused
Strategy: A major international airline was confused with rapid changes in the business and with
technology they feared might reduce air travel in the business sector. Participating
in a "vision audit" and an environmental scanning process using computer-generated scenarios, they determined several
possible futures, then effectively set their strategy. Understanding Corporate Culture and Growth Opportunities: A
new CEO was hired into a large pulp and paper company from another industry. He needed to learn quickly about the strategic
variables affecting the company's business and the strengths and weaknesses of his key executives. Two meetings at a vision
retreat with his top 25 executives allowed him to quicky understand the new corporate culture and the most attractive growth
opportunities available to the company, so he could "hit the ground running". Developing the Executive Team: When a number of star-quality
executives left a small high tech firm during the "dot com boom", the CEO was unable to replace them with experienced
managers. He promoted junior level managers to his executive team. However, he quickly realized the new executive team was
not performing to his satisfaction. Utilizing the Alignment, Integration and Accountability model, the group was led through
a processof securing agreement to corporate goals, what was needed regarding organizational level design (architecture) to
support them, and how they would both integrate their functions and develop accountability. They implement the above system, reducing slippage in delivery and quality, increasing accountability across all
functions to the satisfaction of the CEO. 2. Mergers and Acquisitions: Acquiring
Two New Companies: A Fortune
500 company acquired two relatively small companies to forward their software development efforts. Within two months the three
groups (one from the parent company) were in breakdown, unable to deal with each other's expectations and processes. The groups
were brought together to "clear the air", develop working relationships , implement new mechanisms for collaborating
and coordination of action, co-develop and commit to a set of operating guidelines, learn key principles of successful virtual
working relationships and determine a system for handling the inevitable breakdowns that occur on any project. The groups
reported immediate increase in morale, realized they could make the project work and understood that they needed to commit
to new practices. The project was rated a success by management. Acquiring Companies: A small software firm was acquired by a large corporation. Their only product
was in direct competition with the parent firm's product. Top management of the parent company was ignoring organizational
problems brought on by the merger and voiced by the acquired company's CEO. This led to a morale problem, problems with delivery
and the threat of key people leaving. Working with the Executive Team of the acquired company, led to a diagnosis of problems,
solutions and an implementation plan that began to energize them. The team realized that their attitude about having been
acquired by a large corporation, had been covering up many of the delivery problems that existed prior ro the merger. They
began to address merger issues along with their own process problems. Maintaining their "small company" environment
and producing their software in an exemplary fashion brought them great satisfaction. Acquisition Process: A Fortune 100 company was anticipating the purchase of two smaller companies. They wanted to know the pitfalls of the aquisition process. Managers attended several meetings during which their concerns were voiced and they learned the pitfalls and how to plan for them. They determined the process they would follow, selected an energetic manager to lead the process and also determined how they would deal with the ongoing concerns, conflict and cultural accommodation process. The acquisitions went smoothly and they are continuing to work well together. 3. Operational Management Projects: Teams and Member Accountability A
manager complained that team members made promises to each other and to him, then failed to deliver. With our support
he began to use our "Committed Communication" TM process and co-developed with the team a set of operating guidelines
which all agreed to follow. Accountability jumped dramatically, as did energy and morale. One team member who failed to adhere
to the group - determined guidelines was replaced. Coherent Management: Promoting top technical people was leading to
a management breakdown as the junior managers did not know how to produce through the efforts of others in the context of
a coherent management system. They did not posess the skills required to coordinate actions and keep critical projects on
target. Instituting our Mastering Management Conversations program (foundation skills) along with the Effective Manager series
(core competencies of management) led to a dramatic increase in overall management competence. Technical people who had threatened
to leave because of poor management practices reported positive differences. Most stayed. The Marketing and Development
Conflict: A serious breakdown in cooperation in a large
software development company between marketing and development led to a total cessation of communication. In a facilitated
session, both groups had requested, they vented their frustration with each other for several hours, then realized they
actually wanted the same results. Also, it dawned on them that they worked for the same company and that it would be
alot better if they treated other companies as the enemy, not their own functional groups. With follow up coaching, they made
great gains in their ability to get needed support from each other. Dysfunctional Department: A VP took over a poorly functioning engineering department in a newly acquired company. The consultants supported him developing strategic goals, dealing with corporate culture differences, and handling individual team issues. Over a 16 month period, he was able to transform engineering into a model department, which other departments then emulated. Distributed Development
of Products/Acquisitions: A company grew by acquisition, increasing the number of geographically distributed R&D sites to five. In addition, all five sites had different cultures. Working on a critical project became a "nightmare, in the words of the project director. Spending time developing relationships, understanding each other's culture, clarifying expectations and establishing ground rules led to a dramatic increase in their ability to collaborate. The project was completed on time, within budget with high quality. The poject group is now refininf fistributed development techniques for their present project. Executive Style Issue: A bright, young executive
was alienating his team, other team members and peers. Through a process of interviewing, standardized assessments and coaching,
the executive came to grips with his style issues making dramatic, positive changes. HR as Business Partners: The VP of HR determined his people needed to become more adept at "internal
consulting" so that line managers would view them as business partners. A three month intensive program provided the
principles, processes and structure that allowed HR people to successfully coach managers. Managers expressed gratitude for
the help they had received from the HR representatives . The Challenge of Success: How management consulting and coaching helped an organization overcome tough challenges,
build a high performance team and surpass business objectives. Challenge: Creating Top Quality Managers How one company
turned junior level managers into a top quality executive team and became a worldwide leader in its industry.
One Engineer's Story: How a valuable engineer overcame obstacles
to become a successful manager. Success Stories: Challenge
- Software Development How consulting and coaching helped an acquired organization deliver a software porduct on time, within budget, with
customer satisfaction and become a model for the rest of the organization. Adobe
Systems, Inc., acquired Frame, Inc. producers of Framemaker. Morale was low while employees adjusted to working for a large
corporation. Additionally, soon after the acquisition, it was discovered that the software team for the Framemaker product
was going to miss its delivery date. This was jeopardizing two releases because there was a temptation to take resources
from the second project to assist the first. It was the first time that parallel projects for two releases had been tried,
but it wasnt clear whether or not this was the cause. Inquiries to the team resulted in blame and excuses rather than problems
and solutions. The VP of Engineering brought in the Lauridsen
Group to assess and diagnose the situation, then prescribe a solution. Adobe Success Story Highlights:
Engineers viewed QA as the enemy, rather than
as partner in their development cycle. They saw QA a barrier to getting their product out the door. The software development
group had evolved from the time when they were doing smaller projects and were engineer driven. As project scope expanded,
there was a need to develop a process and team structure to cope with the new level of complexity. The authority
of the product manager (who reported to the marketing department) was ambiguous. So his ability to modify the features of
the product to balance development time with features was regularly challenged by the engineers. Because the engineers were
experts in the subject matter, they were able to overwhelm the product manager, rather than use their technical knowledge
to leverage his customer and market knowledge. Compounding these problems was the style of the director of development, who would
tell people what to do rather than engaging his team in a collaborative effort. The director was an exceptionally bright
person who typically had the "right answers" but missed the context of various situations thereby alienating his
team. Diagnosis and
Solution Session: The consultants met with the team to share the results of the interviews and diagnosis and also began to educate
them about the merger transition process. They began to understand that many of their feelings were normal and not all unusual,
given the situation. They began to collaboratively formulate a solution. The team was introduced to the Lauridsen
Group's Committed Communication (CC) model, a system and framework for orienting the team to the human element of coordination
of dependencies. The system was introduced as a methodology for systematically and consistently increasing coordination, decreasing
cycle time, reducing waste and increasing both internal and external customer satisfaction.
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