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Complexity to the Power of Three

Global Subsidiary of €4bn US Industry Leader

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The Challenge

Initially, the assignment consisted of facilitating a series of quarterly off-sites with the aim of: 

  1. Easing the transition from China of the newly appointed Italian/American GM to lead two very different businesses in two distinct cultural regions of Northern Europe, serving differing high-precision markets; 
  2. Accelerating the integration of an underperforming acquisition to the core business whose margins were high despite no top-line growth in the last 5 years;
  3. Enabling the two SLTs to come together to become one high-performance team. 
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Our Approach

The assignment expanded from facilitating off-sites to also include 

  1. Coaching of the GM – to unlock his potential by helping him increase his interpersonal and cultural sensitivities 
  2. Coaching five of the individuals in the combined SLT – each undertaking a significant business and/or cultural transition of their own 
  3. Coaching of the combined SLT to leverage interdependencies for outperformance 

The complexity of this assignment included the following:

  1. Multiple layers of confidentiality. Each coaching relationship had to be guarded to honour the individuals concerned, even as all benefitted from the single coach’s systemic understanding of the SLT dynamics and the businesses' operational complexities.
  2. Multiple stakeholders – as, for each coaching assignment, goals were agreed between the coach, the coachee and the coachee’s boss. In the case of the GM, also included was the Director of Talent Management and Engagement. 
  3. The businesses faced different challenges in terms of business maturity and operating models. Each operated with very different business cultures, beyond that of the nation state in which they were headquartered. 

The Results

At the end-of-assignment review meeting, the commissioning President said: “I had high expectations but the results have exceeded those… an improvement that is remarkable … that needs to continue … I commit to sponsor this path.” More concretely, both businesses outperformed in the year against tough targets set at the start. The acquisition’s turnaround was confirmed and core business delivered impressive double-figured top-line growth. 

With complex and dynamic businesses operating in volatile global markets, success is only a new platform from which to raise further aspirations. Notwithstanding, concrete results from this assignment are as impressive as the GM and team members who embraced the changes they wanted to see in themselves and in others.