The CEO knew that he could not pull off this major change if the vision remained his, alone. He must have his executive team take on the challenge with full ownership of the vision and aggressive growth targets. Alder supported the clarification and articulation of his vision and facilitated discussions of the vision and strategy. A level of honesty that had never before been possible in those discussions resulted in a stand on the part of the executive team to more than double the size of the company in five years.
As the executives grappled with the realities of the vision and how they would achieve it, they agreed to emphasize three strategic themes:
Growth
- Rather than focusing exclusively, as in the past, on operational income they would break out growth targets and develop plans to achieve the doubling of their revenue
Operational excellence
- Financial management was still essential to control costs and to understand where profitable growth was possible
Dual Responsibility
- Increasing the value provided by the independent businesses of Industrial Co. through capitalizing onsynergies would require more than restructuring. Businesses would have to adopt more integrated business models and processes. Additionally, employees at all levels would have to adopt a new mindset that enabled them to identify with the entire enterprise as well as their home business
The leadership team embraced the model of Dual Responsibility, a dramatic departure from the past operating model, and agreed to help redesign the company to capitalize on that possibility. Four global growth sectors were identified and an enterprise reorganization of business units, products, and markets followed.
Work was soon underway to develop a new vision for the corporate center, creating clarity and alignment on a governance model that would truly serve the future direction of Industrial Co.
Alder Associates’ consultants provided support by;
- Providing best-practice expertise on corporate center design
- Facilitating client exploration of alternative models
- Developing draft business-models design to stimulate thought and discussion
- Helping key stakeholders reach alignment on a model to which they could commit
The top 200 leaders across the enterprise were convened at a leadership conference to discuss and learn about the new vision. Alder resources helped to plan the meeting and prepare leaders to accomplish the intended results. This meeting represented a key milestone for bringing the concept of Dual Responsibility off of the drawing board and into a new set of behaviors centered on collaboration, enterprise leverage, and networking.