Organizational Change

Executive summary

Organizational Change

Globalization and constant innovation of technology result in a constantly evolving business environment. Social media and mobile adaptability have revolutionized business. The effect of this is an ever increasing need for change, and therefore change management. The growth in technology also has a secondary effect of increasing the availability and therefore accountability of knowledge. Easily accessible information has resulted in unprecedented scrutiny from stakeholders resulting in increased pressure on management.

Due to the growth of technology, modern organizational change is largely motivated by exterior innovations rather than internal factors. When these developments occur, the organizations that adapt quickest create a competitive advantage for themselves, while the companies that refuse to change get left behind. This can result in drastic profit and/or market share losses. People are resistant to change in organizations because it can be uncomfortable. The notion of doing things this way, because ‘this is the way we have always done them’, can be particularly hard to overcome. Furthermore, in cases where a company has seen declining fortunes, for a manager or executive to view themselves as a key part of the problem can be very humbling.

With the business environment experiencing so much change, organizations must then learn to become comfortable with change as well. Therefore, the ability to manage and adapt to organizational change is an essential ability required in the workplace today. Organizational change directly affects all departments and employees. The entire company must learn how to handle changes to the organization. The effectiveness of change management can have a strong positive or negative impact on employee morale. This service approaches organization change a broad perspective formed by over three decades of experience and success across industry and functional lines. Whether in the development and implementation of new business process for development stage companies to the integration of acquisitions for more mature companies, change management is critical to a company’s success. The service can be focused across the enterprise and is appropriate for leaders at all levels of the organization.

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Service Methodology

Regardless of the size of your company or the specific issue requiring change, organizational change management should begin with a systematic diagnosis of the current situation in order to determine both the need for and the capability to change. In the case of an early stage company it may be a need to increase efficiency by reorganizing workflow or the utilization of subject matter experts. In the case of an acquisition it may be the need to do things consistently across the enterprise or the elimination of dual function.

In every case, the most critical aspect leading to a successful implementation is a company’s ability to win the buy-in of their organization’s employees on the change. Effectively managing organizational change is a four-step process: Recognizing the changes in the broader business environment; Developing the necessary adjustments for the company’s needs; Training employees on the appropriate changes; Winning the support of the employees with the persuasiveness of the appropriate adjustments. Change management processes should include creative marketing to enable communication between changing audiences, as well as deep social understanding about leadership styles and group dynamics. The objectives, content, and process of change should all be specified as part of a change management communication plan.

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Service Options

Companies can elect whether they just require Appleton Greene for advice and support with the Bronze Client Service, for research and performance analysis with the Silver Client Service, for facilitating departmental workshops with the Gold Client Service, or for complete process planning, development, implementation, management and review, with the Platinum Client Service. Ultimately, there is a service to suit every situation and every budget and clients can elect to either upgrade or downgrade from one service to another as and when required, providing complete flexibility in order to ensure that the right level of support is available over a sustainable period of time, enabling the organization to compensate for any prescriptive or emergent changes relating to: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Information Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing; or Production.

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Service Mission

As a discipline, change management has been around for decades. It is a constant at the largest and most respected consulting companies. It has become core course study at the most notable business schools. Yet, it continues to be the undoing of many companies. Change management requires discipline, focus and dedication to the plan for change. My goal is to gently guide the company through the steps of change ensuring a positive outcome. I remain respectful of company culture – it need not change. I am respectful of the values of the Company and strive to reinforce areas of strength and work only on areas of change, which guarantees continuity in business and the sustainability of any project. I work side by side with change proponents and thought leaders until we can reach not only a business success but also an increase in motivation and dedication of the employee base, evidence of long term success in this endeavor. All companies, large and small can benefit.

Over more than 25 years in business I have been involved in the acquisition and integration of over 100 business, each requiring a clear and careful approach to ensure that the best and brightest remain engaged while at the same time improving efficiency and process – in effect, making change. I also have significant experience in development stage and high growth companies, each in their own way requiring change to evolve to the next level of organization.

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Service objectives

The following list represents the Key Service Objectives (KSO) for the Appleton Greene Organizational Change service.

1. Change Management
   In order to grow and survive we must change as our environment requires. Those companies that adapt to change are the ones that survive – for generation after generation. The impetus for change can vary – M&A activities, high growth environments or the evolution of strategy. As a discipline, change management has been around for decades. It is a constant at the largest and most respected consulting companies. It has become core course study at the most notable business schools. Yet, it continues to be the undoing of many companies. Change management requires discipline, focus and dedication to the plan for change. My goal is to gently guide the company through the steps of change ensuring a positive outcome. I remain respectful of company culture – it need not change. I am respectful of the values of the Company and strive to reinforce areas of strength and work only on areas of change, which guarantees continuity in business and the sustainability of any project. I work side by side with change proponents and thought leaders until we can reach not only a business success but also an increase in motivation and dedication of the employee base, evidence of long term success in this endeavor. All companies, large and small can benefit.
2. Process Development
   Operations and process improvement enables organizations to increase effectiveness by understanding, optimizing and aligning activities and processes to maximize output and returns on improvement initiatives. Through the integration of people, process and technology, organizations can make more effective decisions, increase stakeholder value and drive higher levels of efficiency organization-wide. It is critical success factor for organizations to improve the performance of their personnel and operational processes. Operations improvement can require new resources, thinking, new methods and new techniques for monitoring and measuring so organizations can fully understand, optimize and align processes to achieve strategic objectives. This service is designed to gently guide the company through the steps of change to ensure a positive outcome.
3. Mergers & Acquisitions
   The intent of this service is not to determine whether any one or more acquisitions is strategic for the company. Rather, the focus is on making the acquisition and post-closing operations a success. People often quote statistics that claim that 90% of all M&A transactions fail. By many measures that is accurate. But transactions continue to occur. This service significantly increases the likelihood that your acquisition will fall in the 10% that succeed. To start we assemble an internal team to perform due diligence on the acquired company to first identify those areas of process where differences exist. Once identified, the team can focus on those aspects that require change in order to have a smooth integration into the surviving company. With that information we can write a detailed plan to carefully integrate the business. Starting with clear communication plan and evolving to joint process development teams we will carefully bring along the acquired entity in a careful and less invasive way. In every successful M&A transaction the message is always one of inclusiveness with the end goal of complete alignment and success of the combined entity.
4. Start-up Environment
   In start-up and early stage companies life can be hectic. People focus more on how to survive than whether to establish process. Everyone is a jack-of-all-trades, jumping in to whatever needs to be done. Customers can be added at alarming rates. Revenue can be skyrocketing. It seems like new people are coming on board every day. It is an exciting time. Yet with all this excitement and activity, inefficiency starts to creep in. Questions like – “who do I speak with about approving X” or who is handling customer Y’s issue” sometimes go unanswered. It’s time to grow up and act like a company and begin to establish clear process and procedures. Establishing process enables organizations to increase effectiveness by understanding, optimizing and aligning activities and processes to maximize output and returns on improvement initiatives. Through the integration of people, process and technology, organizations can make more effective decisions, increase stakeholder value and drive higher levels of efficiency organization-wide. It is critical success factor for organizations to improve the performance of their personnel and operational processes. Operations improvement can require new resources, thinking, new methods and new techniques for monitoring and measuring so organizations can fully understand, optimize and align processes to achieve strategic objectives. This service is designed to gently guide the company through the steps of change to ensure a positive outcome.
5. Process Reengineering
   As much as we like to think that all business run smoothly, sometimes we need a restart in certain areas. Earnings start to lag, revenue is down or costs are creeping up. In any of these cases the approach that we follow is objective, practical and focused. We start with a detailed analysis of any department and/or function determining why the company’s performance is less than optimal. Once identified, the team can focus on those aspects that require change and develop the methodology to accomplish it. Reengineering broken or outdated processes enables organizations to increase effectiveness by understanding, optimizing and aligning activities and processes to maximize output and returns on improvement initiatives. Through the integration of people, process and technology, organizations can make more effective decisions, increase stakeholder value and drive higher levels of efficiency organization-wide. It is critical success factor for organizations to improve the performance of their personnel and operational processes. Operations improvement can require new resources, thinking, new methods and new techniques for monitoring and measuring so organizations can fully understand, optimize and align processes to achieve strategic objectives. This service is designed to gently guide the company through the steps of change to ensure a positive outcome.

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Achievemants

Greenline Industries

In this privately owned biodiesel technology company, Mr. Jackson reengineered the biodiesel plant project delivery process significantly enhancing change order process, performance reliability and scheduling accuracy, resulting in 25% improvement in cost efficiency. He also developed new selection criteria used to reevaluate all outside contractors and partners. Mr. Jackson updated the sales process and sales personnel evaluations system that supported substantial increases in sales and revenue growth. He also established and managed finance and accounting structures and process including internal controls to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements and efficient reporting processes to support ongoing performance analysis, forecasting and future planning.

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Zero Waste Energy

In this privately owned organic waste treatment and waste-to-energy company, Mr. Jackson realized a 25%+ improvement in the project delivery cost by reengineering the company’s estimating and bid process. He also focused on improving process and efficiencies across the operating enterprise, including finance and legal.

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Cotelligent, Inc.

In this public IT services and consulting company, Mr. Jackson strategically reconstructed and continually downsized the business following divestiture of IT staffing business in response to the changing market for IT services. He orchestrated a total of three major restructurings, from development of plan, communication and execution, and the termination of senior executives. He also managed the divesture of the IT staffing business in a transaction which sold 22 offices with 2000 employees representing $200+ million in annualized revenues to a venture backed company for $125 million.

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Private Consumer Goods Company

Transformed company through the development and implementation of effective corporate restructuring, turnaround and communication plan.

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Bekon Energy Technologies(Eggersmann)

Mr. Jackson assisted this wholly-owned subsidiary of a German company enter the North American Market. He spearheaded development and execution of business plan, defined sales and marketing objectives and led development of robust sales and marketing initiatives. Mr. Jackson also provided hands on leadership, conducting detailed analysis of market identifying opportunities and steering business development efforts. He was also responsible to cultivate relationships with key leadership in potential and existing customers, together with managing all dealer and representative relationships.

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More detailed achievements, references and testimonials are confidentially available to clients upon request.

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Industries

This service is primarily available to the following industry sectors:

Technology

Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. What we often think of as “Technology” is really just the application of modern technology to our daily professional and personal lives. For example, what used to work before, might not be working now, it must have gotten old or been replaced by more modern technology. Technology simplifies life in so many ways and everyone defines technology in their own way. To some people, it means smartphones and laptops. To others, it means the source of the radical changes that are happening in all phases of life. Some define technology as science applied to practical purposes. Some people fear to use technology while others see it as the source of longer and more complete lives.

In this service offering, I consider the use of technology in only positive value added ways. For example, technology advancements have improved our access to and use of information across the enterprise, creating better evaluation opportunities to improve performance. It encourages innovation and creativity, placing the opportunity to develop new goods and services across more of your employee base. Technology has improved the ways we communicate, providing us with many more sources of knowledge and information. It also improves efficiency and production allowing companies to deliver ever more complex goods and services in new and innovative ways. It is the combination of people, process and technology that allows us to become successful.

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Energy

My focus in the energy space is towards renewable/sustainable fuels, energy efficiency and waste-to-energy. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are the twin pillars of a sustainable energy future. Considerable progress is being made in the energy transition from fossil fuels to sustainable systems technologies that promote sustainable energy, include renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, bioenergy, tidal power and also technologies designed to improve energy efficiency. Costs have fallen dramatically in recent years, and continue to fall. Most of these technologies are either economically competitive or close to being so. Increasingly, effective government policies are supporting the transition to these alternatives. This sets sustainable energy apart from other renewable energy terminology such as alternative energy by focusing on the ability of an energy source to continue providing energy. Sustainable energy can produce some pollution of the environment, as long as it is not sufficient to prohibit heavy use of the source for an indefinite amount of time. Sustainable energy is also distinct from low-carbon energy, which is sustainable only in the sense that it does not add to the CO2 in the atmosphere.

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Consultancy

People have always needed advice on how better to manage their affairs and make effective decisions. Consultants can function as bridges for information and knowledge, and external consultants can provide these bridging services more economically than client firms themselves. The functions of consulting services are commonly broken down into the following task categories: strategic management, operations management, industrial engineering, industrial/organizational psychology, organizational development, and project management. Consultants have specialized skills on tasks that would involve high internal coordination costs for clients, such as organization-wide changes or the implementation of information technology. In addition, because of economies of scale, their focus and experience in gathering information worldwide and across industries renders their information search less costly than clients trying to procure this information and knowledge themselves. Technological developments, emerging opportunities, and evolving policies are driving evolutionary as well as potentially disruptive changes in the current environment. organizations and businesses will continue to need and rely upon qualified consultants to assist them in their adaptation to the changing world.

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Internet

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet allows greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections. The Internet can be accessed almost anywhere by numerous means including wirelessly.

The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills have made collaboration dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and share ideas but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups more easily to form. The Internet allows computer users to remotely access other computers and information stores easily from any access point. This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An office worker away from their desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can access their emails, access their data using cloud computing, or open a remote desktop session into their office PC using a secure virtual private network (VPN) connection on the Internet. This can give the worker complete access to all of their normal files and data, including email and other applications, while away from the office. Business across the Internet or e-business encompasses business processes spanning the entire value chain: purchasing, supply chain management, marketing, sales, customer relationship management and customer service. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners. According to IDC, the size of worldwide e-commerce, when global business-to-business and –consumer transactions are combined, equate to $16 trillion for 2013. A report by Oxford Economics adds those two together to estimate the total size of the digital economy at $20.4 trillion, equivalent to roughly 13.8% of global sales.

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Manufacturing

Manufacturing remains a critical force in both advanced and developing economies. But the sector has changed, bringing new opportunities and challenges to business leaders and policy makers. The global manufacturing sector has undergone a tumultuous decade: large developing economies leaped into the first tier of manufacturing nations, a severe recession choked off demand, and manufacturing employment fell at an accelerated rate in advanced economies. Still, manufacturing remains critically important to both the developing and the advanced world. In the former, it continues to provide a pathway from subsistence agriculture to rising incomes and living standards. In the latter, it remains a vital source of innovation and competitiveness, making outsized contributions to research and development, exports, and productivity growth. But the manufacturing sector has changed—bringing both opportunities and challenges—and neither business leaders nor policy makers can rely on old responses in the new manufacturing environment. Manufacturing’s role is changing. The way it contributes to the economy shifts as nations mature: in today’s advanced economies, manufacturing promotes innovation, productivity, and trade more than growth and employment. In these countries, manufacturing also has begun to consume more services and to rely more heavily on them to operate. Globally, manufacturing continues to grow. It now accounts for approximately 16 percent of global GDP and 14 percent of employment. But the manufacturing sector’s relative size in an economy varies with its stage of development. We find that when economies industrialize, manufacturing employment and output both rise rapidly, but once manufacturing’s share of GDP peaks—at 20 to 35 percent of GDP—it falls in an inverted U pattern, along with its share of employment. The reason is that as wages rise, consumers have more money to spend on services, and that sector’s growth accelerates, making it more important than manufacturing as a source of growth and employment. Manufacturing is not monolithic. It is a diverse sector with five distinct groups of industries, each with specific drivers of success. No two manufacturing industries are exactly alike; some are more labor- or more knowledge-intensive. Some rely heavily on transportation, while for others, proximity to customers is the critical issue.

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Locations

This service is primarily available within the following locations:

San Francisco CA

San Francisco, Spanish for Saint Francis; officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural,