Industrial: Vision To Cohesion

Situation/Problem

Our client is a leading global logistics company that structures its operations around multiple and diversified businesses (in oil, chemicals, and logistics).

As one can imagine, in a cyclical logistics and oil business, a leader will tend to shape the ecosystem of the sector and not fall into the price war game. This as such made our client seek support to find new ways to reinvent the strategic horizon and pursue a long-term path to:

• Draw their long-term expansion strategy
• Establish a strong logistics network globally
• Diversify the portfolio to overcome the cyclicality due to the unpredictable business environment
• Overcome the barriers of generic strategic thinking into a cohesive way of strategy creation, realization, mobilization, and above all, inspiration

Client Needs

The client is in the phase of shaping the future while it is still successful,?being aware of the current cyclical unpredictability of the business, and therefore wanted to address four major pillars:

• Enhance current business in an innovative way that balances the financial yields and at the same time sustains business value in the longer term
• Expand within businesses related to current key units (such as oil)
• Expand into new businesses and identify new types of businesses worthy of investment
• Digital transformation in the context of joint ventures with emergent technologies on the rise

VCL Solution

Based on the challenges described, and the evaluation of the needs, VCL’ solution was structured around understanding the current organizational performance and strategy deployment and therefore developed the?“Vision to Cohesion”?consulting solution in a?Triangulated 360 Strategic Revamp Process.

This process was put into the context of the client’s strategic situation. Therefore, VCL met with the executive team, with the end in mind to receive input on the objectives to be achieved in a strategic planning system, and define what it takes to be agile to combat challenges and capture opportunities, which included:

• Set?the purpose
• Study the present performance
• Create and deploy the process and practice
• The balance between the impact of change on people and managing stakeholders’ expectations

Phase one:

SET THE PURPOSE

In this phase, VCL focused on defining?what success looks like?from the CEO’s perspective and worked closely to create a clear vision, objectives, and expected payoffs with strategic alignment on the horizon of the next five years, and to set success criteria and shape the strategy when it comes to people, process, and performance.

This involved brainstorming sessions with the CEO and one-to-one session(s) with the executive team investigating the current structure of the organization.

This phase culminated in clearly defining measurable strategic mandates and KPIs for the next five years.

?

Phase two:

STUDY PRESENT PERFORMANCE

During this phase, VCL engaged the executive team to analyze the current situation “as is”, which involved revising the structure, strategy, roles, and responsibilities, including:

• Analysis of the current performance and define areas of improvement and areas of synergy
• Analysis of the work process and flow and define areas of overlap and areas of synergy
• Analysis of the investment policy and aspects of the group/centers and areas of synergy/improvement

?This phase resulted in gauging areas of synergy and defining them, as well as gauging areas of improvement and raising performance, which culminated in defining:

• Key breakthrough areas that enhance all business units’ performance
• Key areas of improvement for the sustainability of the vision and objectives
• Key business fundamentals that enhance the smooth rollout of operations and current projects in place

?

Phase Three:

PLAN OF ACTION AND PROCESS DEPLOYMENT

This phase resulted in the creation and deployment of a clear process, action plans, KPIs and owners to deploy the strategy and ensure the expected outcomes are met (with contingencies in place), including:

• Clearly define the actions to be taken to run operations smoothly
• Clearly define the owners of each action
• Clearly define the timelines and KPIs of each action
• A clear process for implementation and monitoring of the system

?

Phase Four:

MANAGING STAKEHOLDERS, PEOPLE, AND CHANGE

This phase was very important to manage the expectations of stakeholders and enhance the acceptance of the various people affected by the new process and systems. VCL designed a timely rollout plan for the change, and at the same time designed tools to manage the change cycle during and after the implementation to achieve alignment of all stakeholders on key actions and deliverables/timelines, while at the same time mitigating the risks associated with acceleration of the development cycle and integration of the newly established systems and processes.

Outcome

Despite the best intentions, many organizational transformations fall short of their goals, from failing to convey the right change story to lacking an effective process to track initiatives. All these mistakes can thwart a successful transformation plan.

VCL’s approach was successful because it focused on the basics, helping the organization successfully set performance aspirations based on its full potential through achieving cohesion between the two fundamental stages of strategizing:

The Vision:?where we helped executives to shape their dreams, purpose, and strategic objectives.

The Cohesive Execution:?where we helped executives and their teams to cohesively adopt a cooperative, agile, and robust deployment process.