ESTABLISHING SHARED SERVICES
How to implement a strategy-driven organizational development process?
THE CHALLENGE
The board of a bank holding in CEE took the strategic decision to bundle all similar services in a joint unit by forming a new specialized organization in the respective field.
This decision implied the task of finding solutions for the following challenges:
- Different legal entities and legal frames in several countries
- Different processes and IT systems
- Different approaches to risk management
- Strong independent subcultures in the subsidiaries
- Unstable sales performance in some of the subsidiaries
The goal was to build ONE company with ONE joint identity and approach to doing business.
OUR APPROACH
When we stepped in, the structural and personal decisions had already been made. The task now was to implement the new company and to develop the details with the responsible people.
1. We interviewed the members of the 1st and 2nd management level to initiate a dialog and to get to know the key stakeholders and their thoughts on the process and target. Based on this and the goals from the board of the holding, we developed a design for the corporate development and change process. The set-up included space for intensive involvement of different levels – managers, experts and operative staff in the company.
2. The strategic steering of the process was done with the board and included sparring sessions with the individual board members for their area, as well as a team sparring focusing on aligning views and acting with “one voice”.
3. For the operative steering of the implementation, we supported the core team consisting of PMO, HR and ORGA experts.
4. As already mentioned, the 2nd management level were the key players for implementation. Therefore we had regular management meetings with the aim of reviewing the implementation process, discussing change impacts and developing ideas how to boost business within the new structure.
5. The roll-out was done on two levels, including:
- Coaching and teambuildings with the departments in the Austrian entity
- Support of the local implementation in the CEE countries
6. As the new organization implied the merger of different independent organizations, the process consisted of forming new common values and shaping a joint identity.
7. In order to ensure a broad involvement and feedback from the employees, regular feedback loops and implementation monitoring activities were made.
Our role consisted of
- Advising the experts in change topics
- Supporting the board in process steering
- Facilitating large groups (for the whole process) and smaller groups for solving specific topics
- Team workshops and team development
- Process monitoring
- Supporting the communication during the process
- Coaching of people
- Working on a common identity
- Supporting subsidiaries in implementation work
THE RESULTS
The strategic decision and implementation work brought about a new company. It worked to keep some of the positive aspects of the past – and there are many new, jointly initiated processes, system components, rules and approaches. The implementation and the development has not yet been finished or stopped – it is an ongoing process.