As an emerging business discipline, change management can generate the competitive edge that an innovative business strategy and today’s market demands. Whether it is a significant investment in technology, a product launch, or the revitalization of an operating business model, change management is at the crux of realizing the benefits of those investments, and bringing a strategic vision to life.
At Osborne Interim Management we understand the issues, the challenges, and the opportunities. With our team of experienced executives and our expertise in change management, we can help our clients manage the challenges and create solutions for success.
Change Management Challenges
- Accelerated change, pervasive market uncertainty, and evolving corporate priorities creating change complexity and inertia.
- A blurring of lines between home and work demanding changes to corporate culture.
- Dramatically changing workforce and employer/employee relationships.
- Proliferation of media and engagement approaches and tools for both internal and external stakeholders.
- Extended stakeholder accountability with intensified focus on “triple bottom line” impacts of people, profit, and planet.
- A demand for more immediate value-add and test and learn adoption cycles requiring more sophisticated approaches to strategic implementation.
- Emergence of new business models of joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and formalized “skunk-works” requiring organizational capabilities that test traditional hierarchy.
- Shifts in social power demanding the highest standards of privacy and data management, while simultaneously requiring enhanced transparency and accountability.
Change Management Opportunities
- A vibrant and aligned corporate culture: cultural assessment and leadership development.
- Engaged and motivated employees: employee health check and employee engagement support.
- Captured benefits from transformational change: new market development, systems implementations, mergers and acquisitions, re-branding, product and/or line of business launch or attrition, new leadership, employee up-skilling, distribution channel launch or sales acceleration activities, operations, and client service enhancements.
- Supported delivery of change management tools and practices: cultural assessments, stakeholder analysis, impact assessments, readiness assessments, post-implementation reviews, embed and sustain activities.
- Supported delivery of change management tactics: leadership/sponsorship initiatives, communications, coaching, training and change adoption measurement and adjustment activities.
- Change adoption assessments and measurement.
Who Can Help
Yvonne Thevenot
A highly experienced and accredited change strategist and practitioner.
Chris Whyte
Experience with mergers and acquisitions, digital transformation, business restructuring and crisis management.
Russ Tynan
Experience with transitions, recoveries and governance.
Paul McCarthy
25 years’ experience supporting organizations with how they approach, prepare, develop and implement organizational wide change management initiatives.
Gary Smith
A leader of major change programmes aimed at restructuring, growth or accommodating changing technology or customer requirements.
Proven Success
Provincial Not-for-Profit Organization Delivers Cultural Change
The organization experienced exponential growth and required an increased culture of discipline and delegation to deal with the change. The senior financial team resigned, and a new team was needed to put in place financial best practices to align with the new organizational structure.
The Osborne Principal assessed the financial functions and resources, determined gaps, and presented a list of alternatives and solutions. The Osborne Principal then led a new financial team to implement the suggested solutions.
Changes supported through this engagement included: optimization of the corporate culture; enhanced resource allocations and capabilities alignment; implementation of appropriate tools to support work effectiveness; routines to enhance communications and up-skilling; and tactics to ensure the sustainment of the change, including an interim resource assignment.
Engineering Firm Embraces Change Management with Direct Benefit to the Bottom Line
An Alberta-based engineering company with a strong revenue base, identified external market challenges requiring a pivot in their strategic direction and business model.
Acting as trusted advisors, the Osborne Principals provided a business review to identify target areas that needed to be addressed and a process by which to get there. Areas included project management, accounting and reporting issues, information technology challenges, change management and facilitation of partner accountability sessions.
The identified challenges were acted on by the Partners, with the Osborne Principals’ help, to enhance their business processes and improve their bottom line.
Agricultural Manufacturing Firm Achieves Enhanced Pricing Changes
A mid-sized ag sector company required a significant shift in their product and service portfolio to create enhanced longer-term sustainability.
Support included research, analysis and recommendations for the creation and delivery of products and services that could generate revenue as part of a drive to longer term sustainability.
Change management tactics incorporated into strategic recommendations included: extensive stakeholder engagement activities in particular with client groups, a test and learn iterative approach to price modelling through initial stages of implementation, and changes to the client segmentation strategy to provide a more tailored approach to specific target groups.
Representative Change Management Assignments
- Cultural assessments in support of business transformation and strategic realignment with supported facilitation of leadership sessions and change strategy/implementation planning
- Coaching and mentoring through times of significant change
- Mergers and acquisitions integrations with reduced disruption
- Product portfolio changes with accelerated go-to-market and employee/client adoption of change
- Business approaches in support of sales acceleration through effective process and tool implementation
- Operational effectiveness supported by effective current state analysis, detailed impact assessments, timely training and readiness assessments, and a committed approach to adaptation through monitoring of change adoption measures
- Leadership development, training, communications, and change adoption support
