Business Transformation Leadership

While GSD has the experience and capabilities to help you with your transformation initiatives from strategy initiation through implementation, that is not what we believe is in your best interest. 

 Why not?

Most transformation initiatives, and certainly those of a large-scale, fail due to lack of a good plan, adequate internal resolve and capabilities, and the inability to execute changes that are too large.

A traditional project begins with a consultant (implementation partner) selection process. This typically happens prior to the client adequately understanding scope, strategy and success criteria. For large projects, the consultant proposal process and final down-select takes weeks, and sometimes months, with the consultants often going through multiple re-writes trying to ‘guess’ what they think the client wants to see.

Through this back and forth, clarity of objectives certainly improves, but often times a firm is selected based more on the relationships developed during the process versus a firm's capabilities, plan or approach.

Because scope, objectives and desired outcomes are still unclear, the selected consultant begins work by conducting a large interview/survey effort to “hear what the business wants”. The result is a large list of problems that consultant heavy project teams are then formed around.
 

These projects, which are frequently understaffed by the business, are allowed to start with the hope of making some progress until enough internal priority is put to the initiative. The result is that projects are often slow and, if they deliver, they often underperform expectations of the business owners. The business/process owners begin to openly push back, patience runs thin, and the initiative is shut down or even worse, restarted.

GSD does not believe that we have all the answers. We understand that transformation projects are difficult and that there certainly will be challenges. But we do believe that exceptional planning and establishing early momentum is critical in positioning your project for success.

By working with GSD during project initiation/start-up (sometimes called phase 0) prior to engaging a more traditional consultant, you can quickly, and cost effectively establish a solid strategy and plan; and create the right level of internal understanding and resolve that will guide the duration of the program.

In our approach, the Program Sponsors will:

• Work directly with the company owner, Ken Fuegmann, for the start-up phase of the project. 
  • He will bring his lessons and experiences from 35 years of project management, including 25 years leading large-scale transformation programs. 
  • He will be forth-right in what he believes works, what doesn’t, and will help you build a strategy, approach and roadmap that is tailored to your needs and objectives.
  • He will help you define and build the initial elements of your program structure.
  • He will help you establish a project team and plan for the first set of short-term opportunities that can be done quickly and effectively.
  • He will ensure that prior to the close-out of the start-up phase, you are confident that you know have the right amount of internal alignment on scope, approach, investment, and expected results.
• Be responsible for the creation and ownership of all program content and deliverables. GSD will not bring in stacks of pre-populated “brochureware’ and templates. Ken will provide ideas and recommendations, but the approach will be through white-boarding versus power-pointing. You will end up with a tailored approach that matches your needs and objectives. 
• Establish the appropriate internal team to represent the company during the start-up phase.
  • The start-up phase will be tailored to match the size and complexity of the desired transformation but will typically last 1-2 months.

Once you have appropriate internal resolve and your initial program leadership established, Ken will work with you to bring in an implementation partner for post startup phases. Ken will use his years of experience working with various types of providers to help make sure you have the right team to help execute the plan; significantly reducing the time and cost of a vendor selection process.

Part of the agreement/requirement with the selected firm is that they will execute the defined plan without undue revisiting. Ken will work with the selected firm to be included in future gate reviews to help coach and course correct as necessary. Through this engagement, Ken will continue to advocate for you and help ensure the execution of the plan meets expectations.