Business Transformation Accelerator for Sr. Leadership Teams

• Several quarters into a PE backed buyout and transatlantic merger of two firms in the same business, but with very different cultures, the promised synergies seemed hard to come by. Market sentiments to ESG also started to change.
• A new CEO is appointed. She takes a leap of faith in the Top Team Accelerator and kicks off the flagship 3 day workshop within her 100 days in office. 
• "These three days saved me and the team, two years", she said. She based this on the depth of personal insight gained by all into what truly matters to her, to each of the team members; them coming together as one team aligned to one north star, with accelerated trust, straight-talking and owning up the results of the enterprise, not just their silos. 
• The post workshop journey fostered unlikely partnerships, honest conversations paving the way for a team rejig, culture of accountability, and heightened personal contribution by each member of the team. Despite the anti-ESG wave, the business has been rather steady, and the foundation for solid growth and value has been laid.

• The Goal: FROM being a market outpost where "we sell what we can" via largely independent country operations - TO being a vibrant, synchronized, value-added regional hub that becomes a net exporter of ideas, innovation and talent; by capturing higher value market opportunities that need top notch functional expertise and collaboration.  
• The foundations for this journey had already been laid and significant advances had been made by the unconventional APAC Executive Chairman who had himself broken some glass ceilings in a conservative HQ-driven company. However, it was time the APAC team now start to function more autonomously needing less of his directions. 
• The Top Team Accelerator with the APAC Top 19 in the region brought them together in an authentic space, and sparked off a process of breaking silos, fostering courageous conversations at peer levels, specific partnerships amongst peers cemented by peer-coaching over two quarters, and a pursuit of the overarching performance and transformation goals. 
• All of this was pursued under the real-world constraints of a conservative HQ culture, sensitive use of social and political capital, and need to 'build the plane while flying', with 'not everyone on the team being an aeronautical engineer'.

LeapFrog Investments is a successful impact investor - invests capital, people, and knowledge in purpose-driven businesses, helping them to grow, be profitable, and have real social impact.  

A survey of the CEOs of their portfolio companies found that talent development is the single greatest challenge they face. This was the focus of the first CEO Indaba facilitated by the now Founder of Impactivate Solutions in 2015, and then the 2016, he ran the Business Transformation Accelerator through Personal Transformation, for the 12 CEOs of its portfolio companies. These were rated as #1 value-added intervention by the portfolio companies in both the years (watch candid testimonial here). Given this success, LeapFrog took a pioneering step. They then requested for a business plan, to institutionalize leadership development support, beyond ad-hoc workshops, to its investee companies. 

Why invest in a Leadership & Talent Accelerator:

1. Accelerate value creation, performance and resilience in portfolio companies
2. Facilitate better deal access, at appropriate valuations: a potential edge over other investors chasing the same deals, by offering tangible value-add.
3. Serve as a distinguisher to LPs during fund-raising
4. Channelize funds from LPs and ecosystem builders like Foundations and others to an under-invested asset class: Human capital in the sector. 
5. Provide positive signaling to government, media, think-tanks, and the public in an emerging market context.

Armed with the Business Plan co-developed by the now Founder of Impactivate Solutions, LeapFrog secured the support of their partner Prudential Financial Inc. via a cornerstone investment of USD $1.5 million in the Talent Academy, which ultimately became the Talent Accelerator (Read Press Release here). The LeapFrog Talent Accelerator is now in its fifth year of existence having accelerated the development of multiple dozens of leaders across Asia and Africa. Read detailed case study in The Global Handbook of Impact Investing (Wiley, 2021), or request for a copy.

A Middle East headquartered major had bought out an American giant to create a world top 3 chemicals company. Eight quarters in, the business, customer, brand, HR, finance etc integration had been either completed or underway. However, the synergies envisioned in the investment thesis seemed elusive. While change management exercises (largely consisting of typical communications) had been undertaken, the top team atmosphere wasn't that of One Team, posters and T-shirts notwithstanding. 

1. Individual insecurities persisted: There was a lingering feeling of winners and losers, bruised egos, walking on egg-shells, amongst others. 
2. Collective identities were still anchored in the past - debates seemed to be about facts, data and business, but the undercurrent was cultural and people-related. 
3. Exhaustion and burnout of a mega-merger had made some question why they should sign up for the added load and uncertainty
4. New units like Shared Services that would serve across BUs bore the brunt from both sides, as they were seen as slowing things down, in high growth markets with fast paced, agile and cheaper local competitors in China, India and S.E.Asia.

A 3 day Top Team Accelerator for Business Transformation through Mindset Transformation was undertaken, followed by 8 months of 1-on-1 coaching for the top 25. The honest look-in-the-mirror brought the leaders closer together, through an uncomfortable but highly engaging and challenging process. By the end of it, they had honest discussions with themselves, and others, forged specific collaborations across the Top 25, signed up to drive initiatives with customers and internally, and collectively delivered 85%+ of the ambitious goals they signed up for during the period. There was minimal loss of leaders from thereon (only one out of the top 25), and the stabilization and alignment process was genuinely accelerated with deep ownership and commitment. 

Given the success, the Top Team Accelerator process was then deployed for the Top 25 of their Global Technology & Innovation Centre in India.

Reference conversations with the APAC CHRO can be arranged for interested clients.

The APAC MD wanted to achieve twin objectives of (a) developing a pipeline of leaders ready to take over a Regional role or a Country Head position in 1-3 years, to leverage the strong growth momentum in APAC; (b) put key business growth enablers in place without spending on consultants. 

Thus, a new unit comprising of 12 young promising executives, and external hires was created. In these 1-3 years, they'd be deployed on strategically important projects and priorities to deliver immediate business value. Key components of the work delivered included:

Conduct internal and external research to: 

• Define Role of the SPO 
• Gain insights to inform the design of the SPO structure 
• Agree capabilities required in the SPO team
• Identify roles that need to be filled in the SPO Team
• Agree on competencies, experience & qualities needed to fill the roles

Align Purpose, Role, Focus & Goals

• Define strategic focus: Create Short term goals for the first 6 months (E.g. successfully completing 2 projects); and long term goals (e.g. developing and absorbing ‘x’ roles, creating cumulate business impact of ~40m-60m Euro)
• Define In-Scope activities (e.g. improving supply chain footprint in APAC, developing and implementing a sustainability strategy) and Out-of-Scope Activities (e.g. Knowledge Management)
• Define types of projects to be taken on (a) Topical Problem Solving (e.g. pricing analysis and recommendations for a SBU); (b) Own & Run’ Major Projects (e.g. manufacturing and supply chain overhaul in country X); (c) Strategic Support (e.g. Country and SBU reviews)

Define Size, Composition and Structure

• Define initial team size, composition roles (e.g. up to 10 people, 60% sourced externally from industry & consulting backgrounds, to take on 4 large projects and ~10 small projects) and positions (e.g. 1 Chief Strategy Office, 4 Directors)
• Define responsibilities and reporting lines of each position in the Structure
• Identify Collective Skills required in the SPO Team: Specific consulting skills, industry and commercial skills, functional expertise, company knowledge and culture fitment
• Executive Assessments and Fitment at Head, Director and Manager levels, including from within the company, from other Group Companies and regions, and externally. 

Development and Exit (Transition into Business leadership roles)

• Business Transformation Accelerator through Personal Mindset Transformations: Ran the flagship program based on the phenomenological/ontological model popularized by Harvard University
• 'Consulting-on-Steroids': Highly hands-on Skill building Bootcamp for Problem Solving and Influencing without authority 
• Ongoing 1-on-1 Coaching: to enable application of learnings
• Transition Coaching: To prepare for stakeholder networking, finding, evaluating and getting a spot in business leadership, and being successful in the same. 

Within the first 18 months, two of them went on to become Country GMs and one became an Asia Pacific functional head, apart from delivering tangible revenue and cost savings of 20+ million Euros.

The newly appointed S.E. Asia MD for the General Insurance company saw huge potential and set forth an ambition of 5x revenue growth in 5 years, with the following strategy: 

1. Leverage the JV at HQ level (had not been tapped into effectively in S.E.Asia)
2. Rationalize product proliferation across different markets in the region
3. Launch new focused products
4. Build brand recognition & identity
5. Build service as differentiator
6. Build new cost efficient customer acquisition channels
7. Build regional operations platform to bring down costs, and manage risks
8. Forge hospital network tie-ups through partnerships - locally and regionally

Health of the org and other strategy enablers were assessed. Key themes of (mis) alignment between region and country offices emerged:

1. Significant misalignment on how much product standardization versus  adaptation by market, is needed. 
2. Potential channel conflicts seen very differently by region vs country 
3. Potential commercial impact of new health insurance channel strategy on other general insurance businesses seen very differently by region vs country.
4. Low belief in the ambition from local units
5. Differing views on the org structure and focus needed for the health business, and the investment therein. 

An outside-in study of the operating model and org structure of other players in S.E.Asia was also studied: not just the 'What' but also the 'Why'. For example: 

• Factor in structure implications depending on strategy - why certain functions were in-house or outsource (e.g. TPA v/s inhouse); why certain functions were centralised / regionalised / localised (e.g. Ops, Product development)
• Factor in historical / M&A related reasons of certain structures for the others.

Based on the above, key design principles were agreed upon for the new 'Fit-for-Future' structure, and were used to design new org structure and operating model: 

• Evolving structure, not static: roadmap based on triggers (e.g. changes required when regional ops platform launched in 3 years)
• Sharp vertical accountability to region, to provide focus for new capabilities; local accountability when leveraging existing strength…
• Learn from others - external benchmarking to understand the trade-offs
• Key highlight – going beyond industry: since service differentiation was a key pillar of strategy, recommended a ‘Customer Experience Director’, borrowing from airlines and hospitality industry  

Fit For-Future Talent: 

Specific capabilities required collectively for top team, and for each critical role were agreed upon. This included Background and experience along 3 key axes: 

• Experience thresholds and spikes- in industry, in function and in geography 
• Technical capabilities; 
• Leadership qualities – attitude and mindset of a start-up business - to grow it, and to ‘get-on-with-it’

Individual leader assessments were carried out with the following guiding principles 

• Check for Fit to Future
• Map to roles as prescribed in the org structure
• Keep it concise & practical
• Include external benchmarking - compare current talent not just with ideal, but with what’s out there in the market
• Hire from outside only when necessary - develop internally where possible
• Ensure some element of continuity in the midst of change

Glimpse of recommendations on fit and development priorities:

• Recommend ABC should visibly take responsibility to demonstrate commitment to the health business. A full time MD for health to be brought in from ….
• Start afresh, and leverage XYZ capabilities in a new setting (transition out of Health business). However, ….
• PQR’s strengths as a program manager can be valuable in project role, especially for IT. He would benefit from structured coaching support to develop his influencing skills, ...

By the end of the 5 year period, the region contributed 8 per cent to the group's underlying earnings; and set up the base for both organic and inorganic growth. The company was the first to forge large local partnerships 

Key themes:   

• Effective relationship between Board, and international management team
• Post M&A succession risk and top team development
• Coaching to tap business growth opportunities

Situations & Challenges

• One of the top 3 Chinese bank acquired the business
• Huge opportunities post merger - increased access to capital & clients
• High value at risk, if key personnel exited; the top 3 a highly prized team
• Need for effective Management-Board relationship
• Profitability declining lately
• The Board requested to assess succession risk for CEO, CFO & CCO; assess next 12, coach & develop them

The Approach

• Discovery process’ with internal and external stakeholders
• Tailor-made leadership competency framework
• Assessed 12 senior executives to evaluate readiness for CEO, CFO & CCO roles
• Joint development planning for every individual, presented to Board
• Coaching relationship forged with select individuals where relevant 
• Health of the org and other strategy enablers were assessed. 

Results:  

• Clarity on the degree of succession risk, role wise
• Unprecedented shift in mindset, processes, etc. role-modeled by the top (e.g. the strategic planning process was opened out to next level) 
• Key role changes effected for development & performance
• Feedback rich environment in management; trust in Board
• Process cascaded to 9 next level execs – beginnings of significant culture change

• Founder-CEO of $350 million financial services company in Indonesia, was able to create a bench strength of professionals-as-successors, after having failed at it for over 5 years. This was achieved by achieving critical shifts in his own self-identity, and building trust & genuine commitment for empowerment. 
• A Founder-CEO of a purpose-driven niche consulting firm was able to transition from ‘controlling’ to ‘enablement’ approach; and build the culture of the organization for next phase of growth
• A Partner at a research & analytics firm was able to transform his approach towards his team, and peer collaboration – and make key shifts in both areas with listening and empowerment. Specifically, he transitined from the ‘smartest in the room’, to ‘have others shine’.
• Coached two members of the top team of the pioneers of distance education in India; was requested again after 5 years to carry out the same by one of them who is now the Co-Founder of India’s top 3 skilling company, Key highlights included supporting a super-sharp and visionary leader to articulate their vision without making it complex, hold 'divas' in their team accountable, and integrating new professional hires from MNCs with old time loyalists in a mutually reinforcing manner. The firm was able to withstand the unprecedented debilitating pressure of the pandemic, and carried out major business model pivots under his leadership.

• An alpha VP Sales become truly collaborative, with a buy into the mission of a global education company, by addressing their underlying trust issues. 
• A high potential executive who was selected to join the Founder-Chairman’s office of a USD 16 bn conglomerate to serve effectively as his Head of Strategic Projects (effectively, Chief of Staff), was able to build her confidence and executive presence, to ease into high pressure - high expectation's role. 
• A high potential in marketing a clicks-and-bricks business within a large Indian conglomerate was able to determine career direction and forge more collaborative relationships with peers.
• A high potential commercial leader was able to reconcile the practice of empathy and accountability simultaneously. He went onto win the best Sales Leader award for the year. 
• Coached a mid-manager, ex Infosys. Was in exploratory phase, with early stage ideas on start-ups / co-founding or next employment when coached. This was an example of transition coaching to allow for processing of multiple professional and personal setbacks, regain direction and confidence.