Case Study

Change portfolio re-balanced for large transport provider

With a focus on building business unit change hubs to drive local transformation plans, the business was able to re-prioritise and have greater confidence that benefits would be achieved.

Change Portfolio case study

A major transport provider was well into their transformation journey with more than 100 change programmes underway across multiple business units and locations.

Many programmes were delivering benefits, but the volume of change became too high and impacted business critical roles at the same time.

The Executive recognised the need to put in place an organisation-wide approach to manage the portfolio of change but needed help in how to build the change capability and organisational buy-in to ensure the transformation strategy was achieved. Our approach helped establish a critical change network with the local capability in place across business units to feel more ownership of the change agenda.

Client at a glance
Location
Great Britain
Sector
Transport
Employees
30,000+
Change Portfolio
£1.5billion+

The Assignment

1: What needed to change?

An initial assessment of the business change found that:

  • Too much change was impacting the same key roles
  • Local business units lacked buy-in to the changes
  • Centrally driven portfolio conflicted with cultural aim of decentralisation

2: The Objectives

The business agreed the following objectives for the 12-month programme:

  • Create a balanced and sequenced portfolio
  • Create more business unit buy-in to the portfolio of change
  • Reduce the impact of change on people

3: Our Assignment

Michael Fekete, Director of Bespoke Change led this assignment structured in 3 phases with outcomes agreed with the business sponsor upfront:

  • Role: Head of ‘Managing Change’ Programme
  • Reporting: to Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) on Executive Team
  • Duration: 12 months full-time

4: Our Approach

The key elements of this assignment included:

  • Undertaking primary research on the businesses’ culture of change
  • Engaging the business widely and forming a network of change leaders
  • Creating hubs in local business units to own the change portfolio

5: Outcomes

Through our engagement with this client we ensured that:

  • Business unit change hubs were implemented and a change network formed
  • There was a significant rebalance of the change portfolio focused on priorities
  • Low priority programmes were paused and re-scheduled

6: Ongoing Benefits

Our commitment to creating long-term sustainable change is evident in this case:

  • Change Hubs remain in place 3+ years on as a way of controlling change
  • Benefit realisation levels have increased to give a greater return on investment
  • Change capability has matured in local business units to increase leadership's confidence