Client Results

Our specialty is linking the people side of business to performance and results. A snapshot of the problems our clients have hired us to solve:

• Bring our projects in on-time and on-budget (especially technology).
• Melt resistance and conflict to change, so it sustains and achieves our strategy.
• Reduce finger-pointing and confusion about priorities.
• Unifying culture to support diverse parts of a global enterprise (especially after multiple mergers).
• Speed up problem solving and decision making to drive more aligned action that serves the customer.
• Working better across silos, allowing for better coordination and sharing of best practices and learning.
• Create highly effective meeting cultures that foster strong teamwork.
• Drive self-responsibility and initiative, especially among younger workers.

With some clients, we measure behaviors – the actions which directly lead to better performance. Using precise survey tools, we have examples of 30% to 40% favorable improvements in leadership behavior and customer service—results that stood the test (and measurement) of time.

With some clients, we measure results – the after-effects of performance. This is relatively easy on projects where we worked with a sales force or a revenue enhancement project, for example. Typical results in projects for sales groups range from 20% to 50% annual revenue increases.

Below are snapshots of Corporate Culture Pros results, in four key areas:

• Leadership Alignment Results
• Executive Development Results
• Team Collaboration Results
• Communication & Change Management Results

Leadership Alignment Results

• Facilitated a series of strategic alignment meetings with senior executives in a pharmaceutical company to build plans for a critical change effort. The company’s survival was literally at stake. These meetings created a coalition of support for the change among senior leadership, especially regarding budget support. As a result of greater alignment, departments that had previously not cooperated (research, manufacturing and quality) created mutually accepted targets, and a common vision that was communicated to everyone became a central driving force for the desired change.
• Led strategic planning process for a specialty insurance company in a serious crisis, whose poor compliance practices and high turnover had stalled growth and damaged employee morale. Participants reported that the one 3-day meeting resulted in “transformational” change, creating new direction and hope for the entire company, which translated to: Turnover reduction of 87% and the most profitable year in their history.
• Designed and provided guidance to senior leadership for a culture change process at a major financial services company for 35,000 people. Over a period of 3 years, the commitment to this change led to sustained improvements in revenue and profit.

Executive Development Programs Results

• Coached a senior leader in a company that was undergoing rapid change. She was on the verge of having to resign due to lack of results. Her technical knowledge was high, but didn’t come across as credible in the executive setting. After a relatively short intervention, her career is back on track— getting high marks from her peers and superiors, and received in a promotion she had long been seeking. This talent turnaround saved the company at least $500,000 in replacement and severance costs.
• An executive with a long track record of success was “derailed” by new responsibilities for which he was untrained. The gap was primarily in leadership skills, rather than technical know-how. The crisis had reached the point of near-rebellion among his reports. Several months of coaching resulted in significant changes in his leadership. The human resource specialist overseeing the situation estimated that $1.7M was saved by not having to terminate and replace this senior executive. Additionally no lawsuits were filed, which had been anticipated.
• The CEO of a marketing services company was facing a crossroads of growing her business or selling it; the coaching process facilitated by Jackson & Schmidt helped her define a clear path forward and identify her “core competencies and values,” which has become a major factor in her decision making process.

Team Collaboration Results

• One client saved over $3M in payroll expenses, resulting in a first year savings of 15 times their investment.
• Participated in a large-scale “business performance through culture” change effort, involving training and coaching 70 change agents in a global organizational alignment effort. The purpose was to operate from a common set of values that predictably drive key industry performance measures, which have improved substantially in the past 18 months.
• Facilitated a meeting for a project team charged with a major initiative to change the entire customer service approach for a global design and manufacturing firm. One 2-day meeting combined with a 1-day training resulted in a major breakthrough in the creativity and communication practices for this group. The training (created eight years ago) remains at the core of their world-famous customer service approach.
• Designed and conducted a consulting skills program for a financial services company. The senior vice president reported that half way through a 6-week program, they had recouped their entire investment. Additionally, a new product introduction training system was put in place that reduced costs by over 93%, and in it’s first application yielded an increase in sales of 72% within six months.
• Launched a capital improvement team for a pharmaceutical manufacturing division that had previously been $7 million over budget and one year over schedule. Due to the chartering process, which focused on defining clear roles and responsibilities, the team jump-started quickly, finished on time and was 20% under budget.
• Implemented a full-scale team development program for 100 of the top managers in a manufacturing company where individual success has been rewarded for years. In this case, team collaboration, consensus and buy-in were critical to implementing a change. The site experienced a 20% reduction in meeting time overall. Additionally, project start-up is significantly faster, and adoption of a consistent chartering model allows use of ad-hoc expertise with minimal ramp-up, a critical benefit in their continuous improvement cycle. This translates into a productivity savings of $10 million per year, and gained higher quality decision-making from meetings.
• Conducted facilitation training for new project team leaders in a pharmaceutical manufacturing division. The team immediately applied the tools they learned to creating a plan for a critical project and “selling” it to the organization – a major departure from this company’s culture, and one which received significant accolades….even from the company’s CEO.
• Rolled out collaborative leadership training for 35 managers of a brand new department in a major pharmaceutical company. The result has been substantially shorter and more effective meetings, and more buy-in to the decision-making process. The department has earned strong leadership support for their initiatives over the 12 months following the program.
• Created a key element of the executive development program for a Fortune 50 pharmaceutical company, which for the past five years has consistently received the very highest marks from participants.

Communication & Change Management Results

• Custom designed a “meeting effectiveness” program for one major company’s project management division, which cut most time spent in meetings by 40-50%, created a standard for virtual meetings, and greatly improved the efficiency and focus during meetings.
• Designed and delivered a unique communication program for leaders, a core component of an overall leadership development initiative for a Fortune 500 financial services firm. 3000 managers and supervisors participated in our training created to impact their ability to convey clear and congruent messages in the midst of significant growth initiatives and culture change. Participants consistently report that they derive more value from this one-day process than any other development program.
• Created Communication Gridlock program to improve the quality and reduce the quantity of email, will free up 11 full-time equivalent staff in productivity gains at one manufacturing site, resulting in a $1.1 million projected savings per year.
• Developed a communication strategy briefing for a pharmaceutical company in crisis, which has become a template for designing systems and practices that keep people informed about significant changes, where previously people had no communication or information available to them. For the first time in their history, details about future direction were communicated to all 30,000 employees.

“Worth every penny we spent – from someone who does not like consultants, this says a lot! The work Lisa has done here has been absolutely critical to achieving our bottom line performance goals in the business.”

-Brandon Berumen, CEO, LEI Companies