Cases in point

Our work often takes place in the context of organizational change and performance improvement, strategy development or innovation and technology management. Here's a sampling of the successes we've helped clients achieve . . .

For a division of a major European telecommunications operator, we introduced organizational learning methods in a comprehensive performance improvement program. In six months we helped them to establish a shared direction for the company, understand and correct weaknesses in their processes, meet new performance targets, and put in place the means for continued improvement.

We combined business process reengineering with change management and organizational learning to redefine the core process at a leading bank. The bank is currently on track to achieve over $100 million in savings.

At a North American newspaper company, we applied organizational learning to a fundamental reengineering of key business processes. Major changes have been embraced by all the employees without disruption and with dramatic performance improvements, including a 12 percent increase in advertising revenue, a 22 percent reduction in costs, and increased customer satisfaction.

In the public sector, a United Nations agency risked closure unless it reformed its inefficient bureaucratic practices. We helped them to reduce spending by 25 percent while increasing output of their services, reengineer 30 processes founded on core competencies, and introduce new management tools, using organizational learning methods to initiate a more change-friendly culture and maintain morale.

A fast-growing health care technology company needed greater internal collaboration to speed up its product creation process, but employees feared collaboration would compromise the quality of their ideas. The introduction of team learning techniques helped to reveal false assumptions, alter behaviors, and dramatically improve the results of the R&D group.

Productivity and customer responsiveness in the research division of a global chemicals company presented serious concerns. An organizational learning approach helped to reposition the entire research effort and accomplish real change in the attitudes of the key research teams, so that they could achieve the improvements needed.

Conflict and mistrust between a large retailer and a major consumer goods manufacturer jeopardized their strategic alliance. Organizational learning tools helped to reveal some fundamentally conflicting behavior patterns and to build the collaborative processes and procedures needed to cement the alliance, which has now been profitable for both partners for over five years.

The laser optics division of a global leader in consumer electronics suffered from high variability in its returns, due to price swings driven by customer and competitor pressures. Using our methods, top management was able to identify the issues preventing sustained performance, and develop a strategic marketing approach so that price became a reinforcing rather than a constraining factor.

A European truck manufacturer bore deep scars from a radical downsizing exercise that had rescued the company from bankruptcy. Applying change and learning management tools we helped the company formulate new, market-oriented strategies, design efficient processes, and develop practical human resource policies.

BACK TO HOME PAGE - (TOP OF PAGE)

For more information, please contact Michael Goodman at Innovation Associates Organizational Learning at 508-435-7999, or email us