Case History

Barclays Mercantile Credit

Client situation
Following the property crash in the late 1980s, and the resulting plunge in revenues, the Chairman decided to consolidate by selling off the retail division. Although he felt confident this was the right strategy, his concern was that management lacked the ability to make the changes quickly and successfully, and that the time window of opportunity would be missed. In addition, he feared that the impending sale would cause a severe drop in morale, and consequently reduced performance.

Client problem
To deliver a major change initiative in an extremely short timeframe, whilst at the same time building organisational morale, and shareholder confidence.

What we did
Supported the project stakeholders to:

• Identify and describe the organisational culture and leadership style that would be needed to enable the reorganisation to sell off a key division
• Develop an inspirational context for change, and enrol the organisation
• Educate senior and middle management in flexible change leadership and morale management skills
• Build and train a team of internal facilitators to champion and progress the change
• Make relevant, effective, tactical decisions during the process of change to deliver maximum success
• Generate speedy and open communication and information flow both upline and downline
• Celebrate early wins to further encourage change

Results
The project completed on time and the Retail division was sold successfully.

"I needed a strong team to take us through a difficult patch following the property crash.

I felt that a restrictive mindset at all levels of management was holding the business back, and decided to sort the wheat from the chaff.

You enabled a profound culture change, which not only benefited the individuals involved in their current and future careers, it enabled us to successfully sell the retail division and rebuild profitability."