Driving Change and Excellence in Business

Ciprian Porutiu, Management - Business Transformation, Marsh McLennan

Ciprian Porutiu, Management - Business Transformation, Marsh McLennan

The Role of Strategic Initiatives in Business Transformation

The Strategic Initiatives group purpose is to lead critical initiatives in support of the Company as a whole or in specific Product Lines, Business Units or geographies. The type of programs it undertakes include Business Transformations, Regulatory and Compliance mandates, Product Launches and Discovery projects to map out the roadmap for future strategic moves. The importance of delivering the specific goals and benefits of the transformations couldn’t be emphasized without adding that competitive advantage, growth or efficiency gains are unsustainable without a systematic Change Management approach that takes the human Factor into account and multiplies the benefits while minimizing the drawbacks of any Transformation.

There is no “may face inertia or resistance” question: any action is prone to a proportional re-action. Organizations today are less pyramidal and resembling an army, with a command-and-control profile. In the past few decades, command-and-control methods have been replaced by a fury of empowering strategies in which people are expected to more fully contribute to the vision and goals of the organizations, through creativity and flexibility. That shift in optics enables organizations to maximize the potential of their employees but makes any Big Change more dependent on tagging-along the colleagues/clients and partners, requiring engagement and adoption.

Being aware of this dependence is the first step in ensuring any Transformation doesn’t fall into the bucket of 70-80 percent failure or those with a mediocre performance. It takes more than one step, but this is the right start. According to Aric Wood, Chief Strategy at Tigerhall, there is an “activation abyss” that separates good Strategic Planning and excellent Strategic Execution. This is the place where most of the Transformations go to die! A People approach that engages early, tailors communications and training in the micro-targeting manner that today’s marketing digital platforms allows us to dream of and embeds this experience in New Ways of Working has indeed a much higher chance of success! And this is my (high bar) goal!

The Importance of Maintaining Strategic and Tactical Balance

Like the old triple constraint that Project Management used to promote (Scope, Budget, Schedule) you need to stay within the triangle. You can’t afford to veer too much outside the initially set guardrails. That said the Strategic and Tactical “constraints”, although at times in apparent lack of sync or even at odds, is less problematic with a healthy balance and a good dose of business agility. The mission and vision are clear and that gives the WHAT (Strategy) and plots a high-level roadmap.

“Leaders who inspire and motivate people move mountains 1000x faster than any Quantum computer can”

The intermediate steps of that road are the HOW. Although you have a hypothesis to start, and we are driven by Value Achieved rather than project delivered in time and within scope and budget, we can tweak the STEPS along the way to maximize the Value while keeping the compass towards the GOAL, even if some of the steps won’t look completely “successful”, seen individually.

Leveraging Agility, Technology and Change Management for Future Success

I wish I had fortune teller power and bet on the winning strategy. That said, some level of foretelling can be extrapolated from the past: the pace of change is picking up exponentially, and any organization capable of keeping up with the change will survive and strive. And that can happen via People focused Change Management, business agility and a technology powered automation, including the latest in Artificial Intelligence, both in information realm as well as in Physical world (IoT on steroids).

That’s why any organization’s power will continue to rely on fast, efficient and error-free products/services delivery but will differentiate among the competition by its ability to pick-up the change winds and run with it, even if that will require a contortionist’s flexibility.

It’s something that I try to abide by every day and it’s valid for any professional stage: be curious and a learner your whole life! And remember that leaders inspire people, don’t manage technology or offices. Those who inspire and motivate people move mountains 1000x faster than any Quantum computer can.