How to make a siloed organisation team for value?

The CEO’s question to us

We fail to get to the next level of our performance on key performance indicators, like profitability, but also on our NPS score. Despite our many efforts on customer first programmes, we seem to fall back every time we stop giving it explicit attention. What to do?

Background

This major energy supplier had a number of ambitious targets in the areas of profitability, sustainability and customer satisfaction. The company made progress in all of these areas in recent years. But after several re-organisations and "Customer First" programmes it came to realise that the next phase may require a different approach. Central to this was the ambition to boost its Net Promoter Score.

The challenge as we saw it

• What got us here, may not be what gets us there: what new/different approaches do we need, and what organisational and behavioural patterns do we require?
• The external dynamics around customer relationships and engagement (translated in NPS score) seemed to be strongly rooted into internal dynamics: how to change the entire system to achieve what we want to achieve?
• Getting the top team to team up, collaborate and cross the functional boundaries, leading by example.

What we did

• We used our self-assessment methodology (the ELP Network Value Creation Accelerator) to make sense of why things are the way they are. This allowed us to build a well-rounded, full picture of what the team needed to get itself and the whole organisation to the next level.
• The traditionally siloed organisation, interacted in a rather disconnected and ‘functional’ way with the customers. An approach, behaviour and attitude that was rooted in the management team’s style for each department to work on their own key objectives and ‘live-apart-together’. This style and climate had, not surprisingly, radiated across the organisation and in the way the company interacted with customers.
• We therefore transformed the way the management was leading the business: we built one joint strategic agenda with shared goals and worked on creating a climate of increased trust among the management team, inviting them to act as one leadership team and to glue together as department heads with joint targets.
• With a working group, we turned the "critical few" actions into a roadmap at the individual, MT and organisational level.

What the client got out of it

• A breakthrough in looking at their future challenges and shared language to frame their issues.
• Shared objectives and commitment to the must-win battles.
• A movement to drive and realise the ambitious business results, accelerated by the crucial behaviours to get there, and rooted in deeper trust.
• A platform among management team for dealing with the challenging strategic agenda of really creating and delivering value to the demanding customer base.
• A shift in interpersonal relations and top team climate.