Portfolio Consulting Principles

Our Core Competencies

Our core competency is the conception, structuring, and communicative support of complex change processes. This includes all types of change management projects, such as:

• Mergers / Acquisitions / Post-Merger Integration,
• Turnaround, Restructuring, Staff Reduction,
• Reorganizations / Restructuring,
• Process Optimization / Reengineering,
• Introduction of new IT systems,
• Programs to improve employee quality,
• Corporate Culture and Cultural Change
  (e.g., programs to improve customer orientation or to reduce internal friction losses).

Depending on your specific needs, we can support you in different ways: This can be long-term support for a larger change project, a workshop for conceptualizing and pre-structuring your project, or hands-on help in rescuing a project that has fallen into crisis. Our range of services extends from change coaching for a “change process from within” to personal background consulting for project managers, up to comprehensive project and change management for small to medium-sized change projects. (Our resources are not sufficient for the lead management of large projects with more than 30 – 50 participants; here we only offer accompanying change consulting and support with change communication.)

Some Typical Project Examples

• Further Development of Leadership Culture. A rapidly growing medium-sized company faced the need to further develop its leadership culture. Due to growth, new managers were constantly being added, often from technical functions, who had never systematically learned how to lead. A uniform understanding of leadership was becoming less and less apparent. The management therefore saw the need to firmly establish some central principles such as respectful interaction with each other, constructive handling of conflicts, and internal customer orientation across the board. Year after year, new focus areas were defined by the management and implemented throughout the year. …more
• Conceptualization of a Change Process. Due to growing international competition, a larger medium-sized company faced significant need for change. The problem was that the need for action was not recognized by the vast majority of long-standing management. Therefore, one of the three managing directors planned to launch a comprehensive change program under the direction of external consultants. It was to be deliberately staffed with ambitious up-and-coming managers to, in his words, “light a fire under the old princes’ behinds”. …more
• Communication in Restructurings. A globally operating technology company was working with numerous project teams and external consultants on a profound restructuring, which aimed on the one hand at modernizing the product range, and on the other hand at significant cost reduction through standardization and modularization. This affected numerous locations worldwide. The board recognized that regular and careful communication was necessary to create acceptance for the initiated changes and to counteract rumors, fears, and the departure of key employees. …more
• Conflict Moderation. As a result of deep rifts, the management of the German branch of a global corporation was almost incapable of action. Although some protagonists of the conflict escalation had meanwhile left the company, the atmosphere in the top management committee was still extremely tense. The managers seemed to be watching each other; open discussion did not take place; the meetings were a mixture of real and apparent factual arguments, hidden criticism, and preventive self-defense. The new chairman of the management board felt that this could not continue. …more
• Employee survey. Several years after merging with a competitor of almost equal size, a major bank planned an employee survey to assess the status of cultural integration and the general climate; this was intended to determine further action needed in the personnel and leadership sector. Initial research had shown that a standard off-the-shelf questionnaire would not be effective, as it would not address the bank’s specific “pain points” sufficiently and would direct too much attention to secondary issues. …more
• Staff reduction. A manufacturing company, which was in strong competition with Far Eastern competitors and belonged to a globally operating large corporation, had been generating a “negative return on sales” of more than 23 percent for several years. The new chairman of the management board was under massive pressure, as the parent company was now considering a complete closure. He had given the new managing director a final deadline of one year for a turnaround; if the company did not show a break-even by that time, it would be permanently closed. …more
• Cost reduction. An educational institution for long-term unemployed had a very successful program specializing in the professional reintegration of former alcoholics and drug addicts. The team was recognized for their good work and could show considerable success in reintegrating participants into the so-called “primary labor market” – the only problem was that it was clearly operating at a deficit. In earlier, better times, the institution had solved this problem through mixed costing; however, after public subsidies had been significantly reduced and accounting procedures tightened, such cross-subsidization was no longer possible. The institution was forced to find a way to manage with the funding provided. …more
• Background consulting on change management. In the course of a major project, a renowned consulting firm recognized that successful implementation of a groundbreaking concept they had developed for an important client required more change management expertise than they possessed in-house. While the client’s board was still enthusiastic about the revolutionary ideas of the consultants, fierce resistance was brewing at the middle and lower levels of the company. Where the board sensed an opportunity to revolutionize the market rules, everyone else only saw difficulties, risks, and threats – and above all, a complete break with their previous business understanding. …more

Further Examples

Here are some more examples of change management activities that Die Umsetzungsberatung has advised on and supported in recent years:

• Management workshop for strategic assessment and realignment of corporate culture;
• Development and implementation of a communication strategy to make the management team aware of an existing need for change, create a “sense of urgency”, and thus awaken readiness for change;
• Integration management in the merger of small and medium-sized enterprises, with the aim of becoming fully operational again as quickly as possible in a tense cost situation and winning the motivation of the management team for the chosen path;
• Takeover preparation of a medium-sized company for acquisition by a former competitor, with the aim of losing as few key performers and as little know-how as possible;
• Change management support for complex SAP implementation in the face of significant expected resistance;
• Communication of a reorganization that takes into account the fact that restructuring is less a problem of enforcement than one of motivation;
• Cultural diagnosis, i.e., reviewing the suitability of the current corporate culture for coping with upcoming change necessities, deriving preservation and change goals for the strategic further development of the existing culture;
• Training of internal consultants who, although predominantly from technical disciplines, are nevertheless measured by the implementation of their proposals (and have no “free shot” in doing so);
• Customer workshops on change management and post-merger integration as part of customer retention events at the top management level;
• Change management workshop at the top management level to prepare for a comprehensive change program;
• Crisis moderation when change projects have gone off track and/or are increasingly wearing themselves out against internal resistance;
• Increasing employee quality in sales and other key functions;
• Background consulting for internal change managers in an unusually complex and difficult change project;
• Implementation consulting when a project has developed a convincing concept but anticipates that its implementation will not be a walk in the park.

As broad as this range of topics may seem at first glance, there is a clear common denominator: In all these cases, it’s about change processes that affect a larger number of people. As a result, the quality of project conception, communication, and leadership is the key to success. Of course, those affected react to the impending changes not only rationally but also with – sometimes intense – emotions. Therefore, for the success of all change initiatives, it is crucial to bring together the (predominantly) factual problem-solving process and the (often emotional) social change process in a reasonable way. This is exactly our business:

We support you in leading your change initiatives to success.

Your Benefits

Our core competence is the “People Side of Change,” the human or organizational dynamics side of change processes. Wherever changes are tackled, fears arise, and personal interests come into play. If these are not dealt with reasonably, resistances develop that can significantly complicate implementation and bring the entire project to the brink of failure (and beyond). Even if changes are pushed through with power, there is a risk that such an authoritarian approach leaves severe collateral damage in employee motivation and their loyalty to the company. The way changes are approached and managed forms the business foundation for the shared future. Therefore, it’s important not to stumble into change processes but to actively shape them with a good eye for the people affected.

In our consulting, we rely on

• our competence in the area of corporate strategy, marketing, and sales;
• scientific psychology and especially a depth psychological understanding of the dynamics of change processes;
• our now more than 25 years of experience with hundreds of change processes in large corporations, medium-sized businesses, and non-profit organizations;
• the conviction that both people and organizations develop best when they are not “protected,” but dealt with openly, challenged to perform, and encouraged to grow beyond their yesterday’s limits daily (see Guiding Principles / Core Beliefs).

In our consulting practice, we deal with the development of change strategies, the management of change processes, as well as Change Coaching. We have extensive experience with Post-Merger Integration, management of employee quality, crisis and conflict management, as well as the pragmatic further development of corporate culture.

Models of Collaboration

“Change from Within” means mobilizing the ability of companies, authorities, and non-profit organizations to change themselves. In our view, this is the royal road of change management, with which we have very good experiences. We see our role as consultants not in changing the structures and cultures of our clients through rigid project management against their will if necessary, but in guiding, supporting, and encouraging them to change themselves to continue meeting the demands of market and competition in the future.

Project Management

• For large change initiatives, the model of “Strong internal project manager / experienced external consultant“ has proven very effective, especially in combination with a strong internal project team that deliberately includes not only “innovators” but also the – actual or perceived – “conservative camp”. This approach prevents changes from becoming a battle between “innovators” and “resistors and blockers”. Often, as the process unfolds, those initially considered skeptics, hesitators, and resistors become driving forces of change once they understand that the project’s goal is not to turn everything upside down and potentially damage the company’s “family silver”. This way, even large organizations can be moved and permanently changed with surprisingly few resources.
• In primarily technically driven projects such as reorganizations, IT projects, or cost reduction programs, we often contribute as “specialist consultants” for change management and communication, frequently complementing traditional consulting firms that handle the content-related project work and project management. This usually works surprisingly well; we aim for “rivalry-free collaboration” that goes beyond a friendly disinterest in each other’s work and instead complements each other in the best possible way. In such cases, the project’s “rhythm” is oriented towards the technical project plan; our task is to anticipate and incorporate the necessary communication and implementation measures into the planning. According to clients, the “added value” of this type of consulting lies primarily in (1) having a consistent change concept, (2) having planned for critical points where good communication is particularly important from the outset, rather than being surprised by them, and (3) having an experienced sparring partner who helps top management prepare for and optimally fulfill its key role in communication.
• In some sensitive change initiatives, those responsible may not necessarily want (another) new consultant to appear on the scene. In such cases, “background consulting” can be the best solution. It’s not a conspiratorial “secret project” that no one should know about, but one where we as external change consultants do not officially appear, instead only coaching top management and/or the project manager(s) – for instance, in conceptualizing a complex change initiative or in dealing with a crisis development. The advantage is that no additional actor comes into play for the company public. Instead, management and/or project leadership simply appears with more clarity, firmness, and convincing power after having used the proven “trick with preparation” – which is usually registered internally with relief and gratitude.
• Large companies often use such background change coaching as an instrument for management training for “high potentials”, i.e., the next generation of top management. In such cases, the individuals often receive a challenging change project as a kind of journeyman’s or master’s piece – and the explicit instruction not to struggle through this project alone, but to use the support of an experienced change coach. They then meet regularly with this coach to reflect on the state of affairs and prepare the next steps. Even in these cases, the coaching is not a secret project; on the contrary, it is a fully official part of management training, but the coach does not appear within the project itself. The great advantage of such programs is that future top managers come into their future positions already with reflected change experience, instead of acquiring it through trial and error “on the job”.

Sparring Partner

For your change initiatives, initio offers itself as an experienced and competent service provider. Whether you are looking for a responsible partner for the long-term support of a restructuring, an integration process or a cultural change, whether you want an internal project to be accompanied by an external Change Coach or if you are just looking for a sparring partner in the background for your leadership role in a change process: A free and non-binding preliminary discussion is almost always worthwhile!

Schedule a free initial consultation here!

Our Approach