Type: Case study

Getting the partners on the same page

The Brief

The client was a boutique regulated entity providing accounting and corporate finance services to public and private finance sector clients. The firm had a good reputation, high quality client list and had demonstrated strong growth but the partners were so busy ‘working in’ the business they had not taken a step back, evaluated the strategic objectives and aligned around them.

The Engagement

We began by conducting a round of exploratory interviews with the partners to deeply understand their personal and professional motivations and ambitions to inform next steps. We followed on with 4 half-day in-person strategy meetings to progress thinking and align the team around common goals. The backbone of the delivery was the Goldcrest Strategy Pyramid, which served as a framework to clarify the organisational purpose, create a new group strategy, and identify the key areas of focus to make this a reality. This work was integrated with activities to develop the necessary leadership, culture and teamwork to successfully land it in the business.

The Outcome

The outcome was precious time away from the day-to-day to consider the big questions. Clarity on where interests aligned and diverged, what culture would enable success and what leadership behaviours were necessary to achieve this was gained, along with the motivation to put it into practice.

Reimagining the future of a regional bank

The Brief

The client was a diversified publicly listed regional bank with retail, corporate and capital market divisions that was reimagining group strategy to accelerate growth and increase impact for key stakeholders. The existing strategy had been successfully executed but was focused on traditional activities in the local market. The mandate for the new strategy was to enable expansion of services and geographical reach, leverage emerging technology to reach new customers, and improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.

The Engagement

We began by conducting a round of exploratory interviews with members of the senior leadership team to deeply understand the context, what was working, and where change was needed, This insight was used to craft the agenda for a 4-day in-person offsite. The backbone of the delivery was the Goldcrest Strategy Pyramid, which served as a framework to clarify the organisational purpose, create a new group strategy, and identify the key areas of focus to make this a reality. This work was integrated with activities to develop the necessary leadership, culture and teamwork to successfully land it in the business.

The Outcome

The outcome was alignment in purpose and understanding amongst the senior leadership team, and a clear action plan to accomplish these goals. The new strategy was subsequently approved by the Board and embedded in the organisation with additional coaching, organisational design and communication/team workshops to support the changes required to reach the reimagined future.

Refreshing strategy and leadership for the next chapter

The Brief

The client was a privately owned asset manager that was looking to build on historic success with a strategic shift in the face of a changing commercial environment. The organisation was new to working with an external specialist in this way and were cautious about the investment and the benefits. Despite this reticence, continued business success required a fresh approach and that was demonstrated by the executive committee’s willingness to try something different.

The Engagement

The engagement was to design a process to build the trust that would allow the executive committee to discuss the issues that mattered while spending time together, away from the office and the usual Boardroom dynamic. We started with a round of one-to-one interviews that built rapport, enabled the key strategic issues to be surfaced and the crafting of a meaningful agenda for a 2-day offsite.

The offsite was facilitated by 2 Goldcrest consultants who steered the strategic discussion, connected the conversation to the leadership behaviours needed to underpin success, and galvanised the team around their collective purpose. We followed the event with a pair of follow up sessions to track progress, embed
learnings and maintain momentum.

The Outcome

The initial scepticism, quickly transformed into enthusiasm. This allowed a refreshed purpose, vision and strategy considering a fast-changing macro environment, and a more connected team that was able to model the leadership and teamwork required for success.

Building bench strength in wealth management

The Brief

The client was a FTSE AIM 100 investment and wealth management firm with offices across the UK. The firm had grown significantly over the past 10 years and the new CEO wished to focus on developing the emerging talent within the business.

The Engagement

We were engaged to design and deliver a programme for the leaders who operated one or two levels below the executive committee. The programme’s aim was to furnish this cohort with the skills to be successful at the next level, develop leadership capabilities to support our succession plan in the short term and build a sustainable talent pipeline for the future. This was the first time the business had engaged in leadership development work and we were happy to guide and collaborate with the internal team.

The Outcome

We ran 4 iterations of the programme for c.40 senior leaders with great results. Immediate gaps in the executive committee were filled internally by programme participants. The longer-term succession plan became more robust and the general engagement of this population significantly improved. One outcome which was not articulated as an aim at the outset was that this population forged strong relationships and collaboration between functions in the business significantly improved.

Transforming the leadership of an asset manager

The Brief

The client was a FTSE 250 asset manager with a developing global footprint. The aim of the programme was to build the executive committee bench strength by working with the direct reports of functional and regional leaders. The mandate was to elevate leadership skills, mindsets and behaviours to enable delivery of a newly articulated strategy. That strategy included significant M&A activity and would therefore require the reinforcement of existing culture and adaptive capability to integrate new colleagues, teams and businesses.

The Engagement

The engagement was to build a global programme of activity. A series of in-person modules were delivered in the UK, the US, and Singapore, with the final capstone module in London. The programme was supported by virtual check-in sessions and a regular cadence of thought pieces and case studies to stimulate insights and learning.

The Outcome

We delivered three iterations of the programme to approximately 35 senior leaders. The programme contributed to the successful integration of several acquisitions. The acquisitions would have taken place regardless of the programme; however, the opportunity to plan for the cultural integration and the behaviours and mindsets required in this critical population made the process far smoother.

Cultural reset to achieve renewed purpose

The Brief

The client was a mid-cap Bank. Their executive committee was a blend of long-serving individuals and newer joiners, and our mandate was to discover the organisational culture needed to achieve its renewed purpose.

The client was aware that culture is shaped by many factors and that the tone from the top is vital. The CEO and HRD recognised the need to gather the team together, debate the issues, understand individual views and ultimately agree on a way forward. They asked Goldcrest Partners to design and facilitate an open and robust process to achieve these goals.

The Engagement

The engagement was to initially get to meet the participants individually, ensure we were known to them, and start building trust between our facilitators and team members. This allowed us to gauge opinions and ensure the agenda and discussion were as inclusive and engaging as possible.

Following these exploratory conversations, we designed a two-day offsite meeting. The agenda was a blend of exploration around the cultural issues, either enabling or hindering effective business, along with very practical actions for the group and each individual executive. Unsurprisingly, some departments were more advanced than others, and this provided the opportunity for executives to share best practices with one another.

The Outcome

The result was a clear view of areas of concern and areas of strength across the organisation. This insight allowed the desired culture to be identified and worked towards. We continue to work with the client at an individual, team and organisational level to continue development and embed the learnings in the business.

Culture change through trust and followership

The Brief

The client, a global S&P 100 organisation, wanted to increase the pace of delivery and improve operational effectiveness. They recognised that while systems and processes were critical, so too was how their people were led and how they chose to follow.  We were asked to design a global roll out of a Trust and Followership programme to support the cultural changes.

The Engagement

The result was a programme delivered both in-person and virtually across 40,000 employees. It explored trust as the bedrock of effective teams and introduced the followership as the other side of the leadership coin, where the focus moves from leaders taking on all the responsibility of delivery to how the followers can pick this up, willingly accept responsibility, and proactively engage.

The Outcome

The roll out continues, with good feedback, and early indications that the new culture is taking root. As with any culture change programme, it takes practice to form new habits and adopt new ways of working. The time and commitment needed to embed the new culture in everyday behaviours is present and the organisation is taking the right approach to yield success.

Senior executive coaching for a COO with a broadening remit

The Brief

The client was a COO at a US-based high-growth asset manager whose scope of responsibilities expanded from the US to Global functions at a time of significant technological, operational and organisational change. The mandate was to turn around the underperforming non-US functions that were critical to organisational success.

The Engagement

A Goldcrest coach with considerable experience working in the asset management industry engaged with the client for an initial 12-month term to support the individual with the challenges that came from the change in role. A series of 1:1 meetings gave the client the opportunity to talk things through, evaluate options and plan decisive actions to resolve a variety of issues. These included managing up, communicating with a globally dispersed team, elevating the competency of direct reports, changing the organisational design and having difficult conversations in an environment of resource constraint and some friction with adjacent functions.

The Outcome

The client reported that they valued the objective perspective brought to the conversations and the measurable outcomes achieved in the business. The engagement was extended for another 12-months to continue the benefit, both personally and professionally.