Business transformation

Large change programmes fail less often for lack of ambition than for lack of grip. We help leadership teams set a clear destination, sequence the work into stages that pay back early, and build the governance that keeps people, budgets and benefits honest throughout.

A framework for delivering results

Most transformation programmes begin with a target operating model and a business case. Fewer begin with an honest account of how the organisation works today. We start there: how demand arrives, where work queues, which decisions are escalated and why, and how much change is already in flight. In a typical six-to-eight-week diagnostic we find that a quarter or more of current projects overlap, compete for the same people or no longer serve the strategy.

With that picture in hand, we help the executive team agree a small number of outcomes, measured from the customer's side as well as the finance director's. We then sequence the work into stages of three to six months, each with its own benefits case, so the programme funds itself as it goes rather than asking the board for faith. A lean programme office, usually staffed by your own people, tracks benefits rather than activity.

Our role changes as the programme matures. Early on we lead the design work and run the first stage alongside your teams. Later we coach your leaders to run each stage themselves, and we step back as they step forward.

Results depend on the starting point and the ambition, but clients typically release between 15 and 25 per cent of operating cost over two to three years while customer satisfaction holds or improves. Just as valuable, they finish with a leadership team that knows how to run the next change without us.

“Halveron helped us stop running forty projects and start running one programme. For the first time the board could see what each stage would deliver, and when.”

Chief Operating Officer, a UK building society

Our approach

  1. See it clearly

    A short diagnostic of demand, capacity, cost and the change already under way. We talk to frontline staff as well as directors, because the people closest to the work usually know where it breaks.

  2. Agree the outcomes

    We help the executive team settle on four or five measurable outcomes and the trade-offs they are willing to make. Every project in the programme must then earn its place against them, and those that cannot are stopped or merged.

  3. Deliver in stages

    Work is grouped into short stages with their own benefits and decision points. If a stage does not deliver what it promised, you learn early and cheaply, and adjust the next one before committing more money.

  4. Hand over the reins

    From the first week, your managers work beside ours. By the final stage they lead the work, and we provide coaching, challenge and a second opinion rather than extra people on the payroll.