The issue:
Two years after a global oil and gas service provider established an internal division to provide common IT infrastructure and support services across its group of companies, the division now comprises 150 staff, operating 24/7 from three hubs in EMEA, APAC and AMER regions to provide services to 14,000 users in 50 countries. As an internal division within the core management services of the group’s parent company, the operation had no high-level strategy of its own, and no objectives for restructure and change in order to grow its business within and beyond the group, to develop its people, and to improve its customer care.
The solution:
An Appreciative Inquiry held with the senior management team from across the business enabled exploration of what worked well, did not work, and could work better if only…
Strategic issues emerged from the Inquiry regarding:
a) The need for clarity on the strategic vision, mission, values and objectives to grow as a business, to develop its people and to deliver consistently excellent services and customer care
b) The need for better and more effective communication across all three operational hubs to lead to a better level of understanding and engagement with the division’s strategy, customer care ethos and growing identity and success as a business
c) The need for acknowledgement and feedback on performance and behaviours, and the deployment of resources for staff support, training and development
d) The need to clarify roles, responsibilities, policies and procedures and the principles and boundaries of quality customer care to empower staff to deliver consistently excellent services
e) The need to determine a structure and framework for collaboration with group companies’ chief information officers.
The outcome:
By the end of the strategic review, the senior management team had:
- Developed a full high-level strategy — vision, mission, values and objectives
- Reviewed the current management structure, its functions and its boundaries
- Determined a new leadership structure, new functions and new boundaries
- Analysed the structural gap and its implications for change in staff deployment and development, other resource allocation, and business management in relation to the need for continuity of service and customer care
- Developed SMART goals and personal leadership development plans to work towards restructuring and meeting strategic objectives.
