EXPERTISE

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION READY FOR THE FUTURE?

Just the word “strategy” conjures for many the image of endless planning sessions producing thick binders that end up relegated to back-room storage shelves. At The Clarion Group, we think differently about strategy. For us it’s about helping organizations become strategically effective: setting the right goals and consistently achieving those goals. Our goal is to help leaders transform thinking into action and position the organization for long-term success. 

For most organizations, the content and process of strategy is changing fast. With the rapid advances in technology, quickly expanding influence of the “customer,” and accelerating pace of change in every sector and industry, strategic planning has become an increasingly dynamic and ongoing set of activities. 

DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION HAVE THE CULTURE IT NEEDS TO SUCCEED?

The culture in any organization is integrally linked to performance and plays a crucial role in achieving sustained success. Culture becomes especially important when the focus and direction of the organization change, for example, when strategy shifts significantly, when two organizations (and their cultures) come together through merger or acquisition, or when an organization is in turnaround mode. Start-ups face a whole different set of culture challenges. In any scenario, cultural alignment begins at the top with strong leadership and requires deep engagement with employees. 

Specifically, the advisors of The Clarion Group work with leaders to:

• Ensure leadership alignment around the organization’s vision, mission/purpose and values – the keystones of culture.
• Understand how these keystones of culture are currently interpreted by people inside the organization through interviews, surveys, focus groups, and general interaction on a daily basis.
• Help determine if the culture that exists is advancing or hindering the fulfillment of vision, mission, purpose and strategy. If culture is an organizational headwind, we can help leaders identify key gaps between the current culture and the culture needed to fully align with vision, mission/purpose, and values. 
• Develop actionable, behavior-based approaches to shifting, or in some cases, transforming organizational culture. 

Bottomline, at The Clarion Group, we help top leaders get un-stuck so they can be the catalyst for cultural alignment.

ARE YOUR LEADERS REALLY PREPARED TO LEAD?

At the heart of every high-performance organization are highly effective leaders – and leadership teams. Individually, and collectively, they are the primary drivers of success – or failure – in any organization. We hold a point-of-view that individual leaders must continually hone their leadership capabilities, and leadership teams must perform in a way that ignites possibilities in the organization, aligns the organization around its mission and strategy, and ensures the long-term viability of the organization. 

At The Clarion Group, we work closely with top-level leaders and/or their teams to improve both individual and team capabilities, competencies and capacities. With our clients and their intimate understanding of their own organizations, along with our own experiences advising and running organizations, we co-create approaches and solutions that have lasting impact. 

Our work with the most senior leaders and their team often taps into one or more of our tools and approaches, including:

• Accelerated Development Coaching
• Intensive 1-2 day executive work sessions or retreats, working with “sleeves rolled up” in the details of the organization’s strategy and culture to build powerful and lasting top team collaboration and competencies
• Visible Horizon, a proprietary data-driven leadership approach and set of assessment/feedback instruments that enable the senior team to develop a deeper shared view of the leadership agenda required and gain a deeper understanding of their own leadership strengths (and weaknesses)
• Increasing awarness of aspects of the business model that are impacting employees
• Learning to act in concert to drive toward organizational vitality and tangible results

DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT ROLES PERFORMING AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL?

We all know that nothing can be done without the right people in place. This is true whether an organization is on a stable path forward or whether it is dealing with many moving parts (changing marketplace, regulatory headwinds, changing products, changing economics).

We say we "work at the intersection of business and humanity" because we believe people are any organization’s greatest asset. Leaders are often challenged to find, develop and retain top talent. We can help. Over the last 20 years, we’ve worked with many clients to:

• Design roles, identifying specific competencies required and building success profiles
• Align role structure with strategy
• Assess fit of incumbents or potential candidates
• Develop high-potential talent through intensive and accelerated coaching
• Identify candidates by tapping into our extensive network
• Assist with implementing transition of talent
• Design and deliver custom leadership training to groups

"STRUCTURE FOLLOWS STRATEGY” – DOES YOURS?

The structure of an organization should align with and enable the strategies that are being implemented. As the evolution of strategy accelerates, so must the organizing structures. This is one of the most important roles of the leadership team. 

Organizations achieve results through the performance of the individuals and teams in support of a clearly defined strategy. Organization structures exist to facilitate the interactions of those individuals and teams to those ends. 

These structures can be “hard” (think org charts and decision matrices) or “soft” (how stuff actually gets done). At The Clarion Group, we’ve developed numerous frameworks and tools to help build the structure that is most supportive of an organization’s direction, importantly taking into account the human dynamics within organizations. Because all our work requires us to be change navigation experts, we understand the process of making change happen and co-create implementation plans with our clients to ensure successful adoption of the organization structure

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION POSITIONED FOR SUCCESS IN A DIGITAL WORLD?

Organizations in just about every sector and industry are evolving at an accelerating pace driven largely by constant innovation in technology. In fact, digital technology has become so pervasive that it no longer is defined by a department but is interwoven and essential to the success of every single function and facet of an organization. Technology is foundational to creating efficiencies, delivering better customer experiences, and enabling new platform-based business models – and these are just a few examples.

The advisors of The Clarion Group, in partnership with a network of talented technologists we call the Digital Associates, meet this challenge by helping clients accelerate the adaptations and innovations they need across their historic operating models while simultaneously building new digital platform business models. We believe this holistic socio-tech approach has become essential to driving higher levels of performance while maintaining market relevancy. This requires leaders to address each element of the operating model: strategy, culture, leadership and organizing structures in a contemporary, technology-driven and integrated way. However, most leaders today are struggling just to manage the rate of change to their legacy organizations. It’s not easy; however, with our experience and co-creative approach, we can help.

Together with our Digital Associates, we help guide leaders through these transformations to more advanced socio-tech operating models by addressing critical questions such as:

• What is your strategy to successfully compete in the digital world with rapidly changing customer expectations?
• How should the business be organized and governed to accelerate improvements to the historic core while developing new, digitally-based business models?
• What capabilities and talent is required to guide the direction and the execution of the business?
• How can you align the culture so it gives the organization a lift instead of dragging performance down because of antiquated mindsets and behaviors?
• What is the approach to providing oversight to the diverse initiatives and funding strategies required to remain relevant in the “speed of light” digital world?

WONDERING HOW THE M&A DEAL YOU JUST DID IS REALLY GOING TO WORK?

Mergers and acquisitions are a reality for many organizations: to preserve a customer base, to expand a portfolio, to create efficiencies or to accelerate growth. But it can be hard to determine where everyone and everything fits in. Financial due diligence is crucial but it isn’t enough. Many “perfect marriages” often fail because leaders undervalue (or completely fail to really consider) the people impact (particularly on line talent), the need for extensive strategic communications, and/or the importance of culture fit. Closely examining cultural alignment helps leaders, integration teams, and organizations learn about what to expect from the commonalities and differences between the two cultures. If cultural differences aren’t addressed, each side can begin to believe the worst about the other. 

The Clarion Group works with senior leaders on the strategic, leadership, communications, structural and behavioral issues that must be addressed for a merger or acquisition to succeed. We stress the importance of ensuring everyone understands what the intent is, what the deal means for the different parts of the organizations, and how the entities plan to integrate (if at all). Our goal is to help leaders craft and execute thoughtful game plans for achieving the desired end state as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible.