Starting point
A new CEO was hired to carry out a turnaround  (100,000+ employees and among the world’s largest in its industry). The CEO defined four main tracks in the turnaround: Commercial Mindset, Disciplined Execution, Strong Relationships, and Effective Organisation. My colleagues and I were asked to support the fourth track based on our body of knowledge, with which the CEO had previously had positive experiences.

The Effective Organization track had two main focuses:

• “A redesign of our organisation to establish an effective and efficient structure, where roles and accountabilities are clear, encouraging people to work at their full potential.”
• “A meritocratic environment where people are placed in roles because of their capability and then measured and rewarded for the work they do and the value they deliver.”

In this first phase, which lasted about a year and a half, the task was ‘to clarify the organizational model and begin to develop proposed organization designs’.

Analysis
Among the main issues in relation to the effective organization track were:

• That the organization was not transparent and strategically aligned.
• The decision mandates were both inappropriate and unclear.
• That judgment capability was insufficient.
• That many staff functions understood their role and work in relation to their education and skills, not in relation to the company’s mission / vision.

What was done
Organizational effectiveness, including the main issues, were addressed in a global top-down effort in collaboration with management on all levels as well as HR in such a way that both groups gradually took over theory, method and tools.

Outcome
At a 2018 conference, we met with the company’s CEO and one of the top HR executives. They could tell that our approach is now management and HR practise and that the company’s share price from the year after the close of our collaboration has been steadily increasing.