What challenge(s) do our clients face?
An increasingly dynamic business environment, coupled with shifting employee and customer expectations means companies have to be agile to change and to learn – addressing new demands regarding purpose, creativity, sustainability, flexibility and equality.
Culture builds the foundation of decision-making within an organization and it drives the choices and decisions of professionals based on shared beliefs, values and aspirations. An organizational culture must be aligned with and support the strategy, otherwise there is a significant risk that the goals of the business are not achieved.
In today’s rapidly shifting business environment, with new technologies and innovation, companies are required to constantly adapt to remain relevant and protect market share. The way things were done in the past does not guarantee success in the future. Alongside product or service innovation, cultural transformation is increasingly necessary to survive.
It is also necessary for maintaining brand equity and retaining and attracting talent. Professionals now seek much more than financial stability. Especially within new generations, employees want to know if they identify with their employer and whether their purpose is aligned. The same goes for customers – who actively look to buy from companies who represent their values. Organizations need to have a strong culture and clearly communicate their values and beliefs to attract both customers and top-tier employees.
The importance of culture also becomes evident in the context of M&A’s. According to executives, one of the main causes of deals failing to reach their objectives is that cultural challenges were overlooked. Culture is an essential aspect of the success of M&As and must be evaluated from the earliest stage of the negotiation and understood within the specific context of the deal.
How do we help?
We help you define and realize a cultural transformation which supports your business strategy – taking an abstract concept into a pragmatic roadmap of actions.
We do not believe in the desired culture but in a ‘necessary culture’. Our approach helps you clarify what the necessary culture is to support your company strategy and context and finishes with a pragmatic roadmap of actions to be taken to sustain the cultural transformation over time.
Through an interactive process that considers the perspective of all the organization’s stakeholders, we deliver:
- A clear understanding of the reason for cultural transformation and the necessary culture manifesto
- Diagnosis of current culture and gaps for the necessary culture with a clear vision of “from-to” and its trade-offs
- A roadmap with prioritized actions, considering management systems, leadership and people management
- A clear vision of the leadership model necessary to guide the movement, with necessary adjustments compared to today and personalized development plans for leaders.
- A change management plan and implementation governance to sustain the transformational process, including communication, engagement and training plans.
What are the benefits?
- Alignment of the culture with the business strategy, increasing likelihood of achieving strategic objectives
- Reduction of cultural barriers that hinder business goals
- Coherence of management systems and other tangible elements (rituals, environment, etc) with the necessary culture cultivating good professional behavior and better decision making
- Improved brand image with target professionals and customers
- Clarity on the changes required to achieve a cultural transformation and KPIs to check progress.
- Leadership prepared with clarity about their roles and responsibilities, and development areas.
How does it work?
Our methodology offers a seamless connection between strategy, culture and people and is based on 5 main pillars.
Although we have a very robust and structured methodology, as each organization is unique, we always make it flexible to your specific reality. Regardless, we make sure that culture is translated in a very concrete way from paper into practice, considering a wide range of aspects – from managerial processes, to communication channels and leadership models.
SUCCESS STORIES
CHALLENGE
A Brazilian health insurer was preparing for national expansion and IPO, having seen consistent accelerated growth in previous years. To support this process, they needed to strengthen compliance and governance through increased formalization and standardization. However, they had the challenge of ensuring the maintenance of the cultural principles which were essential for their strategy and growth.
APPROACH
Integration worked very closely with the leadership (carrying out workshops with 40 executives) to understand and translate in a clear and systematic way what was essential to preserve in the company´s culture while looking at its new challenges and objectives.
We deeply understood the company’s strategy, and its roadmap for the future and used this to formalize a “Ways of Being ” for all employees – translating the company’s core objectives into expected behaviors for performance evaluation.
Considering benchmarks from companies that had gone through similar processes we defined what success factors were required for this company according to its culture diagnosis and, from it, we designed a pragmatic action plan for the change. At the forefront of this change was a new organizational structure and an aligned performance management process and remuneration model.
RESULT
The IPO process was very successful. The company has implemented all the initiatives, and is constantly evolving, being recognized as a high-performance option in the stock market.
With our support the company developed its own competence to look at culture, structure and people as an essential part of sustaining its strategy and growth. This has led to greater alignment and discussion of culture at the executive level, improving working conditions and synchronizing the interests of the company and its professionals as it continues to grow.
CHALLENGE
A global food company was acquiring a local competitor three times the size of its operation in Brazil and needed help to plan the integration respecting the cultural differences to guarantee the absorption of the best practices from both businesses to strengthen the new company.
APPROACH
Integration conducted an organizational and cultural diagnosis and defined key actions for the short and medium terms to promote a smooth cultural merger, a stable environment, assuring gradual and successful transition.
Based on the diagnosis, we defined the necessary culture and (i) successfully implemented an aligned retention plan for 29 professionals (100% directors/ managers), (ii) launched a Day 1 communication strategy performed for more than 3,000 employees (> 80% of corporate employees perceived the Day 1 as Excellent), and (iii) developed a culture manual of the acquired company to guide the behaviors of the acquiring company team.
RESULT
The integration was a success, the acquired company professionals felt respected, integrated, and welcomed by the acquiring company.
A new organizational governance and structure was implemented aligned with necessary culture and most importantly the cultural differences were absorbed by both companies; with the positive traits retained.
CHALLENGE
A market leader in gas commercialization and distribution was battling increased competition and needed to undergo a strategic transformation to guarantee the company’s sustainability. A significant part of this transformation relied on a switch towards a more digital way of working and the company realized that it would also have to lead a cultural transformation to adapt to its new ways of working.
APPROACH
Integration helped to assess the company’s current culture, to understand the new strategic drivers, to define the necessary future culture, and to construct a complete cultural transformation plan with initiatives in the short, medium and long-term.
During the processes, the entire company was indirectly involved, more than 45 professionals were directly involved and the entire HR team was trained and involved in the Change Management Workfront. We also trained a PMO and implemented a governance model to guarantee the implementation of defined initiatives over time.
RESULT
With the buy-in and positive example set by the new leadership, a new Cultural Declaration was formalized and embedded, detailing the cultural needs of the company.
We were able to generate movement and credibility quickly with a cultural transformation plan that prioritized 18 short/medium term initiatives. A PMO and change management team that had been trained by us in best practices was able to push through these initiatives without a dependency on our support.
TALK TO US
André Farat
André Farat is a senior manager II at Integration’s Leadership & Organization Practice. Having worked at company since 2013, he specializes in organizational and cultural transformations, post-merger integration, change management, organizational structure, leadership development and go-to-market implementation. André holds a degree in production engineering from the Federal University of São Carlos and a degree in [...]