Building executive team effectiveness to realise ambitious growth in global marine services
Following its recent acquisition by a global PE firm, this Global Marine Services Company had set ambitious growth goals and needed a robust Global Executive Team (GET) to realise them. The newly appointed CEO wanted to build a strong leadership team which blended existing deep sector experience with broader external expertise. Capitalising on this opportunity would require a significant change in attitude, behaviour, organisation and processes to take forward a business which was perceived as relatively traditional, hierarchical and low on commercial acumen.
We partnered with this organisation to work with the GET on developing a fundamental framework of mutual understanding, laying that crucial foundation of trust and collective agreement. In tandem with this work, we executed a Values Discovery to bring cultural life to the creative and entrepreneurial strategy.
Focus
The CEO had a clear vision, and as the selected partner our brief was to:
These were the ‘solid foundations’ needed to transform the company and create value through revenue growth, margin enhancement and the M&A deals that would deliver the business ambition.
Action
Our solution comprised several critical components within an integrated programme of work spanning four months:
Diagnostic interviews with the CEO and the whole GET: identifying points of alignment and future opportunities in relation to team goals, roles, process and relationships.
A series of three integrated GET off sites: progressively building the team and developing/progressing the strategic agenda. These workshops included:
- Team purpose and collective endeavour; success criteria; working agreements; creating a strong enabling climate.
- Definition of key workstreams; scoping outcomes and delivering against them such as Strategy and Values, Value Propositions, and Transformation priorities.
- Joint sense making and collective agreement of the key workstreams; workstream integration and finalisation; launch, engagement and reinforcement planning.
GET members progressed their respective workstreams between the off sites, which provided key points of focus and the momentum to stay on plan. Sheppard Moscow’s consulting support enabled the account executives to obtain peer input as the work developed and collective sign-off once it was completed.
(Re)discovering, distilling and re-articulating the company’s Core Values: the new strategy had to work in lockstep with the company’s core values, so we designed and executed a Values Discovery approach in partnership with the Chief HR Officer conducting 21 focus groups and 11 1:1s across eight global locations. The core values came through loud and clear, a powerful articulation of what the company actually is when it’s at its best. We validated these core values further with a survey across the company – altogether 55% of the company engaged in the Values Discovery dialogue.
Impact
This initiative laid the foundation for a transformative shift in the organisation’s strategic trajectory and leadership culture. In the four months, the GET went from being a disparate collection of individuals with different styles and reference points, to a burgeoning team with a clear collective endeavour and plan to make it a reality.
The team also fulfilled their key objective of developing the cohesive approach to launch and socialising it with the Board, the business and their customers. The outcomes reflect a comprehensive and integrated approach to preparing the company for long-term growth and value creation.
These outcomes include:
- Strategic clarity and direction: a compelling vision and strategy carved a clear path toward the desired value creation timeframe – aligning stakeholders around shared goals and priorities.
- Cultural cohesion and engagement: the energising articulation of company values fostered a sense of purpose and belonging, anchoring behaviours and decisions in a shared ethos.
- Market positioning and differentiation: a rigorous analysis of market dynamics and customer value proposition equipped and empowered the organisation to advance its ambitious growth goals.
- Operational alignment: an operating model and unified company framework ensured strategic pillars were supported by clear KPIs and high-level mechanisms, driving accountability and coherence across functions.
- Leadership transformation: the Leadership Expectations Framework established a shared language for leadership, aligning behaviours with strategic imperatives, and reinforcing a culture of ownership and impact.
- Sustainable change: the draft launch and engagement plan focused on the ‘long game’, moving beyond lip service communications to embed change deeply and authentically.
