Managing Executive Transitions

Client need

Nurturing and retaining talent is key to this organisation’s success in Asia and other regions. To this end the leadership team recognizes that in order to retain and to nurture leaders a proactive approach was required. Growing in larger-and more complex markets means that the cost of failure is more pertinent today than ever before and as such the “sink or swim’ approach is simply not viable. It was recognized that the success ratio of General Management could be greatly improved.

Until recently executives were named and promoted to GM positions without the support or guidance of a proper structured process. Accelerance was approached to suggest a highly customised yet cost-efficient transition framework that would help the organization address this challenge

Solution

Accelerance reached out to its global team to come up with a creative solution that would help new GMs including BU managers succeed in their transition and new role. The solution expected by the client should be scalable – i.e. it would possibly be leveraged for future leader transitions globally – and should address the multi-layer transition challenges faced by executives at senior level: Transition to New Organization; Transition to New Role; Transition in Scope; Transition to New Geography or Culture.

Over a period of four years, twenty four executives (a combination of country General Managers as well as Business Unit Managers) benefited from the transition programme in the APAC region. Each transition journey was customized for the participating leader according to the complexity of the transition, the expectations of the new role and the development gaps the leader has to bridge.

Most transition programmes however included the following elements:

• A face to face kick off meeting between the new leader, his/her LM, HR and the Accelerance consultant
• The articulation of a stakeholder map to capture a complete view of the New Leader’s environment
• The completion of an organisational diagnostic to enable an informed, well rounded view of the business landscape.
• The facilitation of a new leader assimilation workshop to enable the rapid development of solid working relationships across the New Leader’s leadership team
• The facilitation of a leadership team workshop to align on focus, short to long term deliverables, critical interfaces, and core ways of working
• The creation of a Personal Development Plan to enable the New Leader to build on core strengths and effectively address areas of further development
• The definition and presentation of an individualized, comprehensive New Leader Roadmap to enable full transparency regarding the challenges and commitments, and procure key stakeholder endorsement for the New Leader’s journey
• On-going coaching and consultation, as needed, by the Transition Consultant/Coach

To ensure the success of the programme, a dedicated programme director from Accelerance worked with the head of OD and Talent Management (the project lead from the client organisation) throughout the duration of the programme to identify suitable transition consultants, mentor them and ensure consistency / continuity in the quality of each transition programme.

Finally, an Accelerance full time project manager was allocated to the transition programme to ensure the smooth running of each transition including monthly budget reporting and monthly progress reports so the participants Line Manager are aware of progress made including any support needed.

Impact

The impact of the transition programme can be measured via different lenses:

• Reduction in transition failure rates: prior to the investment in executive transitions, the APAC region experienced 50% or more failure of transitions in GM role within 12-18 months, leading to involuntary and voluntary terminations of employment. As a result of the transition programme the transition failures were reduced to three (one unexpected and linked to family issues, the two others were identified early thanks to the process and individuals were successfully redeployed in roles where they are now successful) out of twenty four leaders going through the programme.
• The contribution to business success: Data provided by client suggests that after one year of the transition programme being in place the Australia business posted 7% growth over the prior year with 100% achievement of target and TFC goals. In the Philippines, revenue was 3% above target in 2015 (YTD) reflecting a 32% growth over prior year, compared to a below target performance for two consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.
• Organizational impact: The programme has contributed to created greater organizational stability, greater leadership team effectiveness, a positive culture shift and a more performance driven organization (these indicators were collected via informal conversations with key stakeholders).
• Awards: The design of the transition programme has also received two internal awards from the parent company: Global HR Breakthrough Award and Global TM & Leadership award.
• Solution embedded in the Talent Management Strategy: The Executive Transition Programme has become a significant element of the Global Talent Management Strategy for our client
• Sample of delegates comments: 
  • “This program has been very valuable to me by offering a non-biased sounding board on strategy and actions, as well as giving me third party views on issues and providing different perspectives” (GM Thailand)
  • “Having the External transition consultant and coach has really helped me adjust to my new GM role. Amongst other benefits, the programme increased my confidence to deliver on the expectations of my team, it helped me shift my leadership approach from hands-on to delegating,  it helped improve my listening capability, time management and decision making skills, and finally it enabled me to focus more on talent development” (GM India)
  • “The Executive Transition Program has helped me: Set priorities for short term and long term basis that provides clear road map for execution; Provided me detailed knowledge about area of improvements with the help of my transition consultant; it also gave me an opportunity to dialogue during challenging / difficult circumstances with anyone outside the organisation and seek opinion / guidance” (GM Pakistan)
  • “I loved it! The transition program is a mix between personal and business support for leaders in transition. It has been a very helpful experience for me and helped me better understand myself, my team and the business situation, setting both short term and long term objectives for each of these” (Gm Malaysia)

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

“Accelerance has an interesting concept – all members are ex- Executive of L&D, OD or Talent Management from big corporations. They have decided to quit the corporate world to focus on their passion of developing leaders. They are not on payroll with Accelerance but choose the projects they want to work with. They work on customizing solutions for their clients leveraging their virtual network instead of selling off the shelf products. All contents of the process and the process are co-owned by us [the client] and they are totally fine with working in partnership with other suppliers we choose and manage the relations for us, as well as transferring knowledge and capability to our HR team”

Head of Talent Management & OD (Asia and Japan)