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SAMPLES OF CAM'S CONSULTING WORK 

CFO of a 750-person shared services unit:

I want to transform our culture and unify all the functional disciplines within my unit, and we need to find ways to absorb the cost of inflation. 

Cam worked with the CFO to develop and implement a two-year plan focused on leadership development and organization mindset, reinforced with strategy maps, balanced scorecards and compensation.  Cam helped the client source and partner with the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative to ensure that an appropriate level of third party support was available during year two.

The CFO believes one of the most powerful signs of success came during a conference keynote address when a senior and influential line executive said, “I now see this group as a Strategic Business Unit rather than overhead expense.”

EVP of a 2500-person refining and marketing organization:

I want to become the #1 integrated company.  We need to improve our bottom-line by $300 million in three years.  We have the right strategies and the right people.  Functional execution is the key to our success.

After helping the EVP and his senior team confirm the division strategy and restructure to a functional organization, Cam worked with the EVP to select a group of high-potential future leaders to provide input into his planning.  During a specially designed offsite retreat, the future leader group declared, “We have no problem coming up with really great ideas.  We are leaving too much value on the table in how we execute.”  The EVP and the future leaders decided that improvements in accountability, culture and leadership were the keys to delivering the $300 million challenge.  

Cam worked with the future leader group to implement their ideas and the organization increased earnings by $300 million in two years.

VP of a 600-person international lubricants organization:

I have three years to turn this unit around and we need to achieve break-even within a year.  We have the right strategy but we need to make major changes in how we operate.  I see four core business processes that need to be fully reengineered and I can’t afford to have the entire unit in turmoil at once.

During the design phase of the four reengineering projects, Cam helped the client source and manage consulting firms with topic-specific and targeted intellectual property.

A four-year phased approach to reengineering manufacturing, logistics, pricing and sales processes achieved breakeven in two years and an overall $80 million earnings improvement in four years.

CEO of a 60,000-member international certification association:

International growth is critical to changing the vector of our steadily eroding membership levels.  We have assessed three major markets and we have identified prospective partners in each.  I need to know if we are ready to enter this market and if this partner is a good fit.

Cam participated in a joint four-month market and prospective partner assessment focused on economic viability, cultural fit and implementation requirements.

The assessment surfaced two pivotal insights for the CEO – a previously thought inconsequential third party would be critical to the success of the prospective partnership, and his organization was spread too thin to handle the degree of change required to pursue three growth markets simultaneously.

VP of a 250-person marketing organization:

I want to increase focus and discipline in how resources are allocated and strategy is executed.  We need to transform from break-even operations to returning the cost of capital.

Cam worked with the VP to develop and implement a 3-part plan including triaging over 100 planned initiatives, more clearly articulating the 5-year strategy and implementing a disciplined governance process.  The VP delivered $40 million in annual earnings improvement in three years.

Cross-functional General Manager team:

We need to ensure that the $10 million we are investing in this SAP supply chain technology is delivered on-time, on-budget and delivers the $30 million annual EBIT improvement we promised.

Cam partnered with the assigned Project Manager and his 30-person team of information technology and business team specialists to clarify exactly what they were accountable for delivering, and to understand what it would take to deliver the promised benefits.  The team quickly agreed that simply installing the software would not deliver the financial benefits promised and decided to reposition the project as a business process improvement project.  Cam coached the team in progressive techniques for stakeholder engagement and project management focused on value creation.

Cam coached project team members in working with end-users to finalize the project charter and identify what is needed to deliver the promised benefits.  The unique method of stakeholder engagement resulted in the end-user community identifying and delivering a $25 million annual EBIT increase through process improvement long before the SAP technology was installed.  Once completed, the project exceeded all financial and end-user expectations and delivered benefits a full year earlier than anticipated.

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