We never swamp you with a large team. Rather, our model is to provide only a few – often just one or two – very high calibre and highly experienced people into key programme leadership roles. In that capacity, they work as close knit part of your team, doing the work “with you, not to you” and producing results that have real ownership and buy-in.
We’ll work side by side with you to set-up and deliver your programme in the right way – on time, in full and on budget. We’ll bring a deep understanding of the business and technology content, and will immerse ourselves in the specifics of your business. We don’t just bring a programme management cook book.
We’re proud to have been involved in some of the most critical and complex transformative changes for some of the world’s most successful companies. Making these sorts of programmes successful can be hugely challenging, but it’s at the heart of what we do and enjoy.
Small teams, big impact
We never swamp you with a large team. We’ll provide just a few high calibre and highly-experienced consultants – often just one or two - who know how to manage multidisciplinary, multimillion pound programmes, because they’ve done it many times before. Our people will slot into just the key programme leadership roles and, in that capacity, they’ll work as close knit part of your team.
Fitting in with you
We not only have the necessary project delivery experience and expertise, we also have the vital ability and attitude to quickly fit in and build a great working relationship with your team. We’re quick to learn and keen to work alongside you to deliver. We’ll fit in with your culture and ways of working, but we’ll also bring our insight and experience and not be afraid to challenge the status quo. Above all, we understand how to apply our experience to your business and to the situation, without taking a one-size-fits-all cookie cutter approach.
Combining strategy and action
We’ll take a totally independent stance – focusing our expertise on supporting your agenda. We’ll combine the strategic nous your chief executive is looking for with the no nonsense, collaborative, roll-your-sleeves-up-and-get-stuck-in approach that wins over people at every level of the organisation. We get on with the people involved and we get on with the work that needs doing. You won’t find this combination of independence, seniority, experience and attitude elsewhere.
Bringing real know-how
By their nature, big complex programmes are comparatively rare in any one part of an organisation – they just don’t come along that often. So, the first-hand experience and expertise needed to lead them is unlikely to be found in-house. This is where we come in. We’ll work side by side with you to deliver your programme in the right way – on time, in full and on budget. We’ll bring a deep understanding of business, technology, change management and programme management, establishing and delivering programmes in a controlled, efficient and predictable manner. We don’t just bring the programme management cook book. We understand how to balance that with pragmatism and judgement to keep it streamlined and avoid a valueless process bureaucracy. We’ll grapple with the people and business challenges as much as the management, process and technology challenges.
Bringing leadership
These kinds of programmes inevitably involve teams of tens or hundreds of people, multiple stakeholders, divisions, functions, geographies – a host of different constituents, all of which need coordinating and cajoling, empowering and encouraging. Many external suppliers may be involved, who need to help to account for delivery but also treated fairly – given real clarity on their role and scope, and a commercial framework that incentivises their success for a fair price. You need people with the experience to get the best outcomes under these conditions, balancing leadership and management to create an environment where the whole team can be successful. It’s about leading the project smoothly towards the agreed objectives, in a manner that is tuned-in to the culture of your organisation.
How we can help
We’ve worked with many of the world’s leading companies on their most challenging transformation programmes – from early vision, strategy and business case, right through the hard yards of delivery. This gives us the hard-won experience and insight to help.
We’re committed to helping our clients deliver their toughest transformation programmes successfully. Our people are all experienced practitioners who can apply the hard-won experience that only comes from delivering transformational change for a living.
With our ‘low volume, high value’ model, we won’t overwhelm with large teams or take months to produce results. Typically, only using one or two highly experienced and high calibre people, we can setup your transformation programme for delivery success at the outset and then handover, or we can see it all the way through if you prefer. Above all, this is about sound judgement – doing enough analysis and drawing on our experience to help our clients make a confident call on what’s right for them.
We work as close knit part of your team, doing the work “with you, not to you”, and getting to results that have real ownership and buy-in.
To read more about the services we can provide to define and deliver the right change for your business, click here.
Our experience
Here are just a few examples of our work in this space:
We led the business transformation of the largest retail network in Europe, with over 11,500 branches across the UK. The 300 directly managed (non-franchise) outlets were in a loss-making position, despite being generally the largest, flagship branches. We came in both to help devise the transformation and then to run it. Over a three year period, this £130m programme modernised and transformed the network in almost every way, in a highly challenging external stakeholder environment that included public campaigns, workers’ unions, and questions in the UK Houses of Parliament. The programme was delivered on time and within budget, with over £46m per annum of P&L benefit, the taxpayer burden eliminated, and a commercially sustainable and profitable network created. The customer satisfaction, income and profit targets were all exceeded. See the video case study here.
“We knew we needed to transform the network, and knew we needed expert help to do it. Berkeley helped us manage both the internal and external stakeholder environment very, very well. I was still trying to manage a business servicing a million customers a week while this transformation was going on, so it was really comforting to know Berkeley were in the background helping us deliver what we needed to. One year on, the feedback we get from customers is fantastic. It was great working with Berkeley because they obviously cared very much about what we were doing. I would wholeheartedly recommend working with them – they’re a great organisation.”
General Manager
We led a pan-European business and technology transformation for a leading document technology, services and software company, with a turnover in excess of US$22bn. This was the largest and most farreaching programme of change the company had ever undertaken. It successfully transformed all aspects of its high-volume indirect business: selling to small-to-medium sized businesses through a network of distributors and re-sellers. This first phase alone was hugely ambitious in scope, covering virtually all business processes from sales through distribution to service and finance. It impacted the day to day activities of more than 3,200 employees, 16,000 distribution partners and 65,000 customers.
“The main benefits of Berkeley’s involvement were: provision of talented people with experience; can-do attitude of staff; balanced assessment of the challenges; quality of work done with minimal wastage; assertiveness and a positive attitude; delivery of objectives.”
Programme Business Lead
“She [the Berkeley Consultant] was a quick study – with a broad and deep understanding of all aspects of the programme, she could turn her hand to any area within a short period. She brought emotional intelligence - building trust at all levels in the organisation, and able to gain buy-in and trust at the top level (CEO / CFO / UK Board) and at operator level (engineers / order management). She solved problems and got traction by coupling management-by-facts with a very calm manner - awesome at trouble shooting and keeping things on track or moving forward. Finally, her work rate was phenomenal and her commitment went above and beyond.”
UK Implementation Manager
We helped a global consumer goods organisation deliver a significant Finance transformation across over 100 countries. This involved both implementing a new suite of SAP systems for financial consolidation and all group management and financial reporting, and also streamlining their financial reporting by consolidating the group financial results directly from the source ledgers in each of their 600+ Legal Entities around the world. See full case study here.
“Berkeley did an outstanding job. The key factors that made them successful were the rigour of their programme management skills; their willingness to ‘roll up their sleeves’ to really understand the issues and deal with them; and the way they collaborated seamlessly and successfully with our people. We simply could not have done it without them.”
Vice President of Finance Performance & Analytics