Project Description

Huntleigh Healthcare; Transition Director (PE post-acquisition)

Business Background

HHC business was acquired by Getinge Group who had completely different aspirations for the business as part of their global business model. This project included the acquisition of Pegasus which was referred to the competition commission. The business had just lost their operations director and the team knew that this project meant that the Luton site would close and their roles were at threat of redundancy, so it was important to keep EVERYONE on board…

Ability to integrate into the client company

By deploying winningthinking technique of asking different questions

MD’s comment “Tom very quickly understood the culture within the business. Within the first week, he produced an excellent document putting meat on the bone to his brief. He very quickly identified the critical areas of the project and had put together a draft plan with financial targets as to how we could overcome those issues. The majority of this initial document did not change throughout his assignment.

Using winningthinking we identified behaviours were entrenched, people weren’t thinking and accountability unclear but everyone was busy. This caused much duplication and wasted effort. When the objectives were confirmed accountability was aligned and the free up time module was deployed this freed up a team of 22 middle managers to execute the strategic transformation. for the 1st 2 weeks it was tough to get them thinking because they were so used ti being told what to do, but when they did so the business took off:

MD’s comment “The culture he came into was a well-established manufacturing process that had not changed for many, many years. He was very mindful of this and spent nearly all the early weeks convincing the business as a whole that his way forward was the right way, having, of course, agreed on it with me first. Once we had buy-in from the rest of the team the benefits were there for all to see.”

Impact on the business/bottom line

The team created a very complex product range that was too expensive. They were redeployed to redesign key products to get the product margins and operations model right to reengage team members at all levels. This was cost down but there would have been pricing improvements here too but were beyond the scope.

The project that I brought Tom in for will increase the divisional profit annually by 10%. I honestly believe that without his input at a crucial stage in the project we may well still be thinking and planning today.

Overall contribution/achievement of objectives

Tom deployed the winningthinking approach to transforming capability on the job… which increased the speed of execution and transformed the capability moving from a to b

Tom had three objectives, all of which were achieved. His contribution was excellent and even meant that he finished the assignment early – at his cost.

Working style

Very results/task focused. The reason why I selected Tom in the first place was for this very reason. I had a specific set of tasks which had to be done within a specific timescale. I immediately took a liking to Tom when during the interview he challenged my proposed time table. My initial thoughts were that I would need him for 10 months, clearly, he was right to challenge them at the time and delivered within 6 ½ months.

Leadership/people management skills

Winningthinking is all about team leadership and we deployed all the tools and got the team thinking as the means of transforming the culture to make decisions for themselves permanently. This was in the context of most of these people leaving the business. It is important to support and mentor team members 1-1 and make time to do so.

Tom’s great strength is leading people and teams. He had to overcome a culture in the company where people were not held accountable for their actions and rarely made decisions. Through mentoring and working closely with individuals (often on a one to one basis) He was able, by the time he left, to create a team who thought for themselves and made decisions for themselves. He let people develop their own detailed plans under his guidance and only altered these when necessary.

Any other comments about the executive

I would have no problem recommending him for another post. His speciality is change management and getting the governance and financial management right and his expertise are being able to deliver results professionally and on time.