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Financial Services Case Study

Case #4973: Organizational Assessment & Alignment

The new Chief Operating Officer of a financial services firm determined that her newfound company had: (i) a fragmented organizational structure, (ii) lack of single point responsibility, authority and accountability for key customers, processes and results, (iii) no tracking of key metrics or focused financial and management reporting, (iv) too many 'touch' points for customers, leading to inconsistency in service outcomes, (v) titles and roles that did not fit the business mission, (vi) executives and line managers in the wrong jobs, and (vii) a potential need for an infusion of new talent from outside sources. She also determined that process engineering, increased automation and service modeling were likely necessities - to be done after critical organizational alignment issues were addressed.

In this first engagement, Questas undertook an 8-week assignment to understand the current operating environment and assess and help crystallize opportunities to reorganize the business units for better control, measurement, accountability and results.

Working directly with the COO, Questas interviewed all executives, consultants to the executives, line managers and unit supervisors, and studied business processes in order to understand and validate the COO's concerns. Then, working with a smaller group, Questas served as the catalyst for redefining the organizational structure, determining which executive/manager should lead each component and helping to launch the development of a corporate flash reporting and scorecard/dashboard mechanism.

Engagement Highlights

  • Industry:
  • Financial Services - Niche Specialty Offering
  • Client:
  • A division of a multi-billion dollar global technology and services corporation
  • Assignment:
  • Help redefine the organizational structure with more appropriate spans of control
  • Help determine the executive/manager who should lead each organizational component, with end-to-end responsibility and accountability for process results
  • Help identify key performance metrics
  • Help define a corporate flash reporting and scorecard/dashboard mechanism
  • Approach:
  • 2 Questas Partners work in tandem to understand the business environment
  • Read and assess work flow and controls material developed by a 3rd party auditor
  • Develop a visual presentation of the flow and management of the business
  • Interview all executives, consultants to the executives, line managers and unit supervisors and study business processes in order to understand and validate the COO's concerns
  • Make recommendations and test them - via an iterative process - with key executives and line managers; create consensus on decisions before announcements
  • Help the CEO and COO make formal organizational realignment announcements
  • Duration:
  • 8 weeks

Results

  • New organization design, roles, spans of control announced at the 8-week mark
  • New executives from other corporate divisions imported for talent infusions
  • Searches initiated to fill key gaps: sales, audit, product management, other
  • Information Technology unit totally realigned and refocused
  • Process outsourcing opportunities identified, discrete analysis begun
  • Preparations underway for process and business engineering/transformation to be completed in the following 6-12 month period
  • Outside-in service modeling being considered as a next step

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