EO were recently engaged by one of the UK's leading e-commerce businesses to source a high calibre, highly pragmatic and highly experienced Transformation/Programme Director. The successful candidate was required to lead a major company-wide digital transformation for one of the clients external partners.  

In the first part of this case study, we uncovered the initial challenges facing our client, along with the solution used to overcome this. Read more here.

In part two, we dig dipper into the Transformation Programme and look at the specific skills and resources the next stage of the assignment required.  

Leading a Digital Transformation- Case Study: Part 1

In the current war for talent it can be challenging to entice the best business leaders into your organisation.  

This is when many of our clients turn to external partners like ourselves (executive search or interim consultancies) to gain competitive advantage in sourcing top talent. These leaders will be specialist experts with a proven track record in supporting businesses to overcome their challenges.  

When investing both time and money into sourcing top talent, it is crucial you get it right. Or you run the risk of both falling behind on crucial/ time sensitive projects and wasting costly resources.  

How do you overcome this challenge?

Why Hire a Transformation Director? Everything You Need to Know.

Exclusive Q&A with Suraj Bithal - Change and Transformation Director

With numerous businesses going through major change and transformations to ensure they stay sustainable, relevant and profitable, it is paramount they ensure the best resources are in place. Organisational changes are crucial times and are both challenging and resource heavy. The idea of a change or transformation is to resolve a significant issue affecting the business, and thus, how that is resolved will determine the future of that organisation. 

Of course, change and transformation projects can be carried out across one area of the business- to solve a particular functional issue. But, the result will have a domino like effect on the rest of the organisation. Therefore, there is no time for mistakes.  

This is when many organisations engage highly experienced interim experts, to join there organisation for an interim and support them in achieving their goals. 

Founded on Interim Management, EO Executives work with organisations to source the best Interim Managers for their specialist assignments. So, to give you a better insight we collaborated with Suraj Bithal, an expert in his field. With over 15 years' experience in IT Change and Transformation, Suraj has holistic transformation expertise aligned with IT Infrastructure and business acumen, and has also worked with high profile clients, including:  Lehman Brothers (whilst in Administration) PWC, Vocalink, and Monitise. 

What makes Suraj the ideal person to talk to is that he has worked on both the client and vendor side. Understanding both what a client looks for in an Interim Manager and why they would engage them; what knowledge and skillsets are needed to succeed.  

If you're interested in reading the expert opinion on everything you need to consider before, during and after a transformation, continue reading... 

As Head of the Interim Practice at EO Executives, I work with specialist interim experts, who are hired into organisations to lead major change and transformation programmes. A key reason our clients engage with us to source experts for such projects, is that they have a specific goal in mind.

Lean Thinking is one of those goals. Many organisations carry out Lean Transformation projects to minimise waste throughout their manufacturing process, but the objective is always to ensure productivity remains the same. Or event better, increases.

But do they really work and how can you ensure success?

To delve into this further, I spoke with leading and highly experienced Operations Manager, Paul Dakin. With over 25 years’ experience in managing large complex PLC/SME industrial sites, Paul has a deep understanding around what Lean really entails.

There is a continual stream of LinkedIn posts around the top reasons for why ‘Lean Transformation Programmes’ fail. They usually focus on the failure of some aspect of the process itself, or the inability of the organisation and its people to drive through the usual and inevitable problems that they will encounter.

Paul shares his thoughts:

I am not a consultant but an Operations Manager with 25 years' of practical experience of applying Lean Transformation across a range of manufacturing sites. Over that time, the three key points I have learnt are that...

Working with HR leaders in my role as Head of the HR Practice at EO Executives, means I get to hear first-hand about the key market trends and challenges that are directly impacting many organisations.

I have recently been talking to Keith Wilson who has been working in Change Management for over 20 years. He started his career as a Management Consultant at Accenture; has worked around the world as a HR Director at the likes of Vodafone, AstraZeneca and The BBC. Currently, Keith is operating as SVP People, Customer Experience & Product at Private Equity backed Dollar Financial Group.

With Keith leading the way in HR innovation and having worked in numerous industries undergoing significant change, transformation and growth, I wanted to understand his vision when approaching the design, facilitation and management of transformations. So, I put forward some questions to gain his insight and expertise.

2018: The Year of the Vegan?

As an Interim Leader your ability to create impact is the key ingredient for both your success and the success of the organisations that hire you. After all, you’ve typically been engaged to implement change and turn the business around in a short amount of time, so you’ve got to hit the ground running. 

The first few days are the most crucial in any new interim assignment, whether it’s a transformation, change or a turnaround programme this your opportunity to outline goals, objectives and manage the expectations of the business.

In an ever-evolving business world, organisations can no longer afford to ignore the need for change. To stay ahead of the game, effectively engage with customers and entice top talent, businesses must regularly review all aspects of the organisation and occasionally go through periods of transformation. After all, a business is unlikely to have the ability to operate in a competitive market using out-dated processes.