Supporting the Journey to High Performance and Commitment

Each TruePoint client is unique — indeed, we seek to partner with leaders and organizations whose aspirations are uncommonly distinctive. But common threads run though our work with companies across all industries and geographies.

Engage around an agenda for change. Leaders tap TruePoint’s expertise at significant strategic inflection points — often when new leaders take the helm, businesses are expanding or merging, the market shifts, the organization’s performance stagnates, or a combination of these junctures.

For example, Steak n Shake, a U.S. restaurant chain, had taken a downturn after strong performance in the 1990s. New President Peter Dunn came on board in late 2002. TruePoint worked with Dunn and his executive team to frame critical performance issues and map an integrated agenda for change. The change agenda — which became Steak n Shake’s FY2004 plan — helped Dunn and his team clarify the endgame, focus on key business drivers, and apply a systems viewpoint. This underpinned a shift in Steak n Shake’s business model to driving unit performance through reducing leader and associate turnover, improving customer satisfaction, and increasing operational efficiency.

Institutionalize honest conversations. Once the change agenda is clarified, TruePoint can help leaders engage their broader organization in productive honest conversations structured and institutionalized by our Strategic Fitness Process. At Hewlett Packard’s Santa Rosa Systems Division (SRSD) for instance, the organization conducted SFPs annually for five straight years. Insights gleaned through the SFP made it imperative to act decisively, according to Steve Fossi, a former general manager of the division. These strategic conversations fueled a multiyear transformation — HP’s poorest performer became a top division, multiplying profits by a factor of six and turning flat sales into 10% annual growth.

Align to execute strategies. TruePoint also helps our clients align across boundaries and down through levels of the organization. HP SRSD was struggling to make a profound shift from a product to systems business. With TruePoint’s support, the organization successfully designed a more fluid matrix organization and fostered the emergence of a “systems culture” that transformed a functional silo mindset into broad commitment to the organization’s success.

Promote learning, propagate success. TruePoint works with our clients to promote learning pilots and accelerate the spread of successful approaches. At Steak n Shake, our initial work with CEO Peter Dunn and his corporate team cascaded down into the company’s 400 individual retail units. Learning from representative high-performing and struggling stores, Steak n Shake is transforming store-level performance, building leadership capability, and accelerating its cultural transformation.

Develop courageous, committed, capable leaders. TruePoint’s partnership helps our clients to improve leadership at all levels — improving performance and commitment of individual leaders from the CEO down, building more effective leadership teams, and fostering the emergence of down-the-line leaders. For example, Comcast New England found that the Strategic Fitness Process had a profound impact on middle managers who led the SFP task force. These managers soon took on new leadership roles in the organization and many said that participating in the SFP was a high point in their career development.

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