RESTRUCTURING TO STAY AHEAD
Background
Technology drives so much of what we are marketeers, businesspeople and leaders do. This creates its challenges due to the speed at which technology changes. If you are not nimble enough to predict and react to the changing landscape, you risk being left behind.
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As leaders it is our job to ensure that we are always ‘fit for the fight’. This can mean changes to hardware, software and most importantly in people.
When it comes to people, you hope that most time you can redeploy people into a new direction with training and their desire to change. Unfortunately, sometimes the step change is too much, and you need to restructure the business.
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Action
Restructuring can be seen through two lenses.
Strategic restructuring is where you need to change the direction of the business to reflect the industry, market and clients needs. These tend to be smaller changes, more like adjustments than wholesale change. They are often seen as evolutionary.
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Tactical restructuring is when you must react to a change that is forced upon you. Often, they are changes that are outside of your control, are revolutionary and can have a dramatic impact on your business. The biggest driver for tactical restructuring is the loss of a client.
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Over the years I have driven many strategic restructures as I reshape the business to stay ahead of the curve. A good example of this was when we decided to look at building a team in the US. We had been doing a few ad hoc projects for a couple of clients in the US and it seemed like there could be a lot of business to be gained. So, I relocated to the US and gave myself 6 months to see whether there was enough work to justify having a permanent team their. It was an interesting time as running projects with a team that were 3500 miles and 5 hours’ time zone apart was a challenge.
The work grew so I recruited an Account Director to represent us. Over time this became two account heads, then a creative, a Project Manager and so it grew.
Having experienced the challenges of the time zone, I realised that to make it really work, we needed a standalone team in the US. That team is now 20 talented people delivering several $m of revenue for several US clients.
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Tactical Restructuring is far more painful. I have had to restructure twice in the past 5 years, both due to the loss of a client. Although you know that you are doing the right thing, it is exceedingly difficult as it impacts people’s livelihoods. For this reason I will not go into great detail but in the recent restructuring I was able to keep the number of people who lost their jobs to a minimum by pre planned natural wastage, finding jobs for talent within the larger group, and by the use of TUPE.
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When you do have to make people redundant it is a tough time for all involved and something that should only every be the last resort.
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Results
There is not positive result from tactical restructuring other than the business continues and although the culture is scared, as leaders we to pick people up and rebuild the culture.