Our Work.

A major retailer’s traditional brick and mortar stores faced tougher competition in the rapidly changing retail landscape. It was time for executives to “Lead Transformation FORward” – to Focus on the work ahead, to Own the opportunity to lead their teams, and to Reinspire for the future. The company asked Emerson to lead the communication effort for this monumental change.

We worked with them to build a FORward change model that defined the new behaviors leaders would need, including quarterly leader summits.

The largest airline in the world sold over 250 million seats last year. You might not know that the belly of each aircraft also carries cargo across the world: produce, seafood, technology, pharmaceuticals, mail, live animals, and so much more. The cargo business is a barometer of the global economy; as the economy expands so does our client. The cargo business needed to update its technology to keep up with our increasingly interconnected world.

Our client was one of many airlines still using Sabre, a server-based software system developed over 40 years ago. The company selected IBS to replace its aging technology with iCargo, a new cloud-based end-to-end cargo management system. Taking on such a large technology transformation within a complex, highly regulated global transport company difficult, expensive and complicated. They chose Emerson to help.

Together, we developed and implemented a thoughtful employee experience strategy.

First, we conducted a culture assessment to understand regional differences and commonalities, and measure people readiness and engagement at 30+ cargo terminals across the globe. Based on the findings, we built an employee experience plan with a focus attention strategy; the strategy includes a message framework and tools for employee engagement – an app, a game, a website, and a traveling roadshow to give team members first-hand experience with the new system.

We also developed future business processes and designed the organization needs to deliver against their business goals and maximize the benefits of the new technology. As the project progresses, we will build training for the system launch, including hands-on learning opportunities and curricula by role.

There is much work to do until the global roll-out, but the people will be ready!

A major pharmaceutical company was embarking on an ambitious change: they wanted to provide infrastructure to scale their business, ensure quality across suppliers, create robust processes and deliver with excellence. Part of the solution was implementation of Oracle’s Product Lifecycle Management.

They also knew they needed improved change agility, so they would be ready to exploit the inevitable wave of changes in the coming years. They asked Emerson to help.

We started with assessment, diagnosis, and detailed planning. Leadership worked with us to distill strong change messages; the process got rave reviews from participants. We assessed impacts, then identified and institutionalized new behaviors and habits. We did this for both the transition and the steady state. We used the principles of familiarity, control, and success to make sure the changed behaviors “stuck” with employees.

We also aligned all new processes, behaviors and training with culture, so our client could use the power of its culture to create momentum.

When a technology services company wanted to move its sales team from a traditional, transactional approach to a more consultative sales model, they reached out to Emerson.

Although they knew where they were and where they wanted to go, they had been struggling to gain traction. Emerson helped them solidify their vision, identify barriers, and focus on the critical behaviors to bring their vision to life.

We met with the team and conducted interactive workshops to bring together their best thinking and our behavior change expertise. The result was a solid plan and support materials to unify the team toward their vision.

A large child care and early childhood education company had 1,500 centers using an array of client management systems. They wanted to roll out a single company-wide solution to bring their centers up-to-date, recoup lost revenue, all without disrupting operations.

From the beginning, the initiative faced challenges: they had been trying to replace IT systems over ten years and lacked internal change capability. The company had a very loyal and caring culture and we needed to use that energy to help them succeed.

Emerson brought methodology and metrics to the plan. We offered an operating model, readiness assessment and metrics, a define phase for learning, and a learning model and deliverables. We helped build capability in their teams and left a transition toolkit to reinforce process and measure progress.

After an online realty company was acquired, their new executive leadership team identified three challenges: shared priorities, strategic alignment and consistent execution. They asked Emerson to help them create behaviors to meet those three challenges.

We led the CEO, CFO and VP of HR and their teams through transformation working sessions. The sessions yielded a consistent message, an understanding of their internal landscape, and actionable plans to create momentum and change. We also helped the company build a new product development process, PMO, and cascading goal-setting processes.

With our help, the executive team identified their own measures of success: 1) Employees can describe their top three priorities, 2) employees can describe the company strategy, 3) time-to-decision is reduced, 4) Products, Engineering and Sales work toward a common strategy, and 5) the company meets its financial and performance targets.

One of the largest privately-held clothing companies in the world knew it was time to transform their regionally focused plans into one company-wide strategy. They hired Emerson to help.

We created a four-point change strategy that engaged regional leaders and helped them build transformation capabilities to support the new overall strategy.

We also created the communication plan that helped streamline the transition for this iconic company.

A group of former Tour de France cyclists knows how to run a race, but when the elite road biking company wanted to reinforce their strategic planning, they sought a different kind of expertise.

Emerson led a workshop with the organization’s leadership to create a cohesive direction.

The result was a shared understanding of the organization’s values, purpose, and strategic anchors.

When a business technology corporation acquired another company, they understood that the stakes were high. This change touched a vast landscape of processes, systems and stakeholders. They wanted to preserve the best of both cultures, so that was one of Emerson’s guiding principles. First, we created a Change Leadership Council, so executives could align on priorities, message, and engagement with front-line employees.

We developed a comprehensive change plan that addressed workstreams, skills and behaviors; we created a stakeholder analysis that informed the communication strategy and plan; we included communication tools and templates to ensure the quality of ongoing communications. We worked with stakeholders on a behavior and skills impact analysis, and then a learning strategy.

The solutions we built ranged from the strategic (creating message and momentum) to the tactical (changing over email addresses and signage).

Throughout, we provided change management coaching to the company’s change leaders, as they maintained the momentum needed to achieve a new, unified company meeting all its business goals.

When the a major professional performing arts organization needed their members to move from paper to electronic voting, they had the technology in place, but not the hearts and minds of the members.

In three short months, we developed strategies and tools that drove unprecedented registration and helped each member to successfully voice their choice for the best in the industry.

A specialty food company wanted to make a bigger impact on the market. They had a new management team, who needed to jell and make an impact, quickly. Historically, they were overly dependent on one distributor; they wanted to expand distribution and increase profitability, fast.

Emerson constructed and ran strategic working sessions with their leadership team over four years. Executives created new working agreements, defined their target culture, made plans to scale the business, and built a 180-day action plan.

Their CEO says, “In four years we doubled sales and increased Ebitda 25 times. Emerson was integral to that performance.”

A well-known visual storytelling consultancy wanted to implement a new organization that would allow them to grow as they scaled upward.

They asked Emerson to help them transition to a centralized organization that would consistently support the company’s mission.

The Emerson team led leadership through working sessions that produced their toolkit: a message, a change plan, critical behaviors, process designs, and 30, 60, and 90-day plans to implement their strategy.

Emerson worked with the human resource organization of a large U.S. government agency to develop an enterprise-wide human capital strategic vision. The team convened a strategy group to create the long-term mission, objectives and plan for the organization. Emerson designed and facilitated working sessions to align multiple HR strategies throughout the organization. Participants included 30 Unit and Section chiefs from across the department and training groups responsible for HR functions.

The result was a coordinated HR strategy across five entities within the agency. The strategy was successfully presented to the Director.

Our client thanked us for our “incredible work and insight in moving this work forward,” and reported to the Director that the group’s realization that they needed to forecast was “a major breakthrough.”

A major airline was in the midst of a transformation that would impact every aspect of its business.

They chose Emerson to support them through an overhaul to the cargo function. One of the first things we did was to help them create the visual vision.

Working with business process owners and a graphic artist, we turned words into images. Our working sessions resulted in a compelling picture of the cargo project, showing the key changes and benefits at a glance.