Case Studies

Leadership Development
	Jonathan Schoonmaker SVP Human Resources Borland
Given the growing demand for lifecycle suites and portfolio management applications some analysts predict market revenues to grow around 15 percent in coming years.  Borland's shift in focus is critical and ongoing. Borland’s business challenge is to now “stitch all the pieces together (products and services) and do it extremely well in a very competitive space against the biggest vendors.” Our management team is relatively new.  By that I mean that these highly capable leaders are “on-board” for less than 2 years, with the exception of one member who has been with Borland for less than 4 years.  This fact implies that there was an opportunity for both team and individual development to take shape that can only enhance the functioning of the organization. Developing individual leadership acumen and team functioning is typically an important pursuit, and critical at Borland at this time given the current and future internal and external business challenges.  Brainard Strategy worked with us to define a highly customized approach to executive development that included individual and team assessment.  The following development activities were equally comprehensive, highly relevant to our business, and very impactful for both driving changes in behaviors and also enhancing team functioning. Michael Brainard utilized a team assessment (Lencioni Assessment) instrument leading to team based feedback and subsequently a “team development plan”.  Michael also developed a customized 360 degree feedback process for our organization.  This individual leadership and management assessment for each e-staff member leveraged our current and desired leadership competencies, as well as core values to create a custom 360 degree feedback interview process and set of reports that were contextually appropriate, and enabled each executive to move to action quickly and easily. Our team was showing indications of the stress that many teams going through in a highly complex changing business environment…  We are now focused on the right types of team activities, having the tough conversations we need to have in a respectful and efficient manner, and working on tough issues much more effectively.  Also, every member of our team has an individualized development plan with measureable milestones, and Brainard Strategy is partnering with us as individual executives to enhance our management and leadership acumen.  The executive assessment and team assessment processes have lead to outcomes that are directly impacting our ability to succeed as a business and an executive team.

Executive Coaching
	Aaron Cook Executive Vice President CORE Realty Holdings LLC.
I have been blessed with a successful career in financial services over the last twelve years due to being in the right place at the right time, surrounding myself with high quality hard working team members, some luck and hard work.  Over my career I have been able to grow from an individual producing financial advisor to the President and CEO of the managing broker dealer for my current company of which I am also a partner and an Executive Vice President.  Over that time I have overseen and managed as many as 60 employees at any one time. Over the last 12 months I have engaged Michael Brainard as an executive coach in order to help continue to take my career to that next level.  While I had experienced reasonable success prior to working with Mr. Brainard he has helped identify weaknesses in my management style to focus and improve while also assisting in the development of my areas of strength.  As a result I have been able to improve my relationships throughout the organization and motivate other departments as well as my partners to take action towards a common objective.  I have been able to establish trust and confidence with my 4 partners and the “C” level executives in the organization creating a more cohesive and cooperative working environment compared with the first 2 years in the organization. Mr. Brainard has also helped me get the most out of the 30 some employees that I currently manage by helping me develop a system of accountability as well as encouraging creative thinking, ideas and problem solving with my team members.  I have been able to foster independent decision making and open discussion and debate of ideas with management while still being able to provide the final approval or veto.  Once a decision or idea is implemented each team member has participated in the thought process and thus has more of a vested interest in its execution.  While I am still working on improving, Mr. Brainard has helped me exhibit my trust and confidence in my team’s abilities, which has provided the platform for their improved and more rapid career development.  These efforts have improved levels of performance with team members freeing me up to more effectively develop innovative investment products, consider longer term strategic direction and to continue to build and grow the company’s distribution channels all while also creating a greater sense of loyalty and commitment amongst the team.

Business Strategy/Leadership Development

Challenge: A highly competitive and rapidly growing Regional Telecommunications Firm was struggling with not having enough qualified managers. In addition, the organization had recently changed their business strategy. These changes were negatively impacting performance.

Action: Due to the organization’s needs, Brainard Strategy first identified the successful managerial competencies that were in alignment with the new business strategy. Over 300 managers participated in an assessment center based on the managerial competencies identified. A composite report of the assessment results was delivered to the organization and individual assessment feedback was given to each participant. Two important steps were taken based on the assessment feedback. First, individual development plans were created. Second, a 3-day tailored leadership training and business strategy program was designed and delivered to all managers.

Result: Based on this project, there was a 10% increase in leadership satisfaction scores that were shown to be correlated with store performance. Additionally, there was an increase in availability of competent managers to fill positions in new store openings. Since the project was aligned with the business strategy, the largest impact was the ability to incorporate the managerial competencies into the selection and performance management processes.

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Coaching

Challenge: A large Telecommunications Firm and one of their Engineers wanted the individual contributor to move into a management role. Although the Engineer had very strong technical skills, they lacked interpersonal skills.

Action: Based on the needs, Brainard Strategy matched a coach with the individual to help in their professional development. Weekly coaching sessions took place for over three months. During the coaching, a pre and post 360 Degree Feedback survey was administered.

Result: The coaching resulted in a significant improvement in the interpersonal skills based on co-worker and boss feedback when comparing the pre and post 360 surveys results. Additionally, the Engineer was considered by the organization for a management position.

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Culture and Climate Survey

Challenge: A global Telecommunications Firm wanted to launch their first online, customized Employee Culture/Opinion Survey. The company wanted to include all employees in nine different countries. Furthermore, the company wanted to complete the entire survey process from start (determining what to measure) to finish (data analysis and summary of results) within eight weeks. This was a very tight deadline, as a project of this size would typically take 12 to 16 weeks to complete.

Action: With the short amount of time, Brainard Strategy quickly pulled together their resources and executed quick turnover on all actionable items. From, facilitating focus groups and Subject Matter Expert interviews to developing items and creating the online survey each step was executed with precision and speed. Once data collection was completed, an in-depth data analysis by work group, department, division, and business unit was conducted.

Result: The response rate of the online survey was 90%. The survey included an open-ended question at the end, which allowed employees to give their feedback on the survey process. The response from the participants was extremely positive and they enjoyed the ease of the survey process. Furthermore, the executive team noted the quality of the data analysis and well-executed processes. After this survey process, they now have implemented the survey into the organization and use it annually.

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Outsourcing OD & Learning

Challenge: A mid-size financial services organization was struggling to provide the day-to-day organizational development functions they needed to create a more effective and efficient organization. Some examples of these organizational functions include leadership development, selection methodology, and performance management

Action: The Brainard Strategy team worked with the client to create and implement programs relevant to the overall needs of the organization. One example would be the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard was implemented to help increase the structure and objectivity of their performance management system. The Balanced Scorecard was implemented through training across the organization. Then the new performance management system was integrated into the current performance review process by updating documents and conducting performance review training.

Result: A team of six consultants worked on many different Organizational Development functions that have been created and implemented within the organization. The diversity of thought and expertise of the consultants have resulted in programs that specifically use best practices while understanding what will address the organization’s needs. The biggest impact is the quality of the implementation and integration of a new program into the organization’s current systems. All new programs are linked and integrated into the current systems. This has resulted in dramatically reducing the learning curve while increasing the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.

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Challenge: A global manufacturing company was struggling with hiring the right people and was facing issues of turnover.

Action: After diagnosis it appeared there were no competencies distinguished for key hires. After data collection through interviews, focus groups, and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), competencies were developed for 13 key hire positions and for the overall organization. These competencies were then used to create job profiles, which included both the KSAs and the competencies needed for the job. Training on the new job profiles and how to use them were conducted and the recruiting department then implemented the job profiles.

Result: The recruiting department was better able to hire individuals who were a fit for the position and the organization. Due to the success of the job profiles, the company asked Brainard Strategy to come back and create job profiles for the rest of the positions within the company

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Challenge: A global pharmaceutical organization had acquired multiple mid-size biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The large organization was struggling with integrating the multiple companies and was facing issues of low morale, turnover, and resistance.

Action: We created a custom workshop that was conducted throughout United States and Canada. The workshop specifically addressed the issues employees were facing due to the large scale change and gave real life advice on how to deal with those issues. A communication channel was also included in the workshops, which created a medium for the organization to deliver current updates about the organization to the employees.

Result: Based on the workshop feedback, over eighty percent of the participants felt better able to deal with the large scale changes and felt better equipped to deal with the emotions they were experiencing. The large organization was very pleased with the result of these workshops and noted a significant increase in moral within the work environment.

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Leadership Development

Challenge: A mid-size organization in the entertainment and gaming industry wanted to assess the strengths of its leadership team and determine whether the organizational leaders had the necessary competencies for their positions.

Action: Brainard Strategy administered three assessments measuring management acumen to the leadership team in an effort to identify the current strengths and areas of opportunity for each leader. A talent map was also created that painted a picture of the capabilities and development areas by level, function, and overall organization.

Result: Each member of the leadership team received feedback based on his or her individual reports and created a personal development plan. The talent map was used to compare those of high management acumen to those with low management acumen in an effort to see the overall core strengths and areas for improvement within their leadership team.

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Succession Development

Challenge: A global Professional Services Firm had acquired three firms that needed to be merged together. This resulted in a need to create a career development roadmap to help attract and retain the best and brightest. Due to the amount of new employees coming from three different organizations there was a need to define and link individual performance to rewards and create a standard title structure.

Action: A profile was created to define performance and technical competencies required for success. Based on these competencies, a total rewards and performance management process was development and implemented. Lastly, the mapping of individuals to standard titles was developed

Result: The impact of this project on the business was immediate. Ninety-nine percent of the employee population formally set individual goals based on the strategic objectives of the business. Additionally, there was a significant increase in interim performance feedback. The long term outcome was the new understanding employees gained about their standing in the company and clarity on how to move up in the company. This clarity was supported by the standardized process for reward distribution that was implemented.