Scale-ups
In successful scale-ups, your people aren’t one input. They are the defining factor for success.
Research from McKinsey shows successful scale-ups are less about product and marketing as they are about developing a distinctive set of organisational capabilities – that are achievable within any business.
The list of attributes are striking for their focus on people and culture, and include:
A structure built specifically for growth and sustainability
Effective ways of working
Distinctive culture
A talent development engine
Leadership capabilities
And yet, too many scale-up plans treat people as one input, rather than they key factor for success.
Scaling up isn’t about making one big change. It’s about knowing exactly what needs to change and when.
The systematic way a business approaches a scale-up, combined with the way they engage, manage and communicate this process ultimately determines how their teams hit the ground running in the new environment, and whether they realise optimum value and benefits or just spin their wheels on arrival.
We support successful scale-ups based on 6 key areas of “people” focus:
Business readiness →
The blueprint of what the organisation’s future needs to include, and how it should operate.
Culture optimisation →
The behaviour, mindset, and ways of working required to ensure optimal leadership, effective communications, and targeted engagement.
Culture alignment →
The mapping of the desired future cultural identity, and map for getting there.
Leadership capacity →
The development of people to ensure soft skills aligned to the new culture, and technical skills to adopt the new operating model.
Change mobilisation →
The agile change management ability, along with a bespoke & comprehensive transition/mobilisation plan.
Change adoption →
The Leadership coaching and support required during change adoption.
How do we help you scale up?
It’s all in the design.
For any scale-up program, applying a ‘systems thinking’ approach to strategy and ‘human-centred design thinking’ to tactics is key.
That’s why we are big on design and big on tactics, as opposed to a traditional process-driven approach. By using operating model design methodologies, we aim to support a successful scale-up from organisational structuring through to cultural implementation.
Strategic Diagnosis
We do →
We apply systems thinking, design thinking, and capability blueprints to firstly define and narrow the specific changes required to scale. This could be:
- Technology adoption and integration
- Process (re)design and procedural standardisation
- Quality/performance improvement through governance clarity, i.e. KPIs
- Operating model design
You get →
A detailed report on the outcomes, with a recommended approach for how to proceed.
Organisational Roadmap
We do →
Using proprietary Switch Habitude® Design Methodology we define and map your target end state at an Organisational, Functional and Individual level to clearly identify what needs to change in the operating model and where in the organisation change needs to happen.
You get →
A bespoke blueprint and “Switch Plan” containing detailed information on all the tactics required to transition and embed change in the operating environment, from communication and design, to up-skilling and process realignment.
Tactical Implementation
We do →
Together we execute and track your “Switch Plan”, ensuring we design and capture new processes as it scales so changes are embedded within the business.
You get →
Bespoke, practical, measurable tactics and processes delivered within the unique culture and cadence needed to succeed.
Are you about to embark on a scale-up change?
Let’s talk about how to make it successful.
Case Study.
Creating a bespoke agile change framework to get a wayward scale-up back on track.
Our client had rapidly expanded into the commercial energy sector, resulting in an organic operating structure creating multiple inefficiencies that were damaging the bottom line. No.8 Consulting were engaged to ensure the strategic intent identified in a major review were implemented correctly behind an aligned leadership team.
