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“Companies love to restructure without taking culture, structure, work, and people/relationships into account.” That’s in my notes from our very first class of Organization Behavior with Bob Ernest. It’s a shame that Rainier and especially Bill Simons didn’t attend because they could have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they had. As another class note states, they should “step back before going forward”. Hopefully, the disappointing financial numbers and Philadelphia’s concerns about a lack of customer service will act as a wakeup call.
Going forward, I’m often going to refer to Bill instead of Rainier, because for all intents and purposes, it seems that he has been driving all these decisions with little input from others. Bill’s first move should have been to examine each location’s resources, competition, time, etc. This includes Seattle as well. Going forward, Seattle needs to be treated like it is one of the locations, not the head of the body. Seattle and Sacramento are two of the successful locations. What makes them that way? Are these lessons transferable to other locations, or is it part of the individual culture of that location? For other locations like Atlanta which don’t feel as stable, what is it that their competitors are doing differently in their niche that Atlanta isn’t? Which staff are ready to become partners or to move to another location to share their expertise and develop staff at those locations? This time could be used to assess multiple elements of the location’s culture including whether they fell into Clan, Adhocracy, Hierarchical, or Market buckets. Among other elements, gathering intelligence on the locations before the consultants could have avoided the situation of clients in Atlanta also having now duplicate accounts with other locations. This would also have let Bill know that there are a lot of staff members at Atlanta that don’t see things as broken and so don’t want to fix them, as well as the antiquated IT and infrastructure.
After they gathered this input, they could have done everyone a favor and admitted that they are dealing with a V.U.C.A. situation. Bringing each new location onboard will be volatile and complex with a lot of uncertainty and ambiguity.
Using the information that they gathered, Bill could move to strategy on multiple fronts.
By examining their staff, they can build up people and create relationships. Again, what staff should be considered on track to become partners? This could be a great way to keep Porter of the New York office on board. Identify leaders within the organization. Determine, with their input, if they should stay at the location they are at present, either in their current role or another, or move to another location where they can help develop new teams. This could be especially beneficial for Sacramento where they lack support staff and their current line of business is drying up. Newly reallocated staff can help expand into service areas and clients beyond the tech sector. I think that Bill should do this investigating in person. I believe each location would be greatly served if Bill moved there for at least 6 months, if not longer. His job is to observe and take note of changes to make, without yet instituting them. Additionally, Bill needs to present the findings not just to Seattle’s senior staff, but the collective senior staff at all locations. Then they need to work on a way to communicate it to all staff, perhaps in a townhall. This sort of internal communication should be ramped up in multiple ways. To help build relationships across locations, something like a monthly leadership spotlight would be great. Regularly paying for staff from all levels to visit other locations and participate in Meet and Greets, Lunch and Learns, etc. Build up Atlanta’s confidence by holding the Annual Staff Meeting there. Build channels for feedback from every level of the organization and regular intervals when its discussed and considered. They should look at the human cost of the organization and determine what development can be done across the board and start building succession plans.
In another direction, I think it would do all the relationships a lot of good to hear Bill fess up to his responsibility in creating these difficulties. Bill could use some work on being self-aware and when his passion has him running towards the next project when he should be walking. Bill should admit that the consulting came just in time and that it should have been done internally from the very beginning. Also, Bill should reconsider where he’s placed, Marcy. First off, he isn’t listening to her about her needs and it seems like the relationship between her and the original seniority in Atlanta isn’t going to improve. Consider moving her to New York to replace Remington if that is her skill set. It doesn’t seem like turning around stagnated locations is, which is fine. Identify someone else in the company who is. Have them again move there and observe. Make someone in Atlanta co-director with them so that it doesn’t feel like a takeover but a collaboration.
They also need to work on the relationships with their customers, recommitting to clients. In Sacramento, that will mean a rebranding campaign. Reintroduce old clients to the company, letting them know that everything they loved is staying and what improvements they can expect. Develop the brand beyond tech to help them cultivate new clients. New York needs a campaign for its clients where they commit to providing the level of services they’ve always received. Seattle needs to be reassured that clients won’t be bombarded by each new bell and whistle that these acquisitions make available to them. Also, determine what it is that clients get by moving to one of the Big Four that they aren’t getting from Rainier. It will be difficult, but they also need to block the noise of Wall Street and stay present. If they have excellent customer service, Wall Street will fall over dead before seeing them fail.
Rainier needs to create several strategies both long and short term. Each location needs to be assessed for what it is capable of, rather than an arbitrary 10% goal. Make sure that the timeline for those goals is achievable as well. Initiate a process of regularly reviewing and rightsizing goals. A goal set before the Recession is going to be completely unachievable. Ask partners who want to divest what goals they need to see met to move forward.
Rainier needs to reevaluate its Seattle mission and determine what a new company-wide vision looks like and shares that with all its stakeholders, including staff.
Determine the process for which accounts will stay with Atlanta and which will stay with other locations. Be kind and give Atlanta as many wins as they have the capacity for and move other accounts to locations that can serve the client better.
Listen to staff about needing collaboration. A great jumping-off point would be staff from Sacramento who works closely with the tech sector coming to Atlanta to help them update their IT resources.
Work on ways that the offices can reflect both the local and companywide culture much like Nike does.
My honest opinion which Bill wouldn’t like is to put Philadelphia on hold. He has a lot of work to do already. Once, and if, that’s accomplished, then he should invite Philadelphia to go on a tour with him to each location, showing how they’ve honored each location’s culture while using the structure of the larger company to improve the experience for the clients and provide the staff the support they need and opportunities to grow. Show Philadelphia first-hand how their clients will be treated and what they could expect from joining the Rainier family.
This case study reminded me of the many times that a charismatic and visionary leader I worked with overextended the company out of passion. When I first began writing, I was considering letting Bill continue after Philadelphia because he clearly wants it to happen. But a good leader looks at the reality in front of them. This company is at a crossroads. If someone doesn’t ground them in their reality and make their foundation solid again, the first crisis could wipe everything out. When I laid out the reality of the situation, I realized that there is no institutional time or energy left over to even think about the Philadelphia acquisition. When you take the time to honestly assess, it’s clear as day.
MarketingMichelle 