The case for Assurance
Transformation Programme Assurance
To give confidence that the transformation being embarked upon has the best chance of success and justify investment, programme assurance is indispensable. The risks of change programmes are known to be high – people, process and reputational etc. Many risks are unavoidable in attempting to realise many of the benefits sought but well managed risks is a key part of assurance. However, the overarching risk that most leaders are concerned with is that the business case of many projects is not met and the strategic objectives are not realised.
Structured project management and transparent project management office are all good practice but oversight and governance is instrumental to managing the risks of non-delivery and achieving assurance. This where we come in.
There is also the issue of brand risk which is often overlooked but is insidious, in that it could manifest in successful programmes. Therefore, even when programmes circumvent and navigate the risks above, and realise the stated benefits, the new operating models may have the net effect of reducing performance and undermining the customer experience across the board as well as the morale and agency of staff. This is a dimension we are set up to focus in addition to other governance.
Your brand and its underlying purpose and heart can power your brand’s growth and as a driver of objectives, it can be second to none. However, this can be easily forgotten in the heat of projects and transformation exercises. That’s why we are here to ensure that there is independent oversight and protection of purpose and promise for your brand as part of any project.
We believe that transformation should be brand led and by definition, purpose driven and people centric – looking inward to your staff and equipping them for change and leadership. Looking outward to your target segments and prospects and nurturing them for conversion to consumers or consumers to advocates.
Brand Assurance
Transformation and brand assurance are two sides of the same coin, allowing you to stay focussed on whether what the business is changing aligns with how and why the business aspires to operate.
Brands that succeed and persist never stop focusing on what they mean to their customers and how they stay relevant. They never lose sight of the fact that everything they do in the business impacts the brand. When you bring us on board programmes as brand assurance partners, you can be sure there is somebody whose business it is to concentrate on the brand’s strategic ideals, goals and principles.
Some Common questions our clients have come to us with are:
- How do you change failing processes and not jeopardise your brand message?
- How do you train and encourage promising personnel or identify and help underperforming or toxic staff?
- How do you optimise the back end to improve customer experience ?
- What are the first steps to identify areas diluting the efficiencies that your business should be leveraging?
- With a change roadmap in place, how do you ensure that planned work will uphold your brand’s values?
- How can you halt the leakage of brand resonance, that is due to operational changes be halted?
- How can you encourage and increase internal employee engagement and ensure the relevant buy-in from different teams?
- On lengthy change management projects, how can you be sure that people and personalities are not jeopardising your plan and derailing benefits realisation?
Really good questions that we would love to help you answer, and change we can help you manage by implementing governance and assurance.
Even if you are using an in house or other change management team, we would still love to help by providing independent Transformation and Brand Assurance. We will work to ensure that the benefits realisation plan is realistic and is compatible with brand ideals. We can also help with team Insights and Oversight Teams to ensure that sufficient rigour is employed around project methodologies, governance, people training and highlighting ineffective or damaging workstream leadership.
Many businesses value the independent oversight provided on challenging programmes through transformation and brand assurance.This is because it looks not just at the incipient change but how it is brought about. It seeks to limit damaging practices and highlight issues. It’s also a function which focuses on the relationship between sustaining the brand ideals as well implementing the change that businesses really need.
