3 ways to transform your company

Let’s Talk – Laura Manson-Smith

I'm the global leader for organization strategy and I've been with Korn Ferry for four years.

How do we preserve new behaviors?

During COVID, we saw organizations do amazing things. We saw companies experience agility, inclusion, decisiveness, customer focus and empathy in ways they never had done before, and when I'm talking to clients, the question they're asking me is, how do we preserve those new behaviors? How do we take them forward into the new organization? Our research has said that the most transformative, high-growth companies do three things really well.

They go for big, bold moves.

Number one they go for big, bold moves. They realize we can't change now. Slowly, it has to be bold.

Obsess about their customers.

Number two, they absolutely obsess about their customers. And they're very, very focused on on how to improve customer satisfaction.

Focus on people.

And number three, they're similarly focused on people, because how their people feel, if their people are engaged directly correlates to that improved customer experience.

Return on investment is 117% higher.

We know that organizations who have those things aligned: strategy, culture, purpose, and really engaged employees, their return on investment is 117% higher than companies that don't. You know, so think about it. If an employee is really excited about the company purpose, they're going to get on and help deliver the strategic goals without anyone telling them to do it because they want to do it. And you know, if you can make sure that the company's systems and processes help them deliver the goals and don't get in the way, that's going to make the acceleration of performance even faster.

What is getting in the way of our people and stopping them from performing?

The one thing I would recommend if you find that your transformation efforts are stalling is ask yourself this question: What is getting in the way of our people and stopping them from performing and behaving in the way we want them to?