case studies:

financial Services

...a leading UK wealth management business engaged younique to define and then manage the Business Change and adoption strategy for their major salesforce programme. This same client also retained the service of younique to assist in the implementation of their programme. The salesforce platform owner commented.

'younique has played an important role in the Salesforce journey that St. James's Place. they have brought delivery expertise, considerable Salesforce knowledge, a determination to deliver, a flexibility to do whatever has been required and a good sense of humour. They are hardworking, positive-spirited professionals who I continue to enjoy working with and I am more than happy to provide a recommendation of their services. I would have no concerns about using them again in the future and I am sure they will add value to every future programme that they are involved in'. - Salesforce Platform Owner SJP

culture

financial services

A team within a leading retail financial service company employed Younique after years of extensive change programmes. Working with our approach helped the senior team really understand the cultural norms that had embedded themselves over the years, and why they had become unhelpful given the current strategy. Creating a cultural vision helped to focus action around the largest issues and create the change plan. Leadership 360 feedback helped the senior and middle managers create personal development plans for change. Comparing where the organisation had become less effective against the existing cultural norms helped focus H.R systems development and change work practices.

information technology, IT (UK)

The senior team at a global printer and copier company were striving to achieve a new strategy that would require significant cultural change in their industry and within their company. Committed to the new strategy but wary of the changes it would require they employed Younique to understand exactly what their new strategy meant in cultural terms. The specific aspects of organisational culture and behaviour that could most impact on the achievement of their goals were explored. Consideration was also given to integrating and aligning the UK culture with chairman Inamori's business philosophies in support of the new strategy. A cultural review took place and subsequently the team, armed with the knowledge about what they were managing and therefore needed to change, united and drove towards their new strategy with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. The new strategy was challenging but could ultimately set the company apart in the UK and provide long term growth for the UK division moving forward.

facilities management

An international catering and facilities management company wanted to promote a service excellence culture within its business. Younique provided behavioural development training to change the culture in the front line where it made a difference to customer service. With a passion for service excellence at the top, middle level managers attended courses to received feedback about the immediate change required by employees to improve service. Structured development plans were created between managers and operational staff on a one to one basis. Group and individual coaching followed and employees embarked on further training and development to hone the core service excellence skills needed to build new competencies, embed the new behaviours and culture.

insight programmes

financial services

Younique were employed by a leading retail financial services company to conduct Insight programmes. A number of branches were studied to provide performance reports and behavioural studies prior to the roll out of a major refurbishment programme. The channel strategy was translated through the retail strategy into a measurement model that assessed the drivers of retail financial performance. The knowledge created was used to resource branches, update design manuals and protocols. The clients 'future branch' concept was assessed and the utilisation of retail space by each transaction channel studied. By analysing pre and post refurbishment data using the performance model the client was able to assess quantitatively those features that had a positive effect on financial performance and those that either made no difference or had a negative effect. With hundreds of branches in their network, the client was able to project significant cost/value benefits on the forthcoming refurbishment programme. Introducing positive design features and developing or removing negative features contributed to the delivery of the retail strategy.

facilities management

An International catering and facilities management company employed Younique to complete an Insight programme in one of their restaurant servery and seating areas. The programme involved studying existing flow, utility and customer behaviour to inform decisions for improvements. The redesign made the seating and servery space seamless, thus reducing congestion, queue times and complaints. Utility studies informed staffing levels and minimised costs whilst optimizing customer satisfaction. The programme involved action research (iterative, accelerated learning) and so the design team worked closely with Younique to inform each stage of development resulting in a very successfully designed space and very positive customer feedback, revenues increased 5%.

some comments from our insight programme clients:

Brilliant, phenomenal review! - Future Retailing Consultancy

Fantastic, excellent, just what we need to drive our retail strategy - Location Planning Team

Gives me insights into the space and provides the parameters for a concept to be determined - Corporate Concept Consultant

We've now found the problem, when we design the solution it will be better! - Retail Designer

They behave in the opposite way to the way you think they will! - Change Consultant

This tells you stuff you didn't know you didn't know - Retail Strategist

Why wouldn't we have this in every outlet for capacity management - Executive Director, Operations

We can model the outlets that excel to improve the lesser performing outlets - Retail Director

I have always found Younique to be very creative and resourceful in terms of their approach to generating ideas that we can turn into action to drive improved results and customer experiences for our members. Their support is 1st class and working with Younique has been a very enjoyable and productive experience. - National Sales manager - Retail Financial Services Business

service performance

Salesforce Business Transformation - Wealth Management

Younique were engaged to support a major business transformation programme at St James's Place Wealth Management, one of the largest UK wealth management companies with over £120bn of funds under management.

The programme involved defining the business change plan and building the change methodology. System adoption management was a core part of the intervention delivered for this client.
Successful deployments across the UK and Asia have been quoted as a major success.

Salesforce End to End Business Transformation - Communications Industry

Younique were engaged to deliver the first end to end transformation of a business onto the force.com platform in the UK. Excalibur Communications are a platform partner for Vodafone UK

The transformation included Marketing, Sales, Operations, Finance and Service Departments.

Financial Services

Younique were employed by a financial services company to help business managers deliver service excellence. The programme included integrating a number of third party suppliers to provide a seamless superior service experience to customers. All business managers were bought together to explore the implicit service concepts that existed for each business and one uniting service vision was agreed. To aligned delivery to the new vision service processes were mapped, reviewed and re-engineered to create the foundations for consistent service excellence. Customer facing employees undertook experiential training to develop critical service excellence skills and unite service providers from each business area and business. One to one development plans were created for all customer facing staff and group training plans consolidated to save on costs.

catering/facilities management

Younique were employed by an international catering and facilities management company to map their Internet Cafe processes and to identify service gaps. This was then extended to include retail shops and restaurant services. Employees undertook experiential training to develop core service excellence skills and competencies and create action plans for change. Middle level managers attended and received feedback on improvements required and to commit support. Service processes were refined, documented and published on their intranet for training and ongoing reference for all to see/follow. This helped form the basis of customer feedback and continuous service excellence improvement. The service environment in the restaurant and servery facilities were reviewed to study existing flow, utility and customer behaviour. Redesigning this area made the seating and servery space seamless, reducing congestion, queue times and complaints. Utility studies informed staffing levels and minimized costs whilst optimizing the customer experience. Positive Customer feedback was received and revenues increased by 5%.

quick wins

cultural review

A senior team within a financial services company employed Younique to explore their organisational culture. A one day workshop considered the specific aspects of business culture that were most affecting the running of their area. Hidden cultural assumptions were aired that may never have been explored without the use of our technology to allow anonymous, simultaneous input to be shared with all. Having considered and categorised individual cultural assumptions, collective shared assumptions were grouped and their importance/impact prioritised. Senior managers then considered their own management effectiveness by using one of our accredited review programmes that looks at ten key aspects of management effectiveness. Considering the results as a group the team action planned for personal and team development and created a plan to begin the cultural change programme within their organisation.

strategic review

The top team within a European construction and maintenance company employed younique to facilitate their strategic review. The company had seen phenomenal success in recent years but were experiencing growing pains. The Managing Director recognise that he needed to crystallise and get buy in to a strategy that would deliver sustained growth without any loss of quality for existing customers. Importantly once agreed the strategy would be used to empower managers to deliver against set strategic goals. The senior team came together in a one day workshop to review their current strategy, consider the markets they operated in and scenarios for the future. They looked at their own skills and development needs as a company and matched those against opportunities and threats as they saw them. Strategic options were created and evaluated for suitability, acceptability feasibility and risk. By the end of the day the team had chosen the strategy they wanted to pursue. The whole team had reviewed and created the strategy they would commit to and collectively drive.

change management

A property team responsible for implementing new ways of working within a large UK based company employed younique to run a change conference for eighty employees. The employees were about to embark on significantly different ways of working that would involve not only changes in work practices but include changes in environment, behaviour and communication styles. The head of department for the area wanted the employees to decide and so a one day change conference was run. The workshop involved the design team and senior management presenting to the employees the vision and designs which included the way they would be required to work. Employees entered questions anonymously as the presentations ran and the presenters responded at the end. Employees were then asked to identify the major change issues facing them which were categorised and prioritised. Groups split off and worked on solutions that were presented to management and the other participants. At the close of the conference the participants were asked to vote for or against the changes. The changes went ahead with 100% consensus!

organisation design

The design of an organisation to support its business strategy is critical. Inappropriate organisational design can cripple any strategy implementation. Five sets of organisation designs were presented to the senior team of a property department within a large financial services company. The new design would impact all of the managers in the workshop and so consideration was given to the structure the team most felt would allow them to deliver the strategy. Each structure was presented and questions posed through the system anonymously for answering at the end of each section of work. Each design was voted on against agreed criteria at the end of the questions and answers session given by the sponsor of the design. The collective anonymous votes were displayed for all to see and the best structure agreed. Change planning followed.