Challenge:

A large consumer wireless company needed to purchase and integrate six wholly-owned subsidiaries within an 18-month timeframe.

Whitaker & Company Solutions:

  1. Created a sustainable, repeatable integration model, timetable, and IMO (Integration Management Office) reporting to the company C-suite level.
  2. Conducted due diligence that escalated integration hot spots so they could be triaged and resolved early.
  3. Created clearly defined integration leadership and decision-making processes.
  4. Designed and implemented a well thought out and comprehensive communications strategy. (Remember: you can't talk to acquired employees enough!)
  5. Retained key personnel.

Results:

Budgeted controllable synergies came in within 5% of goal and acquired employee satisfaction surveys consistently met or exceeded targeted expectations. All integrations were completed within targeted 100 day timeframe and 18 month schedule.

Challenge:

A large multinational hotel operator had just commissioned a consumer segmentation study, and had also purchased new technology to transform the way it managed its external communications with its 63 million member customer base. This transformational strategic initiative affected virtually all of the company's major functions and properties, and was going to take nearly a full year to implement. The investment was substantial, and the company needed help in making sure the initiatives took hold and delivered business value sooner than later.

Whitaker & Company Solutions:

  1. Created a comprehensive Change Management and Communications plan to insure all stakeholder groups were identified and communicated to with the right messages throughout the implementation process.
  2. Created and led a PMO (Project Management Office) to organize and track all of the workstreams involved in implementing the consumer segmentation strategy and marketing technology.
  3. Recommended key organizational effectiveness measures to enhance the company's Loyalty Marketing Department so they could become a more robust internal resource to support the implementation efforts.

Results:

This project is still in progress, but to date all communications and implementation timelines are on schedule and early indicators show success across key stakeholder groups. Additional results will be posted to this site in early 2Q at the conclusion of the project.

Challenge:

A mid-size B2B financial service company had lost touch with its brand. Many of the key stakeholders had varying definitions of the company's "brand promise", and customers were confused as well. Worse, some key competitors had beefed up their advertising and message strategies to take advantage of this weakness.

Whitaker & Company Solutions:

  1. Conducted a thorough marketplace scan to clearly identify competitive positioning and key strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Conducted internal stakeholder assessments and interviews to inform process.
  3. Conducted strategic road mapping sessions to create a unified brand positioning with supporting core benefits that everyone could agree on and that the organization could deliver on.
  4. Assisted in creating advertising and campaign planning initiatives to communicate the new brand message in the marketplace.

Results:

Solidification of brand positioning and supporting advertising campaign for key products resulted in a 2% year over year market share gain; a jump from #8 to #6 in competitive product feature rankings; and a solidified positioning strategy.

Challenge:

A large telecommunications provider had a very dysfunctional marketing organization. People were working extremely hard and diligently, but it seemed that every product and pricing plan launch was a contested, frustrating process that took too much time, wasted resources, and always resulted in sub-par execution.

Whitaker & Company Solutions:

  1. Functional strategic assessment:
    Helped articulate and communicate a clearly defined marketing strategy so all marketing functions were operating from the same playbook.
  2. RACI Assessment (Identification of who's Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed for all essential marketing activities)
    Created a RACI matrix to describe the roles and responsibilities of various teams or people in delivering a project or operating a process. It was especially useful in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional/departmental projects and processes.
  3. Launch Window Planning and Governance model
    Created a marketing planning calendar with a set amount of launch windows, deadlines and a clearly defined governance process to manage marketing program prioritization and capacity planning needs.

Results:

Client realized a 20% reduction in overall programs through formalization of the annual marketing calendar and prioritization process. Created a sustainable governance model for ongoing marketing program management.

Challenge:

A large consumer durable goods manufacturer (top three in its industry), was beginning to notice an up-tick in consumer complaints regarding product quality. The complaints were mainly focused around some specific product quality issues, but a large percentage of the complaints also reflected dissatisfaction with HOW these complaints were being handled. To make things worse, the trade press had started picking up on the problem as retailers were complaining about returned merchandise and customer complaints.

The CEO had finally heard enough, and ordered a deep dive into both the product quality problem, and how the organization was going to create a more robust customer response process.

Whitaker & Company Solutions:

  1. Comprehensive audit and categorizations of all quality complaints.
  2. Distribution channel assessment to address retailer concerns.
  3. Pain Points Assessment(sm) to articulate, prioritize and detail root causes for each product and complaint resolution issue.
  4. Complaint process resolution recommendation and augmentation of Customer Service function.
  5. Establishment of short term project management team to tackle issues and report to senior management at regular intervals.

Results:

A 20% reduction in product returns and a significant improvement in all key customer satisfaction categories from the previous year.

SAMPLE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PAIN POINT ASSESSMENT

pain_points_chart

  1. Automated help system
  2. Customer pinball
  3. Too little, too late
  4. Agressive collections
  5. Activating Service
  6. Hard to pay
  7. Hard to do business with
  8. You don't believe me
  9. Impossible to reach
  10. Rude to Customers
  1. Inconsistent Information
  2. No ones solves problems
  3. Competitive rate plans
  4. New & existing product offers
  5. Rate plan confusion
  6. Invoice confusion
  7. Fees
  8. Product reliability problems
  9. Product/Service expecations
  10. Complex Product/Service upgrades

Strategic Planning

Defining and implementing relevant business strategies requires the ability to think "big picture" and implement to the smallest details – we can help from start to finish.

What Exactly Do We Do?

As markets change with increasing speed, successful companies must align their resources and strategies to meet new business opportunities. Whitaker & Company provides the business tools, experience, and foresight to make certain that clients' strategic objectives reinforce core competencies and customer market needs. Through our Strategic Planning practice, your organization will be positioned with the plans and tools necessary to successfully execute action plans in a manageable timeframe without disrupting current business operations. Specific deliverables include:

Our Deliverables:


Strategic Planning:

We can structure and facilitate a process to help organizations manage transformational initiatives and other "what if?" type scenarios. We have proven tools and processes to help you create board-ready recommendations, and our consultants provide thought leadership and outside expertise that challenges conventional wisdom. This helps ensure that our clients "reach exceeds their grasp" when it comes to strategic planning. The most common activities in this practice area include helping craft a Strategic Vision with supporting business goals, conducting Business Case Analysis and creating Implementation Roadmaps.

Restructuring/Downsizing Realignment:

In today's marketplace, many companies are being forced to accomplish more with less, and therefore require a functional realignment assessment and reorganization to minimize any negative impact on the business processes and services. It is essential that core processes and cross functional working relationships be adjusted to reflect the staffing realities of the new organization. Our principals have all managed through numerous downsizings and realignments with large corporations and understand how people and processes are affected. If your organization is preparing for or already downsizing, we can help by assessing and recommending specific support options such as Change Management, Organizational Effectiveness, Marketing Operations and Customer Experience Assessments.

Change Management and Organizational Effectiveness:

Crafting the right strategy is half the battle. Insuring all of the employees in the organization are aligned with the new strategy and informed of important developments requires a comprehensive Change Management and Communications Plan. Many implementation plans falter or fail because key organizational stakeholders do not understand their role in the success of the new strategy. We are experts at creating the right plans to insure that your organization can execute and adapt to your new strategy.

Project Management:

Most strategy implementations have dozens of distinct workstreams, with specific functional leads and deliverables. Keeping these all on track can be difficult, especially if those in charge of the implementation are still trying to do their "day jobs". We can help by staffing, leading and managing a PMO (project management office) to help organizations manage large scale project implementations.