Mobilization Efforts Help a Chemical Company Implement and Sustain 15% Cost Reduction

After a period of intense M&A activity, a large multispecialty chemical company confronted a common challenge: While absorbing its new acquisitions, its business functions had become unwieldy and expensive. The organization enlisted us to simplify and streamline those functions. We not only helped ChemicalCo* reduce costs by 15%, but, even more critically, we ensured that the company embraced behavioral changes that encourage growth, long-term innovation and customer centricity.

Essential to our approach was the creation of a Results Delivery Office, our unique method for supporting successful, long-lasting change within organizations by minimizing execution risks and avoiding common failure points. From the earliest diagnostic phase of the engagement, the RDO enabled ChemicalCo to mobilize for change. Our approach involved robust communications plans, a network of change agents and state-of-the-art project monitoring tools to help effectively implement a new functional governance model.

• 15% total cost reduction
• 20% reduction in duplicative positions
• 10 global business units adopted new ways of working

ChemicalCo’s recent growth had forced a dizzying amount of back-office interactions upon the company’s nearly 10,000 full-time employees. This generated unnecessary costs, diluted accountability and moved the company’s focus away from its customers. The new model we designed drastically simplified decision making and interfaces across more than half a dozen functions. The RDO helped roll out these new operating model processes by defining target behaviors and reinforcement mechanisms, and embedding them into new ways of working to ensure a lasting solution.

One way the RDO accomplished this was to establish a network of influential people throughout the organization, appointed by business-unit heads, who led regular touchpoints with groups of impacted employees in their respective business areas. These change agents were responsible for creating two-way dialogues to share information on project status, priorities and early successes, while also understanding critical feedback to pass along to the RDO. This helped collectively give the project momentum by generating support in the front line.

Storytelling was another powerful lever. The RDO developed internal communication and engagement plans designed to rally the company around a shared vision: a future-state ChemicalCo that is simpler, more agile and customer-centric. The RDO guided leaders to communicate a compelling narrative that emphasized how the changes would enhance collaboration and efficiency and create an environment that encourages smart risk-taking.

The RDO also introduced tools to track engagement levels and anticipate adoption risks for the new ways of working. Monthly pulse-check surveys monitored buy-in across the organization at every phase of the project, helping business leaders manage ongoing and emerging risks, including any frontline obstacles or resistance.

ChemicalCo’s back-office reorganization reduced redundant positions by 20% and streamlined processes, resulting in 15% total cost reduction. The RDO ensured that the benefits of this new structure translated into lasting functional efficiencies to serve internal customers more effectively than ever before.