Our client was a Europe-based multi-billion dollar global company with substantial infrastructure investments in nearly 100 ports worldwide. The company had experienced significant growth in recent years, especially in developing markets.

With excellent opportunities to become the market leader in Brazil, the company engaged Banner Group to align leaders at the global, regional, and country level to accelerate results.

Challenges included:

● Senior management at the divisional level was concerned about communication and trust barriers perceived by country level employees
● Rapid changes in the local market required a quick response to opportunities, but the project approval process had proven to be slow and cumbersome

● Global, regional, and country stakeholders had different expectations of growth rates and strategic trade-offs for prioritizing investments

The solution was an alignment process that started with ensuring that members of the global, regional, and country teams had a common understanding of the situation, and ended with the development of three key objectives and ten corresponding action plans.

The engagement was delivered completely virtually using online tools and video conferences. The three phases of the project each lasted about 3 weeks and only required an average of 1 to 2 hours per week per participant:

★ Phase 1: virtual meetings, interviews, and online surveys

★ Phase 2: virtual facilitation sessions in small groups

★ Phase 3: management workshops to develop and commit next actions

The group was aligned on the following points:

“On every single project we should frame the opportunity at the beginning.”

“The full potential plan should be a living document that is updated on an ongoing basis.”

And in disagreement on these points:

“Our priority growth projects for Brazil are clear to everyone at the local, divisional and corporate level.”

“Growth means not just to have more flags … Competitive critical mass … doesn’t have to be entry into new locations.”

The company achieved alignment of understanding among leaders at the global, regional, and country levels that led to the following outcomes:

● The company realigned its regional structure, improving the speed and quality of communication between the global, divisional and country levels

● The planning process was changed to ensure better visibility of priorities and objectives by management across the global, divisional, and country levels

● The role of the country in the overall corporate strategy was clarified, refocusing priorities at the country level