Welcome to the Crelos regular update

It appears that 2010 has been a good year for mergers and acquisitions. Nine months in to the year, nearly €9bn has been realised by European private equity firms, already surpassing the full-year total for 2009 by 25%. Of course this raises the interesting question of whether that flow of money is creating real value for people and business?

According to a recent survey by Hewitt Associates, the statistics are stark. Despite an optimistic flow of money, just over half (54%) of the deals don't achieve their stated objectives. What caught my eye about this research was the reason why. The research compared underperforming deals with those that over achieved their objectives. When they compared the difference, the one common differentiating factor was the failure to address human capital issues. In particular, the research indicates that proactive management of leadership and talent progression is the key to success.

A client of ours recently experimented with using Executive Coaching to support its key executives throughout the sale of their organisation. Crelos were brought in to offer coaching to each individual and to the transaction team as a whole. Whilst it's too early to say whether the deal itself will deliver on its stated financial and other objectives, what is clear is that the coaching had immediate and tangible benefits for the individuals and the organisation as a whole throughout the transaction itself.

The coaching programme brought legitimacy to conversations about whether the new organisation would be right for each individual. It also provided space for individuals and the team to see their way through the stresses and strains of dealing with a corporate transaction on top of an already busy business as usual agenda.

Any corporate transaction stirs up normal human responses, such as fear of losing authority, identity and power. A transaction also adds a degree of complexity to normal business decisions, requiring the executives to keep employees focused and engaged servicing clients, despite an uncertain future. Conversations about such things normally take place beneath the surface of the transaction. Left unmanaged, they put at risk the very value that the transaction sets out to create.

Providing Executive Coaching for teams and individuals throughout complex business transactions is just one way that M&A specialists, business leaders and investors could have more confidence that their investment will survive the transaction itself.

Ali Gill
CEO, Crelos

Coaching as a consulting methodology

Crelos consult in organisational change. When an organisation needs to change radically and fast, coaching can be an important and value added method to deliver systemic change. Over the last three years at Crelos, we have pioneered a method of organisational consulting using a coaching approach which has delivered impressive results. For example, in one global financial services organisation, our approach delivered a ten percent improvement in employee engagement in a market where job losses were increasing and competitor organisations were seeing a substantial down turn in employee engagement.

Read the full article

Ali Gill
CEO, Crelos Ltd

Can Coaching be used to accelerate organisational change?

Many organisations are today experiencing two key challenges of ‘change fatigue’ and the need to deliver ‘more for less’. In this challenging business environment where every plan or initiative needs to be able to demonstrate its value, can coaching stand up as a quantifiable vehicle for accelerating organisational change?

This question formed the central theme of the recent Crelos Executive Coaching event held at the ICAEW in Moorgate, London.

Read the full article

Daniel Edwards
Senior Consultant, Crelos Ltd

When the Floods Came: Costain’s award winning Project Management Academy puts them in a fighting position to swim through the construction industry skills shortage

In 2009 Costain won a prestigious Construction News Quality Award for their Project Management Academy and saw the knowledge level of academy members increase by 19% (measured using the Association of Project Managers’ Body of Knowledge scoring). Not ones to sit on their laurels, and with a 2009 survey by the Chartered Institute of Building revealing 77% of those working in construction believe there is a skills shortage in the industry, they knew that in order to see continued business benefits they needed to keep up the hard work. Determined to grow their own future leaders, at the end of March 2010 Costain decided to invest in 24 more of their potential leaders by running a two-day intensive development centre.

Read the full article

Alana Inness
Consultant, Crelos Ltd.

Crelos hold regular events on various organisational change related topics.

Dealing with Change Fatigue, Thursday 20th January 2011 ICAEW One Moorgate Place, London

Is everyone in your organisation talking about doing more for less? Is everything a “change programme”? Are you and your people tired of talk about change and transformation?

Join us at an innovative and interactive event to explore “Dealing with Change Fatigue”. The timetable will include consultation syndicates, new ways to approach individual, team and organisational change and a Q&A with a panel of experts. The event will close with a networking drinks reception.

Spaces are limited. To book your place at this free event please email charlotte.sampson@crelos.com

As the results of the 2010 HDA Executive Coaching Survey confirm, it is widely recognised that coaching can be a key factor in enabling individuals to improve their performance which in turn can lead to improved business performance.

• 97% of organisations believe that executive coaching impacts positively on business performance
• 97% of respondents believe that coaching enhances the ease with which changes are accepted and implemented
• Worryingly, over 30% of organisations do not have an approach to monitoring the results or value of coaching undertaken within their organisation

According to the CIPD report, Taking the Temperature of Coaching: coaching is increasingly being used for performance management, change and leadership development and employee engagement. Of the 593 survey respondents:

• Two thirds indicate that coaching is used within their organisations
• 70% report that coaching expenditure is either increasing or being maintained
• 60% confirm that external coaches and consultants are used within their organisations
• Only a small minority, 3%, report using Return on Investment to monitor the value of coaching