There is something odd about change in organisations.

Everywhere markets are displaying the pressures for change, and companies are – also everywhere – seeking to engineer responses to those pressures.  Re-structuring plans, creating new competitive strategies, process streamlining, cost savings programmes, these are everywhere you look.

And yet very few of these changes ever seem to ‘land’ successfully. In many cases not much actually does seem to change, for better or for worse. In other cases, there are the well documented change disasters; Sun Microsystems seeking to transition toward low cost / high volume production systems; General Motors re-structuring from stand-alone divisional groups to geographically centred functions.

The whole field of organisational change is littered with examples of failed or excruciatingly slow transition from current to desired competitive positions.

Why is this? Why do the majority of change initiatives fail to produce the desired results, often despite the enormous expenditure of resources; money, time, management focus, loss of customer focus? What’s missing?

In a nutshell, we think it’s the ‘I’ word. In our view most change efforts are over-focussed on the planning elements of change, and insufficient attention is given to the key issue of implementation.

Fig 1 below sets out what is supposed to happen and what a balanced change scorecard might look like…Fig 2 sets out what in our experience is the reality

Fig 1 Change: Balanced Resourcing

 Fig 2 Change: The Realities

The size of the bubble indicates the usual degree of resourcing and focus, as does the connection / disconnection between the bubbles.

We exaggerate to make a point of course, but many readers here will recognise the pattern. Organisations devote much focus to change planning, but give poor resourcing / attention to making something happen. Little attention is given to learning and avoiding previous mistakes and errors. Poor change realisation on the ground is the result.

TORI’s experience suggests that there are several reasons for this imbalance:

a)     Implementing change is difficult, and linked to complex, multiple variables

b)    Implementing change carries high risks of failure for managers

c)     Implementing change requires complex skills gained from experience. Few managers have these in depth.

d)    Implementing change is frequently seen as the domain of mere ‘operational’ managers. The language of ‘strategic planning’ and ‘strategy’ are contrasted with mere ‘deployment’ and ‘tactics’, and is a language of carefully maintained hierarchy. Here is a quote from the CIO of a major global organisation:

“Basically the strategy stuff is done here. We take the lead on the thought leadership in the business. The doing stuff can be left to the operational people and the grunts.”

This is a vivid example, but captures a common theme. It may come as no surprise to learn that this organisation spent over $2m forming a ‘strategic Target Operating Model (TOM)’ with little evidence of value realising activity on the ground.

e)     Implementing change invariably disturbs existing power balances and existing sources of authority in the organisation. This is risky for managers. Careers are at stake, people can be blamed. In organisations rooted in fixed hierarchies and structures – many major organisations are like this – playing safe and waiting for the change impetus to dwindle is the safest option.

f)     Implementing change is frequently an ‘add on’ to the existing work loads of managers. Bonus and promotion are usually linked to the maintenance of BAU procedures rather than the achievement of those ‘new’ and unsettling outcomes.

These – and other variables – are strong forces acting as attritional ‘drag’ on change implementation efforts.  The surprise here is not the limited impact of those initatives, but that any change in organisations occurs at all.

If you’d like to know how TORI can help you achieve successful change initiatives, please email info@toriglobal.com or call 020 7025 5555

TORI is celebrating a milestone anniversary, with ten years as financial services change partner to leading global organisations.

The brainchild of industry experts, and based on the values of ‘Trust, Openness, Respect and Integrity’, TORI was founded in 2002.

Chief Executive Officer Martin Harvey attributes its lasting success to strong ideals and a rare depth of industry expertise in its people.

TORI was born out of the desire for a service Harvey found lacking in the industry. Throughout his 25 years within wholesale IT and investment banking, he was aware of a gap in the market for a financial change partner with true business capability. He joined forces with a number of senior financial colleagues, and TORI was formed.

Harvey says, “The dream was to create a company where everyone is in partnership, incentivized and working for the greater good of the company.”

Fast forward a decade and that dream has been realized. “But it hasn’t been an easy journey”, claims Harvey. TORI has seen through four economic dips, requiring changes to its operations. These offered key turning points. One was to become more client focused, streamlining services to four main practices – Organisational Change and Development; Programme Management; IT Service Management; and Business Process Improvement.

Harvey says, “Clients trust us with their most challenging issues because we have an intimate understanding and working knowledge of their business. We are practitioners, not theorists or consultants – there is a big difference”

Expertise was one thing. Creating and maintaining an established clientele proved quite another. Harvey says years spent building up contacts has paid off. “We have a database people would die for. Our business is built around the fact that we are really good at getting in front of the right people, across a huge network. It’s a network that ensures our recruitment facility can source and place talented industry experts.”

A win over some of the bigger companies, and subsequent retention, of a very large contract with a global investment bank was just one example of TORI’s worth. Over the years, the business has delivered a number of impacting projects in financial services.

The TORI leadership team owns decades of industry experience. This includes a Global CIO for two Investment Banks; a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years experience in IT and in Investment Banking and Financial Services; a Global Head of Trading for Equities for four major Banks, a CEO of a front office trading business; a former Director of CSC, providing senior level support to the Financial and Investment Banking businesses; a Consultant with 30 years experience in IT in the Commercial and Financial sectors delivering complex application and technical solutions; and a former Director of KPMG Consultancy Practices.

Harvey is confident for the future, given that leading global organisations are choosing TORI for their true industry experience and an ability to demonstrate a differential. As Harvey confirms, “In our first 5 years, we had to phone clients for work. Now they phone us.”

With a host of recommendations, an impressive client base with long term contracts, the foundations are certainly solid for TORI to flourish into the future. Bring on the next decade.

When financial services change provider TORI engaged CPT Global to help deliver a cost reduction programme for a major European bank, reducing consumption on core IT, the resulting annual benefits totalled up to €15m.

The bank initially asked TORI to review its mainframe Consumption Management Task Force (CMTF) and recommend improvements to deliver significant savings. “We highlighted the need for more consistent leadership, better relationship management, more transparent governance and a new approach to performance measurement,” says Chris Harris, Head of IT Service Management Practice at TORI, who was also appointed as Engagement Director. Soon after, TORI recommended a widespread review of system performance to highlight areas where the CMTF hadn’t gone far enough and where further opportunities existed. TORI selected CPT Global as an Alliance Partner to manage this phase, based on its expertise across all key IT areas in improving IT efficiency and reducing the real spend. With TORI successfully transitioning management of the CMTF, CPT began an initial capacity reduction programme focused on the mainframe estate. This fixed price two-week ‘Discovery Phase’ determined potential reductions – and provided initial saves that represented a 200% return on investment for this stage alone.
Chris Harris says, “CPT highlighted the potential for peak processing saves of more than 15% year-on-year savings for the client of eight million euros. Savings were identified in, for example, system parameters, application and infrastructure code, database access routines, runtime parameters, system housekeeping and scheduling.”  A gain-share agreement provided initial programme funds, with the majority of costs covered by reductions in consumption after changes were made and quantified. In fact, the client saw an ROI of more than 300% based solely on first-year savings. CPT over achieved on their estimate, delivering greater than 20% savings in the peak processing periods. CPT was retained to further reduce consumption and to work on other optimisation projects.

In real terms, this TORI-initiated programme – through activities and deliverables performed by CPT, including the Mainframe Tuning Initiative, consumption reductions, improved performance reporting, storage reviews, mid-range workload tuning, virtualisation, stability initiatives, audits and incorrect billing correction – resulted in the bank saving €10m in year one, rising to more than €15m in year two, and with further gains totalling tens of millions of euros in the years ahead.

Reflecting on key drivers of success, the final word goes to Chris Harris: “An important factor was the ability we brought to look ‘beyond the obvious’, and then to leverage our own personal networks and the far broader network of TORI Partners to ensure a true ‘best in breed’ approach that delivered measurable operational and financial benefits.”

To learn more about our extended execution delivery model click link or call TORI on 020 7025 5555

As of 19th March, TORI can be found at offices on Oxford Street.

With company expansion, we felt it was the right time to move to larger premises. So, we’ve settled in to our new HQ on Oxford Street.

New Address and Phone Number:

5th Floor, 77 Oxford Street,
London W1D 2ES
Tel: 020 7025 5555

One of the major challenges when outsourcing services or projects is to ensure that there is no “value leakage” over the complete life cycle of the agreement. Most organisations put a significant amount of up-front effort into securing the best possible contractual and commercial terms with a vendor, often through an extensive RFP process, but then find that they have significant additional unplanned costs over the term of the agreement.

Independent research consistently identifies the importance of a disciplined approach to vendor management as an enabler for organisations to control costs, drive vendor performance, manage risk and ensure value for money throughout the lifetime of an engagement. In some instances, 50% of value can be lost due to unsustainable contract terms and poor ongoing vendor relationship management. TORI has identified why and where “value leakage” occurs and developed methodologies to minimise the operational and financial risks.

Through our Business Process Improvement Practice, we can assist our clients through the life cycle of vendor management. This can involve a strategic review of their vendor landscape to actively reduce the number of vendors or re-negotiate existing contracts, linked to such factors as application decommissioning, legacy systems and targets for disinvestment. Or it may involve specialist support throughout the complete outsourcing life cycle from sourcing strategy through to sourcing preparation, supply selection, transition and supply management.

From our experience, good execution processes within a project can potentially recover from poor initial vendor engagement and commercial negotiation but poor project management can completely negate excellent initial contractual and commercial engagement with a vendor. The effectiveness and benefits of a well drafted vendor agreement are only as good as its application when executing individual projects under that agreement.

For example, a reporting regime identified within a vendor agreement is of little benefit if individual Project Managers are not then required to ensure and report compliance by the vendor or if there is no consolidated view of a vendor’s performance across the whole organisation. And an agreement might include provisions that all additional costs should be borne by the vendor, but it becomes increasingly difficult to enforce such a clause if cost overruns are not escalated immediately and before the financial exposure of the vendor has increased to a potentially unsustainable level. Exercising efficient but pragmatic controls over the vendor estate does not have to involve large overheads within a Vendor Management or PMO function.

The further reality is that programme portfolios can extend over significant periods during which the original objectives may no longer be relevant, for any number of valid reasons, or the underlying projects themselves may have got out of control through unstructured project management. In such cases, TORI can help through our Programme Management Practice which uses expertise gained over many years to define and execute successful delivery, turnaround and recovery strategies.

If you have any issues or requirements in this area then please contact Yogi Patel, Head of our Business Process Improvement Practice on +44 (0)20 7025 5555

Each November men in the UK and worldwide sprout moustaches to raise funds and awareness of men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers affecting men, for the Movember charity.

TORI’s two-man team of ‘Mo Bros’, as they are known, did themselves proud, coming in place 3,847 out of 252,566 registrations in the UK. TORI’s contribution has helped Movember to raise an impressive £14.5 million in the UK so far in 2011.

It’s well known that business change must be fully supported by IT to enable smooth transitioning and to meet delivery timescales. But how do you ensure that IT Service Management adopts the right tools, processes and procedures that are appropriate to the business it is supporting?

TORI works with global financial institutions to implement solutions that fit within their existing business and IT culture. The company draws upon the experience of individuals who in the past have held senior Service Management positions within Financial Service organisations. This brings with it a blend of industry standards, combined with relevant experience which manifests itself into the adoption of a pragmatic approach to solve IT Service Management issues.

Chris Harris, Head of IT Service Management at TORI, explains what is different about its approach: “Many organisations believe that implementing a new Service Management tool will be the solution to their problems. This is not the case: the tool is only as good as the processes that wrap around it and the processes are only as good as the people who use them.”

Accordingly, TORI uses specialist technology Alliance Partners and trusted Associates to deliver Service Management improvement programmes appropriate to business needs, whilst remaining responsible for the delivery and management of the overall assignment.

The Challenges of Change
Significant improvements can be made to IT Service Management by introducing the disciplines and standards within ITIL tempered with pragmatism based on the practical experience and knowledge of TORI consultants. TORI’s well-established improvement programmes focus not only on the implementation of technology and processes but also the cultural change aspects essential to the successful adoption throughout the organisation.

With an ongoing and long association with organisations in Norwich, TORI Global is delighted to extend its sponsorship of the Norfolk Tennis Academy.

TORI Chief Executive, Martin Harvey, said: “We believe sport plays a key part in the wider education of our children and we are keen to encourage and nurture future tennis champions.  We also believe that the spirit of the Norfolk Tennis Academy fits well with the guiding values on which our company is based and after which it is named – Trust, Openness, Respect and Integrity (TORI).”

Head of the Norfolk Tennis Academy, Stuart Silvester, added:   Over the last 12 months players at the academy have been competing at county and national level with some great successes. 18 of our players represented the county during this period and we now have 5 players ranked inside the top 20 nationally within their respective age groups. This summer, thanks to TORI, we will be running a tennis talent competition for children under the age of 12. We are hoping for up to 100 contestants from local schools to come and show off their co-ordination and racket skills whilst attempting some fun and exciting challenges.  We are extremely grateful to TORI for extending the sponsorship agreement.”

TORI is the partner of choice for world leading companies that decide to enhance their performance by investing in leadership and management. For many years, we have been working with top international companies that want to further strengthen their position by making improvements in these areas.

Many of the top 500 companies on the Stock Market who have strong staff retention are also the most profitable and, interestingly, research tells us that the majority of people (up to 80%) leave jobs because of management.  Suffice to say that investing in programmes to develop management and leadership cultures in line with global strategies add to the long term health and profitability of a business.

TORI is delivering a Leadership and Management Development Programme for an International Bank to reinforce the company’s values and behaviours, and standardise leadership and management right across the organisation.  Two core programmes: Managing for Success and Leading for Success have been delivered in countries as far-flung as Brazil, Singapore and Hong Kong, and in New York, London, Paris and Brussels. In total, 1,500 employees will take part and as an indication that the programme is delivering results, TORI has been commissioned to expand the programme further.

The content of our programmes are designed to deliver a full curriculum – addressing people skills, leadership traits and charismatic leadership as well as the core areas such as management skills and strategic thinking.  We devise a regularly reviewed action plan for every individual who takes part, coaching them to develop strategies for any scenarios that arise, and being available to listen to their concerns. And we obtain structured feedback so that clients can measure and assess the quality, effectiveness and results of our programmes. But the true measure of success lies in the development of a management and leadership culture that attract staff who are motivated to constantly improve their own performance, bringing its own business benefits.

WHY TORI?  We are not consultants but practitioners with a background in the business we are working with. That equips us to address management and leadership issues, whether complex or straightforward, from a position of experience.