Consulting Leadership in an Enterprise Transformation Programme

The Challenge

A ten-year end-to-end process digitalisation programme at an industrial group does not run aground on technical questions, but on steering. Several project streams in parallel, changing freelance staffing, business units at differing levels of maturity - and a consulting organisation that had grown with the mandate without being restructured along the way.

Our remit sat at leadership level: own quality, risk and delivery stability across the consulting layer, while setting up the organisation for its next phase.

Our Approach

Substantive reviews instead of status checks. We reviewed the running project streams - rollout, data management, IT transformation management and digital workplace - on their substance, not just tracked their progress. Where concepts diverged, it was resolved on the merits before surfacing as a risk in programme steering.

Making risk visible early. Delivery risks rarely arrive as surprises. They announce themselves in unclear acceptance criteria, overloaded key roles and open dependencies. Capturing and addressing those signals systematically was a core part of the role.

Restructuring the organisation. The consulting layer was restructured for the following phase, including a reset of freelance staffing - away from grown individual arrangements, towards clear roles and responsibilities.

New client initiation. Alongside the programme work we set up three new client initiatives, from first contact through concept work to proposal - among others in the hospital and energy sectors.

The Results

The consulting layer delivers predictably, and project streams run against agreed quality standards rather than individual interpretations. The restructuring markedly reduced dependency on individual people.

The new client initiatives extend the portfolio beyond the existing principal client - strategically the most important point, because a programme with a fixed end date needs a successor.