Change manager/engineer ?

I have done some research on change managers and am wondering if anyone has any experience in hiring one and what the outcome was.

I am the minority owner of a business and frankly over the last few years our business has evolved into something I don't like. I feel like the "boy who screamed wolf" anymore and am wondering if I brought in a professional to analyze our operations maybe I can get some movement and implement needed changes. Or maybe they recommend removing me, at this point that's OK too. lol

Please share if you have any experience with this type of program.

Thanks

Change managers are the people who drive the changes that disrupt the established way of doing things. Their reward is almost always being fired or quitting due to lack of support/white anting etc. Hopefully this occurs after the changes are implemented & bedded down but not always. Not a job for a delicate snowflake IME.

Make sure you have a cast iron contract with a really good termination payout.

PDW

Are these "efficiency experts" like in Office Space?

cross hair said:

Or maybe they recommend removing me, at this point that's OK too. lol

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I think it would be less stressful and probably work better to sell out. Partnerships generally suck.

Hey CH, if you don't mind (sounds like you have a lot at stake here), I wouldn't mind conversing a bit. I'll shoot you a PM and leave it up to you to respond if you wish.

Thanks,
The Dude

Why do I have an image in my head of the "Change maker" kicking in the office door, and tossing in a smoke grenade....?

How does the majority owner feel about this idea?

If you don't like what it's become, why do you want to stay - especially if the "change manager" would recommend you to leave? (To which you said you'd be OK with...?)

Remember that when you bring in one of these people while they may do some things you like they will recommend a lot that you do not if they are any good.
Seen this bring in the big guns to "fix" the place.
Few are happy and often much of management leaves as everybody gets their toes stepped on to some extent.
Or those up top do not like the direction or criticism and fire the fixer (and the people whose idea it was to bring them in).
Sometimes it works, sometime not.
Bob

I work in a fairly big company here in Denmark (18000+ worldwide) and we have seen a lot of change management over the last 10-15 years. Kaizen, FiFo, SixSigma and not to forget LEAN.
One thing all these systems has had in common is that they all start at the bottom. How to make the employees eat the medicine, when the management won't? Change should always start from the top in my POW. I personally feel much more safe, knowing that the administration has gone through it first.
Things are speeding up again here, after some poor years, and somehow management seems amazed that people find other places to work.

Gordon Ramsey comes to mind....

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slnielsen said:

Change should always start from the top in my POW.

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A fish rots from the head down

cross hair said:

I have done some research on change managers and am wondering if anyone has any experience in hiring one and what the outcome was.

I am the minority owner of a business and frankly over the last few years our business has evolved into something I don't like. I feel like the "boy who screamed wolf" anymore and am wondering if I brought in a professional to analyze our operations maybe I can get some movement and implement needed changes. Or maybe they recommend removing me, at this point that's OK too. lol

Please share if you have any experience with this type of program.

Thanks

Click to expand...

I have lived through several of these types of events.


First problem I see is that there are some really talented change managers out there that can do what they claim but there are tons more that know all of the buzz words, make big promises, and no matter what, get to walk away from the disaster that they create much richer and unscathed. The trick is to sort out the gems from the dirt.

Remember, an expert is someone that is 50 miles away from home.

I often see a pattern that an organization has problems but not sure how to fix them. Hire an expert for large dollars, expert makes lots of expensive changes that have little effect, owners tire of wasted dollars and time, fire expert. Owners then start a new search using the same search criteria. Rinse and repeat. Troops end up demoralized with the most talented leaving. Usually the causation agents remain making the overall problem worse.

I think Pogo summed it quite well. "We have met the enemy and he is Us."

In your specific situation, since you are a minority owner, you are at a strategic disadvantage. I suspect that you hope by bringing in a change agent, that will force the majority ownership to move in a direction that you desire.

If the current majority ownership is satisfied with where the company is at, there is very likely no desire to change anything that will cause discomfort.

Without knowing the situation details and from what you have stated that you wouldn't mind leaving if things don't improve, I think the most likely strategy for you is how to exit the company with the maximum amount of money.

If you see things now that you can't get changed, it is not very probable that you will get a change manager to pull this off. You will probably end up compromising on who gets hired as the change agent, nothing will change for the better, and cash that you could grab today will be gone.

Now if ALL of the principles can agree with the need for change, the direction that ALL of you want to go, and are extremely committed to the end goal, you have then have a reasonable chance of success. Any less, don't go there at all.

One common problem I have seen is that top management often is lacking some core management skills that are the real underlying problem. The troops know what the problem is but are powerless while upper management is busy re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The expert's answer is to hire me and I will make a new placement chart for the deck chairs, use the life boats for a bonfire in celebrating the new chart, and busy the crew with polishing the deck chairs.

Unfortunately, the expert sails away in his reserved life boat and everyone else is left to survive on their own.

As you can tell, I'm not real excited about this approach. I view it as whoever it is that is in charge as a manager, needs to know his strengths and weaknesses. He needs to hire or improve the weak areas and play to their strengths. If you don't know what you can and can't do really well, then you need to start there. After that you might actually need to hire a specific person to fill in around your weaknesses or just might need someone to show you how.

You already know that you don't like the current direction and you already know your organization. The expert will spend at least 4-6 months figuring out where you are today. Any changes before then will be for just changes sake with little real purpose.

I wish you luck.

I've been through it on both sides - as someone being "changed" and as part of a team to bring about "change". I've never been satisfied with the results when the change manager hasn't had line responsibilities.

I have been through something like this multiple times and it always seems to do more damage than good. Some of the more skilled people seem to leave on their terms or from the new changes and most seem to get replaced with someone worse. In the long run I think it costs the company more money for the changes that get implemented while the person that was brought in is either fired or quits.

After living through a lay off & a couple of consultants within the last decade.

If management doesn't get hit first, it will not make a difference...

You trim a tree from the top down. If you take too much from the roots & bottom you kill the tree...

Make list of what your after and a way to get implemented them...

Thanks for all the input. I had a long discussion yesterday with the majority owner, while he understands most of my issues he still believes we can create the changes needed internally, and I agree with that but the problem I have is we don't implement the changes long term, we get relaxed and the issues circle back.

My partner assures me he is trying to find a buyer for the business, we are making money and staying profitable so he doesn't want to cause any issues by shaking things up, I get that, I am just at a point of frustration that needs resolution. I made a major mistake when I acquired ownership by not including a buy out clause of some sort in the agreement. If I were to simply quit I would still be financially liable for my part of the taxes due, currently I pay those out of retained earnings, but if I didn't have the company account to dip into the taxes would cause me financial pain. And yes I have spoke with an attorney who specializes in business contracts and such and he said I am stuck. (sigh)

Anyway...it's hard to argue my case when the business is making money, and as a result I am making money, but I feel we could increase our profit margins by implementing some changes not only with personnel,(and I do mean top to bottom), but with our business and marketing strategies. I could go on and on but what's the point? This is a manufacturing forum, not Dear Abbey. lol

A change manager is out, selling my shares back is out, for now I will just keep on keeping on and hope a potential buyer enters the picture.

Thanks again for the input.

Some questions that come to mind in order to give answers that apply to you. In any case you need to know them yourself.

1) How many employee's does your company have and what is their profit to cost ratio? Most will be profit generators but some will be overhead two separate ratios and adds a third ratio also, the profit generator over overhead generator ratio.

2) What is your gross revenues to net profit ratio and are you plotting that monthly on a spreadsheet or in and accounting program?

3) Do any of your customers provide more than 40% of your revenues if so how can you reduce this situation to say 20% Do you have a plan to do so or just riding the wave?

4) What type of shop are you and your services provided? Example: CNC Milling and Turning, metal fabrication, mold making. Where do you want to go with this and are you flexible and have a capital source should a solid opportunity arise?

5) What is the core of your services? Examples: Prototyping and some small production runs, large production runs and assembly's and is it what you want it to be and can you improve on it?

6) What is the core group of your customers? Examples: Aerospace, defense, commercial, auto, and so forth and are you following their market trends so you can be prepared for their swings up and down.

7) Are you an ISO shop or at least compliant in some way? Examples: Process documentation and procedures that are required by your customers and/or you. What can you do to improve this without a major effort.

IMO, there is so much that can be done without hiring someone else to improve the flow of you business. I use to keep a pocket tablet and create a list of what I thought I saw as issues that effected the flow and cost of operations as they came to me during the day. Then first, without acting on anything, reviewed and stored the original and clean up my main list.

I would let some time pass, a few weeks or months. Maybe something would get taken off, added or changed on the list. I even may toss it out and start the whole thing over. At some point though, when I felt the list was not going to change much anymore, I would start prioritizing that list. Not so simple as it would seem sometimes because some issues were linked and caused in part by smaller problems and you had to take some time to identify them or maybe even change or correct those before addressing the original one.

In any case, at some point you need to pick one or two of these issues and come up with a plan to fix.

Issues are not just simple things like the structure of how you do things it's the social structure of your employees and business. Each individual reacts to this family environment and once it is ingrained it can be very difficult and resistant to change. One or two people within this group can be the 'preventor' of many changes you may want to attempt.So they need to be a focal point of the change. I have seen people so resistant to any change they had to be let go (or encouraged to leave) even if they were a 'good worker' as the end result of their influence on others was so negative and detriment to change in the direction of the business.


Beyond the employee or management resistance to change... is the agreement of 'how' you do business... verbal "this is how we do it" does not work with more than one person. There needs to be written instructions...period.

I have more thoughts on this subject but this is enough for now. Basically, I believe that you and your partner/s need to recognize that a plan for a business evolving and growth is a selling point assuming that is the path ahead.

Can I suggest you and your partner (or anyone else reading this post,) read or listen on audio-book, the book "How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.

When/If you & your partner decide to change things, it will be helpful to know how to communicate with everyone to bring those changes about in the most positive way. The book is all about how to effectively communicate with people, in a positive manner.

There is nothing in the book that is new-age, fancy, buzz-wordish... It's mostly old-school manners, wisdom, and common sense, but it's a topic that we all too often take for granted, and pay little attention to. I would highly recommend it, as it's something I wish I'd read years ago. And it also deals specifically with the issue at hand here - how to communicate with people effectively, to bring about positive change.

(Bobw if you're reading this, it is all of your positive reinforcement "tricks" bound-up in a book, and first written like 75 years ago...)

The bottom line is, Do you have people in your company that has made it work through the years. What outside factors have made it change or influenced itto be less cost effective. I'd say look at the over priced overhead.
The battle is won in the trenches. If you don't have competent people making your product just hang it up now.

I am not a consultant, I don't know any of the buzz words. However over the years I have been asked to consult for various companies and actually got some really good results for the customer. Sometimes it was just because an outside viewpoint brought clarity to the situation.
Each time I did this I made the same offer. Pay my travel expense. Then pay me for my time only if you felt you got your moneys worth. I am happy to help if I can. Email me and we can talk about it.