Umbrex is pleased to welcome Hanna Mahlen with HM Consultancy. HM Consultancy provides people-centric strategy and implementation to help clients meet and exceed their objectives. Its founder, Hanna Mählen, is an experienced and versatile consultant who delivers results for clients through a combination of strategic thinking, analytical skills, and hands-on execution, with expertise in strategy, transformation, marketing, innovation, and change management. She has a strong track record of helping clients in various industries, including healthcare, finance and technology, navigate complex…

Tineke Keesmaat exposes the myth of the change management unicorn and replaces it with practical steps. Imagine this scenario. Ambitious leader. Countless dollars and hours invested into creating an exciting new strategy. Lots of team members to rally. An awesome launch. And then, wait for it, nothing. Ok, maybe not nothing, but definitely not knock-your-socks off success. Yet another case study to support the research that only about 30% of leaders feel they achieve all their transformation goals. The excuse:…

Gina Abudi shares a case study that explains how her company took a structured change and project management approach to a complex initiative. This case study is the story of one of Abudi Consulting Group’s (ACG) clients, a national IT professional services firm. ACG has been working with this client for over three years, providing consulting services that have included facilitating annual strategic planning sessions with executives and bi-annual 360 assessments. This particular case study follows work ACG did with…

Gina Abudi has recently published a book on launching change initiatives and developing a continuous improvement culture of change. In today’s increasingly competitive global marketplace, organizations that do not regularly undertake change initiatives will find it difficult—if not impossible—to continue to be successful in the long term. Most organizations only launch change initiatives when forced to address some pain, such as decreased revenues or profits, where the sole focus is on the benefits to the organization. Often, the people side…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Sean Carney with Wentwell. Sean Carney spent ~3 years as Manager of Communications at McKinsey before starting his own strategic communications firm, Wentwell. Prior to McKinsey, Sean spent more than 15 years in top PR/advertising agencies in NYC and Philadelphia, primarily representing B2B technology, banking/finance, energy, real estate, and professional services companies. He specializes in writing, messaging/narrative development, media training, and public relations consulting, and helps companies around the world tell more meaningful stories. Sean…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Nicolai Nielsen.  Nicolai is a global leadership and transformation expert, and a leading authority on developing human-centered organizations that shape the future. He was with McKinsey & Company for almost 10 years, most recently as an Associate Partner in the New York Office. He has worked with more than 30 Fortune 500 companies and government ministries across 5 continents globally. His work includes designing and delivering leadership development and culture change programs that have reached…

In this article, Natalie Ceeney explains why some business transformations fail. Anyone in business knows that ‘change’ is a fact of life. ‘Change management’ is taught on every leadership course, and we all know the essentials of good ‘change management’ (clear vision, over communicate, create a guiding coalition and more). But surely something is going wrong. If we all know how to ‘change’, why are so many organisations struggling to do so? The degree of disruptive change in today’s business…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Gisela Linge with Strategy Meets Reality.  Gisela Linge spent three years as Director Corporate Strategy & Development at a leading global automotive supplier and has been working as an independent consultant since 2019. Prior to her Strategy role, she was as a team leader in Product Management and Strategic Procurement at BMW and started her career after her PhD in economics at McKinsey, where she became part of the operations practice, focusing on Procurement projects….

Zaheera Soomar shares an article on organizational change and the factors to consider as remote work becomes the norm. The status quo of how people in organizations work has been rapidly changing over the past couple of years with virtual and remote work becoming more common. Some of this has been driven by new generation talent requirements and cost reduction measures but the recent impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have forced most, if not all, organizations to move in that…

Jared Simmons shares key tips for the frustrated change agent to help overcome the most common obstacles faced.  When you’re new to a role, you’re often hired to change something. You may need to launch a new project, implement a new system, or improve the performance of an existing process. At some point, you will meet resistance. The team that passive-aggressively ignores your emails; the organization that can’t agree on scope or timeline; the leadership team that asks for more…

Tineke Keesmaat blows the cover of a common change management myth.  Imagine this scenario. Ambitious leader. Countless dollars and hours invested into creating an exciting new strategy. Lots of team members to rally. An awesome launch. And then, wait for it, nothing. Ok, maybe not nothing, but definitely not knock-your-socks off success. Yet another case study to support the research that only about 30% of leaders feel they achieve all their transformation goals. The excuse: we didn’t invest enough in…

Amit Bhambi shares a timeless post and three key takeaways for a successful and strategic change management process. Strategic Change Management is understanding where we are making change then executing. When picking a new restaurant to try out with friends, you have to take some things into consideration to choose the right place. You may want to understand who is coming, where are the coming from, what time we are meeting and what kind of food everyone wants to eat….

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Richard L. Koppel with MilestoneCVC. Richard has over 35 years of domestic and global experience in management consulting, transformation/change management, and technology operations/partnering. He has lived and worked throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. He maintains a global reputation in technology, enabling innovation for transformational change. He has significant M&A experience including delivering numerous post-merger integration programs across the financial services, professional services, and entertainment industry sectors. He has held senior roles including Consulting Partner…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome David Hensley with Hensley Partners. David spent seven years at McKinsey & Company, in London and in the EuroCenter in Brussels. He was a core member of the Organisational Performance Practice. Before McKinsey David worked for Shell in a range of planning and marketing roles in London and Johannesburg. After McKinsey David was the Group Head of Strategy at Carlton Communications (now ITV), and then Executive Director of Credit Suisse’s IT subsidiary. He been a…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome David Sundquist with D.M. Qwist Consulting. David is an independent consultant with expertise in leading operations/manufacturing/lean transformations for clients within various industries e.g. Battery Production, Automotive and Assembly, Heavy Duty and Consumer Goods. David’s expertise lies within: Lean Manufacturing, Operations Transformations, Performance management, Project Management, Change management, Capability Building….

Caroline Taich shares a  post on change and the skills you need to drive it forward.  In this blog, we have been exploring the McKinsey model for change. Last week I wrote about conviction as a driver of change.  This week I’m thinking about the skills you need for change.  Here is a big one – the ability to see your unique strengths. This came up during the wonderful opportunity I had to learn from Councilman Matt Zone.  Councilman Zone…

  In this podcast,Tineke Keesmaat interviews Dr. Elsbeth Johnson who shares her ground-breaking research on how leaders and managers can achieve successful strategic change in their organizations.  Big, strategic change efforts often fail. Virtually all of them are harder than they need to be. Why is this and what can leaders do to make change stick?  Leaders must learn to step up in the early stages of an organizational change, and then step back in its later stages. This combination…

  David Burnie shares a post from his company blog that identifies six change management guidelines designed to help manage change effectively.  While they say that nothing in life is certain except death and taxes, this proverb is missing another of life’s key inevitabilities: change. As highlighted by the current COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world, business and organizational change can be both planned and unplanned. Regardless of what instigates change, it must be properly managed for success. Not everyone enjoys…

  Anna Engstromer shares a post that identifies what goes wrong with strategy implementation and what needs to be applied to ensure successful adoption. The Everyday Value of the Right Design in Services Just because it happens all the time, all over, strategy implementation isn’t easy. It may appear so judging from corporate communication, but it is a special type of team effort that needs energy and effort. The trick is to both carry forth with planned changes and pay…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Wendy Richards with MarTel Advisors. Member of the Board for AMC Natural Drinks, Wendy advises this family-held Spanish corporation on international strategy and leadership development. Beyond the boardroom, she builds team cohesion through executive coaching and change management, serving PE and Venture-backed firms. An experienced Chief Marketing Officer in the investment industry, Wendy’s clients include Makena Capital Management and Altegris Investments. She led telecoms finance for HSBC in London and the design and roll-out of…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Ana Freire. Ana Freire has been working as an independent consultant in New York for over three years, supporting Fortune 200 Companies. Ana has been supporting clients tackle change management, operational efficiency and market assessment initiatives. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Ana worked as a financial analyst at Johnson & Johnson, and then spent almost four years at BCG, having worked on Financial Services, Pharmaceutical and Consumer Goods Industries….

  Dan Markovitz shares why COVID-19 provides the opportunity to institute change.  “You’ve heard it countless times before:  ‘People don’t like change.’ ‘Change is hard.’ ‘Change activates people’s lizard brain. They’ll fight you or run away.’ ‘People don’t mind changing. They don’t like being changed.’ You hear these complaints so often that you’d think they’re inscribed in the 10 Commandments by now. (They’re not, by the way.) Sure, there’s plenty of truth in those sayings, but the good news is…

  Jesse Jacoby shares a timeless post that explains how leaders can overcome overt and covert resistance to change.    In your role as a leader, you will likely encounter resistance to change at some point from one or more of your own team members. Resistance may come from a variety of sources: An individual with a difficult personality Someone anxious about impending change A person who disagrees with your vision Resistance is usually demonstrated in one of four ways,…