Case Studies:

How previous situations have developed:

John is a serial entrepreneur and had a business idea where he would find pubs for people that wanted one and would match them up. Problem was no-one was buying. John had employed a salesman for the last 18 months and thought that maybe he wasn’t up to scratch so employed someone else to check him out. But after 3 months the results were the same, but unusually John kept the business going as he really believed in the idea.

We modelled the situation for him and it quickly became apparent that the failings were due to the fact that John hadn’t realised it was a life style business and that the marketing should pass on that excitement and focus on the enormous positive change the client would experience after purchasing the pub.

Guy had joined a family business as a partner and had turned a loss making business into profit after 18 months. But instead of positive feedback he felt he was losing his relationship with the founder whom he had known over twenty years and was unable to understand why and what position he really held in the Company.

After modelling the system what came rapidly into view was that the founder was still focusing on his need to please his late parents, his father who died due to medical error in an operation, and his mother who died from lung cancer. In a fact Guy was the last person to see her alive. He resented Guy for this and for his success in making things happen in the business that he had not been able to achieve beforehand, and this manifested itself in showing little interest in Guy’s interests and positive contributions and long term support.

The modelling was able to take a great weight from Guy when he was able to see what was happening to his friend and partner and when the representative showed that being in charge of the business drive forwards as well as all matters financial, this confirmed the direction he needed to go.

Ian had been in business for ten years with two other partners. The business had had many good ideas over the years, but none had really come to fruition and made much money. Ian had discussed this problem with many peers and friends, but, as yet, nobody was able to offer a satisfactory reason as to why this should be. He was so frustrated that he was thinking of closing the partnership down.

After we modelled his system it became quickly evident that one of the partners liked to be the centre of attention and in his flamboyant way would throw out ideas and then wander off, expecting the other two partners to execute them without his involvement and input. As a result nobody actually bought into the ideas, nor were they able to formulate and execute a strategy.

Michael was being offered the job of Managing Director to a shipping company based in Hong Kong, which would mean a serious move for him. The company was currently being managed by one of the directors but didn’t seem to be going anywhere and the team didn’t seem to be functioning well together.

Michael wanted to know if he should take this important life changing step and how the current MD would respond to his arrival and whether he would be able to manage the team.

We modelled his system for him and showed that not only would it be a good move for him, but the existing MD didn’t really have his heart in the job as he realised that he was probably only temporary and wasn’t motivating his team too well. At the news of Michael’s posting the whole team got a lift and were able to rally round the current MD to await Michael’s arrival.

Simon ran a substantial business with nine subsidiary companies. He soon realised that this wasn’t working and that he would need to consolidate and make some serious changes. However, the major shareholder was his Chairman and their relationship was rather strained. Simon felt that the Chairman was always looking over his shoulder ready to criticise him if he failed. This was seriously impeding his changes and causing significant stress between the two of them.

After modelling Simon’s system he realised that his Chairman was not on the lookout for him to fail, nor was he planning to block his changes. It seemed that all he wanted was to be part of the equation and to be valued by being asked his opinion.

Chris had bought a family business three years ago but was very dissatisfied with his management team and wanted us to find out which one or ones he should change. Having modelled his system it was clear that actually the team worked quite well together and were all competent, what was missing was the respect and recognition due to the founder of the business, who should still be acknowledged.

The small matter of placing a picture of the founder in the reception area was enough to turn the Company around.

Richard has a business that has been handed down by his family through generations. Over a period of time family members had given up board positions and employees had taken on directorships and responsibilities for day to day running of the firm — a significant change in the organisation.

Richard was facing a personal dilemma: his analysis suggested that he should now become non-executive leaving his managing director to run things and this coincided with his personal ambition to pursue other interests; but he was concerned that his directors might feel they were being abandoned and that his grandfather might disapprove.

After modelling the system Richard discovered that his directors would approve the change to non-executive provided he did not become too remote and that his grandfather would support Richard being able to pursue his other interests.

Commenting on the process Richard said “It was interesting how the representatives in the system gave information about the organisation that was so accurate”. Armed with these insights Richard introduced his changes and reports, “One year on from the workshop the business is successfully in the hands of my directors and I take a back seat in the company”.

Luis is the Chief Executive of a business that was experiencing the difficult relations between the heads of two divisions. One division has been a core activity for some time and the second has been more recently established. Both heads were competent and able; their divisions serviced different parts of the industry but they needed to cooperate on projects because each had a particular expertise that was used by the other division too.

Luis had tried many conventional methods of dealing with this situation and was beginning to fear that he might need to change one of them. Although the head of the core division had been in post for ten years and the other head for less time, Luis told us that he valued people on merit not on length of service and that this way of working was known to all of his team.

During the modelling process we diagnosed that the primary cause of tension was the lack of respect shown by the new division’s head for the achievements and standing of the core division’s head. All people in a system have a rightful place which must be acknowledged by others if there is to be harmony; length of service is a fact that needs to be recognised for people to work together successfully.