Chapter 12. POSITIONING A NEW LEADER FOR SUCCESS THROUGH NETWORK FINE-TUNING

Rob Cross, Robert J. Thomas, Ana Dutra, and Carrie Newberry

Anne Downing had her hands full (names of people and organizations have been changed). She had recently been tapped to head NorthStar Management Consulting's newly formed Organizational Strategy unit (part of the company's Strategy practice), a role she had inherited from Chris Smith. Energetic and savvy, Smith had built the unit quickly, outfitting it with specialty subgroups such as Joint-Venture Management and Transformational Change. Just 18 months after forming the unit, Smith was promoted into NorthStar's executive ranks. Downing, highly regarded at NorthStar for her leadership and organization-building skills, was tapped to head the fledgling unit.

Downing had stepped into a complex situation. The unit was part of a functional practice that, along with other practices (such as Talent, Supply Chain, and Process Improvement), constituted one dimension in NorthStar's matrixed structure. Industry groups (such as Natural Resources, High Tech, Chemicals, Consumer Products, Banking, and Government) were the second dimension. The third dimension consisted of geographic regions. Typically, executives in functional practices or industry groups initiated client engagements, which often involved teams of executives and consultants assembled from one or more functional practices, industry groups, and geographies.

For instance, a global client of the Consumer Products industry group that wanted to divest one of its businesses would need help on numerous fronts, such as analyzing the value of the business and managing the many changes that would accompany the divestment (reductions in workforces, untangling of IT systems). The executive in Consumer Products who worked most closely with the client would begin mobilizing experts in NorthStar's various functional practices who could provide the right mix of skills.

As a large consultancy with offices throughout the world, NorthStar had proved its mettle in the two decades since its inception. However, things in the Organizational Strategy unit weren't so rosy. To be sure, Smith had built the unit with the goal of initiating engagements with clients who had a specific need for its services, and those deals had come in a steady stream. The staff had grown from 50 to 150 in the year and a half since Smith created the unit. But he had also envisioned other practices, units, and industry groups drawing extensively on Organizational Strategy's experts. Through its many specialty subgroups, the unit offered an array of skills that could be put to good use by other parts of the company in full-service, long-term (and thus more lucrative) client engagements. Yet such cross-organizational collaborations had proved scantier than Smith had anticipated. For the most part, just a few industry groups and regions called on the unit. It had the potential to be far more useful to the company.

To help the unit fulfill that potential, Downing knew she would have to transition into her new role quickly. She decided that analyzing the unit's various networks (such as advice and information) would enable her to swiftly identify the causes of the unit's underuse and begin developing interventions.