Inarticulate ramblings of a management consultant

the day to day experiences of a consultant operating in weird and wonderful client situations

Transformation

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Save the silver bullet – a shameless piece of self promotion!

Please indulge me for a moment as I look back at the last year following the publication of my book, ‘Save the Silver Bullet…The small steps to successful transformation’. It has been an extraordinary time for me with opportunities to speak to global and local organisations, industry bodies and at major conferences on the drivers of successful transformation. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend some time with wonderful people around […]

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Buying out the banks – a repeat of 2007/2008 or something new?

This week we talk about the wave of forced mergers in the US. Paul Siegenthaler, Abhay Pande and I talk about the drivers for the current transactions, what are the implications from an integration perspective, and what the future holds. As ever, we’d love to hear from you. Please let us know your thoughts, comments and ideas. https://theagilegorilla.com/podcast/2023/5/19/8-buying-out-the-banks

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Deep thinking about deepMind – a very different type of deal!

The latest podcast in the Agile Gorilla Collective series. This week Abhay, David and I talk about the dynamics of Deepmind and Google Brain coming together, what the key challenges for Demis Hassabis and Jeff Dean are in terms of leadership and change management, the competitor landscape and the potential pace of change required, It is a fascinating transaction, not only because of the sudden awareness through ChatGPT of the […]

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Divorce – the failure of two high profile transactions

Two interesting tales of failure this week. The first, the sell off of Worldpay from FIS following a disastrous integration has that rare commodity in any form of transformation programme, a counter factual with the acquisition of First Data by FISERV happening at the same time with similar market condition..but a dramatically different result. The second following our earlier podcast on Project Everest is a little summary on the break […]

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The Naked Conglomerate

The latest in our series of Agile Gorilla Collective podcasts. This time we talk about the extraordinary phenomenon of Broadcom, global software business which is hitting the headlines with a bid for VMWare. We talk about Hock Tan, the Malaysian American CEO and founder, his style of leadership and approach to acquisition and integration, the combination of a Warren Buffet and PE type approach to doing deals, and the future […]

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The creation of one of the largest consulting businesses…..ever!

As part of the new podcast series from the Agile Gorilla Collective, David Boyd, Abhay Pande, Paul Siegenthaler (you can find their bios here https://theagilegorilla.com/collective – they are an impressive bunch of people!) and I talk through the separation of the EY consulting business as much discussed and written about over the past few months. We address both the operational implications, the impact on clients and how to address the human […]

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Bolt on or transformative? What offers more value or less risk in M&A

As part of our Agile Gorilla Collective initiative, we’ve launched a set of podcasts which comment on some of the analysis around deals in the market place as they emerge. Over the following weeks and months, you’ll hear a series of expert pre and post merger integration specialists providing commentary and insight on the deals of the day. The first is based on an article in the FT from just […]

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What’s the impact of corporate transformation on the individual?

I’m sharing a podcast of a discussion with Jon Hazan of the Development Society. We talk about change, we define corporate transformation and we look at how organisations success and failure really challenges individuals in terms of their own career path. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1783472/9937001-improvement-ep-8-achieving-meaningful-organisational-transformation Have a listen and tell me what you think.

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2021 – a year of challenge, achievement and extraordinary resilience

It feels totally futile to capture the nature of this past year in a few short paragraphs. For all of us, whether in education, full time, part time or self employment, unemployment or retirement, the changes we’ve experienced in such a short time are extraordinary and life changing. It is a testament to our resilience that we emerge and are ready ‘to go again’! In my world of transformation and […]

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Save the Silver Bullet – a podcast review with Abhay Pande

Some of you will have heard a series of podcasts we did with Asian Leaders a couple of year ago. Last week Abhay and I had a chance to talk about my new book, ‘Save the Silver Bullet’. We addressed context, where the book sits in terms of the literature around change and transformation, and what lessons might be learnt for organisations embarking on a transformation journey. We also talked […]

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Save the Silver Bullet – some early reaction

Dear all, thanks for all your support over the past few weeks. I have had some wonderful comments from some people I respect and admire which is really appreciated. A few to share with you. “With Save the Silver Bullet Ben de Haldevang has written a fantastically readable guide to grapple with transformation, full of eye-opening examples of transformation done well (and badly) by others.” Bruce Daisley, very successful author […]

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Save the silver bullet

After about 3 years and over 140 hours of interviews, edits, moments of desperation, and some incredible stories, it’s almost there. I expect to publish my book on transformation “save the silver bullet…small steps are the secret to successful transformation” in the next month. Those of you who have contributed and supported me, heartfelt thanks. Is it perfect? No! Does it say everything I would want to say on the […]

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Everyone has a plan…

Afternoon all, please see the start of a very big and hairy project (forgive the gorilla reference). Attached is a link to an extract from the introduction to my ‘work in progress’, a book based on a 100 interviews with programme directors around the world on their experience of success and failure. I’m in the middle of writing mode and making good progress and thought I’d share the odd extract […]

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Cost synergies are worth more than revenue synergies…really?

The final chapter (for now!) in our series on the unwritten rules of post acquisition integration. We’ve explored programme structures, leadership teams and the approach to acquired leaders and the fable of the business case! This last one is focused on the old favourite. We at Agile Gorilla think that this is as much to do with external consultants being able to understand cost line items much more easily than […]

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The unchallenged Rules of post deal integration…part 3

All that is written cannot be changed…the tablets of stone of the business case! In what other walk of life can you imagine a situation where the thoughts, analysis and assumptions of one person (or perhaps a small team), drawn up before any access to the subject matter was granted and therefore based entirely on an ‘out to in’ perspective are entirely inviolate? …all because this was the rationale presented […]

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