Ewing Change Consulting Success Stories

Case Study 3: Merger Process Change

The Client: Chief Risk Officer, Global Insurance Company
The Goal: A global infrastructure for risk-adjusted decisions

The background: The good news from the merger was that this executive became the new Chief Risk Officer. The bad news, or at least the looming challenge, was to forge a team that could get the new organization to adopt a global risk framework throughout Canada, U.S., UK, India and Asia.

Each country had its own approach to risk, but the organization lacked a global risk framework. The CRO knew it was crucial to have leaders at all levels of the organization making sound risk-adjusted decisions every day, based on a consistent methodology.

The CRO inherited a team with one experienced member and several with far less experience. He knew he needed a full, risk decision-making process, but initially only asked for a one-day meeting of risk officers from around the globe. After further discussion, the CRO agreed to a broader discussion, which led to the construction of a framework for risk-adjusted decision making. The team agreed it could easily use the framework to build a consistent model that could be implemented across the organization globally. Now, the CRO and his team needed to get buy-in.

The solution: Ewing and her colleague helped the team create an international steering committee of stakeholders, a working group and information gathering and analysis, including interviews across the senior teams and the board risk committee. Ewing and her colleague facilitated a series of sessions over a six-month period where the draft risk framework was gradually built, vetted, strengthened and approved. The risk team then educated managers and the leadership about the methodology. They also used it to report to the executive team and the board risk committee.

The result: The CRO, his team and the organization had an innovative and ground-breaking approach to looking at the organization’s risks. The method gave them the ability to see the interaction of risks taken locally with their impacts on the national risk profile and the global risk profile. Ewing was invited back to coach key members of the risk team and provided them with 360-degree feedback.

Success Stories

Case Study 1: Coaching Executive Leadership
The Client: CIO of a Canadian Bank
The Goal: Middle managers finding their footing

Case Study 2: Organizational Alignment
The Client: CEO and Senior Team of Health Sciences Centre
The Goal: Turning conflict into coordination

Case Study 3: Merger Process Change
The Client: Chief Risk Officer, Global Insurance Company
The Goal: A global infrastructure for risk-adjusted decisions

Case Study 4: Change Management Strategy
The Client: CEO and Senior Team, Construction and Mining Equipment Company
The Goal: Rebuilding the Refurbishers

Case Study 5: Employee Effectiveness through Cultural Change
The Client: VP Human Resources, Resort and Real Estate Developer
The Goal: Boosting employee effectiveness in a culturally-sensitive environment

Case Study 6: Using Assessments in Coaching
The Client: Senior Treasury Manager, International Manufacturer
The Goal: Solving Director’s Dilemma – ‘Fix’ the manager or fire him?