Deciding earlier in the process – delivers a opportunity for competitive advantage by using the Corporate Battlefields model for decision making



Functional Teams


A survey in 2007¹ identified the thing that most concerned CEO's was strategic drift: The failure of operational management to deliver performance that matched the CEO's strategic objective.

Why does this happen? Simply put, the strategy is interpreted according to local resources, understandings and commitment of the managers tasked with delivering performance and somewhere the focus is lost.

Pulling management teams together to see beyond their own horizon and position themselves as part of a cohesive operation is essential, but how can you offer a meaningful benchmark that is not negatively confrontational and gives lasting guidance?

See how we did this with Martinair, the global airfreight and charter airline.

Client	Martinair Holland NV
Participants	Operational Management Team
	3 separate groups of 12 people per group over 2 months
Location	The Battlefield of Waterloo
Duration	2 Days
Brief	To deliver a cohesive approach to leadership and decision making

Martinair realised that it needed to introduce and manage change and improve operational performance in a rapidly changing market with real challenges. We identified that new managers needed to increase their influence to deliver change and that management and staff needed a common approach to decision making in a high pressure short term environment. In addition they needed to consistently act within 'the bigger picture' and embrace cooperation with other departments. Linked to this was the presence of KLM as a 50 percent partner in the business and the need to integrate certain activities. We needed an international battlefield context with a strong Dutch content. The event would be delivered in English and Dutch.

The group focussed on leadership using the examples of the different senior Generals and how they either succeeded or failed to decide and communicate their intent. They also analysed how failure to integrate and deliver the most important resource at the place and time when it was most needed made a critical difference. From this we suggested a process to make consistent decisions under pressure and illustrated it with examples on the battlefield. This process has now been absorbed into Martinair and there is greater clarity on operational leadership and performance.

We have a series of modules that work at different locations to bring functional groups together and provoke clarity of thought and commitment to enable them to understand their problems through the battlefield 'lens'. The integration of Sales, Marketing and Accounting activities seems a lot clearer when you have positioned it as infantry, artillery and cavalry.

See us working with a Senior Management group at Waterloo:

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¹ McKinsey





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