Using Experience Design to Turn Around a Leading Non-Profit

OVERVIEW:
A leading agricultural products company was experiencing a decrease in employee and customer satisfaction. The executive management of the organization forecasted that if they did not reverse these trends, their revenue would soon be in decline. They approached Stonehill with the hope of utilizing Design Thinking to engineer a revised organizational experience that would drive increased revenue.

APPROACH:

Stonehill started the engagement by spending a week on site facilitated multiple design thinking sessions - one with the company’s board of directors, one with the executive team, and multiple with groups of line employees. The result of those sessions was a strategy map that outlined the cares and desires from internal, external, and financial perspectives. The strategy map continued to define opportunities, strategies, and initiatives for achieving company goals.

In the early days of the company’s founding, the organization’s customers were primarily large Fortune 500 food processors and distributors. As the company grew, they brought on many small farmers as customers – increasing work and decreasing profitability. These actions cumulated in the current issue of low customer and employee satisfaction as there was too much work and not enough revenue to address it. 

Stonehill’s response was a mix of organizational development, expense reduction, and sales/operations alignment. First, Stonehill reorganized the organization into teams of multidisciplinary skill sets. Each team was responsible for delivering on a portfolio of clients and they had autonomy to prioritize work as they saw fit. Second, we eliminated any additional expense overhead and refunneled the savings into delivery of services. This included eliminating the company’s largest expenditure publishing a print magazine. Finally, Stonehill spent time aligning sales with operations ensuring that all clients were profitable and that the proper time was allocated to service each account. 

RESULTS:

By the end of our engagement, we were able to achieve several positive outcomes for the organization including increased customer satisfaction for largest customers, decreased voluntary employee turnover, new operational accountability based on KPIs, and increased net profitability.

If Stonehill can help your business identify opportunities, create change, and accelerate growth, please contact us at info@stonehillinnovation.com.