This case study was originally published in the Finding the Frequency whitepaper
Download Finding the Frequency: How to build change-ready cultures that accept and embrace transformation and discover what levers leaders need to pull to create change-ready over change-resistant cultures. Key insights include:
- 1-in-4 people have considered leaving their role due to the amount of change
- 57% of entry-level staff do not feel involved in change
- 1 in 5 people feel worn down by the amount of organisational change
About New Technology Group
New Technology Group’s vision is to be the leading sustainable Technology Group delivering world class Customer Experience (CX) and Digital Transformation solutions.
- Industry: Telecommunications
- Location: Chorley, Lancashire
- Organisation size: 100-149
Creating a vision and single focus for transformation
When Adam Turton was appointed CEO of New Technology Group in February 2023, he knew he needed to transform a business which had significant challenges. “Business was declining across a number of key metrics and customer churn was at an all-time high,” he recalls. “People were frustrated, unsure of what we stood for and where we were going, and becoming increasingly disengaged.”
Standing still was not an option – as Turton points out, technology is moving so quickly that if companies don’t keep up, they can be “rendered irrelevant”. But he was also aware as a 20-year veteran of the business that it had already been through a lot of change. “I knew change needed to happen. The employees knew and wanted change to happen, but it was important to make sure we weren’t making change for the sake of it,” he explains, adding that he could sense a level of change fatigue within the workforce.
He knew he had to do things differently and align the organisation behind something people could buy into, and that meant embarking upon a radical transformation. The first step was to develop core guiding principles behind change including a clear single focus for everyone to unite behind. “We needed to set a long-term vision that everyone could get excited about,” Turton says.
Workshops with senior managers helped them agree on a clear goal and focus that would bring together a fairly complex and scattered organisation. The focus: to provide the best customer experience, an unrivalled commitment to helping customers.
The clarity of the ‘why’
Turton was also keen to bring purpose to the fore and “start with why”. “Technology is what we do; it’s not why we do it,” he says. “To really engage with people, you’ve got to engage with them on a very human level.” That meant talking authentically and with vulnerability about his own sense of purpose, and empowering employees to connect to their own personal sense of purpose and that of the business.
In May 2023, Turton launched the new vision at a whole-company in-person event. “I talked about my purpose and that of the business, aligning everybody in the organisation behind a clear single focus and the vision of where we were going,” he says.
This clarity of the ‘why’ set the stage for further transformation, and in November a restructure began, separating the organisation into two separate trading companies (Elite Group and Netcentrix) under New Technology Group. “We were clear that if a change wouldn’t deliver on our single focus and contribute to the achievement of the vision, we wouldn’t do it,” says Turton. “That gave credibility to the change and was important to getting people on the bus.”
“I knew change needed to happen. The employees knew and wanted change to happen, but it was important to make sure we weren’t making change for the sake of it”
Implementing change successfully
After a Teams announcement of the reorganisation, Turton and other senior managers did a face-to-face recap and Q&A session in both the company’s offices. Via his “plugged in” HR team, Turton was aware of headline questions around jobs being at risk, and he addressed them head on as well as taking questions from the floor and inviting challenge, making it clear that “nothing was off limits”.
Four workstreams (people, customers, systems and suppliers) were established, each with employee representatives involved. Managers and employees were empowered to shape the plans, with an open-door policy in terms of asking questions and making suggestions to senior leaders. “Employees felt: I have a voice. I’ve got a platform,” Turton says.
Thanks to relentless focus and clarity of message, the transformation has been a resounding success. Recurring revenues are up, sales orders are up 200%, customer escalations and churn is at the lowest level recorded in the last six years and customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are the highest on record.
