JUNXION STRATEGY
DESIGN BRIEF 1
VANCOUVER
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TEAM JUNXION: DESIGN BRIEF
WHO IS JUNXION? Junxion Strategy is an international consulting company that specializes in “build[ing] meaningful brands and inspiring social movements.” Originally two separate entities, Junxion came together to help social ventures, responsible corporations, and nonprofits through strategy, branding (“TrustBrand development”), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), outreach and engagement. With offices in Vancouver, London and Delhi, Junxion prides itself on its global presence and diverse perspective.
LONDON
NEW DELHI
THIS BRIEF Our design brief aims to showcase the progress of our project thus far, from the clarification of the core challenge to the potential solutions and deliverables that our team can offer Junxion. Our step-by-step journey, which is presented in this design brief, is the result of a series of discussions utilizing a variety of frameworks and thinking tools to fuel creative thinking, and supported by a highly collaborative approach both within the team and with the client. This design brief also provides the opportunity for reflection and reference as we move forward with the next steps.
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THE TEAM Our team brings forth a diverse set of skills, experiences and education. We come from three different faculties, with specializations in psychology, environmental design, political science, finance and marketing. With this variety of backgrounds, we are confident in our ability to generate meaningful insight and provide creative solutions to address the challenges that Junxion currently faces.
NATASHA
PSYCHOLOGY Natasha is a 4th year psychology major. With the present shift towards organizations adopting more people-centered approaches, and the current obstacles Junxion faces, her background can aid in the development of novel solutions for the team.
NAV
FINANCE As a Finance student, Nav’s area of focus and interest varies from practical experiences in securities analysis, development of mathematical algorithms and maintaining institutional client-relationships. As a future entrepreneur, Nav hopes to bring a team-based approach towards creating a cohesive and collaborative internal environment for Junxion Strategy.
MINYOUNG
MARKETING With past experiences in marketing, consulting and project management, Minyoung offers strategic and client-oriented thinking that facilitates the process of creating innovative yet realistic solutions. She is looking forward to learning more about managing team dynamics and client relationships.
WILLIAM
POLITICAL SCIENCE As a political science student, William offers a distinctly different perspective on problem-solving and management solutions. Combined with experiences in policy research and journalism, he hopes to find innovative solutions that can provide Junxion with a unified set of values.
CAMILLE
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN In her 4th year studying Environmental Design, Camille brings a creative, design-oriented perspective to the table. Paired with professional experience in communications, graphic design and brand management, Camille is a dynamic problem solver and is excited to bring many ideas to the team and project.
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TEAM JUNXION: DESIGN BRIEF
ABOUT
ABOUT JUNXION ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Greenwich Mean Time Zone (UTC+00:00)
Pacific Time Zone (UTC-08:00)
India Time Zone (UTC+05:30)
LONDON
VANCOUVER
NEW DELHI
STAFF • • • •
PRINCIPAL
writers project managers designers developers
TYPICAL WORKFLOW
Team Assignments Members from each office
New client
Work ON project
Area for Improvement
Referral Payment
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Foster a more consistent and cohesive organizational culture that reflects the shared values, vision and goals of the three global offices by establishing better integrated communication and information-sharing systems. For Junxion, we believe a successful corporate culture lies in understanding how each office operates independently but also in how their distinct locations complement one another, and how they collaborate together. In our view, the three tenets of a successful corporate culture consist of the following:
COOPERATION We believe team members from each of the three offices should have an effective system for assembling project teams and clear processes for how work is to be distributed and delivered.
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TEAM JUNXION: DESIGN BRIEF
THE PROBLEM
CORPORATE CULTURE COMMUNICATION We believe team members should have no problems communicating to each other within their regional offices and amongst their three offices. Open communication between principals and employees is key.
ACCOUNTABILITY We believe team members need an accountability structure to make sure projects are successfully carried out according to a set of guidelines. Following a set of guidelines will minimize disruption and prevent future problems from occurring.
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TIMELINE ASK
TRY Interviewing Mike
Researching the website
Investigating solutions within other similar organizations
Drawing from past experiences or knowledge within the team
Understand Junxion’s business model and its internal challenges
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TEAM JUNXION: DESIGN BRIEF
ASK. TRY. DO.
AGILE MAP
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
Identify areas of internal that can be through
DO
INTERNAL STAFF DIRECTORY
6 THINKING HATS
specific Junxion’s challenGes addressed the project
CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE
STANDARDIZED WORKFLOW
Design a path to success that will guide Junxion towards better integrated culture and workflow
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Interviewing Mike Our meetings with Mike allowed us to dig deeper into the challenge at hand by asking about the size, history and culture of each office, the steps that Junxion has taken so far to address this challenge, his thoughts on why Junxion is struggling to foster an integrated and consistent organizational culture and what success looks like to him.
RESEARCHING THE WEBSITE We thoroughly perused the website to understand Junxion’s business model, company history, organizational structure, mission, vision and values.
ASK Investigating solutions within other similar organizations
Drawing from past experiences or knowledge within the team
Nav’s work experience at RBC showed him how the company managed a consistent culture across its offices around the world without limiting the freedom of each office.
McKinsey’s “free-access approach” places utmost value in the power of information by utilizing a structured knowledge management system across the entire organization. While it does not dictate the exact extent to which every employee integrates this system into their workflow, there is a minimum standard that all staff must meet in sharing and storing information this way.
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TEAM JUNXION: DESIGN BRIEF
ASK. TRY. DO.
...THUS LEADING US TO THESE ASSUMPTIONS BASED ON OUR FINDINGS: WHAT WE KNOW INTEROFFICE
STAFF
INTERNAL PROCESSES
WHAT WE ASSUME
Junxion must consider cultural differences and 13.5 timezones when collaborating between its three offices.
There are multiple external factors that cause challenges for the integration and consistency of Junxion’s project management tools and practices.
The culture varies from office to office due to the size, history and client base of each office.
These offices all require a certain amount of autonomy and flexibility from one another in order to work effectively, meaning that Junxion cannot expect to standardize everything with everyone.
The New Delhi office has been the most distant and reluctant to adpot new project management tools.
This is because it has the biggest team and therefore finds the most inconvenience in having to adopt anything new.
Smaller teams tend to discuss things in person over desks, which is much easier than taking the time to enter everything into a software and track what they do.
The London office, which consists of the smallest team out of all three offices, is also reluctant to adopt new project management tools.
Junxion has taken several steps to foster a better integrated organizational culture by hosting monthly webinars and conducting employee satisfaction surveys across the three offices.
Junxion is conscious of the challenge at hand and wants to do something about it, but its attempts so far have not been as effective as desired.
Principals are heavily overworked across all three offices.
There is a lack of work distribution across the staff because the “McKinsey management model” has yet to be implemented fully across the company.
Employees were not as involved with the process of forming the project management tools or practices as the principals.
Employees are not as engaged with how it works and may struggle to adopt or show reluctance.
Junxion has not offered or outlined tangible incentives that encourage staff to be onboard with its selected project management tools and practices.
Not all of its staff has accepted them.
There is no standardized protocol for evaluating new projects, assigning and managing projects between offices and debriefing on projects upon completion.
The lack of standardization has led to inconsistent workflow from project to project.
There is no onboarding training process because most of the new employees are either industry veterans or contractors who have already worked with Junxion.
Some of its staff may not be as immersed or aligned with Junxion’s project management tools and practices.
There is no internal directory or database of the staff’s individual skills, experiences, backgrounds and interests.
Junxion does not fully know its human resources and could be allocating its staff ineffectively. 11
Throughout this process, our team has tried a number of techniques to get to know Junxion better:
TRY 6 THINKING HATS The Six Thinking Hats activity was fundamental in propelling us forward and pinpointing where our team can offer the most benefit to Junxion. We were able to dissect a specific issue, including outlining the gains to Junxion by tackling this topic. As well, we could clearly identify any concerns and address them prior to undertaking the project.
AGILE MAP The Agile Map activity was instrumental to developing our problem statement. Before the activity, we had a foundation comprised of many seemingly separate areas to focus on. However, the activity helped us target and articulate a specific need that encompassed the many ideas we had brainstormed earlier.
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS The Business Model Canvas was an asset at the beginning of this process as it facilitated our understanding of Junxion. We were able to identify central features ranging from what value they provide to their customers to how they generate revenue.
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TEAM JUNXION: DESIGN BRIEF
ASK. TRY. DO.
Throughout this process we will work with Junxion to develop a plan to roll out our team’s possible solutions and continuously monitor progress and recommend on-going improvements to the outcomes.
Implement. Evaluate. Innovate.
DO
1 Internal staff directory • •
This would entail launching a consistent platform among the three global locations to view each employee’s profile (name, qualifications, past projects, hobbies) Empowers principals to employ effective/efficient talent management practices, while delivering customized solutions for each client.
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Standardized workflow •
•
3 Consistent communication software •
•
Junxion is currently using multiple communication tools –Facebook, Basecamp, Google Apps, Timefox, Dropbox– which can cause confusion when working between offices. A consistent software (one all employees would utilize for all communication) would allow Junxion to address the capacity issue and taking a leap towards establishing a cohesive and collaborative corporate culture.
Criteria for team assignment – ensuring each employee is fitted and selectively chosen based on fit and expertise needed for specific clients / projects, leading to efficient distribution and delivery of projects. Project debrief checklist – This would be a process to be implemented with employees at Junxion, and as often as possible to include clients. A debrief would entail considering the following things (in general terms): - What went well? - How can we improve? - Did we select the right personnel to serve this client?
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EVALUATION CRITERIA What does success look like?
FOR JUNXION Become conscious of the areas of differences in cultural values and day-to-day functions between the three global offices Within those areas of differences, identify the ones that Junxion can feasibly unify to establish effective project management practices across all offices Leverage the deliverables from the team to plan the development and implementation of better integrated communication and information-sharing systems, which in turn will foster consistent and cohesive organizational culture
FOR OUR TEAM Identify areas of misalignment between principals and employees in order to provide recommendations that will engage the entire staff Provide recommendations that not only address Junxion’s challenges but are practical and feasible to implement
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TEAM JUNXION: DESIGN BRIEF
LONDON
? VANCOUVER
NEW DELHI
NEXT STEPS? 1. Interview principals and staff in the other offices and conduct companywide survey on employee satisfaction and values We have planned interviews with principals and employees and hope to explore the idea of conducting a company-wide value’s survey to determine the differences and similarities between the offices. This also means that we will need to identify or clarify the unifying philosophy that can effectively bridge the differences. A set of recommendations will be made that can begin the path to creating a successful corporate culture. This will include the creation of project criteria checklists and other accountability structures which we hope can minimize the disruptions that face Junxion. We hope that these recommendations will help promote the build out of more effective future collaborations.
UNIFIED VALUES OF JUNXION AS A WHOLE
2. Identify the desired components needed for an effective information sharing and project management system After identifying the current tools and processes used by Junxion for project management and communication, we intend to expand on this by creating a portfolio database that hosts information regarding employee’s past projects and skillsets. This would reduce the downtime of assembling a project team and will allow for more efficient workflow for projects. We will also do an audit of current tools used by Junxion and where possible we seek to recommend tools that we feel are more efficient and reliable than existing ones.
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