Leading one of your company's most important initiatives

Congratulations.

You’re leading one of the company’s most important initiatives.

INITIATIVE FAILURE RATES CULTURE

BUSINESS

SOFTWARE

EXPANSION

DEVELOPMENT &

RE-ENGINEERING

MERGERS &

TQM-DRIVEN

ACQUISITIONS

CHANGE

67%

63%

RESTRUCTURING

INSTALLATION

81%

80%

74%

70%

54%

Source: Smith, M. E., “Success rates for different types of organizational change” Performance Improvement, 41 (1), 2, 2002.

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Now comes the hard part: delivering results.

It’s imperative. Your strategic initiative must succeed.

It’s a critical component of your organization’s overall strategy.

And there’s a significant amount of shareholder money at stake; there is simply no tolerance for failure.

You’ve been here before. You are not seduced by the size of the budget, the brilliance of the solution, or the early support you’ve seen. You know that once the initial enthusiasm dies down the real issues will emerge. And you know that most major change initiatives fail.

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MYTH:

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If your strategic initiative is compelling enough, people will get behind it.

Many business leaders are overly optimistic when they take on a change that promises to delight shareholders, yield a huge return, or resolve a critically important issue. They pay attention to the importance of the effort and forget a few basic issues: • If it involves major change, people will always resist—even if they see the change as positive.

• “Compelling” doesn’t necessarily mean “clear.”

• Other critical initiatives are competing for the time and energy of your stakeholders.

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TRUTH:

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“Anybody can flip the switch and claim victory. That would be great, except the guy in the field doesn’t know what to do, or how to change.”

RICH HAGAN, CIO, HAGEMEYER

Even compelling strategic initiatives need flawless execution.

HOW DO YOU EXECUTE FLAWLESSLY?

• Focus on the right goal: realization rather than installation. Many organizations concentrate their efforts on getting solutions in place, but stop at installation, failing to shift the behaviors and attitudes that ensure the full realization of business results.

• Engage the best possible expertise. With everything else you have on your plate, you can’t afford to step in and do it yourself if your team doesn’t perform.

• Apply an effective approach. Don’t waste time and money reinventing the wheel. Make sure your team is using practical tools and processes that have proven success rates.

• Align your efforts. Use a single approach to execution that unifies your technical experts, your visionaries, your “people” specialists so they can coordinate and integrate their efforts more effectively and save everyone’s time and energy.

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“What’s the value Conner Partners provides? Results. Quantifiable results.

My take is that they have a robust methodology and approach that provide practical tools, and that they have a long history of specializing in this area.”

C.J. MARR, CEO, ALEGENT HEALTH

Who can help you achieve the results you promised?

SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS HOW STRATEGY EXECUTION WORKS AND HAS A TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS. ®

INTRODUCING CONNER PARTNERS

A team of experienced professionals with outstanding credentials and deep execution expertise, combining our talents to create a truly different firm. We are the first to develop a fully integrated approach to strategy execution. Building on over 30 years of thought leadership in change ® management from ODR and its founder, Daryl Conner, and incorporating powerful approaches to program management and intent alignment, we have developed the most effective framework for successful execution in the market today. ™

We refer to this approach as our Execution Engineering framework; it is the premier roadmap for leaders undertaking significant strategic change. It systematically addresses three key components of execution: INTENT

Ensuring that everyone is aligned around a clear vision of the end result, and that its integrity is maintained as the project unfolds.

PEOPLE

Managing “human landscape” risks to ensure that people successfully adopt the new behaviors and mindsets required to achieve realization.

DELIVERY

Applying the best project and program management techniques to ensure that resources are optimized, problems are resolved, and the promised results are realized.

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“There’s no question that there’s been a major impact from our work with Conner Partners. We’ve improved customer satisfaction—for example, it used to take us an hour to register a patient. Now we’re down to minutes.

Complaint letters have gone down and positive letters have gone up.”

MICHAEL BERMAN, EXECUTIVE VP, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL

Here’s how Conner Partners can assist you.

OUR CHANGE EXECUTION SERVICES CAN SUPPORT YOU IN SIX DIFFERENT WAYS: ADVISING SENIOR LEADERS ON STRATEGY EXECUTION CHALLENGES

Partnering senior leaders with senior partners from our firm, we offer advice and guidance based on our many years of experience and specific areas of expertise. Our senior partners average over 20 years of experience in executing strategic change.

EXECUTING STRATEGIC INITIATIVES JOINTLY WITH YOUR TEAMS

We partner with you, providing a small team of highly experienced and seasoned professionals who bring the right mix of Intent, People, and Delivery expertise. Our team works with you to apply our proven approach to plan, execute, and realize the expected business outcomes from your strategic initiative.

TRANSFERRING STRATEGY EXECUTION EXPERTISE

Our philosophy of consulting includes a major emphasis on building our clients’ capabilities.

At the beginning of every engagement, we work with you to establish goals for building your capabilities in strategy execution with an eye toward decreasing your need for external assistance in the future. We work with you to create and execute capability development plans leveraging a wide array of strategy execution educational, training, and certification programs.

ASSESSING AND MITIGATING RISKS TO SUCCESSFUL REALIZATION

We apply our execution risk framework and measurement tools to provide you with data to clearly identify realization risks, which, if left unattended, may cause failure. We provide you with a comprehensive report explaining the risk profile of your strategic initiative and work with you and your team to mitigate the risks in order to achieve realization.

CONDUCTING STRATEGIC INITIATIVE “HEALTH CHECKS” FOR GOVERNING BODIES

As an independent third party, we apply a strategic initiative realization audit for the governing bodies of that initiative. We provide an objective assessment of the risks to realization, a prognosis of success or failure, and a set of recommendations to increase your chances of success.

PROVIDING EXECUTION GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE AND PROCESS

We help you establish oversight of the execution process integrating steering committees, advisory groups, program office, and initiative teams to ensure that the execution of your initiative is highly organized, that decision making is clear, and that you have an objective, unbiased picture of your progress, risks, and options. We work with you to implement an execution risk management process that delivers accurate and timely information and early warnings so that key decision makers can take action to mitigate risks.

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“Hiring outside help is useful for two reasons: First, others have done it, and we have not, and therefore we can use the expertise; second, we need to focus on customers and beating the competition.”

DIRECTOR, FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY

With our help you will:

ACHIEVE FULL REALIZATION

Apply a proactive and predictive risk management process. Pinpoint problem areas, prioritize your resource allocation and provide early warning to make decisions that drive toward realization.

DELIVER A HIGH “RETURN ON CHANGE”

Build an accurate, informed business case; define your realization goals and determine the true financial and human cost of achieving them; put mechanisms in place to measure your progress and results; and ensure that you can take timely action if your return is at risk.

GET IT DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

Avoid costly mistakes by quickly identifying the skills you need and supplementing your team with experts.

REDUCE YOUR OVERALL RESOURCE COST

Train, mentor, and coach your team to build their execution skills. In addition to increasing their ability to add immediate value, this will decrease your dependence on external support in the future.

AVOID OVERLOADING YOUR ORGANIZATION

Accomplish your goals with minimum disruption to business operations. Measure and manage the total load on key constituencies, identifying competing priorities and reducing non-value-added work.

BUILD EXPERTISE

Develop the execution knowledge and skills to ensure your current initiative’s success and be better prepared for the next one.

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FOCUSED EXPERTISE INDEPENDENCE SHARED RISK STRENGTH OF CHARACTER

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“What did I value about Conner Partners? Results! I give them an 11 on a scale of 1–10. I’ve worked with a lot of good firms. They are the only 11.”

MICHAEL K. LORELLI, FORMER PRESIDENT, PEPSI-COLA EAST

What can you expect when you work with Conner Partners?

We’re like no other consulting firm you’ve worked with. We have fashioned a unique mix of value propositions for our clients, operating standards for our company, and personal characteristics of our staff that will not be found anywhere else: FOCUSED EXPERTISE

For over 30 years, strategy execution has been our only business. And we deliver with seasoned professionals: our typical consultant has 15 years of experience in one or more aspects of executing strategic initiatives. Being focused means we are just as emphatic about what we don’t do. We don’t formulate strategies, we don’t integrate systems, and we don’t offer corporate pep rallies. We deliver results through strategy execution and decline the rest.

INDEPENDENCE

For us, independence means we have no financial stake in the particular initiative, strategy, or vendor you choose. Our job is to make sure you have the information you need to make good decisions on what it will take to execute, and then to help you get results. We offer guidance that is candid, direct, and uncompromised. We tell the truth no matter how hard it is to hear.

SHARED RISK

Our focus on your success is unparalleled in the consulting industry. To make this tangible, we enter into a Promise Partnership relationship with our clients. For each 90-day period of our work together, we mutually define installation and realization goals. Twenty percent of our fees are contingent on your acknowledgement that the realization goals have been met.

STRENGTH OF CHARACTER

The relationships we have with our clients reflect not only “what we do” but also “who we are.” The strength of character we bring to each situation—the quality of our interactions, the demeanor we exhibit, and our clarity of intent, ability to listen, commitment to honesty, devotion to providing value, and passion for our work—adds to our difference and our value to you.

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Our Experience

Conner Partners has over 30 years of experience helping organizations successfully navigate large-scale transformations and critical strategic initiatives. We have worked with numerous U.S. and international governing bodies as well as one-third of the Fortune 100 in industries such as: BANKING AND FINANCIAL CHEMICAL AND PHARMACEUTICALS CONSUMER PRODUCTS HEALTHCARE INSURANCE TECHNOLOGY ENERGY

We work closely with our clients to help them successfully execute their most critical, transformational strategies, assisting in the execution of mergers and acquisitions, global reorganizations, enterprise-wide technology initiatives, and other strategic imperatives.

We value tremendously the trust and confidence our clients place in us and we put the utmost importance on our obligation to serve. Because our work focuses on our clients’ most strategic, mission-critical work, we commit to them to keep that work confidential.

If you would like to speak with any of our clients regarding their experience with Conner Partners, please contact us and we will be happy to provide an introduction.

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“The ability to successfully execute your strategies is the greatest source of competitive advantage today.”— DARYL CONNER

About Conner Partners

Conner Partners, formerly known as ODR, is an Atlanta-based consulting firm that specializes in strategy execution. Founded in 1974 by Daryl Conner, Conner Partners has worked with one-third of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as numerous U.S. and international governing bodies, to help them successfully navigate large-scale transformations and critical strategic initiatives.

Highly regarded for its research and standard-setting methodologies, Conner Partners works with a select group of clients each year, helping them out-maneuver competition, increase profitability, and reduce risk. For more information, please visit www.connerpartners.com.

©2007

Conner Partners®. All rights reserved.

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Strategy executed….results realized

TEL

404.564.4800

FAX

404.564.4850 www.connerpartners.com

Research and experience from ODR

®