Leadership Forum – Old Mutual

Background

Old Mutual is a global insurance company with a very strong presence in South Africa, Europe and the US, through life assurance, insurance and asset management businesses. These are three very successful companies, working well independently, but the big questions for Old Mutual were: What makes these companies cohere? Are there benefits which could be gained from them working more closely together and if so how should this be done?

The Need

Every two years Old Mutual hosts a top strategy leadership forum. It wanted to turn this event into a place where these questions would get properly answered.

The challenge with the forum is getting 80 senior people who don’t routinely work together to meaningfully collaborate. This is particularly so, given the delegates will have different views, agendas, priorities, perspectives and career plans.

The Solution

Originally simply a technical partner, by 2004 Crystal’s experts were asked to help with agenda design as well as implementation.

With Crystal’s assistance the agenda was modified. This meant that not only did the 80 most senior people in Old Mutual meet at the Forum to refine the group’s strategy; the Forum also provided an opportunity for the delegates to focus on a key topic of group-wide importance.

For instance, at the last Leadership Forum the key topic was core competencies. The senior group explored what core competencies each business needs to have. They considered what competencies and services can be shared and what the Group’s role should be in making this happen.
Supported by Crystal’s facilitator and its technology, the discussion points generated by the delegates were projected on a central screen. The individual ideas were grouped to identify points of agreement and further debate around each of these was then facilitated. The approach encouraged the delegates to form informal groups and work together in teams, at the same time it provided plenty of scope for individual views and needs to be expressed.

The Results

This ability to get 80 of your most experienced people collaborating frankly at Group level has yielded considerable results:

At the last Forum the delegates agreed and signed off values for the group. This is no small achievement given that this kind of task can take many months of discussion and debate normally.
The Forum also identified the top eight opportunities for synergies such as back office, financial management and product development. The senior managers also agreed how the Group could help get these areas developed for the good of each business and the Group as a whole.

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