For some time though, the SC organization’s performance had been constantly in the red, in both business and engagement parameters on their internal matrix, which was highly aspirational.

There was a high concern as expectations of the Board, Business Partners, Region, and  Global were not being met the way they wanted.

Having been high-performing in the past, but now in a situation where oveall business growth seemed constrained, the top leadership team members of the SC organization, had gotten into a state of feeling ‘victim’ and ‘looking up’ to be rescued.

As the leader of the organization described it, it called for a Turnaround in both performance and leadership.

An Orbit-shifting Leadership intervention led by Erehwon, enabling this turnaround was decided upon.

The intervention was conducted in 2 waves:

Wave 1: TURNAROUND — With the 12 level-1 leaders of the SC organization (8 months).

Wave 2: PROACTIVE Going to the ‘Next Level’ — With the 65 level-2 leaders (1 year).

The first wave of breakthrough: TURNAROUND

The intervention was an intensive one with the 12 level-1 leaders. Starting with a collective Orbit-shifting Leadership Intervention (Diagnostic + Workshop) in the first month, each leader went through a One-on-one Orbit-shift Coaching process, 12 sessions per person, spread over 8 months, to internalize and deploy the Leadership Mindsets, Skills, Practices to make the Turnaround ‘sustainable’, and transform both performance and people development simultaneously.

And the focus of the coaching was not just leadership coaching in a very generic sense (the classical executive coaching), but coaching for orbit shifting – creating transformative impact despite odds.

The outcome and impact at the end of these 8 months was:

1. The adoption of a Common Rallying Cause: ‘Team that becomes a reference point for surpassing odds & winning consistently in entire region’.
2. Mindset shifts:
   • From Victim to Taking Charge;
   • From Mere Supplier (always catching up) to Value adding Partner (proactive & leading).
3. Turnaround complete in 1 year: GREEN on ALL parameters.
4. Dramatic shift in perception of SC by rest of organization, Board, Region, Global – the team seen as learning base.
5. 6 out of 12 leaders moving onto larger roles within & outside the country.

The second wave of breakthrough: PROACTIVE Institutionalizing

Having demonstrated the turnaround, the focus of the second wave was completely aspirational – to multiply the future pipeline of leaders from the SC organization.

It was a given by now that the market conditions/demands, and changing SBU structures that are natural of a large MNC, would always create extreme odds for the SC team – they would one of the first to get directly impacted, and yet they would have to deliver.

How to ensure that despite these odds, and inspite of being in a support function like supply chain, the team members could move into organizational leadership roles? Leverage the challenge for a larger opportunity?

Through a sharp, very focused orbit-shifting leadership intervention, 65 level-2 leaders, went through ‘Capability Building + Group Orbit-shift Coaching + Cross-learning Concourses’ distributed over a period of 1 year.

The focus was to:

• Facilitate the level-2 leaders to sustain a steady-state GREEN performance through their teams
• Speed up their transition into a new SBU structure (where an earlier common SC was broken as per the SBU’s they were catering to)
• Become future organizational leaders themselves even though many of them were first-time leaders of their teams