"We are a small, not for profit organisation with a big ambition – for our members to see GS1 UK as vital to their success. We realised that for us to do this, we need to make significant changes in our organisation and that it had to start with the executive team. We also knew that we need help to guide us through the transformation process, not only because we all had busy day jobs, but we were all too close to the business as it was now. The challenge for any small company is finding expertise that is affordable and (frankly) good enough. We were very fortunate that we found Value Partnership. Their experience and credentials are very impressive of course, but the people that we have worked with for the last year have become truly trusted advisors and coaches for our business. We are now truly on the path towards our ambition, it’s full of bumps and twists, but I know that we can rely on the partnership to help us succeed. "
Gary Lynch, CEO, GS1 UK
A not-for-profit that develops and maintains global standards for business communication. The best known of these standards is the barcode, a symbol printed on products that can be scanned electronically. They help everyone involved in making, moving and trading goods to automate and standardise their supply chain processes using the common language of GS1 global standards.
At the time of our intervention, GS1 UK’s market was in transition and there was great opportunity for them in many areas e.g. Health Care, Apparel, SMEs. Concurrently, there was a risk of the business becoming too transactional, its standards possibly being seen as a box to be ticked rather than a true enabler for business. GS1 UK’s ambition was to ensure that it was ‘vital’ to its members and the industries it served and to do this, it sought to move towards becoming a trusted advisor to industry, the central tenets of which are the concepts of trusted business advisor, market enabler and quality assurer.
We began work with the CEO and the leadership team to prioritise its strategic direction and implement a management system for execution and delivery of that system. In so doing we helped the CEO and the team refine the business’s purpose and long-term vision.
Our work began with a deep discovery to understand the expectations of the stakeholders, the enablers and barriers within the business, and the existing ways of working which were helping and hindering transformation.
We partnered with the leadership team to determine the strategic priorities and the related management system to be implemented. Concurrently working with the CEO and senior executives to refine the purpose and vision and the related implications.
The journey continued, working with and coaching the leadership team to improve its performance and leadership of the business, working with the SMT (senior management team) to step-up and take on more responsibility for delivering strategic priorities, and culminating in work on determining what being a Trusted Advisor meant for GS1 UK, its managers, and its members, and how this would be realised and implemented.
As a result: