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Change and Transformation
“The Beacon Group’s program proved to be a transformational experience for our staff, and has created a new, more open culture of creativity and collaboration that has given The Globe and Mail a marked and measurable competitive advantage.” — Phillip Crawley
“The Beacon Group’s thought provoking curriculum utilizes best practice tools and interactive media for evaluation, assessment and overall learning. It has helped us raise the bar on our calibre of talent.” — Ernst Lieb
“The Beacon Group was able to handle our 360 reviews across 9 offices in a manner that brought significant value to our partners, the firm and ultimately our clients.” — Judson Whiteside
“The human capital programs provided by The Beacon Group are best in class.” — Tye Burt
“The Beacon Group acted as a strategic partner and was instrumental in helping us raise the bar on candid dialogue and team performance.” — Robert Courteau
“The Beacon Group approaches very serious and difficult topics in an accessible and insightful way.” — Eric Siegel
“We engaged The Beacon Group when we needed to bring two cultures together after our first major international acquisition: the evidence of their success lies in both the subsequent growth in our business and our presence in more than twelve countries on five continents.” — Rupert Duchesne
“The Beacon Group excels in facilitating open & candid dialogue that has fostered superior team performance.” — Mary Ellen Carlyle
“Top-level thought leadership, combined with practical, cost-effective solutions—that’s the real value the Beacon Group team brings to bear on Foresters talent challenges.” — Suanne Nielsen
“The Beacon Group delivered cutting edge perspectives on many human capital topics that were tailored and customized to our company in a way that we could not have obtained at more generic, cookie-cutter advising shops.” — Doug Lord
“Doug Williamson and his team were of invaluable assistance in helping our organization navigate through a completely new strategic planning process and emerge with a three year plan resoundingly endorsed by our Board. Doug’s global perspectives and ability to drive consensus was an integral part of our success.” — Don Forgeron
“The Global HR & Communications senior team engaged the Beacon Group in shepherding us through a unique strategic planning process that involved an outside-in view of our current and future workforce and how this aligns to our business strategy. Thanks to Doug and his team it was a thought provoking process that sharpened our strategic thinking and, in the end, made our strategy stronger.” — Sylvia Chrominska
“The Beacon Group’s customized and personalized approach fit our needs perfectly. From the initial self-discovery phase all the way to recommending solutions, the work they have done has been consistently world-class. They combine strong analytics with a wealth of real world experience. They are focused, targeted and are experts at taking theoretic concepts and making them real. We look forward to working with Doug and his team as we continue to elevate our business and improve our internal performance.” — Don Romano
“I have had the pleasure of working with The Beacon Group and Doug Williamson for several years across several organizations and have always been impressed with their professionalism, work ethic and customer orientation. Doug's own highly energetic and highly customized approach to the specific needs of our business and our leadership team sets him apart from other strategic facilitators and objective "thought provokers" I have experienced. I am always grateful and impressed by the tangible results his interventions tend to produce.” — Lloyd A. Perlmutter
“The big contribution was The Beacon Group challenged our culture and our comfort level. We then arrived at a clear plan of concise deliverables that we needed to execute to move forward on our vision.” — Tony Ambler
“SKF approached The Beacon Group to develop our Talent Management program. The process implemented by Doug Williamson and his team was extremely important for us in determining how to execute the program on a clear, organized and systematic way. This was one of our most important projects that will enable us to ensure our sustainable growth.” — João Ricciarelli
“Through its sound and strategically practical business knowledge and experience The Beacon Group has and continues to assist SCI in better understanding and enabling our organization to build engaged teams and leadership capability to help make our supply chain clients more competitive.” —John Ferguson |
Provocative PropositionsIn the hyperactive and challenging world in which we all live, it is becoming harder and harder for business leaders to find time to read, reflect and gain insight from the many valuable sources at our disposal. In "Provocative Propositions", The Beacon Group attempts to fill that void by offering our opinion, often rather pointed, on a wide array of issues we believe are relevant to leading a modern organization. The articles are catalogued into 12 categories so you can quickly and easily find a topic of particular interest. We then offer three easy steps under the heading "In Our Opinion" to help business leaders take action on the key themes. Simply click on the category and read away. Questions & Answers
Organizations spend a disproportionate amount of time getting ready for change or growth initiatives by ensuring all team members have the necessary skill sets to work through a change process. Then, to have it all fizzle out once everyone figures out that the organization doesn’t have a true end goal in mind.
As Bob Seelert, Chariman of Saatchi & Saatchi, and author of "Start with the Answer" would say, these types of organizations must start with the answer. By determining what the organization is trying to accomplish up front it is far easier to train, develop and motivate employees towards that end goal. If you choose to develop your team, and then hope that their combined skill sets match the eventual goal, you’re pretty much putting the cart before the horse. You Are Here Feeling lost already? Imagine how your employees feel. Think of all the wasted time, effort and most importantly these days – money – by not determining your “answer”. To quote another great author, Marshall Goldsmith, what got you here won’t get you there. With continual change and evolution as an underlying theme in business, you may very well find out that your current workforce, senior team, or even your own skill set may not be applicable to your new, desired state. That must change. The Great Explorers Ferdinand Magellan, Jaques Cartier, Sir Francis Drake, and many others had a sole purpose – exploring. While this may be a noble pursuit for some, it’s not a great way to run a business. One might suggest that it is time to drop anchor and figure out where you’re going. That’s not to say that you can’t have people looking for new and novel ideas, however there must be a charted course for others to live by. Magnetic North Your organization’s “answer” doesn’t have to be specific. It has to be understood by everyone. Whether your goal is to be ambitious, cautious, or revolutionary there must be something people can grab onto. All the while, your team must know that while the goal may be defined, the true test to the organization will be how they get there. As a leader it is imperative that you train your team to live with a compass, not a roadmap. If these economic times have taught businesses one thing is that the path may change, but the goal must not. In Our Opinion The Beacon Group’s Keys to Finding Your Answer and Achieving It Confront – Organizations who wish to develop a worthy “answer” must confront the position that they are in currently. Truly knowing where you are will help you set up where you want to go. Courage – Be willing to seek feedback from all sources. Look to other industries to learn fast. Understand that your organization’s true “answer” may be significantly more challenging that you once thought. However, you must convince yourself, and those around you that it is in fact worth the effort. Clear the path – While there may be no pre-determined path to where you are going, as you move ahead it is the role of the leader to be out front of the organization removing obstacles and roadblocks as they appear. |
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