Symantec

Engagement

Symantec, best known for its Norton AntiVirus, Internet security and anti-spyware software, sought greater collaboration and knowledge-sharing between its global businesses and top-tier business partners to produce larger, more profitable commercial customer sales.

Result

Our innovative, measurement 21^st century (im21) methodology revealed serious barriers in the company’s ability to consistently deliver the kind of strategic value its partners expected. Global business managers also had no clear way of seeing and measuring account activities. Missed opportunities and redundancies were common.

This Organizational Network Analysis map, one of many produced in our analysis, shows the internal network of the company’s global sales team (member names have been deleted to maintain confidentiality). Team leaders believed 31 members had collectively generated $100 million in revenue from one business partner relationship.

In fact, this map has identified 131 people in 23 countries in this team.
Only 5% of the team was communicating and sharing knowledge, leaving millions in potential lost revenue for not knowing and tapping into the relationships other teams members had with the business partner.
Team leaders didn’t know that many team members had worked for the business partner and therefore failed to leverage the knowledge and personal contacts of these employees.
The dots on the periphery include team leaders who were not regularly engaged in strengthening the business partner relationship.

Within four days of reviewing these and other findings, the entire team came together to adopt new tools to facilitate faster and ready exchange of essential information on its business partners and customers. Additionally, a new sales model and new Key Performance Objectives for senior managers and team leaders were established to achieve inclusive collaboration and the sharing of critical tacit as well as explicit knowledge.

This ONA map shows only 31 people, who managed the sales relationship with the business partner. (Note: names have been deleted to protect confidentiality.)

This ONA map reveals that, if fact, 131 people interacted regularly with the business partner. Once these people’s knowledge and networks were leveraged, sales to this partner rose 30 percent. (Note: names have been deleted to protect confidentiality.)

Other im21 Applications:

Global food manufacturer’s R&D dept. seeking other employees whose creative thinking can be tapped to develop new/improved products that could be successfully commercialized globally.
Hedge fund seeking an accurate picture of employee engagement in targeted corporate investments.
Global marketing firm seeking critical influencers of consumer buying decisions.
Utility merger seeking to galvanize employees behind one culture by bringing together customer service representatives from both companies to create a new virtual work environment to handle billing questions and service calls.
Private hospital seeking multi-stakeholder collaboration in transitioning to electronic medical records to improve patient care and reduce treatment errors. Among the cost-savings was a dramatic reduction in paper use, a first step in the hospital’s sustainability strategy.

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