Background and Challenge

An approximately $2 billion electricity and gas transmission and distribution company sought to reach its cost full potential, and engaged L.E.K. to guide the organization through this process.

Approach and Recommendations

Our role was to set the saving targets, develop a plan to realize the savings, and coach key stakeholders so that the business itself could execute and deliver the savings.

We helped the business identify numerous performance improvement opportunities:

  • A top-down assessment of the business identified a substantial stretch target
  • More than 250 discrete, high-quality, executable initiatives were developed, assigned to over 80 owners, and captured in ChangeMaker, our intuitive program management tool
  • Coaches embedded throughout the business ensured that each division achieved its target savings pipeline and had the capability to deliver the savings

Results

  • We developed an end-to-end cost-out program from target setting to delivery
  • Our review identified substantial savings well beyond the business’s expectations, and all initiatives are in-flight (with some already delivered)
  • Our coaches drove capability uplift through all layers of the business
  • The governance structure was implemented in four weeks
  • More than 150 users were trained on ChangeMaker, our intuitive program management tool, to deliver the savings, with quick wins prioritized