Increasing project delivery success

A leading global consumer healthcare company requested Skarbek support during a period of organisational change.

They needed to ensure focus and momentum were maintained in the delivery of priority innovation projects. The objective was to fill critical R&D project leadership roles, increase the robustness and confidence in technical delivery, and build wider R&D capability in best practice and governance.

The needs

Like others in the industry, our client had evolved to focus on consumer-centred organisations, this required a transition of operational structures including developing and optimising processes to accelerate innovation in healthcare. Skarbek was providing transformational support to the client in several areas including innovation process development, PPM capability building and organisational learning. On this basis, when the client faced the challenge of maintaining project momentum during change implementation, they asked for our help to;

Lead priority R&D projects
Build robustness in processes and project leadership.

Innovations requiring immediate intervention and support were confirmed. The Skarbek team deployed, and verified the unique needs of each, aligning on a clear set of objectives and deliverables with the Stakeholders.

What we did

An overview of how the Skarbek team helped

Health Checks

Conducting project health checks to triage current issues and risks, baselining documentation and process robustness and establishing the appropriate drumbeat for governance and reporting.

Targeted Interventions

Delivering specific interventions to address gaps and challenges identified, including leading risk workshops, conducting detailed R&D planning sessions alongside implementing, and training in standardised tools.

Closing Capability Gaps

Identifying gaps, understanding and capability across both R&D and the wider Core Team and addressing these through coaching and training.

Seamless Leadership Transitions

Leading the onboarding for newly appointed R&D technical leadership roles to ensure seamless handover of projects.

"Our interventions transformed delivery confidence, embedded best practices, and set a new benchmark for innovation execution."

The results

Over the supporting period, the interventions delivered generated significant improvement in the delivery confidence across the portfolio of initiatives.Each project was handed over with a roadmap covering key activities and focus areas to continue improving the probability of success.

Best practice tools and techniques were incorporated throughout, this included establishing RAID logs, building granular timing plans, and utilising novel approaches to manage risk. Optimised governance was established, improving team engagement and structured weekly stakeholder communication provided visibility of the key risks, issues, and achievements plus clarity on escalation areas.

Observations were recorded with recommendations provided, where applicable these were actioned directly through the projects to elevate ways of working, and also incorporated into capability building;

Coaching provided both 1:1 and within project teams
Structured onboarding and leadership sessions with appointed technical leads
Delivery of topic-based 2-hour webinars to >100 attendees from regional R&D

The positive impact of demonstrating and building best practices within active projects was recognised by both stakeholders and the project teams. The model is now under evaluation for additional regions to improve innovation delivery confidence.

Are you ready?

let's start making the complex simple

Contact us