Outcomes
- Business cases constructed and signed off to deliver over £100m in tangible, cashable benefits and £300m in Totex benefits across AMP7
- Significant ODI risk mitigated through an integrated, customer-centric improvement portfolio
- 14 senior leaders upskilled with tools and techniques to operate more strategically
- Replaced fragmented, siloed operations with a single coordinated version of the truth and aligned priorities
- Robust governance and performance management toolkit embedded and owned internally — without standing up a traditional PMO
Background
The client recognised it needed to do something fundamentally different. Existing programme portfolios were riddled with gaps, duplications, and untenable dependencies. Benefits were not being tracked or realised. Senior “Heads of” were consumed by day-to-day firefighting. The organisation had tried external-led change programmes before without lasting results, creating scepticism about consultants and conventional PMO approaches. The ask was not to run another project — it was to build the internal capability and belief to deliver sustained improvement through AMP7.
Curzon Approach
Curzon was engaged over 12 months to skill up and coach senior Heads of and their directors, then provided ongoing support into early AMP7. Critically, we consciously avoided setting up a traditional PMO. Our team was fully integrated into the client’s management structure — badged as part of their team from the outset — to build ownership and embed capability that would last beyond the engagement.
Our approach covered four areas:
- Portfolio Rationalisation — We collated and reviewed existing programme portfolios, surfacing gaps, duplications, untenable dependencies, and constraints. Owners and key interfaces were systematically challenged to address issues through a robust, visible risk management process.
- Prioritisation and Alignment — Transformation mapping tools were used to visualise areas of conflict and get senior management aligned around a common set of priorities. Owners were enabled to rebuild and sign off on a believable, deliverable plan.
- Governance and Controls — We provided a toolkit to build and manage portfolios effectively, including leadership governance, control frameworks, maturity goals, benefits tracking, new initiative generation, and a coordinated transformation roadmap.
- Coaching and Capability Building — Senior leaders were coached individually and collectively, equipping them with both the operational tools to be more effective and the strategic headroom to think beyond the immediate. Cross-sector expertise from manufacturing and transportation was brought in to develop new approaches, and emerging considerations such as Net Zero Carbon were integrated into decision-making.
