Mercury Retail Integration Programme
Mercury NZ Limited is a leading New Zealand electricity company. In 2020, Mercury acquired the retail arm of Trustpower - a market leader in bundled utility offerings.
The Retail Integration Programme was designed to combine the two retail businesses as effectively and efficiently as possible. The merger meant integrating two distinct cultures, teams, customer bases, technology stacks and business processes, all of which required consolidation into a new and improved Mercury.
The project won the Business Transformation through Digital and IT award, with the judges saying the work was “a masterclass in laying the right foundations for success.”
The Challenge
The Mercury executive team selected the Retail Integration programme as the key initiative to pilot adaptive ways of working at Mercury. As one of the most critical strategic initiatives, it required highly effective cross-functional collaboration across teams from both organisations to achieve the required outcomes on time.
The challenge was framed up as:
“How might we bring together two very different organisations, combining the best of both worlds, to create one modern, future fit Mercury?“
Overview
Approach
As the lead partner, Radically worked closely with the Integration Leadership Team to design a delivery model to drive the new ways of working through the Integration Programme. The focus was on building a common language that worked for both teams.
The new delivery model created a unified understanding of how the teams would integrate, interact and collaborate to effectively delivery of tangible business outcomes. It provided a clear set of principles for the work and aligned the leadership and the wider teams on success and the journey to get there.
Once the programme was underway, teams worked with hands-on Radically coaches to embed the new approach. This accelerated the internal capability build from the outset.
As part of the new approach, Radically led multiple Big Room Planning (BRP) events, which resulted in greater transparency and improved communication across teams.
Mercury also integrated Radically into the leadership level to provide consistency and an objective view across the programme.
Results
The programme was a major success, being noted as one of the most successful pieces of work in Mercury's history. The programme went on to win the Business Transformation through Digital and IT award.
The key outcomes:
- Successful programme delivery - delivered early and under budget.
- Cultural integration from “us and them” to “we” through a clear vision, a shared purpose, and cross-functional working.
- Successful Brand change and move to one technology stack for Mercury.
- Increased transparency and accountability throughout the programme, with transparent impediment escalation and resolution processes.
- New delivery practices established, equipping the teams with the ability to quickly respond to change.
- Cross-functional teams established with clear end-to-end ownership of outcomes.
- Internal teams were upskilled in adaptive ways of working, enabling them to sustain the change in the future.
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