Fit4Change

Linda Seymour

2006-07-07T11:26:47Z

Linda has over 15 years experience in finance and change management. After graduating from Nottingham University with a degree in Mathematics, she qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young). Her clients included Europcar, McDonalds Restaurants and Camping Gaz

]]> Linda has worked on a number of significant and varied project assignments including an MMC investigation into the travel sector and due diligence for the flotation of Thomson Travel Group. She has extensive experience of project and change management and has implemented Pricing, Forecasting, Management Accounting and ERP systems
Her most recent corporate position was with Thomson Travel Group (now TUI Northern Europe) where she held several senior line-management roles covering all aspects of financial and management accounting. Linda has been involved in the preparation and review of numerous business cases. This expertise underpinned her appointment as Programme Manager for the European Change Programme where she worked with the businesses in Scandinavia, Germany and Spain.
She is an experienced facilitator and business coach, fully qualified in NLP.
She is a founding director of fit4change and specialises in the implementation of benefit tracking processes, a key element in the fit4change approach.

Mike Moore

2006-07-07T11:22:19Z

Mike has over 20 years experience in Change Management and Information Systems, having held senior positions with Thomson Travel, Avis Europe, and TNT. His most recent corporate appointment was Change Director for Thomson Travel where he led the business transformation programme to successfully rebuild the Group’s financial performance.

]]> Mike has a degree in physics from Durham University and studied change management at Harvard. He is an accomplished programme director with a track record of delivering technology-enabled business change in international companies in the service sector.
He has a broad knowledge of the technology sector and an extensive background in Information Systems management including software development, architecture, operations, outsourcing and strategy development.
Throughout his career Mike has worked across cultures, management levels and company boundaries to mobilise organisations, achieve alignment of leadership teams, reach agreement on priorities, and facilitate the resolution of complex issues. He is passionate in his belief that by learning how to tackle people and process change in a co-ordinated way companies can deliver significant and sustained benefit.
Always looking to try something new, Mike has recently taken up sailing and would like to become a qualified skipper.

About Fit4Change

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

Fit4Change are suppliers of skilled and experienced consultant, interim and permanent Change Managers and Project Professionals. Focusing primarily on the leisure travel sector, Fit4Change assists with the realisation and achievement of your organisations vision and goals.

]]> Working in partnership with your organisation, Fit4Change provide resources to implement change and deliver your projects to schedule whilst transferring skills to staff and management which will enable them to drive change and projects from within in the long-term.

Founded in 2002 by experienced leisure travel sector professionals, Fit4Change is results driven with an emphasis on supplying the tools, knowledge and support necessary to maintain the changes for continued success.

If we can help, contact us on 020 8427 0879 or info@fit4change.com

Business Case Due Diligence and Benefits Tracking

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

Independent review of your business cases for completeness and robustness. Implementation of benefits tracking processes for measurement of the effectiveness of your change programmes and projects.

]]> Fit4Change recognise the importance of measuring the success of a programme from the moment it starts. Additionally we have significant experience in identifying the pitfalls all too often present in business cases and the amount of wasted management time often spent in business case preparation. We are able to streamline this process by ensuring you capture the appropriate measures and benchmarks form the commencement of a project.

Fit4Change Healthchecks

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

Review of current operating processes with the aim of establishing perceptions, work based ethics and the receptiveness to change of management and staff.

]]> The Fit4Change healthcheck can be undertaken as a one off consultation It also forms part of our balanced change programme development approach and is aimed at providing a review of the organisations ability to change.

A Fit4Change healthcheck would typically include the following:

Structured and confidential questionnaire tailored to the needs of you organisation
Confidential interviews and workshops with staff and management
Review of current business measures
Benchmarking against best practice
Quick win identification and longer term change programme design and plans
Recommendations and next steps

Fit4Change Programmes

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

Design and implementation of balanced programmes to deliver sustainable benefits to your business or department with the aim of achieving clearly defined goals and objectives

]]> At Fit4Change we believe “through learning how to tackle people and process change in a coordinated way, companies can deliver significant and sustained benefit”.

Our change programmes are developed from an in-depth analysis of your business or department using the Fit4Change healthcheck. The programme will be developed using holistic thinking taking emotional, political and rational factors into account, and considering the strengths of the business in 3 dimensions: leadership, people and structure.

After identifying the need for change and the key issues surrounding your current working practice each of our programmes are supported by a senior change manager who will project manage, measure, aid the implementation and train key personnel to drive change from within the organisation. Our aim is to ensure that the change process is embraced by all levels and continues to provide long term sustainable results long after we are gone.

A balanced programme might include:

Identification of quick wins – deliverable within the first 90 days
A detailed activity plan for the first 90 days
A roadmap for medium to long term needs
A business case for change with identified measurable benefits based on key performance drivers which can be tracked
Plans to achieve sustainability through a training programme and skill transfer plan
A communication programme

Resourcing of Project Professionals

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

Fit4Change Resourcing provides consultant, interim or permanent expertise to support projects that are critical to your business success.

]]> At Fit4Change we understand the highly competitive nature of the travel industry and the need to change and adapt quickly and effectively.

As professionals with experience of implementing large-scale change with companies in the leisure travel sector, Fit4Change are able to resource project professionals for short or long term contracts. Ensuring that you have the right resources at the right time. We are also able to resource permanent professionals to build the long term capability of your team.

Our travel industry knowledge and experience allows us to support clients at every stage from the initial identification of a resource gap to supplying skilled and experienced personnel. Fit4Change can also provide clients with the reassurance of overseeing and supporting the resource throughout the project.

With a network of over 100 skilled project professionals Fit4Change are confident of providing experienced professionals with an unique ability to seamlessly integrate into your workforce in a timely and efficient manor.

For more information or to discuss a resourcing requirement contact Linda Seymour on 020 8427 0879

If you are a project professional and feel you have the necessary skills and experience to join our team please send your C.V to linda@fit4change.com

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

Fit4Change were engaged by an IT consultancy to develop and deliver the communication programme for their media sector client that was embarking on a complicated joint venture

]]> The original plan of change and systems implementation developed and managed by the IT consultancy had neglected the need for communication and it was necessary to develop a ‘rapid action’ communication plan to bring staff and management up to speed on the programme and increase their involvement in the change activities

The rapid action plan included:

Review of the quality and quantity of all existing communications
Development of an impact plan on the business to identify where the need for communication was highest
Development of a stakeholder map to identify where one-to-one communications were required
Facilitation of a number of informal ‘coffee beak’ updates for affected areas of the business
Creation of a set of templates for the project teams to capture information about their project in a consistent manner across all parts of the project
Creation of a roadmap for the project so that all project managers were clear about project dependencies

Within a short period of time;

The project team were up to speed on the interdependencies of the programme and project team communications improved
Staff became much more aware and motivated about the programme
The majority of staff attended a road show briefing which included demonstrations of the new systems where they were able to ask questions about the new applications
Directors became far more confident about the success of the new implementations

Change Programme

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

A fast growing travel technology business was struggling to achieve the required returns from its bespoke development capability. Whilst renewable licence business was strong, and the company had an enviable reputation for innovation and creativity, the client was struggling to deliver to quality and time.

]]> Fit4Change were engaged to review the ‘health’ of the development capability and assist with the implementation of change in this area.

A health check process was tailored to meet the needs of the company which involved:

The completion of a detailed questionnaire by all affected staff
One-to-one interviews with business managers
Confidential interactive workshops with all staff affected by future changes
Detailed interviews with the leadership team

Based on the findings from the healthcheck, a detailed change programme was designed for the client, incorporating:

Quick wins
Medium term deliverables
Longer term deliverables

Fit4Change were engaged to support the client with the implementation and have continued to work with the client on a project basis during a critical time in their business growth. Our involvement has included:

Resourcing of programme manager and development director
Introduction of project management tools and processes
Creation of a programme office and skills transfer to internal staff
Review and re-organisation of the sales and marketing functions
Project management of internal development projects
Development and delivery of a core skills training programme for all staff
Delivery of travel industry induction programmes for joiners

In 18 months since the programme was initiated the company has more than doubled its turnover and significantly increased its profits and value.

Dave Marsden

2006-06-20T00:00:00Z

Dave graduated from Nottingham University with a Civil Engineering degree and embarked on a career that has led to more than 15 years within the Travel Industry managing projects, programmes and portfolios as well as holding senior operational management roles.

]]> Dave's last role prior to working with Fit4change was with TUI UK as Portfolio Manager ensuring that the projects being undertaken were aligned with the Business Strategy and delivered effectively. Prior to joining TUI UK, Dave spent 10 years at Virgin Atlantic Airways in a number of roles delivering major programmes of work (including ERP implementations, Y2k, E Commerce strategy)and setting up (and running) an internal business consultancy aimed at addressing the core elements of people, process and technology that make up most programmes of change.

Since joining Fit4change, Dave has been responsible for a number of E-commerce programmes working closely with Thomas Cook, Travelcare and First Choice.

As well as an in depth knowledge of the mechanics and principles of project, programme and portfolio management Dave thrives on the development of optimum team dynamics - an aspect that spills into his passion for rugby (both playing and coaching) and sailing.