Essent Warmte is responsible for the development and exploitation of Essent's district heating assets. Essent Warmte has 70 employees and offices in Den Bosch and Zwolle.  

Situation

Essent has been running district heating networks since the seventies, but these activities were managed by multiple units dispersed across the Essent organization. At the start of 2006 all these heat activities were bundled together into a single Business Unit called Essent Warmte. This was the start of a turbulent ride, with a very steep learning curve for the Management Team and myself! You could say that we moved to a house that was still being built. A large amount of operational activities were located and managed by other units within Essent, the organization was understaffed and there were a lot of operational issues craving our attention. It was around this time, that one of my management team managers approached me with a plan to hire Nolan, Norton & Co. in order to assist us with professionalizing our organization.

Why Nolan, Norton & Co.?

Personally, I wasn't familiar with Nolan, Norton & Co. but I knew the project manager and trusted him to do this assignment. What was interesting was that he and the team he brought on board quickly introduced an approach and methodology which I have come to learn and appreciate as characteristic for Nolan, Norton & Co.

My experience?

I have come to value Nolan, Norton & Co.'s hands-on approach, in which they actively seek and obtain buy-in from all the staff involved to tackle an issue. They actively involve employees throughout the process, openly share information with them and involve them in preparing decisions. Like other strategy consulting firms they are very capable at analyzing issues, introducing relevant concepts and models and in delivering their presentations on time, but that hands-on approach for me was their real added value.

As I said in the beginning, we were swamped by operational issues. The Nolan, Norton & Co.'s team 'forced' us to take some time together as a management team to discuss the house we wanted to build. They helped us structure and plan the actions towards that joint vision. Since that first assignment we have asked them for several follow-up assignments to further structure and professionalize our organization.

In the end it's about building up a good relationship in which you can trust each other and candidly exchange your views and opinions. Nolan, Norton & Co. clearly looks at relationships in the same way and through its way of working has earned my trust.