Situation

Since first hiring them in 2005, I have been working with Nolan, Norton & Co. to my full satisfaction in several projects. They have contributed their share to the successful and complete post merger integrations of Lanier BeNeLux, Rex Rotary Netherlands, Ricoh Netherlands/NRG Netherlands, Ricoh Belgium/NRG Belgium and Infotec Netherlands consecutively. The NNC consultants have been responsible for program management in all five integration programs.

Why Nolan, Norton & Co.

I first decided to hire NNC for two specific reasons. First of all I truly believe that it takes a fresh pair of eyes to put things into proper perspective. People from outside the organisation are more likely to have a critical and unbiased attitude towards daily business processes. Secondly, consultants from NNC are fully focused on one project and are not distracted by daily business activities. I have chosen to continue working with NNC based on positive experiences in previous projects.

My personal experience

What I particularly like about NNC is their type of consultants. Although the composition of the consulting team has changed in every assignment, NNC still seems to be able to deliver a steady level of qualified employees. The NNC consultants evoke a certain level of trust and are very well able to cooperate with Ricoh employees. I truly value those competences, especially because integrating two companies is real “people business”. Luckily the good cooperation with employees is not at the expense of applying their subject matter expertise; I have personally experienced that they are never shy to tell the truth if needed.

A project approach was agreed upon in a dialogue at initiation of the first integration program, and has proven itself over and over again in the following integrations. Sometimes I get feedback from my internal organisation, that the duration of the program is too long and therefore expensive; but I absolutely disagree with them. I believe that focus on conscientiousness and completeness during the integration will pay off on the long run. One of the things that appeal to me in the chosen approach is that, after achieving the main deliverable, a certain period of aftercare and evaluation is taken into account. This prevents us from being stuck with lots of loose ends.

A sheer strength in every integration program was the attention paid to learning and documenting new lessons, which were consistently applied in the next project. This has affected me personally in a positive sense, as I have spent far less time and energy on the last integration program compared to the previous ones.