Client Journeys.

Higher Education Merger Programme

We were engaged to mobilise and design the roadmap for the merger of two leading London higher education institutions—creating one of the largest in the city.

We transitioned the programme from business case to merger roadmap, establishing governance, structure and a Programme Management Office. This included planning complex organisational design, TUPE transfer of staff, and legal and governance alignment.

Working closely with senior leadership and the Councils of both institutions, we navigated a culturally sensitive environment, managed multiple stakeholders, and led a team including a major consultancy partner.

Outcome: A clear, structured roadmap and programme setup to deliver a complex institutional merger.

Professional Membership Organisation

We supported the design of a new target operating model for a large, complex membership organisation undergoing significant structural and operational change.

The organisation was reshaping its structure, reducing functional areas, and identifying efficiency opportunities, while also introducing new operating models across areas such as events, marketing, digital and governance.

We were engaged to provide structure, coordination and expertise during the detailed design phase, ensuring the model was practical, aligned, and deliverable.

Our work focused on:

• Establishing governance and a Design Authority to guide decision-making

• Defining and mobilising functional and cross-cutting workstreams

• Aligning design principles, constraints and strategic objectives

• Supporting organisational design, role clarity and process redesign

• Integrating people, HR and change activities into the core programme

We worked closely with senior leaders and functional teams through structured co-design sessions, enabling the organisation to actively shape and own the future model.

Outcome:
A coherent, organisation-wide operating model, supported by clear structures, roles, processes and governance—providing a strong foundation for consultation, implementation and long-term transformation.

We were engaged to carry out an independent business change review of a customer service management platform within a higher education institution.

The platform had been successfully implemented from a technical perspective, but adoption across the organisation was inconsistent. Many teams continued to rely on legacy processes, limiting the programme’s ability to deliver its intended benefits.

We conducted a comprehensive review of programme documentation and stakeholder perspectives across the institution, identifying the root causes of low adoption and misalignment.

Our work focused on four key areas:

• Governance and leadership alignment

• Service and process design

• Stakeholder engagement and change capability

• Adoption, ownership and definition of success

We developed a clear, phased roadmap to stabilise, align and embed the platform as a core part of how the organisation delivers services. This included establishing business-led governance, strengthening leadership sponsorship, and embedding a structured, organisation-wide change approach.

Outcome:
A clear, practical route to full adoption—repositioning the programme from a technical implementation to a sustained business transformation, with the foundations in place to improve service delivery, efficiency and user experience across the organisation.