CASE STUDY 30
Driving change
Adapting a public establishment to its "markets"

Over two years, following an administrative and geographical regrouping, a public establishment rebuilt its organisation and executive board with the support of BPI. Objective: motivate the teams better in the face of the challenges of developing the establishment's activities between the competitive sector and public service.

Context
A twofold development
This public establishment consists of a group of three veterinary laboratories which are under the responsibility of the Conseil Général (regional authorities) but each with their own autonomous management. The grouping together is based on the ideas of improving service through synergy and pooling resources. The general management division called on BPI for two reasons: to reflect on / examine the balance of the new organisation and better respond to changes in the market characterised by increasingly competitive activity. Following a decision by the Conseil Général and in order to comply with European rules on competition, the establishment was obliged to separate its competitive activities from its two classic missions : public service and the general interest.
BPI began a joint diagnostic approach to the organisation aimed at improving the internal organisation of the establishment and increasing its performance on its three markets.

Task
An uncompromising overview
The overview consisted of a twofold analysis: that of the new external situation and that of the internal organisation. The personnel was closely associated with the process: the BPI consultants met several work-groups that were representative of the personnel and management.
The first important step was the examination of observations. This revealed that at that stage, the unification of the establishment was far from being achieved. The grouping together had not increased transversality, and had, on the contrary, generated compartmentalisation, which had led to dysfunction and frustration.

Reorganise without discouraging
The issue of organisation was a priority in order to enable the establishment to provide responses to the market development and control aspects. BPI presented two solution scenarios, one based on an organisation by business, the other by sector. Both scenarios involved setting up a new organisation chart, defining new positions, and "recruitment" of existing managers to fill these positions.
One of the major challenges of rethinking the organisation was not to "discourage" the establishment's managers, while encouraging them to apply for one or more positions in the new organisation. Groundwork: strong communication aimed at reassuring them.

Perspectives
Re-mobilised management
The internal "recruitment" achieved the expected results, as all the new positions were filled. Team building brought the new executive board closer together around key ele-ments of its role. This completed BPI's involvement. This mission was followed up with support in the form of personalised coaching, to support the establishment's managers (around thirty people), in order to enable them to develop their own management skills.