Nova has provided long-term solutions for a variety of clients in different fields and sectors. In all cases, Nova’s clients were seeking real world answers to specific business problems. Following are a few examples of how Nova has worked with clients to unlock their potential.

Increasing Client Satisfaction

Creative people at the flagship office of a global communications company were at odds with their colleagues in the two other functional groups they interfaced with, Market Strategy and Account Management. With Nova’s solution, the heads of all three areas began to recognize how their colleagues’ own behavior was magnifying the problem with people below them and they started mentoring their people to collaborate better. Work with mentees focused on what they needed to do to become high-performers by understanding all three disciplines. Mentors and mentees both began to collaborate more across functions, and mentees demonstrated an integrated appreciation for the business that produced more on-target campaigns and better spending of their client’s budgets. Client satisfaction increased as the company’s work reflected a more synergistic approach.


Shortening Drug Development Time

A global pharmaceuticals company wanted to shorten drug development time. Nova’s organizational assessment restructured the organization into small, cross-disciplinary independent ventures whose leaders functioned as entrepreneurs. The first assessment decreased development time by 30%. A subsequent assessment extended this approach into related areas of the company, producing a 50% reduction.


Increasing Share by Changing the Market

Leadership in an internationally known brand-name clothing manufacturer was divided at many levels in the organization over whether their classic product should remain as it was because of the high market share it enjoyed, or whether the line should be diversified. Retailers were pressuring the company to give them something different. Helping them “work the edge” with Generative Leadership, Nova’s advanced leadership development helped the company to move into something completely different: their own retail outlets, rather than being sold as one line of many in other stores. Their ten new stores offer a unique slant on their classic product, unmatched in other stores, and business has expanded by 30%.

Redefining a Market to Scoop Competition

A healthcare services organization wanted to expand its revenues and lines of business but did not know how to identify or commercialize its knowledge assets, only some of which represented proprietary intellectual property. With Nova’s help, the organization identified a strategic direction, defined markets it was equipped to serve, matched its knowledge assets to those markets, and quickly developed a broad range of commercial offerings to meet those market needs. New lines of business and products increased ten-fold, and what had been a local business became the first of its kind to create a national market. The organization redefined the market, and scooped it long before competitors awoke to the potential.


Succeeding in the Midst of Turbulent Times

A previously successful medical service organization was no longer growing as rapidly as before. New marketing efforts were ineffective, and changes in legislation drastically altered the marketplace in ways that were unfavorable to major areas of their business. Working with Nova, the executive team redefined the organization’s vision, mission, and values, identifying completely different targets of opportunity for business development. New strategies to reach these new clients were put in place, along with new structures and infrastructures. The results? New business from different customers skyrocketed and inefficient parts of the business were streamlined and re-tasked, cutting costs by 40% while delivering more services to more people 12% faster.


Saving a Family Business

A family-owned construction company was about to go out of business because the two brothers running it couldn’t agree on what to do, including whether to fold the business or keep on going. Nova’s Conflict Resolution tools revealed that the conflict styles of the two were so different they might as well have been speaking two different languages. The brother in charge of estimating and contracts had such an Affiliative style that he always said everything was fine, even when it wasn’t, to please everyone. The brother overseeing the actual construction and running of the business normally compromised but falling revenues were now making that impossible, and he began trying to impose his will with disastrous results for the family relationships. Today the business is thriving again in a specialized market under the second brother’s command, while the first brother has been bought out and is now pursuing activities more to his liking.

Changing the Core of a Business to Thrive

A technology company that had pioneered classic products that had become brand names was deeply divided over whether to pursue new discoveries that were completely different from their founding technology and many patents.  Their attachment almost cost them their business as nimbler competitors began to develop new products using the new technology. With Nova’s help, corporate leaders at multiple levels began to see how their attachments to a particular image of the firm, and their role as preservers of a technology heritage were going to destroy the company. They quickly changed direction and their entire market positioning.  In the consumer products divisions, they changed what had been marketed as a hobbyists’ brand to a lifestyle image, with products that have continued to enjoy substantial market share in a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive market.


How Leadership Differences Re-Invented a Business

A global financial services company’s IT department was constraining development. Nova’s Information Technology Management Surveys were given to senior IT managers. The head of IT scored very high on innovation and strategic thinking but weak on team leadership. A new senior-level position was created to maximize his strengths for innovative vision and evaluation of new technologies while another senior leader became head of the IT department. IT is now a high-functioning department, and the former head loves his new job steering the direction of the company’s strategic use of IT. Business leaped forward with the rapid implementation of inventive IT solutions.


Turning Around a Tailspin

When founders of a professional service firm were about to retire, they brought in a leader to head their Account Management department with the idea that he would become a full partner eventually in their succession planning. Although the man had lots of industry knowledge, he couldn’t manage business and almost lost four major accounts before Nova was called in. With our Advanced Leadership Training, he learned how to reposition his value to the founders, and to develop the people in his area to work at a higher level. He’s now a full partner of the firm and is heading a new area of strategic business development and planning, where his special capabilities add great value to the firm.

Nova has had the good fortune to work with some of the finest organizations in the world. We feel honored to have played a role in their success.


Aerospace

American Airlines
Boeing
Northrup Grumman

Chemicals and Process Manufacturing

ARCO
Exxon Mobil Corporation
GE Betz Inc.
ICI Paints
J.M. Huber Corporation
Rohm & Haas
Shell Chemical Company
Sunoco
Union Carbide Corporation

Communications, Electronics,
Information Services

AT&T
AT&T Teleholdings Inc.
DDB Worldwide Communications
Draftfcb
Hewlett Packard
Hewlett Packard, Europe
Ogilvy & Mather
SPM Marketing & Communications
US Sprint

Consumer Goods, Packaging
and Retail

AGI Klearfold
General Electric
General Foods
Kal Kan
Kodak Company
L’Oreal
Levi Strauss
M&M Mars
Owens Illinois
Seagrams
Smith Corona
TYCO

Education

Battelle Institute
Johnson & Wales University
Naval Education Training Center
Ohio School District
Providence Country Day School
UMass Medical School
University of Florida
US Naval Academy

Financial Services

American Express
Bank of America
CitiGroup Inc.
Connecticut Bank & Trust
Fidelity Bank
GMAC Mortgage Company
Guy Carpenter & Company
SECURA Insurance Company
SEI Investments
TD Bank Financial Group
TransAmerica

Government and Defense

EPA
The Government of Costa Rica
US Army
US Office of Personnel Management
USDA
US Navy

Pharmaceuticals, Medical
Products and Healthcare

Abbott Laboratories
Bayer
Blue Cross Blue Shield
DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals Co.
Eli Lilly
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck
Novartis
Sanofi-Aventis
Schering Plough
Shands Healthcare
Teleflex Medical
Tenet Healthcare
West Pharmaceutical Services

Transportation, Utilities
and Construction

Consolidated Edison, New York
Gilbane Building Company
National Freight Company
PG&E Corporation
Subaru