Revolutionizing Resource Use in Existing Buildings

SES’s mission is to fight climate change by reducing buildings’ use of energy and water. SES is an engineering firm, but it’s also a social enterprise: equally important to financial success is the firm’s commitment to its ultimate goal—to eliminate 1,000,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The Challenge

As a growing and in-demand engineering firm, SES recognized the need to think about how they wanted to grow and evolve as an organization. With a recent move to more inclusive employee ownership, an imminent CEO sabbatical, and exciting new business opportunities, SES wanted to define an organizational development strategy that would take them beyond business planning and set the stage for growth—staying true to their mission and core values, and helping build the company’s independence from its founder. What will be the long-term vision for SES? And how will they develop their organization to get there?

How We Helped

At the same time, we shifted the team’s thinking about what it means to grow a professional services firm, presenting a professional services maturity model that describes best practices of high-performing services organizations. This guided some of the decision-making about activities that will move SES toward high performance.

With these insights in mind, Junxion facilitated a two-day off -site workshop with the leadership team. The first day allowed the team to imagine a future for SES and establish an aligned vision across a 10-year time frame. The second day focused on the capabilities that would be needed to reach the vision, building on the company’s strengths to live up to its mission, and achieve its vision.

The final strategic plan identifies four priority areas for SES to focus on over the next decade. It then identified five capabilities to develop over the next five years, as well as priority actions for the next one to two years.

Measuring Success

SES’s plan provides clear focus for the company to establish annual business plans and quarterly priorities. The immediate outcomes include two key hires to alleviate pressures on the team, the development of a governance and leadership framework to accommodate the company’s growth, and a new, disciplined approach to launching new service offerings. One direct result of our planning process is a clear understanding of the work that must be completed in order for the CEO to depart on his sabbatical, confident that his leadership team will capably manage the business in his absence.

Junxion will continue to support the team as they implement the plan, with coaching and consulting support anchored in SES’s core values, and with a firm commitment to achieving their bold vision.