Case Study 2
US Based, Global Financial Services
Solution: Nkuzi Change launched a coaching programme to accelerate the career development of high-potential employees from under-represented groups.
Results:
✔️ Increased confidence, ambition, and visibility of diverse leaders.
✔️ Enhanced readiness for leadership roles.
✔️ Clear path to increasing visibility and reputation for internal career opportunities.
✔️ Greater knowledge of diversity and inclusion issues and ways to address them.
✔️ Increased cultural consistency through shared language and experiences.
Impact: The successful transformation led to the deployment of multiple similar programmes to foster an inclusive, high-performing culture.
Case Study 3
European Financial Services
Challenge: The arrival of a new CEO brought a significant shift in strategy and culture for this 4,000 people firm, from cost-cutting and command and control, to growth and customer value. The legacy culture was resistant to change, and middle managers, crucial for executing the new strategy, were stuck in an outdated leadership model.
Solution: Nkuzi Change launched a Middle Leaders coaching programme to support new leadership behaviours.
Results:
✔️ Leaders demonstrated new capabilities and inspired positive changes in their teams.
✔️ The parent-child leadership model shifted to an adult-adult approach, leading to measurable increases in curiosity, courage, and accountability.
✔️ Insights into the real barriers to change were surfaced, aiding the CEO and L&D teams in understanding which cultural barriers needed to shift.
✔️ Enhanced leadership capability and the introduction of new language and behaviours at both the group and individual level.
Impact: The success of the initial programme led to the commitment to a second programme upon completion.
We are 3 founders, Elise, Kate and Martin based in UK & Europe. Elise is former CMO at Thomson Reuters where she led several major transformation programmes. Kate has been coaching executive since 2005, partnering with hundreds of leaders in some of the world’s most respected organisations. Martin has led a number of turnarounds, building and re-shaping and businesses in the technology and service sectors.
Between us, we have; Over 60 years experience of leadership in big companies – having worked within 30+ respected global companies. Over 15 years operating at C-suite level in global FTSE 500 companies, driving commercial success and transformational change. Expertise in transformational change, leadership development, behaviour change and in technology and systems.
Regards,
Elise Finn
With more than 30+ years in mainstream financial services organisations, big business feels a part of my DNA. I’ve more than 20 years in Leadership and c-suite roles at global FTSE 500 businesses and I’m a former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at Thomson Reuters and Director of Customer Care at what was LloydsTSB.
I’ve personally led several major transformation programmes focused on significant organic revenue growth, global organisational restructuring and new product development and sales and marketing launch. I was part of the Executive team who led the $3.5Bn sale of the IP & Science Business from Thomson Reuters to Private Equity and led the global Marketing, PR and Communications teams through a complex and critical sale, new company structuring, branding and launch period.
I know what it takes to make significant change happen in big companies, even in the most entrenched cultures, it’s all about people and culture. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and seen fabulous success too. Now as co-founder at Nkuzi Change I use all of these lessons to lead Programme Design and Development and I love working at the coalface of change and challenge with ambitious leaders.
email elise.finn@nkuzichange.com
Kate Franklin
I’ve always been fascinated about what we can do to unlock our full potential. After 25 years of work in leadership development, I’m most excited by creating positive and sustainable change at a systemic (or group) level as well as at an individual level. I’m driven to make positive change happen at scale.
This fascination started in the 1st chapter of my career where I focused on reshaping the approach to management training in large organisations. I became passionate about making org change more effective and more human and this culminated in me leading a highly successful culture change programme at a global insurance company.
During this time, I learnt the transformational potential of quality coaching and how it unlocks successful change. So, I qualified as an Executive coach in the US and set up my coaching business in Washington DC and later in London. For 17 years I worked with ambitious, global leaders to make profound change in their businesses and their lives. My clients were C-suite execs, lawyers, financiers, technologists and leaders at a range of organisations including Aviva, BBC, Freshfields, Save the Children, Thomson Reuters, Allied Irish Bank, RSA Insurance, Karen Millen, Landsec, QBE, Yorkshire Building Society, Reed Smith, LexisNexis, Bank of America and Unilever.
Nkuzi Change is my 3rd and most fulfilling career chapter. It's incredible to witness both individual growth and systemic change achieved through our programmes and to track measurable impact and deliver quantifiable business results.
email kate.franklin@nkuzichange.com
Martin Finn
I often describe myself as a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’.
The truth is I have a diverse background of senior roles in big corporates, coupled with experience running small teams and startups working with major brands to enhance their impact. I’ve held C-suite roles in strategy, sales, marketing, technology and operations. Layered on top of this corporate career has been my love of entrepreneurship, leading me to found two successful businesses.
The common thread is my determination to create positive impact and enable real business growth. I have a relentless curiosity to understand and fix what needs to change across a business to make success possible. Because of this I’ve developed expertise in many different functions – fixing whatever was standing in the way of progress.
I’ve been privileged to work with fantastic teams and together we’ve achieved brilliant business success, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way which has added colour to the journey!
Some of the programmes I’ve led include: Transforming the commercial success of a well established but tired IT service provider, rewriting the strategy, digitising customer engagement and reinventing go to market, resulting in multiplying profits more than 10 fold in 5 years, and becoming the dominant supplier in Europe. Working with a major financial information provider I conceived and lead the development of a key go to market system to enable their transition from being a service provider in limited vertical markets into richer solution sales. In another computer giant I led a sales team who, by tapping into new customer opportunities grew revenue from £5M to £56M in 2 years.
I bring this rich tapestry of experience to my role as a co-founder at Nkuzi Change where there’s no limit to what we can achieve, working with ambitious leaders who are serious about delivering real change and unbridled business success.
email martin.finn@nkuzichange.com