A Positive Review of: “When An Initiative Is Stalled By Warring Factions”

Stone + Company CEO Laura Stone’s article, “When An Initiative Is Stalled By Warring Factions,” appeared in Strategy and Leadership in 2009, and was recently well-reviewed in the management information resource Strategic Direction. The review, titled “When Outsourcing Goes From Wrong to Right: The Importance of the Neutral, Experienced Party,” highlighted the key insights Laura shared about how the relationship between a retail company and its outsourcing partner was put back on track with strategic intervention by Stone + Company.

Deep-seated disagreements between the retailer and its partner nearly derailed the $180 million project, but as the review noted, “(a)n objective outsider is very useful in repairing damaged relationships by coming to the project with the end user in mind.” The review added that “(t)he second advantage is the experience of a strategic consultant, who in this case could quickly see that implementation work had started to happen without first dealing with decision-making, context-setting and process knowledge.”  For more about the review, click here