“Many transport and travel organisations have to deliver a complex portfolio of change, not just manage a single programme. We help clients gain a real sense of control over their programmes of change, bring them together to deliver the outcomes the business wants, and measure successful delivery.”
Jonathan Kennedy
Contact Jonathan...responding to rapidly changing requirements in their sector. But how do they do this while balancing seemingly conflicting requirements and maintaining operations as normal? Berkeley provides transport and travel consulting services that can help clients achieve successful transformations for long-term results.
Change is constant within the transport and travel sector - all driven by issues such as regulatory reforms, investment in strategic infrastructure programmes, the need to address capacity constraints, the push towards net zero, changing behaviour and technology, and organisational changes such as franchise renewals.
A combination of aging assets, budget constraints, a multi-faceted supply chain and overstretched internal capability can hinder strategic thinking and create a culture of ‘crisis management as the norm’.
Meanwhile, external agencies and the travelling public are scrutinising transport and travel providers’ every move.
You can make a big difference with targeted well-managed changes. As experienced transformation specialists, The Berkeley Partnership can partner with you to cut through this complexity and turn your ambitions into real results. Our transport and travel consultants focus on the long-term and can help you achieve successful, long-lasting outcomes.
To see success, change initiatives must align with organisational strategy and achieve full endorsement from an informed and engaged leadership. But due to operational pressures, executive sponsors don’t always have the availability or energy to focus on long-term goals. Our transport and travel consultants can help you make your case successfully, securing the strong senior sponsorship needed to advocate change and make it happen.
The early stages of a change programme are often the most critical for a successful delivery but many organisations need to gain a better understanding of the urgency and allocate enough time and resource. They need to look beyond just the short-term pressures of keeping passengers moving. The Berkeley Partnership can help you lay strong foundations for long-term transformation without putting current operations at risk.
Internal change and programme management teams are often over stretched in terms of capability and capacity. Transport and travel organisations frequently need to find the right external providers and establish commercial relationships to drive the right behaviours.
The Berkeley Partnership can help you to invest in and build key skills for managing change. We can support you to develop your people, giving you the capability to run the programme over the long term and drive lasting change.
We have a strong track record of delivering complex change in regulated environments, where there are often constraints on funding and capability. In particular, our expertise in portfolio management and effective business planning can greatly help transport and travel providers to identify and deliver critical change initiatives whilst protecting operational performance.
We bring a ‘client-side’ approach where we will support the leaders of your organisation, acting as trusted partners and are often embedded within the client team. By working in this way, we can bring you the fresh perspective, creativity and constructive challenge needed while remaining focused on the outcomes you want to achieve.
Real estate
Berkeley were an integral part of our Executive Team." They worked seamlessly alongside us, providing leadership, drive and integration expertise while ensuring that we still felt in overall control. From the start, there was a strong emphasis on embedding ownership for the new operating model within the team. It didn’t feel like working with consultants.
CEO, a transport company
How do I retire and replace my older transport assets without disrupting passenger service?
How can I upgrade my IT systems while continuing to ensure a seamless purchasing experience for customers?
How can we develop a strategy for expansion into new travel markets while retaining our existing business?
How can I fully integrate the acquisition of a rival operator?
The Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) franchise was created to support the completion of the Thameslink programme: London’s ‘north-south Crossrail’. Berkeley were brought in to fulfil a full-time integration director role within the new executive team and build ownership that was critical to put this mega-franchise on track.
Within an aggressive timeline, we needed to change the job descriptions and reporting lines for 1,200 people, including a 20% fall out and 10% arrival of fresh legs. We also had to align two totally different data systems and infrastructures, which required building consensus, delivering multiple IT projects and up-skilling operators.
Cathay launched the Passenger Support System (PSS) programme to implement the industry standard ‘Amadeus’ system. This system is integrated, supports multi-channel interaction and provides a much enhanced user experience (UX) for passengers and internal business users. Importantly, the new PSS platform also offered the opportunity to drive up revenues (e.g. by supporting additional cabin classes) and reduce operating costs.
Some months into their journey, Cathay Pacific recognised that they had some weakness in some of these core building blocks and Berkeley was asked by the PSS programme director to develop an overarching change management approach.
Berkeley was asked by the Managing Director of Rail Development at Go-Ahead Group to provide strategic advice to facilitate cross-collaboration across its diverse train operating companies (TOCs), some relatively recently acquired.
We were engaged to work with the Group Executive and leadership from individual operating companies to identify and explore opportunities for a more joined up way to grow profitability and maximise performance of new franchises across operating companies.
Our client was a £1bn turnover textile rental and hygiene services business operating across 15 European countries. The CEO was looking for a step change in performance and asked us to help develop a new, more focused corporate strategy.
As with many companies, the business had many excellent people with a great deal of know-how and commitment. It also had tremendous potential. We simply provided the facilitation, encouragement and guidance to help their people come together and develop their own highly effective strategy – unlocking the potential in the business and securing an impressive increase in performance and value. In the subsequent three years market capitalisation moved from £750m to over £1.7bn.
The Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) franchise was created to support the completion of the Thameslink programme: London’s ‘north-south Crossrail’. Berkeley were brought in to fulfil a full-time integration director role within the new executive team and build ownership that was critical to put this mega-franchise on track.
Within an aggressive timeline, we needed to change the job descriptions and reporting lines for 1,200 people, including a 20% fall out and 10% arrival of fresh legs. We also had to align two totally different data systems and infrastructures, which required building consensus, delivering multiple IT projects and up-skilling operators.
Cathay launched the Passenger Support System (PSS) programme to implement the industry standard ‘Amadeus’ system. This system is integrated, supports multi-channel interaction and provides a much enhanced user experience (UX) for passengers and internal business users. Importantly, the new PSS platform also offered the opportunity to drive up revenues (e.g. by supporting additional cabin classes) and reduce operating costs.
Some months into their journey, Cathay Pacific recognised that they had some weakness in some of these core building blocks and Berkeley was asked by the PSS programme director to develop an overarching change management approach.
Berkeley was asked by the Managing Director of Rail Development at Go-Ahead Group to provide strategic advice to facilitate cross-collaboration across its diverse train operating companies (TOCs), some relatively recently acquired.
We were engaged to work with the Group Executive and leadership from individual operating companies to identify and explore opportunities for a more joined up way to grow profitability and maximise performance of new franchises across operating companies.
Our client was a £1bn turnover textile rental and hygiene services business operating across 15 European countries. The CEO was looking for a step change in performance and asked us to help develop a new, more focused corporate strategy.
As with many companies, the business had many excellent people with a great deal of know-how and commitment. It also had tremendous potential. We simply provided the facilitation, encouragement and guidance to help their people come together and develop their own highly effective strategy – unlocking the potential in the business and securing an impressive increase in performance and value. In the subsequent three years market capitalisation moved from £750m to over £1.7bn.