The top 10 causes of delay and budget over-run in group reorganisation and simplification projects, and the antidote: our 5-step process

When you are planning the implementation of group reorganisation and corporate simplification projects, the basic objectives are usually to complete the desired steps on time, on budget and with the minimum of fuss. You might be forgiven for thinking that this should be easy to achieve.

The reality can be a bit more hit-and-miss. Here’s a run-down of the top 10 causes of delay and budget over-run.

1. Lack of clear project ownership – often because the importance of the project or the skills required are under-estimated
2. Failure to manage communications between different stakeholders – including internal functions, external advisers and auditors
3. Failure to identify material issues – usually because the key functions have not been involved (e.g. tax, accounting, treasury, HR, regulatory), or because due diligence has not been carried out
4. Delays in obtaining information from respondents – often due to lack of the high level support required to escalate issues effectively
5. Lack of corporate memory – meaning that due diligence is hard to carry out
6. Information overload – for example, if no clear materiality threshold has been set, and the project gets bogged down in minutiae
7. Delays in obtaining third party consents – because the need for those consents has not been identified early on in the process
8. Last minute changes – meaning that the documentation needs to be completely revised and re-checked
9. Signatories not available when needed – due to lack of forward planning to identify key milestones
10. Unrealistic deadlines – which may seem ‘aggressive’ or ‘no-nonsense’ at the time, but actually cause delay and inefficiency

And the antidote?

Click here to see an overview of our 5-step process for managing the legal implementation of group reorganisation and simplification projects. We're sure you'll agree - it's not rocket science. But it works.

Do you have any suggestions for improving it? We’d love to hear from you!