The main challenge lay in ensuring that, despite the upcoming changes, the management team would be perceived as a visible leadership coalition ("walk the talk"). Therefore, the decision maker had to pursue a common shared transformation vision and strategy (“one voice”) to be seen as authentic representatives of the transformation goal. Thus, the first step was to develop a common understanding of the financial vision and strategy and the corresponding change story. The vision and the change story formed the "guiding star" for the remainder of the process – in terms of developing the approach, defining the milestones for the reorganization, and as the basis for all further activities.

To build a leadership coalition, an INSIGHTS MDI personality test and a team SWOT analysis were conducted, and a value wheel with corresponding activities was developed. This enabled the members of the management team to get to know each other better and both understand and categorize their colleagues' motivations and viewpoints. They also developed an actual and target state for their teams and defined the corresponding leadership values. Further activities and concrete measures were then derived, the goal being to transfer them into the employees' daily work routines by “walking the talk”. The Change Leadership sessions, which encouraged individuals to reflect on their own leadership style and professional development needs, also proved their worth. They helped to ensure that the managers coached and supported their employees during the transformation as change leaders, while also focusing on their own professional development in line with the vision, strategy and change goals. 

A central component of Horváth's approach to transformation is not only the inclusion of the affected individuals, but also the integration of project and change management to allow holistic control of the transformation project. Via this approach, behavioral changes and corresponding measures are aligned with the structural, procedural, and technical changes. Likewise, challenges and risks are identified ahead of time and the achievement of objectives is proactively measured and managed from both a professional and behavioral perspective.

The Integrated Change Office was a core element of the project architecture and was directly attached to the project management team. This ensured close collaboration, coordination and effective management of the respective financial / functional and behavioral topics. Hence, the reorganization targets were defined jointly with the CFO and his finance management team. Consequently, the project plan was also set up accordingly and the behavioral change measures were integrated into the functional reorganization activities. Among other things, this made it possible to holistically manage the achievement of project milestones and the occurrence of risks. The achievement of the milestones and change targets was measured on an ongoing basis for example by conducting pulse checks. The Finance Community for example then used the results to derive measures / initiatives to anchor the new finance organization. This also fostered the described inherent change.