RISSE® in Action
GWE Consulting Engineers
From Hidden Friction™ to measurable commercial growth
The business was growing. The systems behind it weren't keeping up.
Transforming How GWE Works
Using the 5 stages of RISSE®, I uncovered Hidden Friction™ across a growing engineering business and turned it into measurable commercial improvement.
GWE had the technical expertise, experienced people and client relationships to grow. But behind the business, disconnected systems, unnecessary costs, inefficient workflows and gaps in commercial visibility, were creating friction.
I looked beyond the obvious problems to understand what was really affecting performance. The result was a programme of commercial improvement spanning brand and business development, supplier accountability, technology, operational efficiency and productivity.
18-month engagement | Commercial strategy | Operational improvement | Technology-enabled transformation
THE COMMERCIAL IMPACT
Note: Productivity value, subject to implementation
Start with listening
I was brought into GWE with a blank sheet of paper.
There wasn't a predefined list of problems to fix or a prescribed transformation plan. My first priority was to listen to leadership, employees, clients and external partners, to understand how the business really works and identify what improvements would deliver the greatest commercial value.
The work evolved from what I found.
What we found…
01 REVEAL
Exposing Hidden Friction™
People were working hard, often compensating for problems within the systems and processes around them. The opportunity was to address the underlying causes rather than continually manage their consequences.
A clearer and more differentiated market position
Better communication, alignment and accountability across teams
Greater visibility of sales opportunities and commercial activity
More consistency client engagement and feedback
Connected systems and more efficient workflows
Better use of technology to reduce repetitive manual work.
Stronger supplier performance and commercial discipline.
Greater visibility of operational inefficiencies affecting productivity and profitability.
02 INSIGHT
Turning what we found into commercial priorities
Once we understood where the friction was, the focus shifted to what needed to change first.
Through strengthening GWE's market positioning a clearer commercial direction was established, identifying opportunities to improve revenue generation and reduce unnecessary expenditure. Introducing feedback loops to create better visibility and communication, and developed the LIFT brand pillars - Listen, Innovate, Follow Through and Team Up. This gave the business a shared set of behaviours to guide how people worked together and delivered for clients.
The findings also highlighted practical issues affecting how the business operated, particularly across technology, supplier relationships and internal processes. These became priorities for further investigation and improvement, creating opportunities to strengthen accountability, improve efficiency and make better use of existing resources.
The objective was to turn what we had uncovered into clear priorities, giving the business direction on what needed to change and why.
03 SYSTEMISE
Making the business easier to run
The focus wasn't adding more processes or systems for the sake of it. It was about making work clearer, easier to manage and less dependent on people working around problems.
We improved visibility of leads, opportunities and commercial activity, while giving leadership a clearer view of business priorities, performance and areas requiring attention.
We improved communication, ownership and follow-through across internal teams and external partnerships, creating greater clarity around responsibilities and expectations.
You need to know what people are experiencing, not just what you think is happening, so we introduced feedback loops to give GWE better insight into what employees and clients were experiencing and where improvements were needed.
We reviewed technology, software and external providers, challenged existing arrangements and initiated changes where services, costs or performance weren't meeting business needs.
Work should flow without unnecessary steps, duplication or manual effort, so we looked at how work moved through the business and identified opportunities to simplify processes, remove repetitive work and use automation where it made sense.
The goal: make the business easier to see, easier to manage and easier for people to work within.
04 SHOW UP
Creating clarity and accountability
To build strong foundations, we needed to make sure GWE was showing up in the right way, through its people, its leadership, its brand and the external partners it relied on.
It was about creating clear expectations for how the business should operate, making sure people had the conditions to meet them, and ensuring everyone representing GWE was working towards the same goals.
Created greater consistency between how GWE presented itself externally and how it operated internally.
Strengthened GWE’s market positioning through a refreshed brand identity, messaging, website and client experience, shifting the promise from “Creative Thinking. Better Environments.” to “Progress Engineered. Problems Solved.”
To make sure people and leadership knew what good looks like, we Introduced the LIFT values — Listen, Innovate, Follow Through and Team Up. This established shared expectations for behaviour, communication and accountability, reinforced through Employee of the Month recognition, exit interviews and stronger leadership accountability for creating an environment where people could perform.
We stress-tested external partnerships, to make sure they were aligned. Challenging performance and value, clarifying expectations and accountability, strengthening effective relationships and addressing underperformance where changes were needed.
05 EXECUTE
Turning improvements into measurable outcomes
The work moved beyond recommendations into practical delivery across brand, marketing, business development, supplier relationships, technology and operational processes.
Rather than treating each issue in isolation, we addressed connected areas of friction, recognising that improvements in one part of the business often depended on fixing something elsewhere. This meant challenging existing arrangements, strengthening accountability, simplifying how work was done and, where necessary, addressing the foundations before moving to the next stage of change.
As changes were implemented, they created greater visibility and new learning. We could see what was working, what wasn't and where further friction existed. Sometimes solving one problem revealed another that hadn't been visible before.
This is why execution isn't a one-off exercise. Each change creates an opportunity to learn, refine and improve. New ways of working need ownership, accountability and follow-through to make those improvements stick.
The work became a continuous cycle of identifying friction, making improvements, learning from the results and moving forward.
Marketing & Commercial Growth
The goal wasn't simply to generate more marketing activity, it was to make GWE easier to find, easier to understand and easier to engage with.
Working with J&M Marketing, we strengthened GWE's market positioning, clarified messaging and proposition, and refreshed the website and digital experience so the business was communicating more clearly with the market.
We also worked on what happened beyond the marketing itself, improving visibility of leads and opportunities, strengthening client feedback loops, and connecting marketing activity more closely to the commercial side of the business.
What changed…
Measurable growth across GWE's digital and commercial activity within 3 months:
9,000+ website sessions
6,400+ new website users
7.97% peak paid campaign CTR
768 highly targeted clicks
41.7% LinkedIn engagement
71 inbound opportunities
$170k identified pipeline value
More than better marketing numbers…
The changes gave GWE a clearer positioning in the market and a much better understanding of what was generating interest and where opportunities were coming from.
Marketing became more connected to the wider business, with better visibility, stronger follow-up and a clearer link between what GWE was saying to the market and the experience it was delivering.
The result wasn't just more activity, it was a stronger commercial foundation for growth.
AI & Automation
AI wasn't where we started, we first looked at how work was actually being done.
By looking closely at GWE's workflows, we identified repetitive tasks that were taking up valuable technical time. Rather than introducing technology for the sake of it, we looked for where AI could genuinely make work easier, faster and more consistent.
Working with AI New Zealand, we identified three workflows where automation could make a meaningful difference.
Technical Report Review
A process that was taking around 4 hours was reduced to approximately 1.5 hours. Estimated annualised capacity value: $65k
Producer Statement Summary Agent
A process that was taking around 3 hours was reduced to less than 10 minutes. Estimated annualised capacity value: $156k
Geology Summary Agent
A process that was taking around 30 minutes was reduced to less than 10 minutes. Estimated annualised capacity value: $39k
The bigger picture…
Across the three workflows, the pilots identified approximately 20 hours of technical capacity each week that could be released from repetitive work. Estimated annualised capacity value $260k+
The value wasn't simply about doing things faster, it was about giving experienced technical people more time to focus on work that required their knowledge, judgement and expertise.
AI wasn't the starting point. It was the outcome of understanding where the friction was and where technology could genuinely help.
Aligning External Partnerships
External partners should make the business better, not create more work or cost.
We looked beyond the internal business to the external partners supporting it. The question was simple; were these relationships helping GWE move forward, and were they delivering what the business was paying for?
We reviewed key partnerships against their performance, value, expertise and alignment with GWE's direction.
When the partnership was working…
The marketing partnership was delivering value, so the focus was on strengthening the relationship, improving alignment and making sure marketing activity continued to support GWE's commercial goals.
When it wasn't…
The IT relationship was different. The review uncovered unnecessary costs, unmet contractual commitments and technology that wasn't delivering the value GWE needed. Rather than accept this as the status quo, we challenged the relationship and looked for a better fit.
The outcome wasn't simply changing a supplier. It was making sure the people outside GWE were working towards the same goals as the people inside it.
We partnered with smartIT who instantly added capability, created value and made the business easier to run.
GWE doesn’t have a strategy problem, it has friction hidden inside how the business operates.
By making friction visible, we can understand what needs to change, put those changes into practice and keep learning as the business evolved.
The work isn’t a straight line, with one improvement revealing something else that needs attention. The process continues; finding friction, making changes, learning from them and starting again.
This is the work RISSE® exists to do.
Reveal. Insight. Systemise. Show Up. Execute.
Turning Hidden Friction™ into growth.