Steve began with some intensive teambuilding activities, as many of the leaders had conflicting (and often competitive) priorities for many years. He then interviewed the first two layers of leaders and also the leaders of all other functional teams to assess the current state of the Operations team. Based on this assessment, the first phase of the restructure was to consolidate all functions into global mandates – this alone resulted in significant headcount savings, and improved communications. Then, given the different skillsets required, the Product Development function was separated from Product Management; while there were no expense savings, this move resulted in much faster time to market for new products. Also, within Investment and Funds Operations, there were a number of common elements that were identified across the two groups; however, rather than create a separate “CAO” function, Steve worked with the two leaders of those groups to identify which of those elements were aligned with their individual skillsets and/or career aspirations – then, those functions were assigned accordingly in a shared/partnership model. The only function that was intentionally pulled out separately was the “Governance and Reporting” team, to ensure independence and objectivity of management reporting and oversight.