Franklin Templeton: Championing Change
With $1.5 trillion in assets under management, Franklin Templeton is among America’s top 10 asset managers, and growing. Over the past few years, the firm has acquired asset manager Legg Mason, custom index provider O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, and secondary private equity investor Lexington Partners, among others. Based in San Mateo, California, the company used its acquisition of Legg Mason to not only double the volume of assets under management, but also as an opportunity to completely rethink its finance organization and how it creates value for the business.
The company held a brainstorming session where it considered all the potential ways that the business might want to see the data, recalled Shaneyfelt. “We also thought about self-service and how we could deliver information to people in a way that makes sense to them,” she said.
Already a Workday HCM and Workday Payroll customer, Franklin Templeton opted to standardize onWorkday Financial ManagementandWorkday Adaptive Planningto support its new finance operating model and empower end users with access to real-time information.
Shaneyfelt acknowledged that the last few years have been quite busy for her finance team, integrating acquisitions and adopting new digital finance technologies. It’s important for organizations to consider how they can change their processes and systems without overwhelming the people tasked with executing the changes.
“Think about their level of burnout with the change and how you can make it exciting and where you put in little breathers,” Shaneyfelt said.
Franklin Templeton also manages change with a talent optimization program: The company posts interesting new assignments for which anyone can volunteer. That keeps leaders from tapping the same go-to team members time and again. Plus, the company allows employees to shift to different roles for a few months each year.
“Learning is the most exciting part of the process, and if you have the right people, they want to learn new things,” Shaneyfelt said. Also indispensable? Change agents who promote and champion the changes to build awareness and enthusiasm in the organization.