At a glance
- Client: HRA Group, a global innovator in the diamond trade, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with offices and factories around the world
- Industry: Diamonds
- Company size: 600 employees
- Challenge: Rapid growth after launching Dialog, an OKR program at risk of losing steam and focus, and a leadership transition to the next generation of the founding family
- Solution: OKR consulting and leadership coaching from Wave Nine: OKR strategy and rollout, WorkBoard AI as the single source of truth, a digital operating rhythm, weekly leadership coaching and a three-day leadership retreat
- Results: An OKR program that touches every part of the business, in-house ownership after six quarters, clearly defined roles and a detailed plan for the leadership transition, and OKRs as a shared language for decisions
The challenge: fast growth and a generational handover
HRA Group is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with offices and factories around the world. While its reach is global, HRA remains a family business, with direct descendants of the founders at the helm and many family members in key management roles.
In 2022, HRA experienced rapid growth thanks to Dialog, the first-ever diamond subscription service for retailers, which HRA introduced to the market. Scaling comes with its share of challenges, and the leadership team adopted the OKR methodology to align the company's different departments and guide the expansion.
After internal role changes, however, HRA's OKR program was at risk of losing steam and focus. The leadership team wanted more than to keep the program at its current level. It realized that outside expertise and resources would help, both for its OKR efforts and for its leadership transition.
At the same time, the company's leaders Uri and Sara were preparing to pass the torch to their sons, Itay and Aaron, and their daughter, Reut. They hoped to secure the company's legacy with a strategic transition.
The Ariel family turned to Wave Nine for OKR consulting and leadership coaching, so the close-knit family could expand the business strategically, improve internal communication and develop guidelines for effective collaboration. HRA needed to:
- Guide rapid growth: align the company's different departments behind shared strategic priorities as it scaled.
- Revive the OKR program: shape, improve and monitor the OKR strategy so it would mature, after role changes had put it at risk.
- Improve communication and collaboration: with clear and accountable goals across the leadership team.
- Design a smooth leadership transition: passing the torch from one generation to the next.
"We were expanding and transitioning leadership to a new generation, a process that involves a lot of emotions that need to be navigated with gentle hands. OKRs made sure everyone was swimming in the same direction, and Wave Nine's leadership coaching was transformative."
Itay Ariel, President, HRA Group
OKRs help manage expansion
Wave Nine partnered with HRA Group to develop the OKR strategy and implement it broadly, followed by an ongoing engagement to:
- Mature the OKR practice: solidify the practice, so all staff have clarity and energy around the company's strategic priorities.
- Create one source of truth: introduce WorkBoard AI as the dedicated single source of truth for OKRs and strategy execution.
- Write better OKRs every quarter: coach the leadership team and departments to write OKRs with clearly defined, outcome-based and action-oriented results, every single quarter.
- Build visibility in WorkBoard AI: support the team in architecting, maintaining and updating its OKRs in WorkBoard AI.
- Set up a digital operating rhythm: regular updates, with quarterly OKR reviews and resets that increase accountability for results and ease the reporting overhead.
"It would have been difficult to replicate our results without Wave Nine guiding us through the process."
Itay Ariel, President, HRA Group
Wave Nine ran the program and also put in place the structures, processes and behaviors that drove team engagement from within. This triggered a mindset shift, from "update OKRs as a chore" to "teams deriving insights from OKRs week over week", which unlocked alignment on a level HRA hadn't experienced before. The process became faster, more reliable and more impactful.
After six quarters with Wave Nine, HRA Group had deeply adopted and mastered the OKR process. It was ready to take over its OKR efforts internally, and hired a full-time staff member to manage them.
Today, OKRs touch every part of HRA's business, including key projects such as its lab-grown diamonds and its operational excellence efforts. OKRs also help HRA deliver on its mission to provide sustainable, ethical solutions throughout the diamond supply chain.
Leadership strategy and OKR coaching
During the OKR implementation, Wave Nine focused specifically on enabling the executive leadership transition through OKRs. This involved:
- Working with leadership to align the goals of family members with the needs of the business
- Improving communication and collaboration through transparent OKRs
- Identifying and defining clear procedures for trade-off decisions
Wave Nine began by working one-on-one and in small groups with members of the leadership team every week, to understand the strategy, the goals and the interpersonal challenges. Through facilitated workshops and conversations between different team members, Wave Nine crystallized a mutual understanding and aligned goals.
The work culminated in a three-day leadership retreat in Whistler, British Columbia. There, the leadership team learned to use the OKR structure and process for decision-making, trade-off decisions and clear communication, which is now standard practice in the company.
"Wave Nine was very thoughtful in their approach to understanding our business, and has put the resources in place to help us manage the OKR process internally."
Itay Ariel, President, HRA Group
Embedding OKRs into the leadership team's decision-making resulted in:
- Clearly defined roles
- A detailed plan for the transition of leadership
- Open communication and conflict resolution protocols
HRA Group now uses OKRs for far more than goal setting. OKRs are its shared language of success and its process for decision-making and prioritization, including protocols for difficult risk mitigations that keep the business moving forward.
Today, OKRs are HRA Group's system to force alignment, encourage clear communication and support successful collaboration. Wave Nine continues to work with HRA every week to keep the practice strong.
"The value that Wave Nine gave us, as a family and a business, has been transformative. I don't have the words to describe how well they managed themselves in a very delicate environment."
Itay Ariel, President, HRA Group
The results: a cohesive company under a new generation
HRA Group's work with Wave Nine helped it define clear OKRs and build a solid digital operating system, with the platform and processes that create visibility and organizational alignment. This paved the way for HRA to manage its OKR efforts internally and keep creating innovative solutions.
The leadership coaching and strategy work helped HRA achieve greater cohesion, sharpen its communication and collaboration skills, and design a path forward under the new generation of leadership.
- In-house ownership after six quarters, with a full-time staff member managing the OKR program.
- OKRs across the whole business, from lab-grown diamonds to operational excellence and the mission of sustainable, ethical solutions.
- From chore to insight: teams derive insights from OKRs week over week, in a faster, more reliable and more impactful process.
- A planned leadership transition: clearly defined roles, a detailed transition plan, and open communication and conflict resolution protocols.
- A shared language for decisions: OKRs as the standard process for decision-making and prioritization, including protocols for difficult risk mitigations.
WorkBoard AI showcase
How HRA Group uses WorkBoard AI as the single source of truth for its OKR program.
OKR Management
HRA Group runs its company, department and team OKRs in WorkBoard AI's OKR Management module, where Wave Nine helped the team architect, maintain and update them every quarter.
Benefits:
- One source of truth for strategy and goals across departments and offices
- Outcome-based OKRs that teams update regularly
- Less effort spent compiling status reports
Alignment and Heatmap
OKR Management and the Alignment views give HRA's leaders visibility of how department OKRs connect to company priorities, including for the new teams formed as the company grew.
Benefits:
- New departments linked to company priorities as they form
- Gaps and overlaps between teams visible early
- Leaders see progress and attention across the business at a glance
Meetings and Operating Model & Cadence
HRA Group runs its digital operating rhythm in WorkBoard AI, with regular OKR updates feeding quarterly reviews and resets.
Benefits:
- Regular updates feeding each quarterly review and reset
- Higher accountability for results each quarter
- A rhythm HRA runs in-house
Key takeaways: the value of an outside view
HRA Group's work with OKRs and leadership coaching underscores the value of bringing in an outside observer who can see things from a different angle, especially when emotions are high and change is imminent.
"We really benefitted from having someone from the outside come in and quarterback our OKR work, and the leadership coaching was excellent."
Itay Ariel, President, HRA Group
The team's willingness to open up, address its challenges and take a strategic approach to innovation has paved the way for its continued success. By defining their challenges and embracing difficult conversations, the Ariel family is helping secure its legacy and support future generations in the decades to come.
