social impact

Reimagining processes to Achieve Maximum Impact

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a charity committed to creating a circular economy, which is designed to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. It’s an economic system that delivers better outcomes for people, and the environment.

It was a privilege to work with such passionate people – to support an organization that creates positive change across the globe through a myriad of different projects, from fashion to art to plastic. Each individual is striving to create as much impact as possible and we hope that this work enables the organization to harness this to achieve their goals
Dawn Kelly, Principal

Since its creation, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has grown into an organization with hundreds of employees around the world working across multiple programs and topics, and hundreds of projects. This growth has meant an ever-increasing number of projects, activities and opportunities; however the organisation didn't have a process in place to encourage consistently high quality project proposals, and to identify those that align most closely with the vision and strategic priorities. Oliver Wyman supported the organization to understand their portfolio of work and identify criteria to evaluate the potential impact and vision alignment of each project. We then helped define a portfolio management toolkit and process to implement this going forward, ensuring ongoing achievement of maximum impact from their future projects.

Working with an organization like the Ellen MacArthur Foundation was tremendously rewarding. Like many people my age, I am very concerned about accelerating climate change and the impact it will have on our planet. While I am grateful for the opportunity to have supported the organization to achieve even greater success, even if only for one project, what will stay with me the most is getting a first-hand look into the innovative and thoughtful work the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is doing around the world to help transition the world to the circular economy. In both my personal and professional life, that transition is something I want to be a part of going forward and will do my best to support
Shakeer Ahmad, Consultant

Since completion, our work with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has helped the organization better understand and manage its project portfolio. The portfolio review exercise conducted by Oliver Wyman consisted of several workshops with senior leadership and key stakeholders at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to provide the organization a holistic and detailed view of its entire project portfolio, a view it had never had before. The organization is now able to consider each possible project in-light of their vision and strategic priorities.

Thanks to the support of Oliver Wyman, we have been able to consolidate our portfolio of projects, and, more importantly, have integrated a process in the organisation that has improved the quality of projects being brought in, helped us identify synergies between projects and teams, elevated the level of discussions we have around impact, and generally helped us be much more deliberate when it comes to our projects
Clementine d’Oiron, Stakeholders Relationships Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation