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Other Sucess Stories

Below are summaries from 15 participants of the original pilot workshops. These are short case studies describing the business benefits and personal skills development experienced by the participants.

Business A predicts future profitability:

‘I joined the programme because I wanted help in taking my company (financial services) to the next stage of creating a stable, profitable business. This would then allow me to hand over the running of my business within the next 5 years. I have found the programme extremely useful, especially the sessions where the participants are discussing each other’s problems. I have benefited greatly from this and have been able to bring the benefits directly back to my business. My challenge was the lack of profitability in my business despite having more work than we could handle. During the programme, I have resolved to charge fees for the work I do and offer staged payments to clients, rather than relying on commissions as before. I was worried in case I would lose clients, but they have all accepted the new structure without any problems. This will significantly help my profitability and enable a future handover.’

Business B has developed a more open management style:

‘I was appointed MD two months before the programme and wanted help to gain the confidence to change the company. This programme has really been invaluable. I have now increased the level of promotional and PR activities – we produce newsletters and ask for referrals. I now give staff briefings to keep them all informed and we are starting to document our procedures. I am now working on a culture change to create a more open style of management and increased staff empowerment. I have found the group feedback sessions really useful in helping me to develop my ideas. Thank you!’

Business C has reduced wastage and improved production:

‘I joined the programme after it had started but soon found it very helpful. I had not been in this role long and was having problems. I am now being appreciated as a leader. I have delegated almost 80% of my old roles and people are now coming to work earlier, probably as a result of changing my style. I seem to be more approachable – people are asking me for help with their problems instead of hiding them. The point of the course seems to be about dealing with ‘you’, not the shop floor. I have been able to remove my self-made blocks. The business has benefited from reduced wastage and improved production. The programme has really helped me to gain the confidence and achieve these changes.’

Business D has improved motivation of its workforce:

‘Since starting on the programme, I have been taking actions to ensure effective delegation to three senior managers. I have introduced templates for documents and capturing information so that this is now visible. I have become aware that many of my people are ‘unconsciously competent’. I have also changed the rewards and incentives scheme to help motivate the people in my company.’

Business E has significantly improved its bid success rate:

‘I have been working on assessing our projected performance and have mixed financial and marketing indicators to come up with an overall performance indicator. I have been monitoring hits on our website and enquiries through our website. When we reviewed the website, we thought that it did not appeal much to our customers, so we have changed the presentation and now include news and stories of relevance to our customers. We have also written a joint case study with one of our customers, so that we really promote and communicate what we are good at doing. We include referrals and recent successes. This has contributed to us now achieving a bid success rate of 1 out of 2, when previously we only succeeded in 1 out of 7 bids. I am still working on the challenge to buy out my ex-partner’s shares.’

Business F has become much more customer focused:

‘Since starting the programme, I have focused on how to hand over my business on my retirement. I have appointed a General Manager on a 3-month trial, and have taken the decision to be deliberately inactive on day-to-day business matters. I have moved out of the main office into a small side office to help encourage delegation and empowerment. I have been spending my time writing operating manuals and process documents to preserve my knowledge and help the business in the future without me needing to be there. The staff had been very product-focused, but are now developing a greater customer service focus and working hard to understand customer needs. On reflection, I really think that the job description for the SME CEO should be different.’

Business G has prepared for a big sales push:

‘When I started the programme, I had some real people problems and sales were flattening out instead of increasing as planned. I have now employed an external consultant to produce a business plan and he is working via a business angel to secure funding. I am working with two of the people in my learning set as I rewrite my marketing materials. I have fired one salesman and recruited another, so that I am ready to go for a big push on sales in September and am feeling really confident.’

Business H now has a more committed management team:

‘My challenge concerned my co-director, who was being an obstacle in the way of growing the business as I wanted. I have worked through a 10-year plan for the business with my partner, based on current performance. This was very effective in showing him that the dream of selling up and retiring early to live in the Caribbean would not happen unless we changed the business fundamentally. On current figures, there would be nothing left of the business in 10 years. My partner is now committed and on board to help me make strategic changes. This has been a major achievement.’

Business I has better options for the future:

‘When I started at my company, I did not effectively negotiate and document a promised increase in my shareholding after an agreed number of years. The other directors founded the company but now view it as a pension fund and are not really interested in the day-to-day business. Any changes I suggest are rejected and I am really considering whether this is the right job for me. I would like to buy them out, but they insist that the business is worth a lot, yet the accountant values it at virtually nothing. People have talked about this perceived ‘sweat value’ as 20 years of emotional value, blood, sweat and tears, which means a lot to the founders of the business, but is of no value in financial terms. This programme has helped me to reflect on this position and consider my options for the future.’

Business J has improved quality and profitability:

‘My problems concerned my director who contradicted me and changed his mind, undermining my credibility with the staff. We had low morale in the factory and I wanted to improve this by focusing on improving quality and encouraging teamwork. The programme has really helped me understand how I can achieve this and I have felt confident to stand up to my director by having a reasonable discussion and asserting myself. I have also significantly improved relationships with the staff, who will now approach me with problems rather than hiding them from me. In this way, we have been able to look for a solution rather than allocate blame. We are already seeing improved profitability due to less quality problems.’

Business K has improved efficiency and reduced wastage:

‘I have been working on a major project review, where we have been concentrating on how to order promptly and make effective use of materials. By doing this, we hope to address the problems of wasting expensive materials and therefore increase profitability. This has also included a full review of our safety procedures.’

Business L is expanding its customer base:

‘When I started the programme, I had a very basic website, even though it would be the ideal way for me to promote my products and take orders (clothing company). I have now employed a professional website designer who is producing a very good technical and exciting website so that I can really expand my customer base. I can then concentrate my direct sales efforts on big, special orders. It has been very helpful to talk this through with the others in my group; some have already tried this and others had similar questions to mine.’

Business M has learned from sharing experiences with other participants:

‘This programme worked very well for me. I think it was fascinating how we shared some very sensitive and confidential information concerning other directors, shareholdings, customer problems etc. It was essential that there were no consultants who might exploit this information and also no direct competitors. The group needed to maintain full confidentiality and trust in each other. This was a vital ingredient to our success.’

Business N has increased new orders by 50%:

‘Since starting the programme, I have taken several actions. I have worked to improve internal communication and now produce newsletters, staff briefings and meet with people much more often. I am trying to adopt a more open style of management to encourage staff empowerment. I hope that this will ensure less reliance on me as an individual in the future and thus help create a healthier work/life balance for me. I have increased my marketing, promotional and PR activities. This has already helped to increase my new orders by 50% and there is a feeling that all the staff are more motivated.’

Business O has planned for a 25% increase in turnover this year:

‘This programme really gave me confidence. I have changed the structure of my company and now have two people in senior management positions to help build a chain of command. I have also implemented a sales incentive programme to help motivate staff and am in the process of relocating the office to create a better working environment and one where communication will flow more easily. The working environment has become more structured and we have weekly team briefings and staff training sessions. I also have a weekly meeting with my two senior managers. There is a new sales incentive package to give the opportunity to earn financial rewards. I will continue to write down my personal goals and assess periodically how I am working towards these. I have created a business plan based on 25% increase in turnover for 2006 and a plan of action on how to achieve this. I am delegating more of my responsibilities and this has enabled me to step back from the day-to-day working of the business and have more time for planning how to drive the business forward over the coming years. I think that the programme has given me the confidence to step back and feel that I do not personally have to do everything!’

Business P will now survive beyond the retirement of its current owner:

‘The principal benefit of the programme to the business has been to enable me to focus and establish a personal plan to introduce and initiate changes leading to a mutually acceptable exit from the business on my retirement. Prior to the programme I was having difficulty resolving many of the potential and real problems. By documenting a personal plan and building the company future around this, it has helped me to develop a personal and company vision for the future. This led to developing the management team and ongoing delegation of various tasks. The real benefit of the programme was the strength of the team formed with the other participants and the flexible approach to the delivery. This