leadership for - SEEDA

Foreword – by David Clutterbuck

One of the many conundrums for leaders, particularly for those in small businesses, is thatinnovation and risk are virtually inseparable. Without constant innovation, a business may beovertaken rapidly by more nimble competitors – and the pace at which this leapfrogging takes placeappears to be increasing. It doesn’t take long for someone else to copy and improve upon your goodidea. Yet innovation demands vital resources – not just investment in people, equipment andlicences, but also in the time and attentiveness of the business leaders.

Managing the balance between continuing to do what you do well and making the changes that willkeep you ahead of the market is exceedingly difficult, especially when the cost of failure may be thefuture of the business. Leaders need three key resources to keep on top of this balance:

• the space to step back, reflect and refocus

• trusted peers who they can rely on to challenge their cosy assumptions, to help them shiftperspective and, where appropriate, to raise their sights, so they recognise opportunities anddangers that might not have been obvious in the day to day running of the business

• and the focused energy to drive change against the natural inertia that all businesses exert.

The case studies in this report provide numerous examples of all three of these resources. Sometimesreflective time has been forced on the business leader by personal circumstances; sometimes it is acollective decision of the leadership team to create clear thinking time. However it happens, clearthinking and decision-making demands reflection.

The challenging role played by the SEEDA funded Leadership Specialist Advisers has been importantboth in raising the quality of thinking and decision-making about innovation. Many of the leadershave also accessed other sources of challenge and perspective shifting, such as coaching andparticipation in action learning groups.

Focused energy is the one characteristic provided entirely by the small business leaders themselves.Even here, however, the presence of structured, credible advice and help in thinking complex issuesthrough has clearly been influential in giving leaders the clarity of vision and the confidencenecessary to implement sometimes drastic change and to see it through.

Overall, the case studies demonstrate the value of a targeted, light-touch approach to supportingsmall businesses. In times of economic hardship, it is all too easy for businesses to hunker down andpostpone innovation. Yet history teaches us that those businesses which innovate in hard times arethe next generation of businesses to thrive. I commend this publication to all those responsible forhelping small businesses to grow, and to business leaders, who may be inspired by the examplesgiven.

David ClutterbuckVisiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam University and Oxford Brookes University; he is also theManaging Director of Clutterbuck Associates.

1

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 1

2

Introduction by Christina Hartshorn

Innovation is important; especially now. A number of critical challenges are being faced in the UKand across the world; the economic downturn, globalisation, the technological and knowledgerevolutions, cultural convergence and climate change are all issues that need to be addressed. Thesechanges mean that innovation is not just desirable but essential to survive in an increasinglycompetitive world.

The challenge for the South East of England is to maintain its competitiveness in the face ofintensifying international competition. Innovation is key to economic growth and development,critical to business performance and productivity gain and is the catalyst and fuel that drivesproductivity, growth and wealth creation. In this publication we show how leadership support hashelped businesses become more innovative.

The South East England Development Agency’s (SEEDA) favoured view of the knowledge economy -the global milieu of the 21st century – is ‘the capacity and capability to create and innovate newideas, thoughts, processes and products, and to translate these into economic value and wealth’1 .This tenet has been central to successive regional economic strategies.

Innovation is defined as: ‘the successful exploitation of new ideas’. This implies not just theinvention of a new idea, but it being ‘brought to market’, used, put into practice or exploited insome way. It can lead to new products, processes, systems, attitudes or services that improvesomething or add value2.

Inventive leadership and management skills are crucial in ensuring that business owners embedinnovation as a core business activity. These become more important as the South East increasinglyhas to compete on the basis of knowledge advantage.

So when business owners or managers lack the confidence or know-how to innovate – to developnew products, services, markets, systems – and to keep innovation at the strategic core of theirbusiness, the economy as a whole can be held back. Research shows that half the variance inbusiness performance can be accounted for by leadership; 15% directly influenced by leadershipand 35% through the leaders’ choice of business strategy3.

In 2006, SEEDA began to pilot new support mechanisms that ensured business owners,entrepreneurs and managers could access the leadership and management skills they needed inorder to innovate and thus grow successful businesses. Leadership for Global Competitiveness(LGC) was an initiative that brought together all relevant economic partners in the region; businessowners and managers, academics, publicly funded business advisers and independent leadership andmanagement development providers. Support, guidance, coaching and many other types ofassistance helped business leaders and managers create innovation-led value in their companies.

Universities and colleges, private sector providers and public business advisers had all workedindividually for many years with businesses. The concept behind LGC was to get them to worktogether using international good practice to increase their effectiveness in supporting businessowners and managers.

There were three strands to the LGC initiative which ran from October 2006 to March 2009:

• Leadership Advisory Service, with a dedicated team of Leadership Specialist Advisers (LSAs) whobuilt on the work of other advisers, including Business Link

• Leadership Web Portal, providing advisers with access to current research and e-learning support

1. Huggins, R, 2001,Global Index ofRegional KnowledgeEconomies:Benchmarking SouthEast England. FinalReport for SEEDA

2. The Innovation Unit,What is Innovation?http://www.innovation-unit.co.uk/about-us/what-is-innovation/what-is-innovation.htmlaccessed 11/08/2009

3. Bowman and Helfatcited in Isaksen S andTidd J, 2006, Meetingthe InnovationChallenge: Leadershipfor Transformation andGrowth, Wiley

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 2

• Leadership Academy, promoting collaborations between providers, academics and advisers in theregion to develop and share knowledge of leadership for innovation.

Preliminary evaluation suggests LGC has been extremely successful; businesses increased orsafeguarded their turnover and productivity, with most companies considering that the changesmade as a consequence of their participation in LGC will be long term with sustainable benefits.

The success of this initiative was due to the many collaborations that happened over three years.Businesses increased turnover and profit, academics and private development companies creatednew knowledge about the links between leadership and innovation and shared that knowledge as acommunity of practice through workshops and a quarterly newsletter. All the partners agreed thatcase studies about the journeys undertaken by businesses engaged in the initiative would take thelearning to a wider audience. This publication aims to share that learning, with input from thebusinesses sharing their stories and journeys and the practitioners, advisers and academics sharingtheir commentaries. Its purpose is to help business support organisations, universities, leadershippractitioners and policy makers engage more effectively with business owners, entrepreneurs andmanagers in the challenge of releasing innovation-led value from businesses.

Each case is designed to demonstrate the interdependence of quality leadership and innovation.They provide examples that show in depth the range of leadership interventions that work forbusiness leaders. This will give insight to both business intermediaries and those studying smallbusiness strategy and practice. In addition, we hope that this publication will provide a valuableresource to inform policy and help develop quality leadership support and learning interventions.

It is inspiring to see how small and medium enterprises in the South East region are responding tothe recession. The case studies we have developed show the pivotal relationship between leadershipdevelopment and innovation and the impact of this on the owners and managers, the customers andthe productivity of the business.

Christina HartshornHead of Leadership and EntrepreneurshipSouth East England Development Agency

3

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 3

Acknowledgements

The production of this publication has beena collaborative venture, with many peoplecontributing to its development. I wouldsincerely like to thank the businessmanagers and leaders who allowed me intotheir businesses to talk with them and theirpeople in order to develop the case studies.

I would also like to thank the LeadershipSpecialist Advisers who recommended theseinnovative businesses as subjects and whocontributed towards the individual studiesthemselves. Additional thanks are offered toall the advisers and intermediaries who readand commented on individual case studies.

I particularly wish to acknowledge thecontribution of Yiannis Gabriel, for hisencouragement, ideas and suggestions onthe structure and format of the publicationat the start, and all the other academicswho, through their commentaries, havemade such a critical contribution to thepublication. Genevieve Liveley, from BristolUniversity, read all of the case studies andgave me valuable critical feedback on both

their content and composition, for which Iam also very grateful.

Janet Robbins, Regional Manager forLeadership and Management from theSouth East Business Links, providedmanagement, support and guidance toensure that this publication was planned,written and structured according to the brieffrom SEEDA, and that it was written to meetthe needs of the target audience.

It is most important to acknowledge the rolethat SEEDA has had in instigating,commissioning and supporting thedevelopment of both this publication andthe overall programme which enabled thesebusinesses to receive such guidance.Without the commitment from SEEDA andthe support from Christina Hartshorn inparticular, this publication would not havebeen possible.

Avril MacleodPublication author

4

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 4

Leadership for Innovation

5

Contents

Chapter 1: Background 6

Chapter 2: Using this publication 8

Chapter 3: Case Studies 11

3.1 – Triometric 11

3.2 – BAC Care Ltd 15

3.3 – Network and Cabling Solutions 19

3.4 – Advanced Resource Managers Ltd 23

3.5 – Wholesale Hand Tools 29

3.6 – Archer Technicoat Ltd 33

3.7 – MEP Ltd 37

3.8 – Cambridge Research Systems Ltd 42

3.9 – Stratophase 47

3.10 – Advanced Communication Solutions Ltd 52

3.11 – Inspiration Chartered Architects 57

Chapter 4: Final Thoughts 62

Biographies 64

Bibliography 66

Glossary 67

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 5

Chapter 1: Background

IntroductionInvestment in the development of leadershipcapability is considered to be a critical factor inimproving innovation, productivity andbusiness success. This publication wascommissioned by SEEDA to investigate and,where possible, provide a demonstrable linkbetween leadership development, effectiveleadership, a company’s ability to innovate anda positive impact on the business, its people,the customers, and the economy.

The case studies in this publication weredeveloped from the 470 organisations in theSouth East that benefited from the support,advice and development provided by theLeadership Specialist Advisers (LSAs). The LSAsformed one strand of the Leadership for GlobalCompetitiveness (LGC) initiative; the otherstrands were the Leadership Web Portal, andthe Leadership Academy.

The LSAs provided up to 4 days of fully fundedadvice and assistance to business owners,leaders, and managers to support thedevelopment of their vision and skills, enablingthem to become more innovative andentrepreneurial, and to improve their company’scapacity and capability to innovate. The LSAs:

- diagnosed the leadership needs for theorganisation;

- provided information, advice, feedback,coaching, mentoring and training to leaderswithin the organisation;

- recommended various solutions andsuppliers for further leadership supportand development;

- sourced funding if appropriate (a £1,000maximum grant was available to some of thebusinesses for further support, developmentor training).

Leadership interventionsThe case studies describe examples of a rangeof leadership development interventions thatwere accessed by the business leaders. The typeof advice and assistance provided by the LSA

was based on an initial diagnosis of theirspecific need; LSAs used a variety of tools todiagnose needs, engage their clients and toinform advice, support, and subsequentdevelopment provision and recommendations*.

Some of the businesses cited in the casestudies were able to access a grant to helpthem to pay for further leadershipdevelopment. Others were already involved inand funding leadership development activitiesor went on to access and fund these, based onthe identification of their needs. The mostwidely valued leadership developmentinterventions that leaders and managersreported using before and after the LSAsupport were action learning, coaching, andformal training. *

Innovation‘Innovation is the successful exploitation ofnew ideas’ - this definition is from the formerDepartment for Trade and Industry (DTI).Innovation in business is more than thedevelopment of new and innovative products;it is the successful exploitation of ideas that arenew to the business, resulting in tangiblebenefits to the business, the people who workthere, the customers or the community. Thegoal of innovation is positive change, to makesomething or someone better as aconsequence, and may relate to products orservices, or the way that they are made,promoted or delivered to customers.

Simon Derry, Project Leaders International, 1.said ‘Innovation is rarely one big idea - themost innovative companies are those who makereal gains and progress through smallincremental changes to products, services andprocesses. The ideas and innovations aremanaged and coordinated and planned for.Control of ideas and innovations is crucial –that is what innovative companies do’.

In researching and developing these casestudies, this definition and understanding ofinnovation has been used to determine theinnovations that have occurred within thebusinesses as a consequence of a leadershipdevelopment intervention.

* See the Glossary at theend of this publicationfor a detaileddescription of thevariety of diagnostictools, concepts andleadership interventionsdescribed in the casestudies.

1. Derry 2008, Holding usBack,

6

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 6

2. NESTA (2008)Innovation IndexWorking Paper -Proposal for Measuresof Firm-LevelInnovationPerformance in12 sectors of UKIndustry

Some of the businesses featured in the casestudies were already highly innovative in theirproducts; the LSA intervention would helpthem to become innovative in other importantareas of the business. The case studiesdemonstrate a range and combination of bothincremental and radical changes in all areas ofthe business, including:

- product innovation - new or improvedproducts or product components

- service innovation - a new or improvedservice

- process innovation - significant changes tothe way that goods or services are producedor provided

- marketing innovation – the opening orexploitation of new markets

- management innovation – strategic oroperational changes to the organisation ofbusiness or its functions.

Impact performance measuresFor an innovation to be successful, it isimportant that a business should be able todemonstrate a measurable impact or benefitfrom its implementation.

Where businesses demonstrate diverseexamples of innovation, traditional product-centric performance measures – sales orprofitability impacts or patent outputs – aretoo narrow or inappropriate to use.

In order to identify and quantify the impact ofthe diverse innovations made within our casestudy businesses, the proposed innovationperformance measures from the NESTA workingpaper, 2. were used as a guide. These helped toensure that appropriate performance measureswere used to gauge the full impact ofinnovation on the business, the people whowork there, the customers or the economy.

Case study selectionIn selecting the case studies for thispublication, we were initially guided by ourinnovation criteria and the company profiles asrecommended by the LSAs; a number ofbusinesses were then contacted, with theintention of providing case studies that were:

- a representative sample of the range ofsectors, size and type of businesses, and fromall locations, in the South East;

- a range of innovation types and leadershipdevelopment interventions, demonstrating atangible and measurable outcome from theirinnovations.

The effects of the economic downturn began tomanifest themselves just as the case studieswere being researched and developed in lateNovember 2008. Although not a central themeof this publication, the effects of the economicdownturn and the subsequent recession onbusinesses who are the subject of these casestudies have been impossible to ignore. Wherethe adverse economic climate has beensignificant to the background or developmentof the business and its leadership, it has beenincluded in the case study.

7

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 7

Chapter 2: Using this publication

User guideAll of these case studies describe howbusinesses have benefited from the innovationinspired by the support and advice of an LSAand from a number of different types ofleadership development intervention. They arewritten in a similar format, providinginformation on:

- the business and its background; its type,size, turnover, and a summary of the issuesand challenges in the leadership and thebusiness prior to the LSA and leadershipdevelopment intervention;

- details of the leadership development adviceand support provided by the LSA and anysubsequent leadership developmentintervention;

- a summary of the innovation that hasoccurred in the business since the leadershipdevelopment intervention and the impact onthe business, its people, the customers, andthe community;

- plans for further change and improvementsin the future.

Each of the case studies is followed by threeshort commentaries that are intended to givethe reader a range of different perspectives.The commentaries provide perspectives oneach case study from:

- a director or manager within the business,on how the leadership development andinnovation have changed things for themand the business;

- an intermediary (a leadership or businessadviser or a provider), on their view of theleadership intervention and how it hasimpacted on the leaders and the business;

- an academic or a leadership expert,providing an analysis of the main themes,issues and concerns that it portrays.

These commentaries analyse and engage withthe case study data and provide a valuableresource to inform the reader.In thinking on, a number of questions havebeen included at the end of each case study.This invites the reader to reflect on what ishappening within the organisation: what wentwell and not so well; how they would haveacted in similar circumstances; and how thingsmight progress in the future.

Each case study concludes with abibliographical section – Reading on – thatprovides sources of reference material andpublications that could further inform thereader.

The case study matrixThe matrix overleaf provides a summary of thecase studies to help guide the reader in theirselection.

8

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 8

9

Trio

met

ricSu

rrey

Page

11

BA

CCa

reLt

dKe

nt

Page

15

Net

wor

kan

dCa

blin

gSo

lutio

nsKe

nt

Page

19

Adv

ance

dR

esou

rce

Man

ager

sLt

dH

amps

hire

Page

23

Who

lesa

leH

and

Tool

sKe

ntPa

ge29

Arc

herT

echn

icoa

tLt

dB

ucki

ngha

msh

irePa

ge33

ImpactMeasuresAchieved

Improved:p

rodu

ctiv

ity,p

rofit

abili

ty,

sale

s,sk

ills,

capa

city

Increased:

prod

uct

licen

ces,

mar

ket

nich

es,n

ewcu

stom

ers,

mot

ivat

ion

and

loya

lty

Improved:t

urno

ver,

skill

s,ca

paci

ty,

clie

ntsa

tisfa

ctio

nIncreased:

clie

ntho

urs

sold

,m

otiv

atio

n,lo

yalty

Improved:q

uote

toor

derr

ate,

skill

s,se

rvic

eIncreased:

savi

ngs,

qual

ityof

cust

omer

inte

ract

ion

Improved:p

rofit

abili

ty,s

kills

,m

otiv

atio

n,at

triti

onra

teIncreased:

mar

ket

nich

es

Improved:m

oral

e(t

empo

rary

)Increased:

sale

s(t

empo

rary

)

Improved:g

row

th,s

kills

,pro

file/

com

mun

icat

ions

with

cust

omer

s,ef

ficie

ncy

Increased:

staf

f,cu

stom

eran

dse

ctor

cove

rage

Business

Size/Sector/Type

17 Tech

nolo

gy:

Soft

war

em

onito

ring

60+

Soci

alCa

re:

Com

mun

ityca

rean

dho

me

help

prov

ider

35 Elec

tric

al:

Dat

aca

ble

and

netw

ork

inst

alla

tion

122+

Rec

ruitm

ent:

Rec

ruitm

ent

Cons

ulta

ncy

6+1

0W

hole

sale

:Co

nstr

uctio

nto

ols

6 Mat

eria

lste

chno

logy

:Su

rfac

eco

atin

gs

Innovation

Prod

uct

Serv

ice

Proc

ess

Proc

ess

Mar

ketin

g

Serv

ice

Proc

ess

Mar

ketin

g

Prod

uct

Serv

ice

Proc

ess

Mar

ketin

g

Mar

ketin

g

Mar

ketin

g

Gre

gYo

ung

Sara

hR

obin

son

Dav

idG

ray

Jill

Jam

eson

Dav

idSi

ms

Keith

Grin

t

LSA/Leadership

Development

Intervention

TNA

Bel

bin

Wor

ksho

psG

rant

Lead

ersh

ipde

velo

pmen

tpr

ogra

mm

e

Ref

erra

lto

man

agem

ent

cons

ulta

ntPa

cerd

iagn

osis

Cons

ulta

ncy/

men

torin

g

Und

erly

ing

Bel

iefs

test

Men

torin

gW

orks

hops

Act

ion

lear

ning

Impa

ctan

alys

isG

rant

Lead

ersh

ipde

velo

pmen

tpr

ogra

mm

e

Men

torin

gG

rant

Dip

lom

apr

ogra

mm

e

Bel

bin

Men

torin

gG

rant

Act

ion

Lear

ning

BusinessName

Academic

Commentary

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 9

10

MEP

Ltd

Kent

Page

37

Cam

brid

geR

esea

rch

Syst

ems

Ltd

Kent

Page

42

Stra

toph

ase

Ham

pshi

re

Page

47

Adv

ance

dCo

mm

unic

atio

nSo

lutio

nsLt

dO

xfor

dshi

re

Page

52

Insp

iratio

nCh

arte

red

Arc

hite

cts

Ber

kshi

re

Page

57

ImpactMeasuresAchieved

Improved:p

rofit

abili

ty,q

ualit

yan

def

ficie

ncy,

skill

sIncreased:

prod

uctio

n,co

stsa

ving

s

Improved:c

omm

unic

atio

ns,

colla

bora

tions

,obj

ectiv

es,s

trat

egic

dire

ctio

n,st

ruct

ure

and

cultu

reIncreased:

prod

uctiv

ity,c

onfid

ence

,se

rvic

e,kn

owle

dge

base

Improved:c

omm

unic

atio

ns,s

trat

egy,

staf

fsa

tisfa

ctio

nan

dre

tent

ion,

rela

tions

hips

with

inve

stor

s/

indu

stry

,lin

ksbe

twee

nte

chni

cala

ndsa

les

Increased:

conf

iden

ce,c

olla

bora

tions

Improved:s

kills

,str

ateg

yIncreased:

prod

uctiv

ity,c

onfid

ence

,cu

stom

erin

tera

ctio

ns,m

arke

tni

ches

,co

llabo

ratio

ns

Improved:m

easu

rem

ent

ofpe

rfor

man

ce,c

ontr

ol,d

ecis

ion

mak

ing,

capa

city

Increased:

enqu

iries

,eff

icie

ncy

Business

Size/Sector/Type

55 Man

ufac

turin

g:M

ould

ing,

mac

hini

ngan

dfa

bric

atio

ns

14+

6as

soci

ates

Scie

ntifi

cte

chno

logy

:V

isio

nte

stin

geq

uipm

ent

13 Bio

chem

ical

tech

nolo

gy:

Chem

ical

proc

ess

sens

ors

12 Scie

ntifi

cte

chno

logy

:H

earin

gpr

otec

tion

and

com

mun

icat

ion

devi

ces

5 Smal

lfirm

ofar

chite

cts

Innovation

Proc

ess

Proc

ess

Man

agem

ent

Proc

ess

Man

agem

ent

Proc

ess

Mar

ketin

gM

anag

emen

t

Proc

ess

Mar

ketin

gM

anag

emen

t

Yian

nis

Gab

riel

Shau

nG

anno

n

Nig

elLo

cket

t

Mar

kR

usse

ll

Dav

idCl

utte

rbuc

k

LSA/Leadership

Development

Intervention

Lead

ersh

ipde

velo

pmen

tpr

ogra

mm

eM

ento

ring

Bel

bin

Mye

rsB

riggs

Men

torin

gG

rant

IoD

deve

lopm

ent

prog

ram

me

Mye

rsB

riggs

Wor

ksho

p

Bel

bin

Lead

ersh

ipde

velo

pmen

tpr

ogra

mm

e

Bel

bin

Mye

rsB

riggs

Lead

ersh

ipde

velo

pmen

tpr

ogra

mm

eCo

achi

ng

BusinessName

PageNo.

Academic

Commentary

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 10

Chapter 3: Case studies - Triometric 3.1

The BusinessTriometric is a technology company thatspecialises in the creation of real usermonitoring products for high value Webapplications. Based in the Enterprise Centre atthe Royal Holloway University in Surrey, with17 employees, it was established in 1999 andhas grown to become a robust and profitableorganisation. Their products capture and reporton Web application usage, errors andperformance as experienced by real users,enabling customers to manage upgrades andimplementations, monitor service levels andmaximise user satisfaction. Triometric suppliesproducts to a number of Fortune 500corporations globally, including some of theworld’s largest enterprises, informationproviders and online retailers.

The InnovationQuotes on Triometric’s innovations fromMatthew Goulden, the M.D.

Product – Triometric Analyzer version 5. ‘Wewere able to incorporate 3 key new featuresinto the revised version of our key product for2008. We had the idea for these features forsome time, but the road map and managementstructure enabled us to work more effectively,freeing up the time and resource to implementour good ideas’.

Service – Application Upgrade Review andPerformance Health Check service. ‘Weintroduced this service (in partnership withAMOSCA) to our customers in April 2008. Itenables them to plan and evaluate Webapplication upgrades by monitoring users andreporting on a wide range of performance,availability and usage metrics’.

Process – the road map for productdevelopment. ‘The road map enabled us todevelop our product within a week of thedeadline of a twelve month schedule; we hadnever achieved this production deadlinebefore’.

The BackgroundTriometric’s Managing Director, MatthewGoulden, describes the start of the company’sjourney, based on an interview that took placein January 2009.

‘I knew that we needed to develop themanagement structure and capability withinthe business after I took over sole control ofthe business from my partner in 2007. Thebusiness was good, but was in stasis. I felt weneeded a new start with a clean slate and a newfocus; clarification of direction and of ourculture was vital for us to grow and prosper asa business.

Our employees have always been technicallycompetent, hard working, loyal and able andretention was not a problem for us as abusiness. They were, however, operating in abusiness where processes could best bedescribed as ‘ad hoc’. This meant that we wereall working very hard and still struggled to meetour deadlines. Good ideas remained just that,something that we knew we could and shouldimplement but we did not have the time orresource to do so.

Martin Smith, our Leadership Specialist Adviser,provided an invaluable impartial andprofessional approach at the initial diagnosisand advice stage and maintained this duringthe on-going support he provided, linked toour new vision and strategy. Martin stayed withus, got his hands dirty and helped us to stay ontrack; his involvement ensured that weachieved tangible outcomes from thedevelopment activities.

I found the leadership development programmethat Martin recommended to be hugelybeneficial in my new role as managing director.My key managers have demonstrated improvedmanagement capability from their developmentand have grown into their new roles. My peoplenow have a clear view of the focus and strategyof the business, operate within processes thatsupport their performance and required outputsand know how they contribute to businesssuccess’.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionMartin Smith started working with Triometric inAugust 2007; at the initial meeting heundertook a diagnosis of the business and atraining needs analysis of the managementteam. He provided feedback andrecommendations for actions and training,which were subsequently implemented by the

11

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 11

company. Martin administered the Belbin teamroles diagnosis and facilitated an off-site dayand workshops for employees; the leadershipworkshops and programmes were provided byan external provider and supported by a SEEDAgrant.

Recommended and implemented actionsincluded:

• A leadership workshop for the ManagingDirector

• A leadership workshop for two departmentmanagers

• A leadership development programme forthe Managing Director

• A Key Managers programme for twodepartment managers

• A facilitated off-site day for all staff, todevelop a new vision for the business andgain commitment to it

• Belbin team-roles exercise with allemployees

• A facilitated customer service workshop forall employees

• A facilitated time management workshop forall employees

• A facilitated workshop on quality

The Implementation JourneyThe development of the leadership skills of theManaging Director and the two key managersled to incremental change that has affected thepeople, performance and processes within thebusiness. The business developed a focusedstrategy, with quarterly management reviewmeetings monitoring and reporting onprojections, Key performance indicators andobjectives. Team meetings were scheduledweekly and every meeting was planned andexecuted to meet best practice guidelines.

Communications within and between teamsimproved, partly as a consequence of effectiveand timely meetings, but also because ofimproved objectives and targets for thebusiness as a whole and for each team.

A key new process was introduced for productdevelopment called the road map; designed tohelp the product development department inthe scheduling of new and updated products.Product development is now on schedule andmeeting prescribed deadlines.

Achieving deadlines has now becomeeveryone’s responsibility; training has helped allemployees to see how the prioritisation of timeand resources was an essential part of productdevelopment, technical support and sales.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationA new staff member who has worked at thecompany for a year recently commented‘Triometric is unrecognisable from when I firststarted working here a year ago’.

Matthew Goulden describes the most tangiblebenefit to the business of improving leadershipcapability and innovation: ‘2008 has beenour best trading year so far, with productivityup by 40%’.

Other impact measures include:

• Improved profitability from the improvedprocess, products and services provided

• Improved sales

• Increase in the number of product licences

• New market niches entered in Europe

• Increase in the number and value of newcustomers reached by the new product

• Improved skills within the business

• Increased employee and manager loyaltyand motivation

• Improved capacity for the realisation of newpossibilities

The Future PlansThe future for Triometric looks positive; ordersare good and sales are holding up, despite therecession. They have plans in place to reviewand consolidate the improvements that havebeen made over the previous eighteen monthswithin the business. The existing performance

12

Case Study: Triometric

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 12

appraisal system will be linked to the road mapto become more task orientated, with short tomedium term targets measured quarterly. It islikely that the business will move to new andlarger premises in 2009, as they have outgrowntheir current space. Triometric are currentlyworking with an external consultant fromForrester Research in a market analysis exerciseto help them to identify new opportunities forproducts and markets. They are also indiscussion with Royal Holloway University ofLondon to develop a Knowledge TransferPartnership.

They also have plans to:

• capture good ideas from within the companywith an innovation forum

• consult with customers during the productdevelopment process

Commentary from Richard Baker,Development Manager:‘All employees were pleased to participatein the process of developing the vision andstrategy for the business; it helped them tofeel valued and involved in the future of thebusiness. The workshops have given themnew tools to operate more effectively and tohelp them to keep on track; their self andbusiness awareness have improved.Improved communications and the sharingof knowledge, expertise and ideas haveimpacted positively on the way we work asa team and the way we work as a business.We now all have a better understanding ofthe different roles, responsibilities andpriorities of each of the teams. My team’scritical view of how the product looks andworks and its image and relevance to thecustomer has improved greatly.

Innovation in our business can now be seenas a virtuous circle, where innovations aremade possible because Triometric has themanagement structure, the businessprocesses and the skills in place to enableits people to work effectively’.

13


Improvedworking

efficiencies,quality andproductivity

Innovation

LeadershipDevelopment

Industrystandards andcustomerneeds met

Motivation andachievement

Improvedpractices,

processes andperformance

ImprovedLeadership

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 13

Commentary from Martin Smith,Leadership Specialist Adviser:‘Matthew and the team have used theconsultancy and training they received tomaximum benefit for the business.

From the start of our relationship, theirmindset was positive; Matthew and thesenior managers were very open to tryingnew ideas and developing their skills. Theywere keen to involve the whole team in thedevelopment of the business plan, theBelbin profiling exercise and the workshopson time management and customer service.These activities were designed to improvestaff involvement and commitment and helpdevelop individual initiative and leadershipskills.

Matthew, Andrew and Richard have led theway and provided excellent role models forall of the people within the business. Theyhave all been involved in their own personaldevelopment, have sought 360 degreefeedback from their teams and used thisfeedback to help inform their developmentas leaders’.

Academic commentary fromGreg Young‘This is a tale of a business that has founditself and generated success by taking somesimple, but profound decisions.

The first key decision involved clarity ofleadership through the Managing Director

buying out the partner in 2007. Manybusinesses suffer from having two generalson the battlefield, either competing witheach other or delivering mixed messages.Through the appointment of a singleultimate leader, the employees will knowwho is in charge and will no longer have tosecond guess who will win out.The second key decision was to engage anexternal facilitator to help the businessdevelop a new vision for the future.Importantly, this exercise involved all staff,giving everyone a say in where the businesswas going and helping them to understandtheir role in getting it there. An externalfacilitator levels the playing field andencourages all participants to express theirviews, generating real innovation withpurpose. Consultation and involvement cansometimes be a luxury that is overlooked bya small business. Leaders often believe theyhave to know all the answers and providethe vision themselves; where this happens,people and the business do not grow.

The third key decision that brought successto this organisation was the understandingby the Managing Director of the need forleadership development that includedhimself and others on the company. It is thebehaviours of the Managing Director thatsets the climate in the company, giving riseto the culture, which in turn enablesperformance. Here the Managing Directoris building capability for the future bydeveloping the leadership skills that willallow innovation to flourish’.

14

Thinking on:1. What is the mechanism for keeping the vision and vigour in the company fresh, or will it lose its

vitality over time?

2. How will Triometric continue to innovate its portfolio of products to meet the rapidly evolvingneeds of the market?

3. What are the ways that the MD will build a sustainable organisation that is no longer dependentupon him, so that he can exercise an exit strategy when he is ready?

Reading on:Goleman, D. (2002) The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership.

Gallwey, T. (2002) The Inner Game of Work: Overcoming Mental Obstacles for Maximum Performance.

Whitmore, J. (1996) Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose.


32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 14

Case Study: BAC Care Ltd 3.2

The BusinessBAC Care Ltd is a business that provides careand home help services to clients in thecommunity in the Swale area, with fundingthrough Social Services contracts and fromprivate funds. Their premises are situated in thetown of Milton Regis in Kent and they employ60 community carers in the Isle of Sheppey,Sittingbourne and Faversham. Established in1996, BAC Care is run by a husband and wifeteam: Beverley and John Counsell. Beverleyand John have worked hard over the years tobuild a business with a strong culture ofproviding quality and empathetic care/homehelp services to clients in their own homes.

The InnovationThe innovation that has occurred in thisbusiness is in the sales and marketing of carerhours. Carer hours are the main target of thebusiness and are managed by the officecoordinators, who respond to enquiries andrequests from clients in the community. Prior torestructuring the business and implementingsystems improvements, the coordinatorsreceiving enquiries and requests for serviceswould first have to check if there was existingresource and capacity to deliver; if the capacitywas not available, the request for the servicewould have to be declined. Consequently,clients went elsewhere and business growthwas impossible. New systems and guidelinesnow demand that coordinators adopt a verydifferent approach. Their job is now to acceptall the orders and then to find or stimulate theresource to deliver it. Established carers arenow working to their capacity and posts havebeen created for new carers.

Each week, the coordinator who sells the mosthours is recognised and rewarded by beinggiven the ‘yellow jersey’ to wear for the week.This acts as an incentive to the team to workhard to identify and allocate the resource whereit is needed. The business no longer turnsrequests for services away, orders are good, andsales of hours have increased, despite therecession.

The BackgroundBusiness background information was gatheredfrom an interview with Beverley and JohnCounsell in late January 2009 and followed up

by a further interview in May 2009 to identifythe impact of the improvements they havemade to the business.

BAC Care received a visit from Business Link,Kent in the late summer of 2008; the BusinessLink adviser felt that the owners would benefitfrom some impartial advice from a LeadershipAdviser and referred the business to StanStrangwick. The referral was made at a timewhen the couple were feeling demotivatedand unsure about the way forward. They hadrecently received an offer for the business andwere tempted to sell. Beverley was a hands-onmanager and made all the decisions, includingall micro decisions, within the business. As aconsequence, management and trouble-shooting tasks consumed all their workinghours and energy, the business was in a rutand going to work had become an effort.

‘Stan visited and talked with us about theissues we had in the business. He felt we wouldbenefit from a detailed analysis of our businessand some guidance on a way forward; hereferred us to a management/planningconsultant’ reports Beverley.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionStan Strangwick recommended that Beverleyand John work with a consultant to complete abusiness review and to identify a strategy forthe business.

‘A consultant from Manna House Consultingvisited us and used a tool called Pacer to helpus to identify our business and personalaspirations and priorities. We worked with theconsultant for three hours a week for fiveweeks and gradually we began to see a wayforward. With his help we were encouraged tovisualise the future and define a way forward.At the end of the consultation period we hadcomplete clarity on what had to be done’ saidJohn.

The detailed business analysis reviewed theservices, operations and roles in the business todevelop a plan for the way forward: officebased staff, community carers and clients werealso consulted to help identify areas forimprovement.

15

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 15

The review identified a lack of clarity in roles,responsibilities and accountabilities for thestaff. It also identified that essential systemsneeded by the business to function effectivelywere either inadequate or did not exist. Theresulting plan identified a vision for the future,with clearly defined goals, targets, objectives,priorities and accountabilities. The need forthree departments was identified and thesewere immediately created, along with anorganisational chart that defined and allocatedclear management and operationalresponsibilities.

The Implementation JourneyAs soon as the plans for the business weredeveloped, Beverley and John set aboutimplementing the changes that would makethem a reality. The plans were exactly whatBeverley and John needed to boost theirenthusiasm and motivation as leaders in thebusiness. The key changes to be made werecommunicated to all staff and a meetingstructure was put in place to manage andmonitor progress towards the businessimprovements. Staff were fully informed andinvolved in all the developments and changesthat were to be made. New departments werecreated, responsibilities allocated and thesystems developed and installed to ensureconsistency and quality in service delivery. Thebusiness underwent a total restructuring thatwas completed within a three month period.

Ongoing surveys of clients and carers now helpthem to keep abreast of issues as they arise –rather than dealing with issues relating to clientsor carers when they have already evolved intoproblems. Weekly production meetings andmonthly management meetings continue tomonitor and review operations and targets.

Beverley commented ‘It is easy now to seewhere and why problems within the businessoccur; before the changes we had loads ofproblems and spent much of our time trying toresolve them, without a clear idea of why theywere arising or how we could prevent them’.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationBeverley Counsell describes the tangiblebenefit to her and John of the changes they

have implemented in the business: ‘We areenjoying running the business again and feelexcited about its future. We are able now tothink about expanding our geographicalcoverage, whilst maintaining the quality ofservice that we are proud of. 2009 is going tobe an exciting time; now we have theinfrastructure in place we can exploreopportunities for new business and know thatwe can deliver a great service’.

The changes and innovation have had thefollowing impact on the business:

• Increase in the number of client hours sold –up by 8% in January 2009

• Improved turnover from increased hours sold


• Increased employee loyalty and motivation

• Improved capacity for the realisation of newpossibilities

• Improved client satisfaction

The Future PlansThe future for BAC Care is positive; they haveplans to further increase sales of hours byexpanding the geographical area of thebusiness. They are currently investigatingpartnerships with other community careproviders and are optimistic that they will bein a position to negotiate a new Social Servicescontract. They also have plans to develop amarketing strategy and a company website.

In 2009 they hope to move to larger premiseswith a training room and improve the ITresources they use to manage the business andthe remote staff. They plan to continue theirregular surveys of staff, clients and SocialServices to monitor change and ensure qualityof services provided.

There is a feeling of optimism and confidencein the business, in the new structure and in itsleaders; turnover, profits and staff numbers arepredicted to grow in 2009 in spite of therecession.

16

Case Study: BAC Care Ltd

32699gwe_p1-16:32699gwe_p1 27/8/09 14:17 Page 16

Commentary from Beverley Counsell(June 2009):‘The consultant from Manna HouseConsulting continues to work with us as acoach and mentor, helping us to maintainour motivation for improving the businessand keeping us on track with theimprovements we have made. From the startof our relationship, he has encouraged us tothink that we could improve the businessand that it was worth the effort to try. He iscurrently helping us on quality assuranceand is an inspiration to me as the leader ofthe business. The ongoing consultancysupport has cost the business approximately£5,000 over an eight month period, but thisexpense has been worth it and we havegone from strength to strength. Before theconsultant started working with us, we werejust plodding along and hoping for the best.Now we have created an environment thathas enabled our business to grow; we havethe systems in place and have made ourpeople responsible, with clear lines ofauthority, to deliver a great service to ourclients. It is nice to come to work and be incharge of people who are able and willing.

At the initial case study interview in January,we had already made considerable changesand improvements to the business and hadjust begun to see the benefits of these. Thebusiness turnover has grown steadily overthe past six months, from £69,000 permonth in December 2008 to £86,000 inJune 2009, representing a rise in turnoverand hours sold of 22%.

We have created a new Head of Care post,to manage all new business and we havedaily production meetings to monitor theeffectiveness of sales and to progress newbusiness. We have had a recruitment driveand recruited 15 new carers this year. Weare still looking for larger premises inSittingbourne and are waiting to hear on atender to provide care that could mean anadditional 250 hours per week sold.

We have been in business for 13 years, andwe now have more work that ever before;the future is looking very good for us, ourstaff and our clients’.

Commentary from Stan Strangwick,Leadership Specialist Adviser:‘When I first met Beverley it was evidentthat she had come to regard the business asa burden, despite it providing a decentincome. Having taken the business tosomething of a plateau, she was clearly nolonger gaining the same satisfaction as shehad experienced during the period of its“growing pains”, and hence her personalmotivation had also dropped. In the absenceof any vision of the future herself – otherthan just doing the “same old same old” –it was clear that she could hardly lead herstaff to a place that she couldn’t articulateherself. Her circumstances were not unique,and I felt that she needed some strongfacilitation and “accountability” to someoneelse, and with knowledge of variousproviders felt that Manna House and their“Pacer” methodology would be theappropriate intervention to catalyse somechanges to the business. “Pacer” providessomething of a short, sharp shocktreatment, which I felt would be vital tomaintaining Beverley’s interest and buy-into the process, and I understand that shehas now moved out of her “transactionalmanagement” state of mind (i.e. simply“doing the day job”, along with crisismanagement) to a more transformationalleadership style i.e. proactivelycommunicating objectives for the businessand putting systems in place to ensure thatnewly-created targets can be managed atarm’s length. The project provided some“quick wins”, most noticeably an 8%increase in billable hours within the firstmonth of implementation, and this ispredicted to continue to improve’.

Academic commentary fromSarah Robinson‘This is an interesting case study whichdemonstrates the role of externalconsultants in facilitating the transition ofthe owners from ‘day to day’ managing toleading their business. Leadership has beenidentified as an important factor in thesuccess and failure of SMEs (Anderson 2002,CEML 2002, Morrison 2003). Leadership andgrowth are seen as inextricably linked, as life

17


32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 17

cycle theorising has demonstrated, stressingthe importance of delegation and the 'crisis'of leadership (Phelps et al., 2007). Researchindicates that informal leadership practicesare most effective in very small businessesbut there is a need for more formalisedleadership as the business grows (Perrenand Grant 2001, CEML, 2001).

This case illustrates the importance ofoutside leadership support in helping ownermanagers to develop leadership roles. It ishowever, often difficult for SMEs to seekhelp and to accept these interventions (Goldand Thorpe 2008) or to find the appropriateform of support to suit the needs andcontext of the owner managers (Perrenand Grant 2001).

However, in this case the nature andstructure of the interventions seem to havebeen particularly helpful. What is moststriking is the change in the leadership ofthe business which is demonstrated throughthe change in the owners’ key relationships:a) with the business (having a vision,enjoying it, not wanting to sell); b) withtheir staff (giving them more responsibilityand incentives and investing in training);c) with themselves (feeling more confidentand optimistic) and with the wider businesscommunity and market (promoting theirbusiness externally through the plannedwebsite and marketing strategy). In myopinion, the development of theserelationships is a key element of SMEleadership learning (Robinson 2007)’.

18


Thinking on:1. Is there a clear definition of the roles between the leaders, Beverley and John; one that isunderstood by everyone in the business?

2. As the business moves forward, what relationships will be key to the business’s success?

3. What type of leadership development support would be appropriate for Beverley and John to helpthem further develop as leaders? Where will they find this development support?

Reading on:Anderson, S. (2002) Joining entrepreneurs in their world: Improving entrepreneurship, managementand leadership in UK SMEs. London: Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership.

Bolden, R. (2001) Leadership Development in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Leadership SouthWest: University of Exeter. [www.leadershipsouthwest.com]

Devins, D., Gold, J., Johnson, S. & Holden, R. (2005), A Conceptual Model Of Management LearningIn Micro Businesses, Education and Training, Vol. 47, Nos. 8/9, pp. 540-551.

Gold, J., & Thorpe, R. (2008) ‘Training, it’s a load of crap’: The story of the hairdresser and his suit.Human Resource International Vol 11 Iss4 pg 385.

Perren, L. and Grant, P. (2001) Management and leadership in UK SMEs: Witness testimonies fromthe world of entrepreneurs and SME managers. Project Report. Council for Excellence in Managementand Leadership, London, UK.

Phelps, R., Adams, R., Bessant, J., (2007) Life Cycles of growing organizations: a review withimplications for knowledge and learning. International Journal of Management Reviews Vol. 9no 1 pp1-30.

Robinson, S. (2007) Robinson, SK. (2007) Relational learning: towards a model of owner managementdevelopment, International HRD Conference, Oxford, June.

Zhang, J. and Hamilton, E. (2006) Entrepreneurial Learning within Peer Networks, paper presented atBabson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Bloomington Indiana June 2006.

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 18

Case Study: Network and Cabling Solutions 3.3

The BusinessNetwork and Cabling Solutions (NCS) is abusiness providing data network and cablinginstallations, audio visual technologies,electrical services and voice systems toeducation, public sector and commercialorganisations across the UK. Set up in 1987and based in Aylesford in Kent, NCS becamelimited in 1998 and employs around 35 peopletoday: 4 directors, 20 site technicians and 11office based staff. The products and servicesprovided by the business have evolved over theyears: electrical installations have beenscaled-down and in response to newtechnological developments and customerdemand, NCS has redirected its focus insteadtowards networking and audio visual suppliesand installations.

The business has experienced sustained growthover the last few years, with the annualturnover in 2008 increasing by £1m to £5.2m;projected turnover for 2009 is £5.7m.

The InnovationService - In response to the availability ofcheap products on the internet and newsuppliers who have entered the market, withcheaper products and a lower quality ofinstallation service, NCS has begun to offerconsultancy, installation of customer suppliedproducts and testing of pre-installedequipment as new services to customers.These additional services enable NCS to helpcustomers who have experienced problemsfrom sourcing their own internet suppliedproducts or who have encountered difficultieswith the quality of their installation. AlthoughNCS continues to compete on quality and focuson providing customers with a complete servicefrom project inception to installation andbeyond - providing these additional servicesgenerates valuable revenue for the business.

Process – NCS has changed the process for theordering, storage and delivery of stock for thebusiness; a minimum amount of stock is nowkept on the vans and in storage, with directdelivery to the site as part of the projectschedule.

Marketing – The marketing of the company’sproducts and services to customers has been

radically overhauled. An active telemarketingand customer liaison function has beeninstalled to develop and maintain a regularand meaningful dialogue with customers. Anex-teacher has been recruited as a consultant,to demonstrate the equipment to teachers inthe real teaching environment with pupils; theschool is then encouraged to use and reviewthe products and can keep the equipment ifthey promote them to others.

The BackgroundBusiness background information was gatheredby interview with the Managing Director, VinceO’Toole, in February 2009.

Vince has been Managing Director of NCS since1998. He has been an active member of aVistage International leadership group for overa year, comprising 9 chief executives fromorganisations of diverse sectors and sizes in theSouth East. Turnover within the groupmembership ranges from £1m through to£110m, but the members have found that thecollective experience of running a business isbeneficial to them all. The group meet monthly,with a facilitator, to help each other solveproblems, make better decisions and achievebetter results for their businesses. This groupmeeting is followed up with an individualmeeting with the Vistage group leader eachmonth.

Vince had a major health problem in 2008 andwas forced to take time out from the businessto rest and recover. He used this time to look atthe business from a different perspective,evaluating the business and the way itfunctioned: its management structure,operations, skills, systems, products andservices, marketing and customers. Theexperience he has gained from working withthe group and his enforced time away from thebusiness has enabled him to take an objectiveview of the business, to adopt a detailedapproach to planning improvements and toconcentrate on the growth of the business. Ithas also prompted him to consider the learningand development needs of his directors.

All of his fellow directors had technicalknowledge and skills, but as the company hasgrown he felt they needed to develop their

19

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 19

leadership skills and to work more effectively asa senior management team. He was convincedthat the company directors could benefit fromimproving their confidence, skills and businessknowledge. Vince was advised by his BusinessLink adviser to contact a Leadership SpecialistAdviser, Roger Grimshaw for advice andsupport.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionRoger undertook a personality profilingexercise with the directors (using theUnderlying Beliefs psychometric questionnaire,designed to measure psychological preferencesin how people perceive the world and makedecisions). He provided group and individualfeedback to the directors, giving informationon the results of the profiling exercise. Hefollowed this up with one-to one support forthe directors on building and managingrelationships. He also delivered some trainingto the management team on performancemanagement, communications, processes andthe role of the director.

The Implementation JourneyA number of incremental changes have nowbeen made to the way the business operates.Two new managers have been appointed, onefor the office and an engineering manager, whohas responsibility for the health and safety,efficiency and quality of on site staff and theirwork. A new approach has been developed toimprove the way that the company interactswith customers throughout the project cycle,from initial enquiry through to completion andthen the re-ordering of spares. In recognitionof the tough operating environment, economicdownturn, stiff competition and the availabilityof cheap products from the internet, NCS havebegun to take a proactive approach tomarketing their products and services tocustomers and towards customer support. Priorto 2008, customers would receive a quote andwere left to contact NCS if they decided thatthey wanted to proceed. Now all proposals arefollowed up by a focused call to discuss thequote and to address any queries the customermay have.

After a review of operations, the way that NCSorders, stores and allocates stock has also beenchanged radically. The review identified

£42,000 worth of stock and supplies in storageand on the vans without an identified need ordestination. To improve efficiency and reducewastage, each van now carries a minimum ofessential supplies and the amount of stock keptin the store has been drastically reduced, withonly high value, long lead time items stored.All other stock is ordered and delivered directlyfrom the supplier to the site for installation.Technical staff needed to be convinced thatthey did not need to keep so much sparestock on the vans, but are now accepting thechange and are operating the new processeseffectively.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationVince commented: ‘We are now better atplanning and making decisions that relatedirectly to the performance of the business. Ifeel we have become more objective andbusiness focused; we have communicated theneed for change to our staff and improvementsare in hand to ensure the continued growth ofthe business, despite the competition and therecession. Not everyone accepts changewillingly and there is still work to be done toovercome objections and resistance, but we aregetting there. The management team haveimproved confidence in themselves and in thebusiness’.

Impact measures that have been achieved inthe business are:

• Improved conversion rate from quote toorder by 50%

• Cost savings through efficient stockmanagement

• Increased leadership and management skills

• New service provided to counteractcompetition

• Increased number and improved quality ofinteractions with customers.

The Future PlansThe future for NCS looks very positive. Theproactive marketing approach and provision ofnew services are ensuring that sales arebuoyant and customer feedback is positive.

20

Case Study: Network and Cabling Solutions

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 20

Improved customer contact has resulted inimproved interactions with customers and NCSare now proactive in working with themanufacturer of their products to ensure thatcustomer needs are acknowledged andaddressed.

An investment of £100,000 is planned in a newCustomer Relationship Management system tosupport project management and scheduling,from initial customer enquiry through to projectcompletion and the re-ordering of parts andsupplies. A customer portal will enable themto access instant quotes on line and toinformation on ordering, costing, dashboardsand project progress, with automated invoicingand customer feedback capture.

Vince is currently undertaking a feasibilitystudy to take over another company to expandthe business. He is committed to providingaccess to further leadership development andsupport for his co-directors and has arrangedfor them to join a similar group of directors,with access to expertise in leadership andmanagement. A major review of the skillsneeds of the business is planned for 2009.

A feasibility study is underway to considerwhether the electrical side of the businessis worth continuing or developing.

Commentary from Vince O’Toole:‘Businesses require different things fromtheir leaders at different stages in theirdevelopment. At business start up, thebusiness needs people with ideas and driveand the technical expertise to get thingsmoving. As the business develops andgrows, the leaders need to develop theirmanagement, communication andperformance management skills. Over time,business growth will be impeded if directorsremain focused on the day to day operationsand technical aspects of the business andare not able to develop their business,planning and leadership skills.

My health problems and the chief executivegroup meetings have enabled me to take astep back and look at the business in anobjective and clinical way. I have learnt fromthe experience of others and this has helpedme to plan for growth, even in a difficulteconomic climate. I now know that I don’t

need to know everything there is to know,but that I can ask for help and advice fromadvisers and fellow chief executives whohave dealt with a similar situation to help mefind a solution.

I have now enrolled 2 of the directors inother Vistage International groups. Thesegroups are at director level and are aimed atbuilding their knowledge of how otherdirectors operate within a variety of differentlive business environments. There are costimplications from our membership of theseVistage groups for the business, but I firmlybelieve that this is money well spent.

I believe that leadership development isthe key to helping us to make the transitionnecessary at different stages of a businessand to remove the impediments to businessgrowth’.

Commentary from Roger Grimshaw,Leadership Specialist Adviser:‘My intervention has helped to bothre-focus the thinking of the board and givethem a renewed sense of purpose anddirection. The issue of clear and clearlycommunicated goals for both business andthe sectors within it proved critical here.I spent time discussing the Big HairyAudacious Goal (BHAG) concept withVince and he has used the BHAG idea togenerate plans to expand their UK coverageby buying another company. The personaldevelopment material has helped the boardto work effectively as a team and focus onthe business priorities.

It is too early to tell precisely what effectsthe intervention has had on NCS from afinancial perspective: I think they need afurther 9 – 18 months for all this to bed inbefore they can measure the effects inmonetary terms. Nevertheless, the renewedpurpose and sense of direction, combinedwith determination to lead effectively usingthe new tools at their disposal has alreadyhad an impact on the way senior managersthink and operate and will undoubtedlyhave an impact on the survival andsuccess of the business in the comingmonths’.

21


32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 21

Academic commentary fromDavid Gray‘The case of Network and Cabling Solutionsis interesting, not just because of the waysin which MD Vince O’Toole has planned andimplemented new, innovative businessprocesses, but because of what he showsabout management learning. Vince hadthe misfortune of becoming ill, but heacknowledges how this period of forcedabsence from the business allowed him timefor reflection. He critically evaluated allfeatures of the business, including thelearning and development needs of hisdirectors. Vince demonstrates insight intoone of the essential features of leadership –that businesses need different styles ofleadership at different stages of theirdevelopment, and that leaders have to riseabove the minutiae of day to day operationsand take a more strategic view. Leaders canallow themselves not to ‘know’ everything.But meeting regularly with fellow CEOs (asin the Vistage International groups) allowsdirectors to tap into the knowledge andexperience of others who face similarchallenges.

Reg Revans described this many years agoas action learning, a process in whichparticipants meet to discuss work-relatedproblems in order to identify solutions foraction. Action learning involves participantsdescribing their problem and receivingchallenging questions from others in thegroup. A key ingredient is that actionlearning encourages reflection by providinga supportive atmosphere in which peoplecan learn from their actions and aboutthemselves. This means that knowledge islikely to be transferred to other situations, aform of what Chris Argyris calls ‘double looplearning’, not just learning about solving theproblem, but also addressing the variablesthat led to the problem in the first place.The NCS case study is an excellent exampleof how this reflective thinking has allowedthe company to make substantial changes inits operations and management, resulting innew innovations and business success’.

22


Thinking on:1. How will Vince structure the business and management functions to accommodate the proposednew business acquisition? Will the current team of directors need to be increased? Will the teamneed new skills?

2. How often does the cost of accessing leadership development and support act as a barrier to thebusiness accessing it? How can an adviser demonstrate that this cost is worth it to the business?

3. As the business grows, will the action learning groups continue to provide the directors with theleadership support they need?

Reading on:Argyris, C. (1993) Knowledge for Action. A guide to overcoming barriers to organizational change,San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Argyris, C. and Schön, D. (1996) Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice, Reading,Mass: Addison Wesley.

Pedler, M. 1996. Action learning for managers. London: Lemos and Crane.

Phelps, R., Adams, R., Bessant, J., (2007) Life Cycles of growing organizations: a review withimplications for knowledge and learning. International Journal of Management Reviews Vol. 9no 1 pp1-30.

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 22

Case Study: Advanced Resource Managers Ltd 3.4

The BusinessAdvanced Resource Managers Ltd (ARM)is a recruitment and training consultancy. Itspecialises in supplying contract and permanentengineering, IT and business solutionsprofessionals to the engineering, IT and hightechnology industries in the UK and Europe.They also provide a range of other services totheir clients, including operating as a trainingservices provider. Established in 1996, ARM isbased in Havant in Hampshire, employs 122people and has a current turnover ofapproximately £70m.

The InnovationProduct - ARM are now recruiting andsupplying candidates for oil and gas, renewableenergies, IT and engineering sales, marketingand human resource jobs to clients.

Service – Sales staff have improved theirrelationship management with clients andcandidates. They now offer more services,including access to training and developmentto maximise the potential of existing staff andredundancy support to clients and candidates.

Process – Comprehensive targets have beendeveloped for sales activity and revenuegenerated and are linked to a self assessment,analysis and performance review structure tosupport personal development and improvedperformance.

Market – ARM investigated and are nowactively establishing contacts with new industrysectors, with a focus on those that are leastlikely to be hit by the recession.

The BackgroundDerek Goff, Learning and Developmentmanager at ARM, was interviewed in February2009; he talked about the business, itspriorities and plans for growth and theleadership development that has taken placein the past three years.

ARM is a dynamic business, with a proactiveapproach to seeking and encouragingopportunities and ideas for growth. They areplanning for stock market floatation in a fewyears and this is a key imperative forstimulating business growth in 2009/10.Directors are determined to achieve this

growth (turnover for 2009 is projected to be£80m) despite the slowdown in recruitmentdue to the recession. The company prides itselfon its strong customer focus and its philosophyon the delivery of promises. Indeed, itsorganisational quality statement is: ‘What wesay is what we do’.

ARM received a number of business awards in2007/9, including:

• One of 600 best companies to work for

• Recruit Rank award for best industryknowledge

• Recruit Rank award for best understandingof candidate needs

• National online recruitment award for bestnational recruitment website.

ARM recognises that theirs is a demanding andhigh pressure business, that there will bedifficulties in a recession and that commitmentis necessary from everyone within theorganisation. People need to accept thechallenge, work hard and constantly try toimprove personal performance andachievements to ensure that the business isable to continue to grow; they need to beproactive in building and sustainingrelationships with clients and candidates.

‘The business has high expectations anddemanding targets for all staff; peakperformance, continuous improvement andinnovation are mandatory requirements. It isessential that senior management understandthe need for, are committed to and have theskills to provide the tools, systems, resources,support and training that are necessary toenable staff to deliver on these expectationsand targets’ explained Derek Goff.

Leadership development has been the keytheme of the ARM training strategy for the pastthree years. There are nine divisions within thecompany, each headed by a manager. Thissenior management team have receivedongoing development from a managementconsultant, Sarah Basley, who has a recruitmentindustry background. The leadershipdevelopment programme delivered by Sarah

23

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 23

started in 2006 and has been closely aligned tothe business strategy and imperatives. Thefocus of the senior management teamdevelopment has been on continuousimprovement, innovation and business growthby building the performance and confidence ofpeople and teams and has included workshopson delegation, coaching and mentoring andperformance review. Workshops were followedup by work related projects and tasks toencourage managers to manage themselvesand their teams to do things better and thinkoutside of the norm. A team building exercisewas provided at the end of the programme,consisting of a facilitated away day where theteam built a barn in the woods.

Derek was able to access a grant from Train toGain to help pay for his personal developmentin improving the development and alignmentof the learning and development plans to thestrategy of the business.

It was at the end of this leadership programme,in autumn 2008, that Derek contacted LornaFairbairn for help to identify the impact of theleadership programme and to inform futureleadership development activities.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionLorna agreed to evaluate the impact on staffand the business of the leadershipdevelopment that had taken place. To do thisshe undertook a survey of staff on the styleand capability of their leaders and the seniormanagement team were asked to complete aself assessment on their own style andcapability. After analysis, each manager thenreceived one-to-one feedback from Lorna andsubsequently attended a workshop focusing ontheir management team’s current strengths andupon areas where further development wasdesirable.

In addition to the work evaluating the impactof the leadership development programme,Lorna was able to help ARM access a grantfrom the SEEDA Leadership for GlobalCompetitiveness fund for developing newprogrammes for team leaders and for thosewho were identified as having the talent toprogress to the role of team leader.

The Implementation JourneyThe leadership development programme for thesenior management team was designed to helpthem to adapt to the demands of a growingbusiness, a challenging operating environmentand to become better leaders of their teams.Over time they have been encouraged to:

• engage in the empowerment of their teams

• take a step back from direct control

• provide coaching and mentoring forimproving individual performance.

People have been encouraged, supported andmotivated to work harder and smarter. One keyaction point that arose from the evaluationexercise and workshop has been implementedsuccessfully; the senior management teammeet monthly as a working group to discusschanges and monitor their progress.

New and demanding targets were developedaround activity and revenue generated, with aninbuilt analysis to help individuals identify theirown strengths, weaknesses and developmentneeds. These needs are discussed at themonthly performance management reviewmeeting with their manager and coaching andmentoring provided to help people to stepoutside of their comfort zone and to improvetheir performance. Changes were made to themarketing strategy of the business, withinvestigation into new and emerging sectorsfor recruitment linked to the technical jobs andskills ARM specialise in; these new industrysectors include renewable energies, gas and oil.

Further expansion has been achieved byrecruiting and supplying different skills sets toexisting industry sectors, particularly in areassuch as sales, marketing and human resources.

As the economic downturn began to have aneffect on recruitment and demand for contractlabour in late 2008, sales staff have beenencouraged to provide a more comprehensiveservice to current clients. Clients may not berecruiting, but are keen to make the most oftheir existing skills base. ARM has expandedtheir training and development brokerageservice, accessing training and selling this totheir clients.

24

Case Study: Advanced Resource Managers Ltd

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 24

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationDerek Goff describes the impact that theleadership development programme and theinnovations they have implemented have hadon the business. ‘The development of ourleaders has enabled us to maximise theperformance of our people, stimulate andimplement some good ideas and continue togrow the business, despite the recession. Ourattrition rate is low for the recruitment industryand I am sure this is due to our leaders andtheir ability to support, develop and motivatetheir teams’.

The impact measures achieved by the businessinclude:

• New market niches entered

• Improved profitability from the new market,product and services provided


• Improved motivation and commitment to thebusiness

• A low attrition rate – 16% (31% is averagefor this industry).

The Future PlansPlanning for stock market floatation continuesand innovation remains key to maintainingbusiness growth.

LGC funding has been accessed to enablefurther leadership development training fordivisional teams. Lessons learnt from theevaluation and feedback from the managementconsultant have been used to inform thedevelopment of leadership programmes forteam leaders (linked to CMI accreditation) andpotential team leaders to develop the talentwithin the teams.

Derek Goff is planning to complete a ‘return oninvestment’ exercise to provide managementwith tangible data on the financial impact ofthe leadership development programme forheads of department.

Commentary from John Dunaway,Head of Department:‘I have worked for ARM for nearly 5 yearsand am currently the Head of the Transportand Infrastructure Department. Iparticipated in the leadership trainingprovided by Sarah Basley to the seniormanagement team and thoroughly enjoyedthe experience. The purpose of the trainingwas to help us to develop our leadershipskills. I found it to be full of new andcreative ideas and innovative in the waythat it was delivered. We were encouragedthroughout the programme to improve theservice we provide to our teams – ourinternal customers - in line with our businessvalues and structure.

The work that Lorna did – the team surveyand feedback - encouraged me to reflecton and apply some of the learning that Ireceived on the leadership programme.Through the feedback from my team andguidance from Lorna, I realised that I neededto adapt my leadership style with each ofthem to ensure that I get the best fromthem. I need to understand what motivateseach individual within my team, definingtheir personalities, goals and drivers andthen make sure that I match the incentives,praise, and recognition I give to meet eachof their individual needs.

Both Sarah and Lorna planned and provideda careful alignment between their trainingand evaluation activities to the strategicdirection, values and culture of the business.The result was a learning experience thatwas bespoke to the company and was bothrelevant and appropriate.

As a direct consequence of the leadershipdevelopment programme, I have revised thebusiness development process that my teamadopts. We have now become more effectivein the way we:

• target and qualify clients

• understand client needs

25


32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 25

• build essential relationships

• deliver our services

Each member of the team now understandsand is committed to the joint responsibilityfor the development of new team memberswhen they join us.

My team has increased in size from 4 to13and I know that I have improved the waythat I manage them. I now have a sense ofthe overall strategic focus of the businessand this informs all of the work that I do. Iam a better coach and mentor to my teamand am able to motivate them moreeffectively. I still refer to the trainingmaterials we were given and developedduring the programme and find them to bevaluable to my continued growth as a leader.

I take less direct control now and haveempowered my team to improve theirperformance. We have seen growth in salesand profits as a direct consequence of theteam’s improved performance and theservice to our customers has improved’.

Commentary from Sarah Basley,Trainer:‘The key focus of my work is developinginspirational leaders in business. I believethat the limitations of the leader will inhibitthe development and success of theorganisation and the team that they leadand that the most profound and sustainedchanges are achieved by developing thecapabilities and broadening the perceptionsof the leadership team. An essential skill forleadership effectiveness is the ability tocoach; through coaching the leader willencourage independent thinking, decisionmaking and solution orientation.

I started working with ARM in 2005; atthat time they were looking to grow thebusiness and wanted to develop the senior

management team’s leadership skills byproviding a good grounding in managementand leadership practice. I conducted aninitial Training Needs Analysis, consultedwith the managing director and identifiedkey aspects of the team’s developmentneeds. I did some preliminary work with thedirectors, developing their team dynamicsand coaching skills, and encouraging themto lead their teams effectively.

The programme for the senior managementteam was delivered over the period of 18months and provided the foundation ofbest practice business processes, developingthe skills and capabilities that enabled themanagement team to raise their performanceand that of their teams. The dilemma duringthe delivery of the programme, for me as atrainer, was to engage and develop thewhole group, despite the wide ranging levelsof sophistication and skills that existedwithin it.

After the senior management teamleadership development, I delivered a similarleadership development programme to theirteam leaders. What was interesting for meand a pivotal point for ARM, was how theteam leader’s development pushed theboundaries, encouraging the seniormanagement team to raise their performancefurther. This was particularly evident in thetraining of business and performanceanalysis, which led the team leaders todeliver training through the entire companyon analysing performance and performanceimprovement – empowering everyconsultant to self manage and improvetheir own results.

ARM is a progressive company, focused ondeveloping and retaining talent. Thededication which ARM displays insupporting and improving their people isan outstanding example of the growth andsuccess that can be achieved throughinvestment in people’.

26


32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 26

Academic commentary fromJill Jameson‘Leadership development and innovationhave been crucial in enabling AdvancedResource Managers (ARM) Ltd. recruitmentand training consultancy to achieve stronggrowth, several business awards andimpressive business impact successes overthe past three years, despite the recession.This case study reveals that ARM’sorganizational character (Munro, 2005) hasstrengthened across three dimensions ofresilience (flexibility to enter new marketsand develop products for new industrysectors); distinctiveness (improvements inprofile and relationship management withclients and candidates) and integrity (lowattrition rate; improved delegation to staff;team building).

Ranked as one of the 600 best companies towork for, ARM has achieved Recruit Rankawards for best industry knowledge and bestunderstanding of candidate needs, inaddition to the National online recruitmentaward for best national recruitment website.ARM has capitalised on its potential, despiteunrelenting demands in the pressurised,competitive environment of the recruitmentindustry. ARM has succeeded in enteringnew market niches, has improvedprofitability, skills, motivation andcommitment and has achieved a lowattrition rate of 16%.

A combination of leadership developmentinitiatives – including training from SarahBasley, Train to Gain personal developmentfunding for Derek Goff, formative evaluationand advice on leadership development byLorna Fairbairn and a grant from the SEEDALeadership for Global CompetitivenessFund for new team leader training – hasclearly been outstandingly effective infocusing management and workforcestrength to deliver ARM’s quality missionthat ‘What we say is what we do’. Thebalance of organisational strengths in ARMhas enabled it to become ‘adaptive, nimbleand agile’ but also to retain ‘a sense ofstability, continuity and purpose’, the

optimum mix of stability and flux thatCharles Leadbeater points out is necessaryfor an organisation to be capable ofinnovation (Leadbeater, 2003).

What is also important in the successgenerated by ARM is that the companycarried out innovation as part of acomprehensive continuous improvementprocess linked to leadership development.This considered all elements of ARM’s workin a systematic way. The concept of theInnovation Value Chain is important in termsof viewing innovation as whole-companyprocess, from generating initial ideas to‘conversion’ of concepts and then to the‘diffusion’ of products to market, so thatweaker links in the company’s ‘innovationchain’ can be strengthened (Hansen andBirkinshaw, 2007). ARM’s support forindividuals enabled people to identifystrengths, weaknesses and developmentneeds in a planned procedure. Supportivediscussions at monthly performancemanagement review meetings, combinedwith coaching and mentoring, encouragedpeople to improve task performance in anopen, collegial way which was in coherencewith company values, as part of a proactivedevelopment.

The discursive process and organisationallearning resulting from Sarah and Lorna’straining and evaluation activities wereovertly linked to ARM’s strategic direction,values and culture: people could thereforesee this was a meaningful process and thatall were involved. Such an approach tomutual honest critique in shared exchangeslends itself to the generation of in-housecommunities of practice (Wenger, 1998;Jameson, 2008) in particular areas ofdevelopment. Sharing knowledge in informalcommunities linked to business practices canresult in the achievement of significantongoing organisational learning andcompany success (Brown and Duguid,1991): ARM might benefit from an explicitprocess of CoP development in the future,to build further on its impressiveachievements’.

27


32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 27

28

Thinking on:1. How does leadership development at lower levels in an organisation push the boundaries andencourage senior management to raise their performance?

2. How do you think that ARM would benefit from in-house communities of practice development inthe future? In what areas of the business would these be most effective?

3. What do you think ARM needs to do to maintain their organisational strengths of being ‘adaptive,nimble and agile’ whilst retaining ‘a sense of stability, continuity and purpose’?

Reading on:Brown, J. S. and Duguid, P. (1991) Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward aUnified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation. Organizational Learning, 2 (1): 40-57. INFORMSWork in Progress web version retrieved 6 July 2009:http://www2.parc.com/ops/members/brown/papers/orglearning.html

Hansen, M.T. and Birkinshaw, J. (2007) The Innovation Value Chain. Harvard Business Review, June,2007: 121-130. Retrieved 3 July 2009:http://faculty.miis.edu/~levinger/2-reading.pdf.

Jameson, J. (2008) Leadership: Professional communities of leadership practice in post-compulsoryeducation, invited paper, ESCalate Discussions in Education Series: University of Stirling.Retrieved 6 July 2009:http://escalate.ac.uk/downloads/5130.pdf

Leadbeater, C. (2003) What’s your innovation recipe? Presentation, Retrieved 2 July 2009:http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/presentations/presentation.aspx

Munro, A. (2006) Practical Succession Management : How to Future-Proof Your Organization. Gower.

Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of practice: Learning meaning and identity. Cambridge UniversityPress, 1998: For more information: retrieved 6 July 2009, see:http://www.ewenger.com/theory/


32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 28

Case Study: Wholesale Hand Tools 3.5(The name of this company and of the general manager have been changed)

The BusinessWholesale Hand Tools Ltd is a wholesale handtool supplier based in Surrey that was foundedin 1980. The current owners took over thecompany in 1998 and today it employs 6people, with 15 sales agents operatingthroughout the UK. Over 1,000 types of handtools are imported and supplied, mainly toindependent retail outlets. In 1998 theturnover was £1.8m, but this has reduced inrecent years due to competition fromcompanies offering similar products, the largeDIY stores and a nationwide reduction in thenumber of independent retail outlets. Turnoverfor 2008 was £700K, with a £30,000 lossrecorded.

The InnovationMarketing – The business investigated anddeveloped a new market niche by sellingproducts through an online market placedirectly to individuals, to add to their existingtrade in the wholesale market.

The BackgroundInformation on the business, its history and theissues it faced was gathered from Brian Wilde,the general manager, in February 2008.Brian was employed by the company in January2008 as the general manager. New to the tradeand to a management role, he was looking for apotential investment and was keen to develophis business and management skills. Theowners were still active in the business, takingmanagement responsibility for businessdecisions, stock ordering and maintainingfinancial control. At the time of Brian’sappointment, they were considering the sale ofthe company, but wanted to build up thebusiness prior to this sale after a previousmanager had left and taken some importantcustomers and their business with him.

The business’s key selling point had alwaysbeen the low price of its products, but saleshad been falling for a number of years. 65% ofsales were generated by the sales agents, buthalf of these were not contributing much to theorders coming in to the business.

Brian was keen to make improvements to thebusiness but encountered some resistance tohis proposed changes from the owners and his

relationship with them did not develop duringhis first year in post. Aware of his inexperiencebut keen to learn and build up the business,Brian had begun working with a LeadershipSpecialist Adviser, Martin Smith, to help him todevelop his leadership and management skills.Martin advised Brian to contact Business Linkas he felt that a business review with a businessadviser would be helpful in enabling Brian toidentify the areas of the business that neededto be improved.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionMartin Smith completed a diagnostic exercisewith Brian and developed an ongoingmentoring relationship with him to help him toaddress the issues that the business was facing.

The key issues affecting the business that wereidentified from the business review were: thelow volume of sales - particularly the lack oforders generated by the sales agents; thereducing market; outdated stock; inefficientstock control; and an ineffective website.

At regular meetings over a period of a year,Martin was able to guide Brian through anumber of key actions designed to help toaddress the issues and revive the business.These included:

• selecting and assessing potential newproduct ranges

• identifying an approach to negotiating adeal with a new wholesaler and the overseasproduct supplier

• providing advice on handling, re-motivatingand building momentum with sales agents

• help with selecting and interviewing newsales agents

• referral to the Manufacturing AdvisoryService for a review of warehouse systemsand stock storage and control

• discussion on the potential of the businessand its future

• advice on dealing with low staff morale andliaising with the owners.

29

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 29

Martin also helped Brian to access fundingfrom the SEEDA Leadership for GlobalCompetitiveness fund to help him to fund aCMI Diploma in Management Studies atBrighton University.

The Implementation JourneyWith support from Martin, Brian began animprovement programme to try to turn roundthe business and halt its decline. New productswere selected and trialled with customers.Brian completed an analysis of the sales agents,their sales and geographical coverage, and setabout developing a plan to improve theireffectiveness in the marketplace. Hedeveloped a new contract for them andrecruited new ones for countrywide coverage.He monitored the sales of each agent,producing monthly sales reports to track theirperformance. Some of the sales agents resistedthe change that was made to the contract andthe efforts to make them more accountableto the business - but Brian persevered. Heestablished regular contact with sales agentsand wrote and distributed a newsletter to helpkeep them informed of news, developmentsand new product lines.

The website was overhauled to make it morecustomer-friendly and Brian purchased relateddomain names to maximise internet access tobrowsing customers. He experimented withselling tools on e-bay and after sorting outinitial courier problems, was able to sell toolsindividually at a price that was considerablyhigher than that of the wholesale market.

The warehouse and showroom wereredecorated and reorganised and Brianaccessed funding for training for the warehousestaff. He also made contact and negotiated acontract to supply a new customer, with anumber of outlets in the South West.

As Brian worked on these improvements to theoperations of the business, his relationship withthe owners did not improve. Brian was unableto persuade the owners of the merit of hisactions; they were cynical about the changeshe was making and remained convinced that itwould make no difference to the productivityof the business. Their pessimism about thepotential and future of the business made themunwilling to support Brian or to provide funds

to finance any major change or initiative. Plansfor a major website upgrade that could improveaccess to internet ordering from retail andindividual buyers, linked to a system for supplyand invoicing were put on hold. The ownerswere hoping to stabilise the decline in salessufficiently to find a buyer and did not wantto invest more money into the business.

In November 2008, the business experienceda drastic drop in sales by 20% due to theeconomic climate and the impact of this on theconstruction industry; sales continued to fall inDecember and the first two months of 2009. Inaddition to this fall in sales, the business alsosuffered from the poor sterling exchange rate;tools were costing more to buy as these arepurchased from an overseas supplier. After aspate of very cold weather in January, the pipesburst and both the offices and warehousespaces were flooded, spoiling the recentlyredecorated premises and a portion of thestock. Although insurance would cover thelosses, morale of the staff was now at anall-time low, with everyone worried about thefalling sales and the safety of their jobs.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationMorale of the site staff had improved as adirect consequence of the warehousereorganisation, new business generated andsales increases. Unfortunately, morale of all inthe business was to fall dramatically as sales fellagain, as the effects of the economic downturnbegan to impact on the business. Everyone isnow wondering how long the business cansurvive and any plans for further change havebeen shelved for the foreseeable future.

The Future PlansThe lease on the building housing thebusiness’s offices and warehouse expires in2010 and if the business survives, the ownersare likely to sell the business before this daterather than relocate. Brian is demoralised withhis experience of working for this business,where he feels he has been unable to improveits survival prospects and is considering hisfuture outside of the company. Although heoriginally had ideas that he would transformthe business into a profit making venture, he isnow planning to leave and start a new venturein an unrelated area.

30

Case Study: Wholesale Hand Tools

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 30

Commentary from Brian Wilde‘Initially I was enthused with the prospect ofa challenging and rewarding role, whichwould see the business’s future and the jobsof several people secured as the companyimproved. I now feel sad and disappointed.In my opinion there is no reason for thecompany to be in decline and facing closure;focused and supported action in theprevious year could have placed thebusiness in a much stronger position.

I have learned a great deal from the wholeexperience and the mentoring Martinprovided to me. I found it invaluable tohave the space away from work to clearlydiscuss issues that were affecting thebusiness. Sadly, it was not always possibleto implement the changes we discussed, butI felt more confident to deal with the manydifficult situations I encountered. Our timetogether offered me space to plan the wayforward and focus on the most importantissues at hand.

The most important lesson learned for me isthat without buy-in from the directors of abusiness there is little that anyone can do;responsibility without the power to makeany change does not lead anywhere’.

Commentary from Martin Smith,Leadership Specialist Adviser:‘It is very sad that the owners of thisbusiness were so de-motivated and resistantto change. Brian has had to work withoutthe support of the leaders; he has been ableto make an impact, but the results couldhave been more impressive if they had beenprepared to support the number of ideas hehad for improving sales within the business.

Although this year with WHT has been veryfrustrating, Brian has gained some valuableexperience and a good all-round insight intobusiness management, which will beinvaluable to him in the future’.

Academic commentary fromDavid Sims‘What a frustrating set of events, with Briancoming so close to achieving what hewanted but ultimately failing! Grint (2000)offers a very helpful classification of ‘TheArts of Management’, in which he considersfour different arts through which differentpeople might contribute to leadership.There is Philosophical Art, which is aboutcreating the identity and the story of theorganisation. This relates to the second andfourth of the bullet points that Martin gaveBrian to work with. There is Fine Art, whichis about vision and imagining a possiblefuture for the organisation, and that relatesto the sixth bullet point. There is Martial Art,which is making sure that everything worksproperly, and that relates to the second andfifth of Martin’s bullet points, and there isPerformance Art, which means exercisingcharisma and using symbols to engage theemotions of other people. This relates to thethird and seventh bullet points.

Two things led to Brian’s failure. First, he didnot understand that he could not exercise allthose arts himself. He needed to work outwhich ones he was best at, and then involveothers in exercising the other arts. If you tryto do everything in leadership you fail.Successful leadership only happens whenyou involve others in it, and Brian has notdone this. Second, he did not give enoughtime to leading upwards, so the owners werenot fully with him when recession struck. Anearly task should have been to explore themotives of the owners and to try toinfluence them (with ‘Performance Art’).Perhaps Martin should have emphasised hisseventh bullet point, and said that nothingelse was worth doing without it’?

31


32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 31

32


Thinking on:1. What would you have done if you had been in Brian’s position in this business?

2. What could Brian have done to influence the owners of the business to support him and his ideasfor improvement? Who else could Brian have involved to help him in his endeavours?

3. What do you think will happen to this business, and Brian, now?

Reading on:Grint, K. (2000) The Arts of Leadership. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

32699gwe_p17-32:32699gwe_p17-32 27/8/09 14:19 Page 32

Case Study: Archer Technicoat Ltd 3.6

The BusinessArcher Technicoat Ltd (ATL) is a privatelyowned high-tech company based in HighWycombe, specialising in research anddevelopment of innovative methods of surfacecoating and materials technology. ATLspecialises in the coating process known asChemical Vapour Disposition (CVD), atechnique used to apply a wide range of metaland ceramic coatings onto a variety ofsubstrates. ATL was established in 1981 by ahusband and wife team and currently employs6 people. John Yeatman joined the business in1983 in a technical capacity and took on therole of managing director in 2006. CalvinPrentice has recently joined the company inthe role of Technical Director. John and Calvinare both highly qualified materials technologyengineers.

The three main areas of ATL’s business are:

• research and development of chemicalvapour deposition (CVD) processes forcoating and infiltration

• pilot production of coatings to be used, forexample, in machinery, jet engines andweapons

• development, design and construction ofindustrial CVD equipment (the equipmentis constructed and marketed in partnershipwith IonBond AG).

In addition to these areas of work, ATL receivesEuropean research funding as part ofFramework projects. They are currently involvedin a project called ExtremeMat, which aims todevelop materials for extreme environments invarious applications, including nuclear fusionand advanced fission reactors, aerospace andhigh power electronics. The business isconsidered to be expert in its field and has asolid customer base in a range of industrysectors within the global market, with contractsin America, Europe, India, Japan and Singapore.The business is small but successful and hasexperienced a steady annual turnover ofapproximately £500,000 for the last few years.

The InnovationATL is implementing a proactive marketingstrategy that investigates and targets newmarkets in new sectors and emerging

technologies, including solar power, nuclearfusion, automotive and aerospace. The directorsare undertaking a variety of activities that aredesigned to develop and sustain productiverelationships with new customers and fosterthose with existing and past customers. John isnow proactive in establishing his credentialsand marketing his expertise within an on-linenetwork of specialists to companies who arepotential future customers.

The BackgroundBusiness background information was gatheredin an interview with John Yeatman in March2009.

Innovation in product design and developmentis the life blood to a high tech business of thiskind. ATL works hard to develop engineeringand materials solutions for their customers. ATLhas a small team with a high degree oftechnical expertise who are busy with servicingexisting contracts and fulfilling research anddevelopment responsibilities. With a team ofthis size focused on the technical demandsof the business, exploring new businessopportunities and essential business planningneeds careful prioritising.

In common with many other businesses, therecent global economic downturn has had aneffect on ATL and its business. Unfavourableexchange rates, customers less likely to makean investment in equipment and somecustomers slow to pay their invoices are allconsequences that affect the operations andthe bottom line of ATL.

ATL has always been open to utilising supportand advice from external sources and they havedeveloped a productive relationship with theInnovation Advisory Service (IAS) in recentyears. IAS helped ATL to access funds fromEurope to support their research anddevelopment functions. It was IAS that referredATL to a Leadership Specialist Adviser, GeoffRibbens, to help to develop the leadershipcapacity within the business.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionGeoff started working with ATL in the autumnof 2007; after an initial meeting he completedthe Belbin team role exercise with the ATL teamto help them identify their team’s strengths and

33

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 33

weaknesses, improve self awareness andidentify team development needs.Geoff provided an additional resource to ATLand his expertise was welcomed by themanaging director; he helped John to reviewand define a clear business and marketingstrategy for the business. As John developed arapport with Geoff, the decision was made toinvolve him in the monthly managementmeetings.

Geoff was able to help John to access a grantof £1,000 to spend on his own leadershipdevelopment. After careful thought, and withGeoff’s guidance, John selected a managingdirector action learning programme with AVNPicktree that started in February 2008.

Geoff comments ‘When I first met this companyabout 18 months ago, I noted that theyseemed to have reached a plateau with regardsto growth. I introduced them to strategicmanagement concepts and we explored areasfrom where they were most likely to getsustainable growth. Eighteen months ago theyhad a turnover of £500,000 and felt that theycould achieve a turnover of £1m in five yearstime. I felt that this was a target that lackedambition, bearing in mind they might want tosell the business before they retire. Sinceworking with the two directors, they havere-focused the business and will have aturnover in 2008/9 of £750,000. I have nowmoved from a coaching to a mentoring role andattend their senior management meetings eachmonth’.

The Implementation JourneyThe action learning group that John attendedconsisted of seven small business managers/owners from diverse businesses from the regionand was facilitated by Mark Russell. The groupmet monthly for a day over an 8 month periodand members provided advice and support tohelp each other resolve business issues,concerns and problems. John found the processand expertise from the group meetings to beboth enjoyable and challenging andextremely useful to his role as leader in thebusiness. When the initial group ended,another action learning group was formedwith some new members and John hascontinued to attend.

Over the last three years, John has madesignificant improvements to the capacity andoperations of the business. A new director hasbeen appointed, with both the technicalexpertise required by the business and someuseful industry contacts.

Access to external accountancy advice hasenabled ATL to claim tax credits for theircurrent and previous 6 years of research anddevelopment work; helping their financialcommitment to this essential business activity.

In order to address the issue of late payments,ATL have taken on a debt managementcompany; this has reduced the time and stressinvolved in getting their invoices paid by theslow paying customers.

John is focusing on raising his professionalprofile in the technological community; hehas joined a technical specialist network andprovides on-line advice and support tocompanies seeking information on coatingprocesses, materials and equipment.

In February 2009 ATL appointed a specialistelectrical engineer to boost the size of theirtechnical team and its skills.

All of these improvements have freed up timefor John to focus on the management of thebusiness and to spend more time on planningand marketing activities.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationJohn feels that both the business and himselfpersonally have benefited from the guidancegiven to him by the IAS, Geoff, the actionlearning group and others. The relationshipwith IAS has helped ATL to maintain theirinnovation in product process developmentthrough access to research funding. Geoff andthe action learning group have helped him tomake quality decisions and deal moreeffectively with its issues. The appointmentof the new director and, more recently, thespecialist engineer, has given John time todevote to leading the business. ATL are nowwell on their way to achieving their growthtarget of doubling turnover in the next 3 years.

34

Case Study: Archer Technicoat Ltd

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 34

The following impact measures have beenachieved by the business:

• 50% growth in last financial year

• Increase in staff number and skills

• New sectors and customers contacted

• Communications with customers improved

• Enhanced leadership and management skills

• Enhanced professional profile withcustomers

• Business process improvements to makeoperations more efficient.

The Future PlansJohn is full of ideas for further improvementsand optimistic for the future of ATL. A websiterevamp is on the way and there is a possibilitythat they will be able to recruit additional newstaff soon. John is investigating partnershipswith other high tech companies and developingan innovation relationship with SurreyUniversity. He is also discussing the possibilityof providing a placement for a PhD student tojoin the research and development function.

Investment is to be made in new water coolingequipment, an upgrade of an existing in-househigh temperature furnace and a new furnace forexperimental work; renewed production from adisused furnace is also planned.

Opportunities for related business are beinginvestigated to compensate for the drop inequipment sales and a review of the currentlicensing arrangement with their existingequipment partner is being made.

Commentary from John Yeatman:In a small, specialist, high tech company likeATL, innovation in product design anddevelopment is critical. We are a small teamand are limited in our capacity to developthe processes and products, to manage thebusiness, and to source new businessopportunities. Operating in a globalrecession has added to these pressures, as ithas for many other small businesses.We have benefited from a wealth of

expertise that was available to help a smallbusiness like ours. The IAS has helped usto maintain innovation in product processdevelopment by helping us to accessresearch funding. Both the LeadershipSpecialist Adviser and the members fromthe action learning group have helped meto make better decisions and deal moreeffectively with the business and its issues.

The appointment of the new director andthe specialist engineer has given me moretime to devote to the business. Thisadditional resource, along with the externalsupport, help and expertise has been crucialto our growth and continued success in ourfield.

Commentary from Geoff Ribbens,Leadership Specialist Adviser:‘My first impression of this company wasthat it had reached a plateau in terms ofturnover and profit. What seemed to bemissing in the small team was a strong“shaper” in Belbin’s terms, someone to drivethe team for expansion and to prioritise themore promising products and services. Thecompany was clearly successful but neededmore of a business edge to reach its fullpotential. Dynamic, creative engineeringdirectors do not necessarily make the bestbusiness entrepreneurs. This does not meanthey cannot become more businessorientated, but they need an externalinfluence that will help them identify thegap. I believe that the help from theInnovation Advisory Service and my supporthave provided that external stimulus.

The managing director was initially scepticalabout attending the action learning group.Encouragement and funding was needed topersuade John to use some of his valuabletime, but once he had joined the group hefound it very valuable. The key value ofaction learning is that directors have achance to meet other directors of smallcompanies who experience similar problemsand issues in business.

Small companies, especially those inengineering and advanced technology, areusually very good at utilising their technical

35


32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 35

knowledge and being technologicallycreative. Their real problem is finding thetime from the important business of makingthings work to focus on the issues concernedwith management and leadership. A lackof knowledge about marketing, staffmotivation, selling skills, customer relations,business strategy and basic leadership skillsoften means that potentially good ideas andgood products take a considerable time toget into the marketplace, and some maynever emerge at all.

Archer Technicoat is a good example ofdirectors who have brilliant minds whoneeded to develop greater awareness ofbusiness; once made aware of this gap theyhave grasped the opportunity to utilise theirnew knowledge and understanding. Thecompany is seeking new customers anddeveloping old customers. Even in a time ofrecession the turnover has increased and it isemploying more people. The two directorsare spending more time on the business andslightly less time on the engineering and theresults can be seen in their growth’.

Academic commentary fromKeith Grint‘ATL seem typical of small research-orientedhigh-tech companies: historically it seemsto have focused on the research rather thanthe management of the business. Thisinterest-oriented trajectory is perfectlyunderstandable but often generates a limitto expansion and business development asthe original interest of the entrepreneurs

takes precedence over business interests.There are (at least) three solutions to thisproblem, all of which are illustrated here:

1. Recruit an outsider (in this case GeoffRibbens) whose distance from theorganisation enables a differentunderstanding of the problem. Moreoften than not the outsider need noteven be an ‘expert’ since the solution isoften relatively obvious – though not tothose inside the organisation. It is also amanifestation of a different but relatedmanagerial problem – it is lonely at thetop and often difficult to consult widelyfor fear of being seen as inadequate (seeGrint & Scholes, 2008).

2. Join a ‘band of brothers’ (or sisters) (inthis case the action learning groupfacilitated by Mark Russell) who are in asimilar situation and who act as a criticalbut supportive sounding board for yourideas. What is also important here is tonote that the group need to engage in‘real work’ rather than simply discussingtheir problems if this is to work (see Ilesand Preece, 2006).

3. Distribute the leadership and focusupon what you are good at. Few of usare good at every aspect of leadershipand management – but we don’t haveto be, as long as we recruit the rightexperts (in this case the new directorand the specialist electrical engineer)and give them space to work (see Grint,2005)’.

36


Thinking on:1. Why do small high-tech businesses have specific needs for external support and advice?

2. Where will John find further, and relevant, leadership advice, support and development when hiscurrent action learning group ends?

3. How will the leadership role change as this business grows and develops?

Reading on:Grint, K. (2005) ‘Leadership Limited: White Elephant to Wheelwright’ Ivey Business Journal,January/February.

Grint, K. and Scholes, J. (2008) ‘Why it’s Tough at the Top’ Ivey Business Journal,September/October.

Iles, P. and Preece, D. (2006), ‘Developing Leaders or Developing Leadership?’Leadership 2:3, 317-40.

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 36

Case Study: MEP Ltd 3.7

The BusinessMEP Ltd is a manufacturer of moulding,machining and fabrication solutions tocompanies working within the defence,aerospace, electrical, electronics, automotiveand allied industries, mainly within the UK.Founded in 1972 and based in Aylesford, Kent,they employ 55 people, 6 of whom arecontractors.

The InnovationMEP has selected and purchased an upgradedproduction planning system to develop andimprove the efficiency of production planningand the quality and efficiency in themanufacturing process. The new systemreplaces an outdated and inefficient one thatwas no longer fit for purpose. Efficiencies inplanning and manufacturing will improve as aconsequence of the upgrade system and MEPhas ordered new production machinery tofurther boost outputs. The deployment andmanagement of the people in the businesshave been reorganised to synchronise withthe new system.

The BackgroundInformation on the business background wascollected from an interview with the ManagingDirector, Philip Hart, in March 2009.

MEP aims to manufacture competitive productsto meet customers’ needs whilst maintaining aprofitable business. Their reputation for theprovision of quality products within budget andto tight deadlines has enabled MEP to bothretain and attract new customers and achievesteady growth in staff numbers and productionover the years.

A distinctive feature of MEP’s businessapproach is that every other year the businesscloses for the day and the whole companyattends the Farnborough Air Show. ‘A lot ofthe parts we manufacture are for civil andmilitary aircraft, used in the internal working ofthe aeroplanes. The Air Show gives us theopportunity to take the whole company out forthe day and just about everyone will seesomething they have either made or theyrecognise on the stands and exhibits. In theafternoon there is an air display of a wholeseries of aircraft, so it is also good for peopleto then see the aeroplanes that we have made

parts for actually flying, up closer than wouldbe usual’ explained Philip Hart.

New business is generated throughrecommendation from existing customers, thecompany website and general networkingactivities. A number of significant newcustomers have been generated through thesesources in recent years. ‘We are fortunate tohave a sound reputation, have a good spreadof project types and be mainly dealing with theaerospace industry, which is traditionally thelast industry to be affected by a recession, sowe have not been adversely affected as yet’said Philip Hart.

MEP was recognised as an Investor in People in2006 and is accredited to BS EN ISO 9001:2000and BS EN 9100: 2003. More recently, theyhave signed up to SC21, a change programmedesigned to accelerate the competitivenessof the aerospace and defence industry byraising the performance of its supply chains.Signatories to SC21 are committed todeveloping their performance to ensure theyremain competitive and are able to deliverincreased value to customers.

In 2007 it had become clear that the systems,processes and people within the business wereall working at capacity and that the managerswere struggling to plan quickly enough to meetthe orders coming in. MEP was at a point wheresubstantial change was needed to enable themto improve the systems and processes to meetindustry standards and increase productivity tomeet customer requirements.

At this time, Philip had contracted with alocal training provider to implement an NVQprogramme for 3 team leaders from the factory.Unfortunately this programme was notsuccessful; the candidates did not receive thesupport or development they needed from theprovider to help them to fully embrace theresponsibilities of the role and they all withdrewfrom the programme and the role.

Philip had worked with Business Link, Kent forsome years, receiving advice and support onpeople and performance issues. He hadreceived a grant from the Business Leaderprogramme in 2007 and used this to accesstraining to develop his own leadership and

37

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 37

management skills. He now concluded thatMEP did not have sufficient resources – humanor physical - to plan, manage stock orderingand to produce the products quickly orefficiently enough to meet customer demand.Philip was particularly concerned that themanagement team were not equipped orwere unwilling to take on the additionalresponsibilities that would enable them tomeet the business imperative to plan andimplement the changes necessary to improveproductivity.

All of these factors stimulated the decision toimprove the management of the business, theperformance of the people and the efficiencyof the planning and production of productmanufacture. When they identified the needto develop his management team, StephenConley, the Business Link adviser, referredPhilip to Roger Grimshaw, a leadershipspecialist adviser.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionAfter an initial discussion with Philip on the keyissues facing the business and the drive toimprove productivity, Roger Grimshawdeveloped and delivered 4 workshops to themanagement team. These workshops weredesigned to help the team to develop theirunderstanding of the need for change withinMEP and the impact of this on their own skills,attitudes and behaviour as leaders. Theworkshops covered:

• a vision for the business and its future

• the role of the management team

• people and performance management

• coaching to improve performance

After the workshops, members of themanagement team were encouraged to accessa short 1:1 mentoring session with Roger,designed to help them deal with personaldevelopment issues.

The Implementation JourneyShortly after the leadership developmentprogramme started, a member of themanagement team left the company on

sick leave and subsequently did not return.A short while later, another member of themanagement team also left the company.Philip felt that the reason for these managersleaving was due to their inability to changecombined with a reluctance to accept thatdevelopment and change to their managementpractice were necessary to improve theproductivity of the business.

With big gaps to fill within both themanagement and supervisory functions of thebusiness, a review of the leadership roles anddecisions on how to fill these was now critical.The review was conducted by Philip, with thehelp of Roger Grimshaw, and led to areorganisation of the management, productionand supervisory structure within the business.Managers and team leaders were recruited toreplace the management team members whohad left and to fulfil the supervisory roles in thefactory. The manufacturing processes are nowmanaged by a works manager, a productionmanager and a quality manager and three teamleaders focus on supporting the performance ofthe people in production. Production within thefactory was produced by a single shift, with anadditional skeleton late shift operating; thenumber of staff on the late shift was increasedto increase production capacity.

Philip knew that investment in upgrading theplanning system was necessary to improve thecapacity of the business to plan, order stockand produce and deliver products on time.Research identified the upgrade to be asuitable Material Requirements Planning (MRP)software based production planning andinventory control system to manage themanufacturing processes more effectively,helping the business to improve productivityand its service to customers. The system isdesigned to specifically help MEP to:

• plan manufacturing activities, deliveryschedules and purchasing

• ensure materials and products are availablefor production and delivery to customers

• maintain the lowest possible level of stock.

A new and improved website design wascommissioned to improve the marketing and

38

Case Study: MEP Ltd

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 38

promotion of the company and its products.In addition to these measures, capitalexpenditure was committed to purchaseessential equipment for the production line,including a new machine and inspectionequipment.

MEP has recently recruited people to fill theadditional roles that have been created inproduction, including a new CNC machinistand another quality inspector.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationPhilip Hart feels that he now has a strongmanagement team, having developed and/orrecruited people with the leadership capacitythat is necessary to support and sustain thebusiness growth. Managers can now evaluatehow relevant aspects of the business arefunctioning and make better decisions basedon fact. The improved management andsupervisory structure and practice have helpedensure that people in production do a good jobconsistently and have led to improvements inproduction quality and efficiency. The MRPsystem, due to be fully operational in August2009, will help to speed up the planning ofproduction, the control of stock and meetingdeadlines for delivery.

‘It is always difficult and unsettling whenpeople leave, particularly managers, but wehave coped with this and made the changesthat have enabled the business to meet ourexpanding customers’ and industry’s demandsfor increased and improved productivity’ saidPhilip.


• production has increased

• quality and efficiency of production haveimproved

• profitability has increased by 15%

• cost savings through efficient productionplanning and stock management

• increased leadership and management skills.

The Future PlansMEP is recruiting to fill additional roles formoulders, created by the increased productionin manufacturing.

Train to Gain has begun a skills-scan exerciseon the factory staff to help identify areas fordevelopment and will complete this in May.This ‘external’ perspective is viewed asobjective and valued by the people involved,although MEP also has plans to develop a ‘userfriendly’ appraisal system in the near future.

The introduction of Lean Manufacturerprinciples is also planned and will beimplemented shortly; 16 facilitators fromexisting staff have been trained and are readyto put these principles into action. Theimplementation of SC21 will require thecommitment of resources and time to developthe performance and quality of production.

The management team can expect moredevelopment and Philip plans to undertakefurther development for himself to improvehis personal and professional effectiveness asa leader.

Commentary from Phil Hart:‘Things are going well for the business andwe will have our best year ever this financialyear, with both production and profitabilityup from last year. Our reputation for qualityproducts is keeping the order book lookingpositive and we are investing wisely inmachinery to maintain production levels.Relationships with our customers are goodand we look forward to seeing tangibleresults from the implementation of theupgraded production planning system’.

39

Case Study: MEP Ltd

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 39

Commentary from Steve Conley,Business Link Adviser:‘Business Link Kent has performed anadvisory role for MEP Ltd since 2004; I tookover the client management role from acolleague two years ago. Over the years,MEP has taken advantage of initiatives andsupport from a variety of external agencies.They achieved Investors in People in 2005,worked with the Manufacturing AdvisoryService in 2006, and with the Innovationand Technology team in 2007.

After identifying a need for managementrestructuring to achieve their ambitiousfuture plans, I referred the directors to theLSA, who created a bespoke leadership

development programme that enabled asignificant reorganisation to take place.

A combination of the organisational,performance and systems improvementswith the introduction of the new MRPsystem and Lean manufacturing principleswill significantly strengthen the company’soverall position and their ability to achievesustainable growth in the future. I find MEPa good business to work with; they areself-critical, eager to improve theirperformance and open to suggestionsand positive ideas to benefit the business,its leaders, and the people who work there’.

Academic commentary fromYiannis Gabriel‘This is an encouraging story of a companythat managed to introduce a wide range ofchanges necessary to update its informationsystems and its manufacturing base. Havingreached a plateau from which growth wasdifficult, the organisation used the resourcesof a Business Link adviser as a changeagent, who prompted a range of movesacross several fronts: new systems, upgradedmanagement and leadership skills, a clearervision of the organisation’s future, anacknowledgement of the need for changein both the human and the technical aspectsof the company.

The change was not without difficulties. Itwould have been interesting to know more

about the two managers who left and alsoabout the technical and social competencies ofthe three new recruits. Much of thesuccess of the transition must have rested ontheir shoulders and their ability tocollaborate together. It would also beinteresting to know more about whetherthe fruit of organisational success was sharedmore widely with those lower down thehierarchy. Overall, however, here we have aninstance where technical/production and socialdimensions of production were updatedsimultaneously and in harmony with each other.This is undoubtedly a success story, but somequestions about the company’s enduringsuccess remain’.

40

Case Study: MEP Ltd

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 40

41

Case Study: MEP Ltd

Thinking on:1. Is the company too dependent on Philip? If so, what happens when an issue of succession arises?

Is leadership sufficiently spread across organisational levels? Is Philip over-extended?

2. Is the company too confident about the continuing health of its order books? Has it maybeunderestimated its need to market its services more proactively, especially during this recession?Is there a storm around the corner?

3. While the company has proven adept at process innovation, is it doing enough in terms of productinnovation? Has it got the capacity to diversify or to expand its range of core competences? Is itgenuinely a learning organisation that will continue to learn and change rather than rest on itslaurels?

Reading on:Kotter, J.P. (1995) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review,73 (March-April): 59-67.

Örtenblad, A. (2002) A Typology of the Idea of Learning Organization. Management Learning,33(2): 213-230.

Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel,G. (1990). The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard BusinessReview, 68 (May-June): 57-69.

Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.New York: Doubleday.

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 41

Case Study: Cambridge Research Systems Ltd 3.8

The BusinessCambridge Research Systems Ltd (CRS) wasestablished in 1986 with an idea to improve theway that stimuli were created for vision scienceexperiments, by using emerging personalcomputer technology to produce dynamicimages on cathode ray tube displays. Sincethen, the company has continued to implementthe latest technologies to create a range ofproducts for both scientific and technicalapplications relating to the eye and brain.

CRS employs 14 people, mainly engineers andscientists, since product development is centralto the business. Turnover is stable at £1.5m, ofwhich around 60% is exported. The companyserves two major markets: research scientists atuniversities, and the television and gamesindustry.

The InnovationThe innovation in CRS has been creating focuson clear business objectives, and developingthe team and business processes to deliverthese objectives; this has allowed the directorsmore time to concentrate on long termstrategy, and the future of the business. Thisstrategic shift has precipitated a culture changeand has helped to resolve some of thedifficulties that were stifling growth andfuelling dissatisfaction within the company.

The BackgroundBusiness background information was gatheredfrom Carol Luscombe, the Managing Director,in an interview in March 2009.

CRS has produced an expanding range of visionscience tools since 1986; it had become as bigas possible within the vision science arena andneeded to diversify into other markets in orderto grow. In 2001 they invented a new product –the HardingFPA – a system for checking thatbroadcasts meet the official guidelines onflashing images and regular patterns intelevision; thereby reducing the likelihood oftriggering epilepsy in photosensitive viewers.

Although the Harding FPA was designed usingCRS’s core expertise in understanding the eyeand brain, this product has a completelydifferent market, namely broadcasters,production and post-production companies,and games manufacturers, and has been

adopted by many prestigious customersincluding the BBC, Channel 4, TV Tokyo, NHK,Disney and Virgin Media. However, while thisdiversification achieved the goal of growthpotential for CRS, it also meant that theattention of the directors, and the company’sresources and staff, had to be shared betweentwo entirely different product lines. Over time,this proved stressful and divisive andcontributed to a lack of focus.

Meanwhile, in the vision science market, inJanuary 2006 CRS had been successful in a bidto join Neural Decisions in Motion (nDIM), athree year long EU strategic targeted researchproject involving academic partners at eightEuropean universities. CRS’s role was todevelop a device to display virtual realityimages and record eye movements during anMRI scan, in order to investigate the brain’sreaction to visual stimuli. nDIM was bothprestigious and complex. It was a substantial,long-term product development commitment,and necessitated a level of business processesand reporting which was not required in otherareas of the company.

By 2007 it became clear that the businessneeded to make some changes: the directorsand senior management were fire-fighting tocope with conflicting priorities. Communicationwithin the business was poor and there was ageneral atmosphere of negativity, insecurityand resistance to change. People wereuncertain about the direction of the business,their roles and those of others. CRS needed astrategy to clarify ideas, re-engage people anddetermine the focus of the business.

The FPA and Vision elements of the businessclearly required independent strategies. Theexisting general manager had appropriateindustry experience and aptitude to manage astrategic business unit (SBU) autonomouslyand so in January 2007, he was appointed tothe new position of Manager of BroadcastSystems, with sole responsibility for managingthe FPA team and product line (FPA SBU).

In April 2007 an experienced operationsmanager was recruited into the Vision SBU,with a remit to overhaul operational process,update policies, and introduce a formal HRframework.

42

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 42

At this stage Carol began an Institute ofDirectors (IoD) course to help to develop herleadership and management skills, particularlyfocusing on human resource management andstrategy development.

CRS was working with an adviser from BusinessLink, who recommended Carol to RogerGrimshaw, the leadership specialist adviser, forextra support and guidance on leadership, tohelp resolve the issues the business was facing.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionRoger Grimshaw started working with CRS inSeptember 2007 and initially administeredBelbin team roles and Myers Briggs diagnosticexercises to identify team and individualstrengths and weaknesses. After theseactivities, he visited regularly and providedadvice and support to Carol as she progressedthrough her IoD development programme.‘Roger became a mentor to me, recommendingbooks for me to read and providing advice onhow to make the changes necessary to addressour issues and to help the business to grow’said Carol. He also helped Carol to access agrant to fund a management developmentprogramme for senior staff in the business andrecommended suppliers who would be able todeliver this.

The Implementation JourneyBy the time Roger Grimshaw started workingwith CRS, the new Broadcast Systems Manager(FPA SBU) and Operations Manager (VisionSBU) were substantially improving day-to-dayoperational and production efficiency.

Carol, responding to the evidence of the needto do things differently, and supported by herlearning programme and mentor, nowembarked on a programme of changesthroughout the business. In conjunction withcolleagues, she developed the strategy for thebusiness, encompassing a holistic approach tocultural change that focused on a vision of thecompany’s future markets and products.

Reasons for the changes were clearlycommunicated to staff and every effort wasmade to bring staff on board and to get themto sign up to the changes.

Monthly meetings including the wholecompany became part of the essentialcommunication of company information –what and how the company was doing wasnow explicitly explained to all staff. Weeklystructured meetings were instigated forproduct development, production and salesadministration. These targeted the right people,providing an environment where potentialproblems were proactively discussed andresolved. The meetings, news blogs and anhonest approach to keeping people informedabout the business, its finances, successes andfailures reinforced the importance ofconsensus.

Working with the operations manager, a formalpersonnel organisation chart was devised to fitthe new strategy, and job descriptions wereagreed with staff, thereby defining prioritiesand responsibilities.

Important changes were made in the ProductDevelopment department, where a newposition of project manager was created. Afteradvertising and interviewing internally andexternally, the position was filled by an existingmember of the team, who was then supportedwith training and mentoring. Core in-houseskills were supplemented by temporarycontractors, providing extra expertise andmanpower in a flexible way, suited to theproject-based nature of the department.

With this new structure in place, Carol’sco-director Tom, the entrepreneurial engineerwho founded the business, was now acting asengineering trouble-shooter in developmentand production, and was able to devote moretime to exploring possible technical innovationsin new markets and products.

CRS’s financial reporting systems were alreadysolid, but the organisational improvementsmeant that tighter control was possible, andthat the data provided to the internal companyaccountant from each department was ofbetter quality. This was essential in monitoringoperational successes such as a reduction inoverall stock levels, and improved the speedand accuracy of product deliveries.

43

Case Study: Cambridge Research Systems Ltd

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 43

CRS already knew the importance of makingand maintaining connections and contacts inthe academic and industrial markets in whichthey operated. They did this by attending andexhibiting at conferences, providingsponsorship, and supporting competitions foryoung academics. These marketing activitiescontinue, but with the processes and thepeople more tightly focused on building thefuture.

The services of a marketing company and anHR company were accessed to help withmarketing and performance managementfunctions, and technical specialists are nowroutinely contracted into the business whenand where they are needed. This flexibilityhelps the business to use people to bettereffect. It has also helped Carol to access thenecessary resources to ensure that all functionsof the business are in place and working todeliver the business strategy.

In order to support the new structure and gelthe team, the senior staff spent six half daysessions over several months studying modulesof the CMI Diploma in Management.

Carol was awarded the Certificate in CompanyDirection from the IoD in February 2008.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationCarol said ‘It is not possible to attribute successto any one change we have made; it was thewhole change to the culture and the structureof the business that has led to improvementsfor the people who work here and for ourcustomers. Operations are tighter - there isbetter communication and collaborationbetween sales, production, accounts andcustomers. There is clarity and purpose to theresearch and development activities andproducts under development now have clearobjectives.

Everyone is now clear about their own role andknows more about the other functions of thebusiness and how these fit together as a whole.Confidence in ourselves, our colleagues andour processes has improved – we are morelikely now to share knowledge and supporteach other. Improved communication has ledto better strategic focus throughout the

business and we are now a better organisationto work for.

We are well placed to weather the effects of theeconomic downturn; the first 3 months of 2009have been very positive and I expect growth of30% on our turnover in 2009/10, withincreased profitability’.

The impact measures achieved by the businessinclude:

• improvement in vision and strategic directionof the business

• improvement in organisational structure

• productivity has increased

• increased confidence and trust of theworkforce

• improved service for the customers

• knowledge base has improved

• long term change has been achieved

The Future PlansCRS is always keen to celebrate its successes;however there is no room for complacency inthis business.

The media industry is a dynamic marketplace,with globalisation, industry convergence andthe rise of digital media creating exciting newopportunities for the FPA business unit.Market leadership has been established, andthe small adaptable team are well positioned tomeet customer demand for rapid customisationand a range of competing formats. TheHardingFPA is now available as a distributed,networked system for use in the latestfile-based workflow technologies, and aproduct for High Definition TV will be launchedin spring 2009.

The Vision business unit continues tocollaborate closely with its customers inacademia. Following the success of nDIM, CRSis now participating in a consortium proposalfor Brain Computer Interface and RoboticEnhanced Action-based Technology inVisuomotor Tasks (BRAVO), which will develop

44


32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 44

a new generation of assistive robots for strokerecovery.

The new infrastructure at CRS will enable thecompany to meet the stringent design andmanufacturing quality standards required formedical device manufacture, providing accessto the expanding global market for clinicalproducts in Optometry and Ophthalmology.

Commentary from Tom Robson,Founder and Director:‘As a businessman and technologist workingin vision science for 20 years, I have come incontact with many new ideas that have thepotential to improve health, but I have seenhow difficult it can be to get innovations outof the laboratory and turn them intomarketable medical devices. My mission isto work with academic colleagues ontranslational research projects to bridgethis gap from bench to bedside’.

Commentary from Janet Robbins,SE Regional Manager for Leadershipand Management:‘The management of CRS could havemaintained the business as it was, contentwith its market share of a narrowly definedproduct field. However, it would have putthe business at risk, particularly with thedependency upon a limited marketplace.The decision to diversify was essential. It iscritical at this stage to note how thisdecision to diversify came about. It wouldseem this decision was not part of a longterm strategy, but more an opportunisticresponse to a new product development.It is also important to note that changesto production were not sufficientlycommunicated to the CRS team. The realchallenge up to this point was a seniormanagement team finding time to focusupon the long term future.

Product diversification can not only be adistraction to the leaders, but it can alsolead to uncertainty across the whole team.If these changes are not part of a long termstrategy, it can indeed lead to the teambeing unable to identify with future plans.

Had Carol not recognised the risk thebusiness was taking, it is possible thebusiness would have failed, despite itsinnovative product developments.Innovative product development alonewill not guarantee business success. It hasto be supported by the work that Carolundertook. CRS now has the opportunityto expand and become a viable long terminvestment’.

Academic commentary fromShaun Gannon‘The choice of when and how to innovate isa matter of some speculation, but, havingdeveloped its vision-science product rangeto a point where sales were tailing off, CRSdecided to engage in a more radicaldiversification into the broadcastingmarket in the early 2000s. Considering theensuing economic upswing, this was awell-timed decision.

Few companies are prepared for thecompany wide knock-on effect thatdiversification into new product markets canbring. In the early days of diversification,CRS management attempted to nurture thenew broadcasting product within the samebusiness unit as the more mature vision-science. As when a new infant is introducedinto a family with an existing sibling, divisivetensions emerged and, in CRS, managementrealised that a paradigm shift was required interms of the company’s strategy andstructure. They separated the two productmarkets into two separate business units.This overhaul required a rethinking ofall company processes - an activity led bythe newly employed operations manager,with the assistance of HR specialists. CRSalso employed the services of a marketingcompany to establish a foothold in theirnew market position.

By accounting, in advance, for the multi-dimensional nature of innovation, includingproducts, business paradigm, processes andmarketing position, CRS will be in a betterposition to manage future innovationprojects’.

45


32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 45

Thinking on:1. In moving forward, how will leadership provide the two business units with sufficient autonomy

and support to enable them to continue to innovate?

2. How can the leaders prevent the clashes that might emerge as different units become more, orless, powerful within the company?

3. How will leadership provide opportunities for cross-fertilisation between the technologicalcompetencies of the business units, as this is shown to have a significant positive effect on thedownstream success of product innovation?

Reading on:Francis, D. and Bessant, J. (2005). Targeting innovation and implications for capability development.Technovation 25, pp.171–183.

Piscitello, L. (2004). Corporate diversification, coherence and economic performance. Industrial andCorporate Change, Volume 13, Number 5, pp. 757-787.

Stern, I. and Henderson, AD. 2004. Within-business diversification in technology-intensiveindustries. Strategic Management Journal, Volume 25, Issue 5, pp 487-505.

46


32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 46

Case Study: Stratophase 3.9

The BusinessStratophase began trading in 2003, as a spinout from the University of Southampton, toexploit commercial applications for theinnovative biochemical sensor technologydeveloped in the Opto-Electronics ResearchCentre. The technology, SpectroSens, consistsof an optical microchip sensor that measureschemical processes and is capable of detectingall classes of biological targets – includingchemicals, proteins, viruses and bacteria, on thesame microchip. The managers involved in thebusiness start-up were the scientists andengineers who initially worked on thetechnology at the University. Stratophase isbased in Romsey in Hampshire and currentlyemploys 13 people. It is a dynamic andinnovative organisation, run with funding fromVenture Capitalists and from collaborativepartnerships with industry. The Universitycontinue their interest in the technologythrough a shareholding in the company.

The predicted turnover for Stratophase for thecurrent company year is £700,000.

The InnovationStratophase has achieved a fundamental shiftin its business model, from one based primarilyon the research and development of innovativetechnology, gained from the experience of anacademic and research environment, to onecapable of realising and exploiting a varietyof sector applications and industrialopportunities for the technology in acommercial environment.

The BackgroundBackground information on the company wasprovided by Dr Sam Watts, BusinessDevelopment and Commercial Officer, inMarch 2009.

The company was formed to continuedeveloping the biochemical sensor technologyand to realise the potential of the commercialapplications for it. At the start, the main marketfor the technology was thought to be thetelecoms industry, but this did not materialise,necessitating the need to identify alternativemarkets. The business then attracted investorsexcited by the potential of the new technologyand, last year, Stratophase secured in excess of

£2 million in contracts and international privateinvestment; an endorsement of the opticalsensor technology’s sound scientific basis andits commercial applications.

Stratophase is now working in partnerships withvarious market sectors – homeland security, themilitary, pharmaceutical and industrialmanufacturing – to develop bespoke and costeffective systems to suit their specificrequirements.

The management team of the business are stillmostly the scientists and engineers who,working on pre or post PhD research, inventedthe original technology. The workingenvironment is demanding, requiring peoplewho are both inventive and self motivated.These people are all passionate about thescience, and driven, skilled and clever; theytend to be motivated by the integrity of thescience rather than the marketplace, and canbe independent thinkers who are difficult tomanage in a commercial environment. Todevelop the business side of the operations,Stratophase recruited in a chairman andfinancial director, who were selectedexplicitly for their business experience andcommercial skills.

SpectroSens is an optical microchip sensor thatis capable of measuring chemical processes andcan detect all classes of biological targets –including the detection of biological toxins,proteins, viruses and bacteria, and has potentialfor reliable chemical process monitoring in arange of applications. A SpectroSens sensormeasures the change in the refractive index ofa liquid as it passes across the surface of theoptical chip with a precision better than onepart in one million. It directly measureschemical substances, and detects the presenceof biological entities in the liquid usingantibodies attached to the sensor surface. Itproduces simultaneous multiple discretereadings to provide reliable measurement anddetection. Stratophase uses unique andpatented direct writing technology tomanufacture the optical microchips, producinga robust and practical sensor.

Stratophase continues to actively researchfurther potential application types for the

47

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 47

SpectroSens sensor and to developrelationships with customers in a range ofpublic and industry sectors that have a criticalrequirement for accurate and robust biologicaldetection or chemical monitoring, including:

• food and beverage manufacturing

• pharmaceutical manufacturing

• life science research and development

• industrial manufacturing and processmeasurement

• homeland security biohazard detection

• medical and point-of-care diagnostics.

The time taken to develop the technology tomeet the requirements of each of theapplications varies enormously. For example,the pipeline control and analysis within anindustrial process for liquids such as petrol,LPG, water or bio-fuels has taken a number ofyears; this product is now nearing production.Biological applications that are beingresearched and developed, supported by fundsfrom the MoD for use in the military, will beavailable within the next few years. The medicalapplications for the point of care diagnosis ofdiseases, viruses and bacteria have big potentialfor the business, but are a longer termdevelopment activity, due in part to thecertification requirements for equipment ofthis type.

‘As a business, we need to achieve a balancebetween research and development of thetechnology and the imperative to make moneyto keep us viable. Research and developmentactivities are essential to the business.Investment and collaborative projects withcustomers are also very important, to provideus with the finance, as the time taken todevelop the technology to satisfy specificmarket requirements is great, possibly as longas 5 or even 10 years, from the start to marketreadiness. The challenge for the business sinceinception has been to build and sustain abalance between the essential research andinnovation in product development and ahealthy commercial focus’ said Sam Watts.

Developing the strategy and business plans hasalways been a challenge in this environment,where the people involved have widely differingmotivations, the lead-in times for research anddevelopment are lengthy and the market ishard to predict. Those involved in thetechnology development, the academics andscientists, like to access and examine allpossible information before making a decisionon the way forward – but in a commercialbusiness this is not always desirable or possible.

‘Consensus between the technology andcommercial factions in the business was hard toreach and business planning was a long andarduous process’ explained Sam Watt. ‘As asmall company, we needed to improve the waythe management team worked in developingthe culture and the strategy of the businessand in communicating these to our people’.

As the business progressed, the managementteam had sought to encourage and supporttheir academics working in technologydevelopment to focus on research within thecontext of a sound commercial application.They knew that science and engineering can bevery interesting and absorbing for its own sake,but conducted in isolation from a market, orfrom a potential customer willing to pay for it,it is of no value to the business.

Stratophase had developed a productiverelationship with Business Link, Hampshiresince their start up and had received advice andassistance on business and skills development.In 2008, Sam Watts attended a presentation forUniversity businesses at Southampton by oneof the Leadership Specialist Advisers in theSouth East, Lorna Fairbairn, and thought thatshe might be able to help resolve some of thetensions the business was experiencing.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionIn the context of helping to develop themanagement team and improve theirunderstanding of the way they operated as abusiness, Lorna offered to provide support toStratophase.

She undertook a Myers Briggs exercise withthe management team – this identified the

48

Case Study: Stratophase

32699gwe_p33-48:32699gwe_p33-48 27/8/09 14:21 Page 48

similarities and differences in personality typesand beliefs within the team – and thenprovided individual feedback to eachparticipant. Lorna then facilitated a groupsession to give the team feedback on theresults of the exercise, helping them to look attheir differences, the reasons for these and theconsequences of them on the business,communications and decision making. Thefeedback session was followed by a teambuilding workshop for the team, designed tohelp them to resolve conflicts and improvecommunications and team working.

The Implementation JourneyThe feedback from the Myers Briggs exerciseprovided the management team with avaluable insight into the stark differences inpersonalities and motivations of the peoplewho were working in the business and helpedto explain some of the difficulties and conflictsthat existed within the team. A betterunderstanding of the importance of the mix ofskills and personalities within the team andtheir effects on performance informedimprovements that were subsequently made tothe communication of information, thedeployment of people in various roles and inthe recruitment of new people.

Regular weekly meetings were instigated for allstaff and used to communicate essentialinformation on how the business was doing.These meetings focused firmly on the dualimperatives of the business – productdevelopment and market viability – providinginformation and updates on product researchand development, contracts, orders, finance,and celebrating successes in all of these. Themeetings clearly communicated to all staff theimportance of achieving a balance betweentechnology development and commercialactivity; they have improved the understandingwithin and between teams and helped to focusand implement the strategy for the business.

Recruitment in Stratophase had traditionallybeen based on building the original team bytrying to replicate the skills of the existingacademics, scientists and engineers, ratherthan reflecting upon how new people couldcontribute to the delivery of the business

strategy. Managers, now more aware of thetensions that can arise between differentpersonalities in teams, used the knowledgegained from the Myers Briggs exercise toinform the future recruitment and selectionprocesses within the business. This knowledgeand new principles were used to identify andensure a match of relevant and new skills andpersonalities to the requirements of the joband the team mix. A probation period wasinstigated for all new jobs to check thatselection was working as planned.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovation‘The development of the management teamhelped us to decide what needed to be done toimprove the culture of the business; it gave usa better understanding of ourselves and ourpeople, motivators and team dynamics. Weused the knowledge we gained from theexercise and team building to inform decisionsabout improving the communication ofinformation within the business and thedeployment of personnel and it has helped usto be effective in making those changes.Communications are more open and gearedtowards helping everyone see the big picture;we have improved the transparency in thebusiness, established a clear focus for thestrategy and ensured that everyone in thebusiness understands the applications for thetechnology.

We have a better appreciation now of howpersonality traits may affect the workingenvironment and we use the information welearnt from the Myers Briggs process ininterviews – firstly to help us to analyse anddecide what kind of person we need tocomplement the existing team and then toselect the person who will fit into the role, theteam and the company’ said Sam Watt.

The improvements made have resulted in thefollowing impact measures:

• better and quicker planning process

• improved people satisfaction

• improved people retention

49


32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 49

• strengthened relationships with investorsand industry

• improved links between technicaldevelopment activities and sales activity.

The Future PlansThe business is on the verge of rapid growth,as short to medium term projects to developthe technology reach maturity. The currentstaff of 13 is predicted to increase to over 50people within the next 2 years. A move to anew and larger building is being investigatedto accommodate these new people for themanufacturing of the technology.

Stratophase is currently recruiting 2 newmembers of staff – a bio-chemist and anengineer – and will be using the Myers Briggsknowledge and principles to ensure that theymeet the requirements of the role, from a skills,experience and personality perspective.

More leadership and management developmentis planned for the management team in thefuture as the business grows and develops.

Commentary from Sam Watts‘Our viability as a business is dependentupon maintaining a healthy balance ofresearch and development, investment andcollaborative projects with customers. TheMyers Briggs exercise and team building wasa short intervention for the managementteam, but it enabled us to gain a betterunderstanding of the personalities andmotivations of the people working in thebusiness and some of the difficulties andconflicts that existed. We subsequentlymade substantial improvements to thecommunication of information and to thedeployment and recruitment of people.

We have better transparency in the business,a clear focus for the strategy and everyonenow understands the potential applicationsfor the research and development activities’.

Commentary from Lorna Fairbairn,Leadership Specialist Adviser:‘Stratophase wanted to look at the dynamicsof their senior team. I used the Myers Briggsbecause it identifies the preferences peoplehave for doing things, and as a startingpoint this clearly helped them to reflect onthemselves as individuals and how theyinter-relate to others in the team. Theindividual feedback helped them each toidentify with their own preferences and thegroup session allowed them to discuss theothers’ preferences and how they eachperceived them.

The team building workshop got themworking in pairs through some coachingexercises and allowed them to get to knowone another better, to communicate moreeffectively, and to understand theimportance of the mix of skills andpersonalities within the team and thewider organisation’.

Academic commentary fromNigel Lockett‘This is a very interesting and informativecase study, which highlights the vital roleof intermediaries and the importance ofleadership and management developmentin successfully exploiting university-basedresearch by the formation of a spin-outcompany. The university businessdevelopment officer supported research andacademic staff in preparing their businesscase but also acted as a broker to helpaccess support services and potentialinvestors. The former resulted in a targetedintervention, supported by Business Link, tostrengthen the management team andincrease awareness of the skill mix withinthe company’s senior management team.The latter resulted in significant venturecapital investment. Recent research alsohighlights the increased importance ofintermediaries within universities who

50


32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 50

facilitate knowledge transfer and exchangewith industry and raises concerns about theoften short-term nature of funding thesepositions, (Lockett et al, 2008). This casestudy reinforces the need for intermediarieswho can bridge this gap and shows howadditional services, both financial andsupport programmes, can result. Given the

increased interest by policymakers atnational and European levels in promotingcommercialisation of university-basedresearch, this case study provides additionalevidence for both quantitative andqualitative measures to be used to helpensure exploitation is successful’.

51


Thinking on:1. Can you think of other examples where leaders gaining a better understanding of self and

colleagues was instrumental in underpinning change within a business?

2. Moving forward, what steps can the leaders of Stratophase take to maintain the balance betweenresearch and development, investment and collaborative projects with customers?

3. How will the leaders of this business manage the rapid growth that is anticipated in the next 2years? What effect will this rapid growth have on the balance required between research, invest-ment and collaborative projects?

Reading on:Lockett, N., Kerr, R., and Robinson, S. (2008) ‘Multiple Perspectives on the Challenges for KnowledgeTransfer between HEIs and Industry’, International Small Business Journal. 26 (6), pp 661-681.

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 51

Case Study: Advanced Communication Solutions Ltd 3.10

The BusinessAdvanced Communication Solutions Ltd (ACS)is a family business that was set up in 1996 byAndrew Shiach, after his career as a musicianwas cut short by damage to his hearing;company directors are Andrew and Joan Shiach.ACS develops, manufactures and supplieshearing protection devices and custom madein-ear monitors for audio and communicationsystems. They currently employ 12 people andhave premises in Harpenden in Hertfordshireand in Banbury in Oxfordshire.

The business has experienced sustained growthover the last few years, and had a turnover in2008 of £780K.

The InnovationRealising that the business was at a stagewhere it could expand if they were better ableto capitalise on the potential of both theproducts and the markets, Joan and Andrewmade the decision to select and appoint a newmanaging director to take the business forward.This decision freed-up Andrew to focus onthose areas where his personality and skillswere best suited; in product development,developing relationships with partners andcustomers, instigating innovative marketinginitiatives and developing overseas marketopportunities. Joan, who was fulfilling some ofthe functions of the managing director, wouldhave more free time to focus now on managingthe quality of customer services.

The BackgroundBusiness background information was gatheredby interview with the Commercial Director, JoanShiach, in April 2009.

Andrew undertook training in audiology andfounded the business to foster his passion formusic, innovation and helping people. Anin-depth understanding of the manipulationof sound and hearing disorders led him toinvestigate, source and develop products thatwould protect and prevent noise-inducedhearing damage, rather than treat it after thedamage had occurred.

Musicians were Andrew’s first customers, andhearing protection his first product. He latermoved into other markets where noise was aproblem, helping organisations to comply with

Health and Safety regulations relating toprotecting individuals from occupational andenvironmental noise. After the hearingprotection devices, another innovative productwas developed – an in-ear monitor forcommunication.

ACS now manufactures and provides custom-made products for customers in motorsport,aviation, sports, industry and music. Theseproducts are:

• in-ear monitors for performing musiciansthat give them the isolation and quality ofsound reproduction they need to perform attheir best

• hearing protection that allows professionalsoperating in noisy environments to do theirjobs or sports safely

• in-ear communication systems

Innovation and good ideas in their productshave put ACS at the forefront in this industry inthe UK.

A key feature of all of ACS’s products is thatthey are specifically made for each individualcustomer’s ear. In-ear impressions are madeand these are then used to build effective andcomfortable earpieces from non-allergenicsilicon compounds to ensure a perfect fit. It isthis fit that allows the customer tocommunicate or listen comfortably and clearlyin all circumstances and provides the delivery ofsound at safe levels with absolute clarity. In theearly days of the business, Andrew completedthe ear impressions himself, travelling to thecustomer, but ACS have now established anationwide network of audiologists who willtake the ear impressions required to get acustom-made fit for each earpiece.

Joan joined the business in 2005 to take overthe financial and administrative responsibilities.Andrew had been busy visiting musicians andtaking ear impressions, developing hisreputation and his products and marketingthese, leaving him with little time to managethe business operations. With no previousknowledge of managing operations in abusiness, Joan enrolled onto a college coursefor bookkeeping and Sage accounting systems.

52

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 52

Gradually, as Joan gained skills and confidence,she took more responsibility for running thebusiness, whilst Andrew developed theproducts and markets, supervisedmanufacturing, and built his relationshipswith customers and suppliers.

Joan made contact with Business Link for helpwith business issues and advice on skillsdevelopment. In November 2006, The BusinessLink Adviser, Steve Harewood, recommendedand referred her to a 3 day course on businessskills. This course provided her with an insightinto leadership and management and beganher thinking about the future direction of thebusiness. Subsequently she attended furthertraining in managing customer service and in2007 she steered ACS through ISO 9001:2000certification, which helped her to develop thestructure and essential processes and policiesfor the business.

Throughout this period of personaldevelopment in business and management,Joan was gradually becoming more aware thatthere were improvements in management thatneeded to be made if the business was to besuccessful in capitalising on the innovation oftheir products and their growing reputation inthe market place. She felt the business lackedstrategic direction and she also recognised thather husband’s focus of driving the businessstrategies forward left him with little time forthe day to day management of the business.

At this stage, their Business Link adviserrecommended that ACS talk to a leadershipspecialist adviser, Geoff Ribbens, to see if hecould help the management team develop away forward for the business.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionGeoff visited ACS in 2008 and offered toprovide some leadership and managementdevelopment for the management team (the2 directors and the production manager fromthe laboratory). His first undertook a Belbinexercise with the team – helping them to lookat personality traits, strengths and teamcohesion. The feedback from the exercisehelped them to see that they were a goodteam, with complementary skills andpersonalities. After the Belbin exercise, Geoffprovided a series of workshops on leadership

and management for the team; these weredesigned to help them to see the importanceof effective leadership on a business and todevelop plans to enable them to realise thevision and strategy that Andrew had for thebusiness. Geoff’s facilitation in these workshopswas particularly helpful in guiding themanagement team towards reconciling theirdifficulties and differences of perspective.

When the workshops were completed, Geoffsuggested that an away-day for all staff wouldbe a good idea, to help everyone in the ACSteam to understand the business and share thevision and plans for the future. Geoff facilitatedthis away-day and again utilised hisindependence and impartial status to facilitatethe interface between the management teamand the staff, to improve communicationbetween them and increase the whole companyunderstanding of the proposed business focusand direction.

Geoff’s patience and his knowledge of otherbusinesses that had experienced similar issuesand problems were invaluable to themanagement team. Stories about how otherbusinesses had made improvements, guidancefrom Geoff on their own circumstances and thetime out from day-to-day operations all helpedAndrew and Joan to critically examine theirown and others’ roles and responsibilities inthe context of the plans for the business.

At the end of the funding for the leadershipspecialist adviser programme, Geoffrecommended that Joan make contact withthe Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) toaccess advice and support from them on theintroduction of their planned newmanufacturing equipment.

The Implementation JourneyThe development programme, facilitated byGeoff, helped the senior management team toformulate plans at an important point in thecompany’s development. They were aware thatmaking the right decisions at this time could becrucial to the future growth of the business.The vision and strategy was clear, plans hadnow been developed, there was innovation inthe products with a huge potential market tobe accessed, and the people in the businesshad enormous energy and determination.

53

Case Study: Advanced Communication Solutions Ltd

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 53

Andrew and Joan recognised that Andrew wasideally placed in the business to continue doingwhat he did best; applying his knowledge andinnovation and entrepreneurial skills to thedevelopment of products, relationships andmarkets. But at this stage, both were working7 days a week and Joan was keen to get somevaluable time back to do other things outsideof the business.

They decided that the business was now inneed of someone with the ability and drive tocapitalise on its potential, to build momentumand take it forward. They identified the needfor a new managing director, and after carefulconsideration of the type of skills andpersonality that was necessary to complementthe existing management team, selectedsomeone already known to them, from workhe had done for the business in the past.They made an offer and a new managingdirector will start with ACS in May.

The management team now provide regularupdates to staff on developments and progresstowards the business plan’s goals to ensure thatimproved communication with all staff, startedat the away-day, continues. The productionmanager is applying his improved commercialawareness, gained from the leadershipdevelopment programme, in the managementof product manufacturing.

Joan has made contact with MAS for advice onhow to improve the efficiency and effectivenessof the manufacturing processes. Advisers fromMAS are helping ACS to investigate potentialfunding sources for new manufacturingequipment and will provide support for theintroduction of the new technology.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationJoan commented: ‘Geoff helped us toconsolidate our thinking on the focus of thebusiness and enabled us to shape our plans forthe future. We defined roles, responsibilitiesand the skills needed for the delivery of theplans. The work done by Geoff with themanagement team and then with the rest ofthe people in the business helped to inform thedevelopment of the business and enabled us toformulate and communicate the plans. We arenow in a position to build on the momentum

we already had in the business and operate ona proper company footing.

We have improved relationships in the businessteam, a complementary mix of skills, and areall working together towards a shared andcommon vision. We have become morebusiness focused and our staff understand theplans and how these will support businessgrowth. The directors have improvedconfidence in themselves and their roles arenow clearly linked to the areas where their skillsand personalities are best suited’.

The production manager has also benefitedfrom the leadership development programme;he is more commercially aware and applies thisknowledge in his role managing production.


• increased leadership and management skills

• improved vision and strategic direction

• productivity has increased

• increased confidence and trust of theworkforce

• increased and improved quality ofinteractions with customers

• new and innovative market niches entered

• new and productive collaborativerelationships.

‘This has been a journey of discovery for us – along journey to this point. I really believe thatwithout Business Link and the support anddevelopment we received from Geoff, we wouldnot be here today, in this position, poised forhuge growth. There are lots of companies likeus – just needing external expertise and help toenable them to take advantage of their energy,talent and ability to innovate’ said Joan.

The Future PlansAndrew and Joan are looking forward to thestart of the new managing director and a newphase of their business. They plan to keep thefamily model of the business – their son has

54


32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 54

recently joined the company and there are 2more children they hope will join them in thenear future. Joan has plans for a bit more freetime and a new role in the business, managingthe quality of customer services.

ACS has recently achieved a marketing coupwith Apple; a trial is underway that offers avoucher with every portable media player sold,offering a contribution towards an ACScustom-made sleeve for the earpiece. If thisoffer is expanded worldwide, the potential forsales is massive.

Andrew is busy setting up a joint limitedliability partnership – ACS Inc. USA – that willbuild on the success of the products in the UKand exploit the USA market, where there ispotential for huge profits. Plans are also inhand to establish a network of suppliers acrossAmerica and Europe, using contacts to sell thebrand and products, with ACS taking apercentage of profits.

Health and Safety legislation continues tostimulate opportunities in the UK for hearingtests and the provision of hearing protectiondevices for people working in noisyenvironments.

With the marketing initiatives and productionimprovements in place, ACS is on the verge ofrapid expansion. Turnover, profits and thenumber of people employed are expected torise significantly in the next two years. Thedirectors are aware that sudden expansion canbring problems: more people will requireeffective communications, motivation anddevelopment. The away-day for all staff willbecome a bi-annual event.

Commentary from Andrew Shiach:‘Running a business has many similarities tonurturing children. It’s a full time and oftena thankless task, but when the fruits of one’slabours are realised, the satisfaction andsense of personal achievement make it allworthwhile.

For many years I held the belief that everydecision I made was the right one and Ithink this is typical for people who own andmanage their business. When Joan joined

the company, she was in the rare position ofbeing able to tell me where I was goingwrong, safe in the knowledge that I couldn’tfire her. I came close to it many times, but asher confidence grew and I began to see thatperhaps I wasn’t always right, I opened mymind to change through listening to herperspective.

Instigating relationships with Business Linkand MAS was something that, if I’m honest,didn’t inspire me very much. How wrong Iwas. I think I’ve made a brave and sensibledecision to relinquish control of my businessand place it in the hands of people who arebetter equipped to take us forward. Myshoulders feel lighter because I can focus onwhat I’m good at and leave the things thatI’m hopeless at to others. I would urgeanyone who is running around like aheadless chicken to seek help from experts.The leadership development provided uswith real focus and taught us that successfulbusiness is all about team work. I’mconfident that we’re now in a good positionto take our ambitions to the next level’.

Commentary from Geoff Ribbens,Leadership Specialist Adviser:‘To make an efficient, effective and valuedriven business needs to be worked at,especially as the company expands.Empowering the workforce is important ifyou want them to come up with new ideasand improvements – you have to encourage,motivate and develop the staff. Continuingwith the “away-day” on a regular basis is agood idea – this will help keep the staff onboard and in tune with priorities anddevelopments.

A review of your business strategy and plansneeds to be done every year; look for wellestablished strategic models for ideas asyour business grows. Your current strategy issuccessful and bearing fruit, but it is a goodidea to review options each year by lookingat your internal strengths and weaknesses aswell as external opportunities and threats’.

55


32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 55

Academic commentary fromMark Russell‘The importance of recognising the fatalassumption made by most people whoexperience an entrepreneurial seizure andstart their own business is well illustratedin this case-study.

That fatal assumption is: if you understandthe technical work of a business, youunderstand a business that does thattechnical work. It’s fatal because it simplyisn’t true and it is the root cause of mostsmall business failures. It’s one of thebiggest myths about starting your ownbusiness and is well documented byGerber, M. (2004) The E-Myth Revisited:Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and Whatto Do About It.

Business-owners Andrew and Joan Shiachfound themselves torn between the need todrive the family business forward (Andrew’spreference), spending time managing theday-to-day operations and enjoying awork/life balance. They knew something

had to change. Working with Business Linkand Leadership Development Advisers, theystarted on the changes necessary for thebusiness to capitalise on its growingreputation. This decision proved inspiredand the impact has been immediateand significant. Defined roles andresponsibilities of the team that play toindividual strengths and the appointment ofa managing director will give more focusand direction to the business and the peoplewho work there.

The important lessons are threefold: theneed to work ON the business, not just INit, to focus on what you are good at doingand lastly, to build a leadership/management team of complementary skills.

What makes people work with passion andcommitment is an idea worth working for,along with a clear understanding of whatneeds to be done. And this comes shiningthrough in this example’.

56

Thinking on:1. Are there specific issues that relate to providing advice and support to the leaders of a family

business?

2. Will Andrew and Joan find it difficult to relinquish control of their business to the new managingdirector? How will the new managing director manage his relationship with the existing directorteam, and consult and communicate with them?

3. How will succession planning be managed effectively, as family members join the business?

Reading on:Gerber, M. (2004) The E-Myth Revisited: Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.


32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 56

Case Study: Inspiration Chartered Architects 3.11

The BusinessInspiration Chartered Architects is anarchitecture business based in Newbury inBerkshire. Inspiration provides architecturalsolutions to a range of clients, both private andcommercial, and has contracts in the UK and inEurope. The business received internationalproperty awards in 2006 and 2007, for thequality of architecture and interior design, andfor the development and marketing of holidayproperties in Turkey. The business was set upin1999 by Annika Hatchwell, with her initiallyworking from home. After 2 years of operating,Annika’s husband, Brian Daws, joined as adirector in the business. By 2007, after anumber of successful years of trading, ICAemployed 13 people.

Both the size and reputation of the businesshave grown steadily over the last few years,producing an annual turnover in 2008 of£640,000.

The InnovationProcess – A wide range of standard templateshave been developed in AutoCAD and are nowroutinely used by the architects in the businessto produce design drawings more time and costeffectively.

Marketing – Inspiration has developed andimplemented a smart marketing plan thatdetermines demographic profiles andappropriate media to use to enable them toeffectively reach their target groups.

Management – The finance functions of thebusiness have been overhauled, enablingaccurate testing and measuring of all of the keyperformance aspects of the business. Creditcontrol has been structured to ensure timelypayments are received.

The BackgroundBusiness background information was gatheredby interviews with the owner director, AnnikaHatchwell, in June 2009.

Inspiration work on a range of architecturalprojects with both private and commercialclients, from the initial concept, through designto construction. Projects include new build andrefurbishment of houses, communal andcommunity accommodation, holiday sites,property extensions and interior design.

Services provided to clients can vary fromproducing drawings to the complete packageof holistic design and project management.

In 2007, business was booming for Inspiration:the future looked positive, contracts wereplentiful and the business was increasing in sizeand strength. The directors appointed 2 newarchitects as managers, to take on some of theresponsibilities of the day to day running of thebusiness. These appointments were designed tofree-up the directors’ time, to enable them toconcentrate on strategic issues, attract newcustomers, negotiate contracts, and to utilisetheir strengths in design.

Throughout her time managing the business,Annika had always been active in sourcing andutilising external expertise and resources tohelp the business to function effectively. Shehad established a relationship with a businessadviser from Business Link Berkshire and wasreferred by this adviser to suitable training andgrants for leadership and managementdevelopment for the directors and managers ofthe business. In early 2008, the Business Linkadviser referred her to the leadership specialistadviser – Geoff Ribbens. Annika asked Geofffor help to develop the leadership potentialwithin the business.

The Leadership Specialist AdviserInterventionGeoff undertook a series of activities with thedirectors and managers to determine theirexisting leadership and management styles andteam and individual strengths. He then ran a3 day training programme based on leadingand developing high performance teams. Thisprogramme covered:

• Leadership and management

• Performance management

• Decision making methods

• Planning.

After the leadership workshops, Geoff workedindividually with the 2 new managers,providing coaching in the skills of performancemanagement, stressing the win-win or assertiveapproach.

57

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:23 Page 57

1 Business Planning: – vision, annual and quarterly goals, weekly action planning

Geoff also spent time with the directors,facilitating a discussion on strategic issueswithin the business and looking at strategicmodels with them.

After the development and support from Geoff,Annika felt that they needed further help andshe set about researching various businesscoaching options that could help the businessto make further improvements. She selectedand contacted Sally Rainbow-Ockwell fromActionCoach, an organisation providing abusiness coaching system and accreditedcoaches, designed to help directors of smalland medium enterprises to focus on the healthand growth of their business.

The Implementation JourneyIn late 2008, Inspiration, like many other smallbusinesses, began to feel both the generaleffects of the recession and the immediate andprofound impact it was having on theconstruction industry and related businesses.Their commercial work particularly wasaffected, and Inspiration needed to adjust to

working on a smaller scale on the mainlydomestic/residential work that was stillavailable. As the effects of the recessioncontinued into 2009, Inspiration was forced toreduce the number of people employed in orderto survive. This was a painful, but necessaryaction, taken to ensure that the business wouldbe in a strong position to take advantage of therecovery in the economy and an upturn in theconstruction industry.

The directors of Inspiration have been workingwith their business coach for some monthsnow, at a cost to the business of approximately£1300 per month. Sally has considerableexperience of coaching and supporting leadersfrom small and medium enterprises in a rangeof sectors and can share their experiences ofhow they have encountered and dealt withproblems and implemented improvements inspecific areas of their business. The systemSally uses as a business coach is based on aladder, starting with base camp, businessplanning, and working up through all aspects ofthe business in a logical order, as shown here:

58

Case Study: Inspiration Chartered Architects

2 Mastery: – finance, time, processes

3 Sales/Marketing: –marketing plan, USP and guarantee, strategies, testingand measuring

6 Personal Development: –accountability, change management,personal growth

4 Leverage: – systemising regular tasks

5 Team: – leadership, recruitment, motivation and retention, delegation

The directors of Inspiration meet with Sallyonce a week for about an hour. Each meetingfocuses on a distinct aspect of the business andresults in a specific and itemised action plan tobe addressed before the next meeting. Theseactions are rigorously followed up by the coach

at the following week’s visit. There is also akey planning meeting every quarter, where anumber of businesses work collectively withthe coach; this meeting also encouragesdiscussion and networking between thebusiness leaders.

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 58

To begin with, the Inspiration directorsoverhauled the financial structure andreporting systems of the business. Theyintroduced Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),and now produce meaningful information infive key measures that enable them to compareand analyse how they are doing and to informkey decisions in the business. They have alsooverhauled the credit control process – this hasformalised invoicing and helped to ensure thatpayments are received on time, or even sooner.

The directors went on to rationalise the waythat they produce their design drawings, bymaking improvements to the in-houseAutoCAD system. Standard templates havenow been produced for all of the repetitiveaspects necessary in design. This has made thesystem more accessible and simplified andspeeded up the process of drawing design.

Prior to the recession, Inspiration did notundertake much marketing of their productsand services; their reputation was good andenquiries were plentiful, and there was littleneed for incurring marketing expenditure. Inthe last six months, and with the help of Sally,they have now developed and implemented asmart marketing plan that uses demographicdata to identify and focus marketing activity.They have selected locations that match theirdefined demographic profiles and placedadvertisements in Yellow Pages andnewspapers. They have also placed adverts inlocal public school magazines; this is a low costexercise that effectively targets an affluentclient market group.

Both directors are now involved in networkingactivities to promote their business and itsproducts; they are members of the ActionCoachnetwork of business leaders and have recentlyjoined another local business network.

The Impact of Quality Leadership andInnovationAnnika made the following observations aboutthe leadership development interventions andtheir impact on their leadership and thebusiness: ‘Work with Geoff has helped us tounderstand how people tick and work togetheras a team. We plan to use the Belbin team roles

questionnaire when recruiting new people inthe future. It provides us with an objectivemeasure and is useful to see how a potentialemployee could fit into the existing teamstructure. Potential employees will be asked tocomplete the questionnaire at interview andthe results used to aid the discussion on theircharacter profile. The management team allfeel that we are better at decision making, aswe now know and apply the method taught tous by Geoff in the workshops.

Work with Sally, our business coach iscontinuing; she is helping us to look at everyaspect of our business, and is enabling us toimprove the bits that matter’.

The improvements made in the business haveresulted in the achievement of the followingimpact measures:

• Improvement in the measurement ofperformance and achievements

• More control of the business and its outputs

• Ability to make objective decisions, based onfacts

• Reduction in the time taken to produce thedesign drawings

• Increased enquiries generated from smarterand more focused marketing activities

• Improved capacity to survive the recession.

The Future PlansThe business is now on a sound financialfooting and confidence in its future prospects isexcellent. The number of enquiries received isgrowing, there are potential contracts to befinalised when the economic situation improvesand negotiations are in progress for newcontracts.

Plans are in place to make more effective use ofthe internet for marketing. Inspiration areidentifying the triggers that precipitate thechanges that people make to their property –for example: childbirth, health, fitness – andthe related websites that people may use on

59


32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 59

these occasions. They plan to set up links fromthese websites to their own website as a lowcost and effective way of accessing potentialclients. They also have plans to establishcollaborative marketing activities with a spadesign consultant and with private propertyfinders and estate agencies dealing in the largerand overseas properties.

Inspiration is now seeking to grow the teamand the business again. Annika plans toemploy 3 more people in the next year andis considering opening another branch,recognising the importance of personal servicefor private customers and the defined need fora discrete and separate service for theircommercial customers.

The directors will continue to work with theircoach to review and improve their business;they believe the money spent on the coach hasproduced the results that were necessary forthe business to develop and has been goodvalue.

Commentary from Annika Hatchwell:‘Using the coach has been a significant costto the business at a time when we wereadversely affected by the recession, but weknow that this cost is essential expenditureand regard it as an investment. Sally isproviding us with specific help in reviewingand improving every aspect of our business.She makes us accountable for ensuring thatthe agreed actions are addressedimmediately; knowing that each of these willbe followed up makes sure that we do it.

We have learnt the rules of effectivemarketing and are now experimenting tofind out what works for us to get to the rightpeople at the right time; knowing where,how, what, and to whom we are marketinghas helped us to keep our costs down andstill achieve good results.

We have made radical changes to the waywe run our business and it is now strong andin the very best position to take advantageof the economic upturn, whenever it comes’.

Commentary from Sally Rainbow-Ockwell, Business Coach:‘Inspiration Architects is a successfulArchitecture practice – but it was sufferingfrom the problem which affects most smallbusinesses: a complete dependence on thehard work, long hours and determination ofthe owners. This means that in effect thebusiness is the owners – and it makes itmore difficult to identify the business as asaleable asset for the future. It was clearthat the business needed some clearmanagement systems and a team that wouldfollow these.

In common with many professional servicescompanies, there is a high level ofprofessional respect between the architects.This has many positive benefits – but for theowners in this environment, it can oftenappear difficult to implement good businesssystems without undermining personalcreative and professional freedoms.

As architects themselves, Brian and Annikadidn’t yet have the business managementskills to allow them to fully control thefinancial, marketing and team aspects oftheir business. At Inspiration I have workedwith Brian and Annika to help them todevelop the right systems for their business,whilst growing their own managementcapabilities to help them lead the team moreeffectively. The regular weekly support andaccountability from the ActionCoachapproach gives the consistent step-by-stepdevelopment that produces greatincremental results. I’ve seen Brian andAnnika growing in confidence as they nowhave better tools to lead and manage theirbusiness.

The systems and team development areproviding a great springboard for the nextphase of development of the business. Thisis including a clear definition of the USP andimplementation of tested marketingapproaches to help grow the sales. As thebusiness develops further, a structuredapproach to recruitment and teamdevelopment will ensure that Brian andAnnika are building a business that is trulyan asset for the future’.

60


32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 60

Academic commentary fromDavid Clutterbuck‘This case study demonstrates the value of asemi-structured approach to small businesscoaching – one that provides sufficientstructure to focus the leaders’ attention onwhat is important, but is flexible enough toadapt to specific circumstances as they arise.

It also illustrates the way that the needs ofthe coachees evolve, with the result that adifferent style and capacity of coach may berequired as the requirements of the businessand its leaders change with experience andcircumstance. Implicit in this process isattention to the twin growth needs – thoseof the business and those of the leaders.Organisational and leader learning need to

progress broadly in parallel. If there is toomuch focus on growth of the business, theleaders end up riding a tiger they cannotcontrol; if there is excessive focus onpersonal development, critical businessissues may not be addressed.

The holistic nature of coaching interventionsin growing small businesses is an essentialpart of the coaching role – every aspect ofthe business and how it is managed and ledis both a potential problem and a potentialopportunity. Challenges for the coachinclude avoiding being drawn into aconsulting role and preventing theleadership team becoming dependent’.

61


Thinking on:1. Would the leaders in this business have invested their time and money in the business coach and

the improvements to the business if the recession had not intervened to adversely affect thebusiness and its profitability?

2. How can the coach prevent the leadership team becoming too dependent on her?

3. At what point should the current coach be encouraging the client to move on again?

Reading on:Clutterbuck, D. (2009) Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice ofeclecticism in coaching: article on eclecticism in coaching.

Devins, D. & Gold, J. (2000) Cracking the tough nuts: Mentoring and coaching the managers of smallfirms, Career Development International, Vol. 5, No 4/5, pp 250-255.

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 61

Chapter 4: Final thoughts

This publication provides vivid studies of howleaders have been encouraged to maintain andimprove their businesses’ resilience to thechallenges they face on a daily basis throughinnovation. Their implementation of new ideashas required the investment of vital resources:time, space, money, expertise, and energy, andfor some, it was risky. The leaders cited in thesecase studies resisted the temptation to wait, tobe safe, to ride out the recession, andembarked on the implementation of a range oftypes of innovation to help their businesses tosurvive and grow.

The LSAs were instrumental in instigating andsupporting the development of the leaders.Their services were free (funded by SEEDA),they were impartial and they wereknowledgeable; these have all been importantfactors in raising the quality of thinking and thedecisions made by the leaders about leadershipand innovation. Many of the leaders haveprogressed from working with their LSAs toaccess further leadership development forthemselves and their management teams,through coaching, training and participation inaction learning groups. All of the leaders whoinvested in further leadership development,sometimes at considerable cost to the business,felt it was money very well spent.

A number of key messages have emerged fromthese case studies, and from the leaders’,advisers’ and academics’ commentaries. Wehave seen how important it has been forleaders to rise above the minutiae of day to dayoperations and take a more strategic view oftheir business. Leaders have demonstrated (andacademics have commented on) theirrealisation that it is not imperative to know orbe good at everything, and how they havebenefited from accessing the knowledge andexperience of advisers and others external tothe business. The support provided from peersin other business through action learninggroups was particularly valued by all of thosewho experienced it. The case studies have alldemonstrated the importance of involving andinfluencing others within the business toachieve innovation and success.

The case studies have also shown that thedevelopment of leadership and performanceneeds to be in coherence with the businessstrategic direction, values and culture, toproduce benefit for the business and itspeople. Different styles of, and approachesto leadership are appropriate at differentstages of the business’s development, withthe need for more formalised leadership asthe business grows.

We have seen a wide range of types ofinnovation demonstrated by our case studybusinesses, with many of them demonstratingmore than one type of innovation. Change as aconsequence of innovation was not withoutdifficulties, and people at all levels in thebusinesses, including those in the managementteam, did not always accept it. Changes to theculture, products, service or processes within abusiness will inevitably impact on people andtheir performance requirements at all levels,and this can reveal individual and teamweaknesses and expose a reluctance orresistance to change, which had to bedealt with.

The case studies show that a business withinnovative products is not necessarilyinnovative in the processes, services, marketingor management structure; neither is theentrepreneur, the scientist or the inventornecessarily a natural, willing or competentleader. In particular, the high-tech businessescited in our case studies discovered theimportance of achieving a balance between theresearch, product development and themanagement of the business, so as not to limitthe possibilities of expansion and businessdevelopment.

We are confident that these case studiesdemonstrate how an intervention to developthe leadership capability within the businesscan help to create the environment where newideas are stimulated and successfullyimplemented. We have seen a range of impactmeasures achieved by the businesses,demonstrating a coherent and inextricable linkbetween leadership and growth. All but one of

62

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 62

the case studies show how the businesses havebeen able to improve their resilience to thechallenges brought about by the pooreconomic climate. A recession is a challengefor any business, but it can also provideopportunities for those that are able to respondpositively.

We set out to investigate and, where possible,provide a demonstrable link between leadershipdevelopment, effective leadership, a company’sability to innovate and a positive impact on thebusiness. The business owners and managersencountered in the businesses have showncourage, energy and determination in seekingleadership support and development forthemselves and their management teams, andin using their new confidence and knowledgeto make improvements to their businessthrough both instigating and inspiringinnovation. The range of innovations we haveseen have been both radical and incremental,and have resulted in improvements in thebusinesses that have benefited the people, thecustomers, the investors, and the bottom line.

63

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 63

Biographies

Greg Young is an active member of the steering committee of the South East Leadership Academy,representing the contribution made by providers of leadership development. He is a co-founder andthe Managing Director of LeaderShape Ltd, an organisation of leaders who are accredited coaches,mentors and facilitators, with track records of providing leadership development to both the publicand private sectors. His background is in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and telecommunications;he has a particular interest in innovation and the capability of leaders to enable change to outpacetechnological and environmental challenges.

Sarah Robinson is Lecturer in Management Learning at Open University Business School. She isalso an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Developmentat Lancaster University where she was involved in the development of LEAD, a leadershipdevelopment programme for SME owner-managers. Her research interests include SME trainingand development and SME leadership learning.

David Gray is Professor of Management Learning at the University of Surrey, UK and Director of theLeadership Academy for the South East Partnership, comprising the University of Surrey, OpenUniversity Business School, University of Greenwich, Oxford Brookes, Royal Holloway and HenleyManagement College. He previously worked at the London Stock Exchange where he was director ofa major training development initiative for the UK securities industry. His research interests, andpublication record, include research methods, management learning (particularly coaching andmentoring), reflective learning, and e-learning. David teaches on Surrey's MBA programme and hasbeen responsible for important curriculum innovations, including the introduction of actionconsultancies, action learning sets and reflective management practice into the MBA.

Jill Jameson is Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of Greenwich School ofEducation and Training. She is also the Chair of the Learning and Skills Research Network Londonand South East, Director of the JISC, and Fellow of the Institute for Learning. Jill has aninternational reputation in e-learning, lifelong learning and leadership in education. Her interestsinclude educational research and development, lifelong learning, e-learning, leadership,management and learning resources.

David Sims is Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Associate Dean, and Director of the Centre forLeadership, Learning and Change at Cass Business School, London. His research topics haveincluded: why people get angry in organisations; the motivation of middle managers; how peoplelove their organisations into life; agenda shaping; and mergers.

Keith Grint is Professor of Public Leadership and Management at Warwick Business School.Previously he was Professor of Defence Leadership at Cranfield University and the Defence Academy.He is also a Visiting Research Professor at Lancaster University, a Fellow of the Windsor LeadershipTrust, a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute, and a Visiting Scholar at Sydney University. Keith spent10 years in industry before switching to an academic career and has been variously employed as anagricultural labourer, a factory worker, an industrial cleaner, a removals worker, a freezer operative, aswimming pool attendant, a postman, a clerical worker, and a part-time karate teacher. He is afounding co-editor of the journal Leadership published by Sage.

Yiannis Gabriel is Professor of Organisational Theory at Royal Holloway, University of London.Yiannis is well known for his work into organisational storytelling and narratives, leadership,management learning and the culture and politics of contemporary consumption. He has usedstories as a way of studying numerous social and organisational phenomena including leader-follower relations, group dynamics and fantasies, nostalgia, insults and apologies. He is a trustee ofThe Tavistock Institute and the Bayswater Institute. His enduring fascination as a researcher lies inwhat he describes as the unmanageable qualities of life in and out of organisations.

64

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 64

Shaun Gannon is a Research Fellow at the University of Brighton, with responsibility for thedelivery of many of CENTRIM’s business interface projects and is a certifying trainer of thedepartment’s two-day Managing Innovation Training Programme. He currently heads the local wingof the FP7 project, SM-BIOPOWER, through which biomedical engineering SMEs are encouraged toengage in European research, and also launched an international wing of the University of Brighton’sSME learning network programme, ProfitNet, in South Africa in 2007. Previously, Shaun ran theInnovation Space programme through which at least 500 SMEs received training and/or consultingservices to strengthen innovation capability.

Nigel Lockett is a senior academic, experienced manager, entrepreneur and community leader. Heis Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at Bradford UniversitySchool of Management. Nigel has over 20 years experience as a company director with a track recordin managing new start-up, joint venture and social enterprises. His current research is focused onknowledge transfer, innovation and e-business in SMEs. Nigel is executive group member of theInstitute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which is the UK’s leading small business andentrepreneurship network for individuals and organisations involved with SME research, educationand support.

Mark Russell is a Director of AVN Picktree Business Strategies and is dedicated to helpingbusinesses and senior executives be more successful. Mark is also an executive committee memberfor the International Foundation for Action Learning – a charity aimed at supporting and developingthe work of action learning in the UK and worldwide. Mark played rugby for London Harlequins andhas travelled the world touring and playing rugby at the highest level. He believes that theseexperiences taught him the importance of proper planning and preparation and the extraordinaryresults that can be achieved through teamwork, co-operation and learning by doing. He has workedwith directors of many small and medium enterprises, supporting the development of leadershipcapabilities by harnessing the power of action learning.

David Clutterbuck is visiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam University, where he is a member ofthe mentoring and coaching research group, and also Oxford Brookes University. He leads aninternational consultancy, which specialises in helping organisations develop greater capability forlearning dialogue. He is one of Europe’s best known and innovative writers and thinkers onleadership and an authority globally on mentoring. He has a rare talent for making complex topicsunderstandable and for presenting them with humour and insight. Described by the SundayIndependent as second in the list of top 10 business coaches in the UK, David is the authorof over 50 books.

Christina Hartshorn is Head of Leadership and Entrepreneurship for the South East EnglandDevelopment Agency, with responsibility for the development of high level entrepreneurship andleadership skills in the South East region, working particularly in partnership with the region’s HigherEducation Institutions. She was previously an academic specialising in entrepreneurship at theUniversity of Durham Business School, latterly as Director of the Foundation for Small and MediumEnterprise Development. She has researched, practiced and published extensively in the area ofenterprise education.

65

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 65

Bibliography:

� Communities of practice – a brief introduction – Etienne Wenger.

� Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (2008) – Innovation Nation.

� Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (2008) UK 2007 Innovation Survey.

� Department for Innovation, Universities and skills (2008) The Annual Innovation Report.

� Derry, S. (2008) Holding us Back – Project Leaders International.

� DTI/Cabet research – Inspirational Leadership Tool.

� DTI – (2005) Creativity, Design and Business Performance.

� DTI (2006) – Innovation in the UK: Indicators and Insights.

� Henley Management (2008) – The Innovation Segmentation Diagnostic Instrument.

� Isaksen, S. and Tidd, J. (2006) Meeting the Innovation Challenge: Leadership forTransformation and Growth.

� Leadership Academy SE website and newsletter articles – www.som.surrey.ac.uk/leadershipacademy.

� Leadership Academy SW website and newsletter articles – www.leadership-studies.com.

� Leadership Zone website – guidance for BSOs and providers – www.leadershipzonese.co.uk.

� NESTA (2008) Innovation Index Working Paper - Proposal for Measures of Firm-LevelInnovation Performance in 12 sectors of UK Industry.

� NESTA – Attacking the Recession (2008).

� NESTA – Innovation by Adoption (2008).

� Oxford Innovation – Leadership for Global Competitiveness – A report on the activities andoutcomes of the Leadership Specialist Advisers (2009).

� Technopolis (2008) – The evaluation report for Leadership for Global Competitiveness.

� Skills for Business (March 2006) – How to develop leadership capability and improve businessperformance – a proven case.

66

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 66

Glossary:

Belbin is a ‘Team Role Inventory’ analysis that is used to identify the team role preferences formanagers and directors. It helps people to understand themselves and the people they work with,and what each potentially has to offer. The exercise can improve communication, identify potentialconflicts, and help to improve toleration of difference and diversity.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator is a personality questionnaire that considers the preferences that anindividual has for doing things, and is used for professional development and organisationalimprovement. The results can be used to give people helpful feedback about themselves and howthey are different from others. In organisations, the indicator can be used with teams for conflictmanagement, for performance improvement, for employee coaching, for management developmentor for executive coaching.

Underlying Beliefs psychometric questionnaire is a personality profiling exercise designed tomeasure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.

Pacer is a business planning process tool, used to help business leaders to define goals, priorities,and plans to develop the business. It helps leaders to determine essential operations, to mapprocesses and systems, and to define roles and responsibilities.

Action Learning was described by Reg Revans as a process in which participants meet to discusswork-related problems in order to identify solutions for action. Action learning encourages reflectionby providing a supportive atmosphere in which people can learn from their actions and aboutthemselves; it involves participants describing their problem and receiving challenging questionsfrom others in the group.

The Big Hairy Audacious Goal concept is from Built to Last: Successful Habits of VisionaryCompanies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. The concept is that one of the things that distinguishlarge successful companies from similar but less successful companies is that they have one (ormore) very ambitious, clear and inspiring long term objective – and that this is the best way acompany can improve its chances of long term prosperity. The objective/s should:

• have an extensive time frame – 10 -30 years

• be clear, compelling and expressed in plain English

• be consistent with the company’s values and purpose.

The ‘win-win' or assertive approach requires a positive, open style of communication that isneither submissive nor aggressive; it requires that leaders adopt a meeting-as-equals ‘win-win’approach to performance management.

Community of Practice refers to the process of learning that occurs and shared practices thatemerge and evolve when people who have common goals interact as they work towards those goals.

67

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 67

68

32699gwe_p49-68:32699gwe_p49-68 27/8/09 14:24 Page 68

leadership for - SEEDA

Documents

Transcript of leadership for - SEEDA