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Global FMCG Organisation credits R&A with improving Productivity
Leadership and Training Consultancy, R&A have helped Tobacco giant Gallaher greatly improve their business performance through a series of training initiatives.
Our ‘One Arrow’ programme - with the premise that you only have one life, make sure you live it well, kicked off the first initiative in Ireland. We used a ropes course to help facilitate the learning – basically encouraging people to operate outside of their comfort zone, use the team and their own attitude to recognise what is possible.
Paul Williams, MD of Gallaher in Ireland explained the thinking behind the programme: “ Gallaher realises that individual performance has to come from people being inspired in their lives and being given the chance to see how they might bring more motivation to work. This programme included a number of physical and mental challenges that put people in touch with what mattered to them.”
Says consultant Karen Stone “we use ropes activities because they are useful in helping individuals to reflect on what goes on for them and their teams in everyday working life. This programme was all about bringing your vitality to work and that’s what people get from working together on these exercises. Our skill at R&A is to ensure they recognise the relationship between what they experience whilst teaming and having fun on a training programme and the impact of engaging those same behaviours whilst at work.”
Of course, the measure of the success of this sort of programme is not just that people behave differently on return to work, but that those behaviours and attitudes have a direct impact on performance.
“When we ran these programmes in the UK, the results were astonishing,” says Williams. “We found that, after attending One Arrow, our salespeople were making, on average, one and a half times as many calls per day. Furthermore there was a significant jump in the distribution of our product and, overall, we estimated that the programme contributed to a 5% improvement in performance across the company. The value of this sort of performance improvement translates into millions of pounds.
In Ireland we have also been witnessing something similar. We’ve recently launched a new product and had set ourselves the target of 60% distribution across our network in eight weeks. With the help of this training, we have achieved 80% distribution in five weeks. In financial terms we had a target of £40,000 a month for this product but we’re currently up to £120,000.”
R&A have since delivered two more programmes where the sales force have integrated with the other functions to focus on realising their criteria for success for the future. The feedback continues to demonstrate the measurable performance improvements and ways of thinking that continue to move the business forward in challenging, turbulent times.
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