Garry Kemp, General Manager, DHL - CIS and Baltics
Three years ago we had reached a crucial point in our business development. We had put in place an infrastructure, systems and procedures that would enable us to achieve our demanding and challenging business goals. We had provided the necessary tools to enable our staff and managers to do the best possible job and achieve their goals. Yet something was still missing.
Our managers were not using these tools effectively. They were not responding to the change in the management style. We expected them to use their initiative, take real responsibility and ownership for their results and act as role models for their teams, motivating and empowering them to also achieve their best. And yet the more responsibility we gave them, the more they seemed to stay with their dictatorial style, issuing orders, keeping information and power to themselves and managing through commands.
We recognised that we needed to do something to begin to change the culture and attitude of our managers. We would never meet the demands of a rapidly changing and more competitive market place unless we had a strong management, who could truly manage and lead their teams in a way which would bring out the best in everyone, maximise potential and harness all our human resources in pursuit of the common business goals.
That was when we brought in Fast Forward. They worked with us to help us define more precisely what we needed to do and together we developed a long term management development programme that has enabled us to build a workforce that understands what is expected of them, recognises the importance of working with and through their people to achieve real results, take the initiative in making improvements and satisfying our clients and most importantly now has the skills and attitudes to make the best use of the business tools, systems and procedures.
This has provided us with a very solid foundation for the future. Our business has once more entered a new phase in its development, where we are now faced with the integration of different businesses, not just in terms of systems and procedures but also in terms of culture, management style and attitude. Without the development of the last three years this would have been a formidable task. However our management has responded to the challenge positively, they have taken the ownership for achieving what they can in their own areas of responsibility, they are proactive in taking the initiative and solving problems and they have successfully motivated their teams to continue to perform well during difficult times.
Our business results also speak for themselves. Continued growth and achievement of revenue and profit targets plus improvements in service standards and customer satisfaction. The management development process has, in many ways, been a catalyst to help us to achieve the results we are so proud of.
