Private multinational FMCG Business - Driving leadership team efficiency

Our Work

'Building team effectiveness for an ambitious three-year sales objective' - Private multinational FMCG Business

THE CONTEXT

After 10 years of steady growth and a sizeable capital investment, IG were invited to build team effectiveness in an award-winning FMCG business. By investing in the team, the business hoped to drive stronger performance ahead of an exciting expansion.

With expansion into US Supermarkets initiated, a new Managing Director was recruited to bring in experience of larger organisations and help the business scale.

The 20-strong team were now in the spotlight, required to step up to meet the challenges of the growth.

THE CHALLENGE

The business wanted to double their sales in the next three years, keeping the same team. Success hinged on the engagement, collaboration and effectiveness of their people – on becoming a slick, high-performing team.

“We wanted IG to help us be the most efficient team and business we could be: improving on our existing strengths and identifying the elements that needed work – and finding out why this was.”

Managing Director

The team was fresh, creative and full of ideas. They were clear and passionate about their mission, and the culture was enthusiastic and engaged: all the raw materials were in place.

To hit the three-year target, the team needed to step up their accountability; work more cross-functionally; and be more driven to push sales across the line – all without losing the flattened hierarchy and creative passion that was key to their identity and success.

THE APPROACH

We started with self-insight – both on an individual level, and as a team.

We used a combination of rigorous psychometric analysis and 1:1 coaching to help each team member to understand their strengths, their possible de-railers in times of stress, and what motivates them. This empowered them to buy in to their own messages in a team setting and to understand why they interact and operate as they do.

“One of the notable immediate changes is that people have started talking more about themselves.”

Managing Director

We also looked at team drivers – the shared values that bound them together, and that previously, they had found more difficult to articulate.  Our analysis found that they were a fun, non-hierarchical team that care deeply about their customers and making a positive impact on society through their work.  We helped them approach the question: how do you keep serving those drivers when you have tough new commercial targets?

“The work has built self-awareness in the team, and an awareness of each other. The team is becoming more effective and appreciating different ways of working.”

Finance Director

We explored the data live, bringing all the learning back to the questions: what does this mean for delivering our three-year strategy?

With the help of IG, the team defined what they wanted to continue to do, and what they wanted to do differently: they allocated these objectives to named individuals to encourage empowerment and accountability. The key here was to move the discussion on from the notional and dial down on the practical changes that would drive commercial success.

“In a smaller organisation like ours, everybody has a really big part to play – everyone’s actions have a strong impact.”

Head of Sales

THE OUTCOME

All our work is designed to have lasting impact and to equip the client organisation to spearhead their own continuing growth and development.

“People are starting to say, ‘I can impact the business in my way, and I know how to do that:’ and now we’re putting the structure in place to allow that to happen. It’s early days, but the team are already coming together and working differently. IG managed to achieve a huge amount in the limited time we gave them, and we look forward to their continued support – and challenge! – throughout this new chapter of our journey.”

Managing Director

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