Developing leaders to ensure teams achieve better results.
THE CUSTOMER: Vorwerk Mexico
THE CHALLENGE
To develop managers and their teams in a sustained manner and in line with the culture of the organization.
THE OUTCOME
Implementation of an integrated leadership program that contributed to increase the main KPI’s of the organization.
Robots are ever more present in our day to day reality mainly to make our life and housework easier to deal with. Kitchen robots are a clear example and Vorwerk, with the development of Thermomix® (Bimby in some countries), has been the greatest driver of this market.
With over 130 years and present in 70 countries, Vorwerk is recognized by its excellence in Engineering driving the kitchen technology for over 30 years. This revolutionary machine has been conquering people all over the world. Thermomix® is used today in millions of households with at least 2 machines sold per minute. In Mexico, this robot keeps the growing trend. It has already reached over 31,000 clients and it has at present eight renowned chefs working for the company.
Vorwerk started its activity in the country 11 years ago and it has grown considerably in the last years: more than 700 agents, an increase not only in sales but also in sales networks, and it already has branches covering the entire territory. These results are inseparable of its bet on people development over the same period.
Teresa Machado, Country Manager, says “We are more than a numbers driven company, we are a people’s organization working for and with the people”. Even the company’s mission is very clear in this sense: “Vorwerk Mexico is a company that offers personal and professional development through the direct sale of Thermomix®”.
“O Effective and Strategic Leadership was an innovative project for Vorwerk Mexico. […] Helped to improve communication techniques and restructure services and departments.”
Teresa Machado, Country Manager, Vorwerk México
In early 2015 management understood that the organization had a great development potential which was not been tapped on. And so, it challenged Consulting House to create a program that, in a structured and strategic way, would support people development so they could each reach their unique potential.
Rather than developing the skills of their commercial agents, Vorwerk and Consulting House concluded that the development should focus primarily on the development of their sales leaders. They are fundamental elements in spreading good practices throughout the organization, developing their people and in promoting of results. We proposed the implementation of an integrated leadership programme –The Effective & Strategic Leadership Programme. The goals were: to improve and capacitate the leadership skills of the managers, have an impact on sales, increase recruitment and productivity, decrease the turnover of agents and manage internal communication in a more effective way.
The Effective & Strategic Leadership Programme was developed in two distinct phases: Firstly we focused on the main leadership themes supporting the managers in becoming even more effective leaders. We used methodologies such as training and team coaching in a way of allowing the managers to implement new processes and competencies in the day to day management of their teams. In the second phase we focused our intervention in the development of strategic leadership skills to allow the managers to better implement the strategic commercial policies of the company.
The combination of these two phases proved to be the ideal formula to guarantee that the new ways of managing teams created results aligned with the strategy of the company. The Effective & Strategic Leadership Programme started at the end of 2015 and lasted until early 2017. During these almost two years, Consulting House flew in one of its Spanish speaking consultants to guarantee the good implementation of the program.
Measured by robust methodologies (e.g. control and analysis of KPI’s, development and concretization of action plans, surveys and assessments), the results were extremely positive. The implementation of the learnings has been having a real and measurable impact in the key performance indicators of the business.
In conjunction with the implementation of the new commercial strategies in the 12 months after the programme started, sales have increased 82% in absolute terms and 23% in average per agent.
There was also an increase in agents’ productivity, activity and company’s capacity to recruit and retain people. Moreover, it was also identified by the participants a significant improvement in the quality and efficiency of their meetings as well as a better relationship and communication between the sales department and the rest of the company.
In Teresa Machado’s words: “The Effective and Strategic Leadership Programme was an innovative project for Vorwerk Mexico. For the participants it developed awareness that the use and application of the right tools in a continuous and sustainable way allows for efficient results. This project helped to improve communication techniques and to restructure services and departments.”
The success of the programme helped to consolidate Vorwerk Mexico’s development culture, driving the reorganization of the strategic planning for development. Personal and Professional development are today a value and priority of each employee of the company.
