Preparing employees to implement Company Strategy
THE CLIENT: JMD
THE CHALLENGE
Create a development program that is a strategic and cultural pillar.
THE RESULTS
VitaminaL: an Academy for the entire organization that has been shaping everyone’s mindsets and behaviour.
JMD, the largest food distributor in Portugal, a company that belongs to Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos and founded in 1921, represents and markets international brands in Portugal, such as Kellog’s, Heinz, Pringles, Merci, Barilla or Evian.
The company’s performance and success are based on the power of partnerships, working together with brands in their business development. More than an intermediary, JMD is a strategic partner of the brands it represents, creating value through its strategic know-how, marketing and distribution channels. Therefore, its employees are “strategists, consultants and managers” of the brands they represent and of the customers in the channels in which they operate.
In this way, JMD describes itself as “a company of brains”, whose main asset is people and their ability to think and learn. Therefore, the development of people is considered a priority and an essential strategy for success.
“I felt the great added value of having someone from the outside asking all the difficult questions and challenging us, having been an essential starting point for the success of the program, and creating a true partnership.”
Helena Bento, CEO, JMD
With a workforce characterized by a high level of seniority and with people coming mainly from the retail sector, the company underwent a process of culture change, in which 25% of the workforce changed. This situation further awakened the Dream and the need to implement a strategic people development program that: 1) aligned the necessary skills, attitudes and language to prepare people for the day-to-day of constant change; 2) promoted a culture of accountability, energizing and committing people to their individual contribution; 3) prepared employees to implement the company’s strategy and ambition.
With that in mind, JMD challenged Consulting House, as people development strategists, to co-build the design and implementation of an Academy that would integrate all layers of the organization.
The partnership kicked off an action that proved to be crucial: a Workshop, to ensure the design of an absolutely strategic program with the maximum potential for effectiveness. This moment, which is part of the Consulting House approach in this type of project, allowed to: “distill” the information already collected internally; identify the gap between JMD’s Vision and where employees were; which actions and contents would allow to ‘close’ this gap; clarify key success factors in program construction and implementation. In the words of Helena Bento (CEO), “I felt the great added value of having someone from the outside asking all the difficult questions and challenging us, having been an essential starting point for the success of the program, and creating a true partnership.”
A development program needs to be created strategically, based on a deep understanding of the company and with a vision.
As a result of this work, VitaminaL – Activate your Learning was born: a development Academy, for all layers of the company (including CEO). In total, 13 topics were addressed, in a segmented and targeted way, creating a special dynamic in which there is an alignment and demand among all. It is also a long-term re-skilling program, which integrates into people’s daily lives and is dynamic, with interconnection between modules, with the business reality and with regular strategic adjustments. As an example, in one of the modules an initiative by the participants was born to implement a change in the company-wide meetings, which was immediately adopted by all.
After 1 year of implementation of VitaminaL, with more than 65% employees trained, there are several visible impacts in the organization, such as:
- Teams today collaborate more, and work less in silos
- Middle managers focus more on the development of their teams
- Employees are more autonomous and assume their individual responsibility to generate value, with greater initiative.
- Employees became more strategic in their way of thinking and making decisions
- There is a promotion of quality, with teams challenging managers and vice versa.
Finally, Helena Bento’s testimony reflects the relevance that this initiative has in the organization and the importance of building it and thinking about it in depth: “The partnership with Consulting House in the development of our VitaminaL was proof that together we can be more effective and ensure that the impact of the investment made is maximized. The co-creation methodology was a critical success factor because it ensured that difficult questions were asked to understand the framework of this challenge, it ensured a very clear structuring of the objectives by organizational layer and only then the definition of contents. As of today, all JMD has been or is being ‘Vitamined’. I believe that investing in people is investing in the future and sustainability of the business, but also in mankind. More fulfilled and happier human beings will certainly make better organizations.”
