For more information contact: charles_helliwell@bpaudits.co.uk
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FACILITATION..TEAM BUILDING..CULTURE..ASSESSMENTS..RELATIONSHIPS..
Bausch & Lomb (Assessment Centre)
With the expansion of a new contact lens division into Europe, Bausch & Lomb entered into a period of aggressive recruitment from outside their traditional field of recruitment. Consequently, to help mitigate against poor recruiting decisions, I was engaged to build an independent assessment programme and interview short-listed candidates against a set of cultural and behavioural criteria, prior to their receiving job offers. This proved so successful with the prospective employees interviewed, that it resulted in no losses during or following the intensive induction programme for the twenty plus new hires. This programme was subsequently expanded into the recruitment practices of other Bausch & Lomb divisions in Europe.
Citrix Online (Coaching/Mentoring/Facilitation)
I was originally engaged to coach and mentor a seasoned but abrasive European Sales Director and facilitate the strategic planning of the newly formed division in Europe. Following the success of our programme, the sales director was promoted to head up the group in Europe and I was engaged to review and facilitate bi-annual planning and performance reviews with the new division. Following this, I was subsequently hired to coach and mentor a newly hired Director of Finance, two years later.
COLT (Facilitation/Cultural Integration/Coaching & Mentoring)
I was brought into COLT by the head of their European professional services group to facilitate an off-site strategic planning review in Barcelona and to be the guest speaker at a private dinner of the European divisional heads, about the use of language and behaviour in optimising performance and productivity. Following this, I was asked to facilitate the European launch of the new division at The Baltic Exchange in London for all the European heads of department who were going to be responsible for implementing strategy. I was engaged to work with the top three countries; the UK, France and Germany during the first 3 months of the launch and to facilitate a second offsite review 6 months later in Lisbon. During this time, I was engaged to work as a professional coach and mentor to two senior directors of the COLT senior management team, one of whom has gone on to become the COO.
DMGT (Researching/Interviewing/Reporting on M & A activities)
I was engaged by the online division of the Daily Mail and General Trust, to validate a number of online acquisitions made by their various business units. Principally, the major acquisitions were the property portal, primelocation.com and the aggregator, simplyswitch.com. I worked with the due diligence legal and financial teams within DMGT to validate these acquisitions from the perspective of customer retention and long-term commercial sustainability. This involved a series of in-depth telephone-based interviews with clients, partners, customers and suppliers of both companies, prior to the completion of their acquisition. These interviews were always conducted in complete confidence and always within a very constrained timeline (often a week or less). The report and analyses I produced often influenced the terms of negotiations and sometimes even the price. In one instance, my research was instrumental in DMGT withdrawing from their intended purchase of ‘Friends Reunited’.
Empower Communications (Mentoring/ M & A)
I was engaged as a professional mentor by the CEO of the UK division of the US-based Empower Group, to assist in the sale of the UK operating group in the UK. Working with the CEO, we identified several potential acquirers, whom we researched, and in some case interviewed, before settling on J Walter Thompson, who were deemed the best cultural fit, and who offered the best package coupled with the least number of redundancies.
Euro/PCR (Facilitation)
EuroPCR is an annual event in Barcelona, attended by up 50,000 European cardiovascular specialists. I was engaged by Abbot Laboratories to work with a group of 6 senior consultants from different cardiovascular disciplines and mould them into a team to enable to work together to debate the effect of age-related diabetes on cardiovascular disease. The team members were drawn from the UK, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. We met 3 times in Amsterdam during the 6 months prior to the conference in May, during which time I turned them from a group of individuals with their own specific agendas into a team with an agreed process, structure and content. The event in May proved so successful that EuroPCR have continued with the concept of debate at future events.
The Financial Times(Coaching/Mentoring/Performance & Productivity/Facilitation/Assessments)
I was originally brought in to sort out a dysfunctional marketing services team. I conducted interviews with the staff and manager and concluded that the manager was in the wrong role and that a number of the staff were unsuited to their jobs. The manager took redundancy and left; a number of staff were re-assigned and a new group was formed from better skilled and more appropriate talent inside the FT. As a result I now conduct performance reviews with three teams in the commercial group and facilitate bi-annual strategic reviews of the whole commercial group of over 60 people.
G4S(Facilitation/Cultural Integration/Performance & Productivity Mentoring/Executive Development Programmes)
I helped to design, and co-facilitated, an off-site seminar for a new electronic services division formed following the merger of Securicor, Group4 and Group Falck. The pan-European team of country managers met for the first time in the UK to produce a strategic plan for the new division and agree regional roles and responsibilities. I facilitated that process of planning and integration. Following this assignment, I was subsequently brought into the group again to resolve a poorly performing and dysfunctional sales and marketing group in the ‘cash services’ division. I interviewed the senior management team and all the regional UK sales managers and worked with the sales director to re-align his abrasive style of management. Following this, I continue to act as a confidante and occasional mentor to the Head of Executive Development.
Jobsite (Coaching/Mentoring/Assessment Centre)
Following a successful programme of coaching and mentoring the CEO and Marketing Director of Jobsite, I was engaged to design a pre-interview behavioural and personality assessment programme for all senior executives subsequently hired by Jobsite group of companies.
Managed Networks (Assessment /Facilitation/Re-organisation)
I was engaged by the owner/manager of this small IT services business to assess the senior management team and make recommendations on their roles and responsibilities to enable to the business to grow organically. I started with a series of one-to-ones, at which time it became clear that the structure of the business was the key factor in restricting growth opportunities. I then tackled this head-on with the owner/manager and persuaded him that the best prospect to leverage his business lay in providing a complete re-structure and re-organisation plan. This resulted in a more streamlined and efficient structure, with a couple of the senior management team re-assigned and made redundant.