Delivering sustained competitive advantage

Are your managers equipped with the skills to maximise the performance of your team and drive performance in this challenging market?

Without sufficient focus on their development, you risk losing momentum and optimum results.

Business and commercial acumen, business planning, creative problem solving, influencing, change management, performance management, project management and people engagement have become critical competencies for managers in all sectors. By developing these skills in your management teams you will achieve your company goals.

With these challenges in mind, we are delighted to announce 6 exciting, new, very practical open courses that will equip your managers to lead their teams effectively and drive the desired change in your organisation.

• Developing your Strategy and Business Plan.
• Creative problem solving and decision making
• Engaging your team
• Persuading and Influencing
• Effective Project Management
• Maximising the Performance of your team

To view the details of our Spring Open Leadership and Management courses running in venues in Greater London, and Midlands or reserve a space click on this link.

So often clients tell us that assessment and development centres have proved to be the most beneficial exercise in improving management capability and developing their talent.

The first stage of many organisational development, leadership development or management development programmes is often to design and run a development centre to benchmark current skills and behaviours. Peirce Parry Associates have vast experience at designing and running tailored in house development centres for a wide range of clients from many different industries.

However, whilst the benefits of running an internal programme are immense, what if you only have 1 or 2 individuals who you would like to attend such a programme?

We are now able to offer places on generic management development centres run at various locations around the country. The first of which will be run in London on the 9th April for potential or new middle managers.

If you are interested in finding out more, please click on the this link to register or contact us if you would like information on either inhouse or open development centres.  

With global talent management programmes, many of our clients find there is a need to develop language skills in order to open up the career development opportunities for the talent within their organisation.

The ability to communicate in another language is now more than ever a prerequisite for corporate and public employees worldwide. Finding the time to undertake a language course as well as the motivation, however, can often prove to be an impediment to the successful acquisition of another language.

Peirce Parry Associates is delighted to announce the development of our business language and cultural training team headed up by Natalie Symmonds who manages the development and delivery of innovative and effective foreign language course solutions.

Clients come to us when they have a need to develop a manager’s language skills for an international move or the domestic employee’s ability to operate professionally within an international environment needs to be optimised.  Simply going through the motions of “learning” a language in this case is not enough to prepare an employee for global leadership.  There may be cultural issues that they and their family need to be aware of in order to make that move a success.  The investment in mastering a language such as French or Spanish is great so there can be no short cuts when going beyond asking for directions or enquiring as to the dish of the day. Intensive training is the answer. Communicating successfully in another language requires direct experience, improving confidence and, most importantly, immersion in the language.

Corporate culture

Corporate and public organisations now operate on a global scale. Whether it be via an international assignment, participating in a global team or working with an overseas client, colleague or supplier, interaction with people from different cultures is now an everyday occurrence. But are organisations preparing their people to deal with the challenges of working and doing business internationally? Research has shown that providing cultural training to employees who are tasked with working in an international environment can significantly reduce the risks inherent in this type of interaction.   Pierce Parry Associates Culture Training programmes are designed to facilitate the understanding of language and culture essential to a manager needing to engage in the global marketplace.

The lack of cultural awareness preparation has many levels of impact – from an embarrassing moment to a breakdown in inter-company communication to a lost deal or accord. The price of inadequate cultural awareness is easily avoided by attending one of Peirce Parry Associates Cultural Training programmes.

Peirce Parry Associates Language and Cultural Awareness Training offers a tailor-made and solutions-based approach to your needs and learning objectives.

We offer various formats for your language acquisition and cultural awareness training such as: 1:1, group and full immersion courses.  Whilst  one learner may need an intensive 1:1 40 hour language course, another may require a course comprising of different training platforms, i.e.:  1:1 intensive 20 hour course + group training 20 hour course +    a  2 day cross cultural training seminar.

To empower the learner and organisation, assistance and support throughout the learning process is paramount.  With this in mind we, at Peirce Parry Associates provide:

• Assessment of existing ability, skills and knowledge in order to ascertain suitable training platforms and duration of planned programme.  Training objectives will be established to ensure effective results.
• Measureable assessment
• Reporting and feedback system to facilitate accountable training
• Account Manager support
• Follow-on strategies recommended to maintain progress in the long-term

Peirce Parry Associates aim to provide training that has a direct impact on employee and organisation performance. Along with the above, pre- and post- impact support ensure targeted and measured training solutions.

To find out more, email us at info@peirceparryassociates.co.uk or contact Natalie natalie.symmonds@peirceparryassociates.co.uk

With the economy still struggling to recover, it’s hard to find  good news stories for many businesses; each time you listen to the news there
seems to be more doom and gloom. Many businesses are tightening their belts  still further, but the businesses in my experience, who are surviving well and  are fit to fight the storm are those who have invested in their people, paying  particular attention to their leaders and managers.  The development of key skills and attributes  that enable these leaders to adapt sufficiently quickly to the challenges the
current market is throwing at them.

Where is the proof you ask?

In 2010, facing a downturn in business the senior management team at a client of Peirce Parry Associates became increasingly concerned that the  business was not adapting sufficiently quickly to the changed market and that,  consequently, they recognised that their recovery may be slow and fragile. In  order to accelerate the change and enable the business to capitalise on any  improvements in the market as they occurred, the HR Director recognised that  they needed to enhance the skills and clarify the roles and expectations of  front line operational managers to enable them to be effective in a very  different business climate to that they had previously experienced.

The board recognised that above all the only way  to bring about the desired cultural change was to engage their managers and  provide them with the support to ensure that they were competent in all key  aspects of their business strategy. To do this they decided to go down the  route of investing in development centres for their managers.

Considerable commitment was made from the entire  leadership team to define the desired future culture, the management  competencies & definitions for future high performance in the business.  They brought us in to assist them in this analysis and design a development  centre geared around future high performance levels.

The senior management team were involved in both  defining the future vision for management as well as the design of the  assessment exercises and were trained as assessors. They recognised that a  development centre alone would not be enough to deliver the change, the success  lay with the follow up and support that the managers received.  Each manager was allocated a trained mentor,  wither a director or other senior manager, who met with them a week after  attending the development centre to provide detailed feedback. Post centre each  manager was supported by their mentor & line manager in creating, actioning  and reviewing their development plan which was 100% based on their day-to-day
responsibilities. This was backed up by a comprehensive portfolio of  development activities which included not only formal training workshops but work placed  assignments and coaching activities.

 The Results

Less than 12 months post investment the results  speak for themselves:

• Sales are on track  to increase by c5% in 2011 vs 2010 in a flat/declining market
• Profitability for  the group for 2011 is forecast to be double that in 2010
• Their Customer  service and mystery shopper customer service scores have improved in all  categories throughout 2011.
• Recent Employee Survey results show a 4% improvement in the “My Manager” category which measures  staff perceptions of the effectiveness of their immediate line manager. In  addition, scores in the My Team category improved by 3%.

• In the 2012 business planning round managers have clearly  demonstrated a much better understanding of their local business and the
  opportunities available to them as well as submitting well supported business cases for investment in their branches. This has resulted in the group again planning to grow in a flat/declining market.

The question to businesses who say they cannot afford to invest in  their people right now is “Can you afford not to?”

Huge opportunities exist for companies that are agile right now. Agility is only possible with managers that are fully engaged and competent in key aspects of your business strategy.

Business and commercial acumen, business planning, creative problem solving, influencing, change management and people engagement have become critical competencies for managers in all sectors. By developing these skills in your management teams you will achieve your company goals. Without sufficient focus on their development, you risk losing momentum and optimum results.

Peirce Parry Associates (PPA) and Heckle Young Associates (HYA), two of the top management consultancies in the country provide an exceptional, cost-effective, and customised service that focuses at the heart of your competitive advantage, your people. We have unique experience that will ensure the constructive development of your management team. We look to;

• Drive creativity and innovation in your management team.
• Ensure constructive business planning and strategic thinking.
• Create management programmes focused on engagement issues and performance improvements.

With these challenges in mind, PPA and HYA are introducing 4 exciting, new, very practical workshops that will equip your managers to lead their teams effectively and drive the desired change in your organisation.

• Developing your Strategy and Business Plan.
• Creative problem solving and decision making
• Engaging your team
• Persuading and Influencing

People are your competitive edge.

High engagement levels = high organisational performance

The Peirce Parry blog is coming soon.

Check back for updates.