Accelerating Change in Built Environment Education (ACBEE) Phase 3 Level 4/5 Case Studies Manchester Business School/Styles & Wood The Styles&Wood Academy Summary of Case Study The Styles&Wood Academy is a private sector initiative developed in conjunction with Manchester Business School. Designed to raise standards of professionalism and service across all areas of the business, the Styles&Wood Academy is open to all staff, preferred suppliers and key business partners through a two-strand approach: 1. enhancing the core technical skills of staff to facilitate their dayto-day roles and 2. developing the leadership skills of senior management to enable them to deliver the business plan. The course includes two 1-day modules covering Service Value, Great Account Management, Perfect Delivery and Supply Chain Management, and Improving Skills. Each of the modules is a 1-day course delivered at Manchester Business School that include lecture sessions, team based activities, group presentations and completing a business simulation activity to reinforce the learning outcomes. Its purpose is to complement traditional manufacturing and construction-based skills with management training and a service-led customer facing business culture. Basic Information Name of Main Author(s): Neil Davies (Chief Executive, Styles & Wood) Dr Neil Towers, Lecturer in Fashion Supply Chain & Merchandising Andrew Mitchell, Associate Director, Executive Education, Manchester Business School Industrial/Professional Collaborators: Styles&Wood www.stylesandwood.co.uk Manchester Business School (MBS) www.mbs.ac.uk Department: Institution: Email: Contact Telephone Number: Case Study Title: Theme: Executive Education Manchester Business School (MBS) amitchell@man.mbs.ac.uk 0161 924 1800 (Styles & Wood) / 0161 275 6325 (MBS) The Styles&Wood Academy Corporate University Initiative Teaching Context Subject Area Covered/Module Title: Module 1:Great Account Management The marketplace for Styles&Wood includes the high street of Banking, Garments, Food, Retail Multiples and Departmental Stores, and Public Service Bodies that are driven by a commitment from service providers based on consistently reliable Great Account Management. With an increasing trend to outsource service support to third parties Styles&Wood s customers are increasingly reliant on strategic alliances with professional and competent providers. The module includes developing presentation skills to improve effective communication between Clients and Colleagues
Module 2: Perfect Delivery The need for managing Great Perfect Delivery performance from all components of the Styles&Wood Full 4 brands is vital to achieve the goals outlined in Pathway Three TM. This will include undertaking a group presentation where recent under performance to the client has lead Styles&Wood to re-evaluate the future holistic S&W service offering. Building on the Customers for Life program this module explores how colleagues contribute to delivering Perfect Delivery of design and build through Right First Time, Zero Defects and Smarter Handover. Keywords: Implementation of Company Strategy; Leadership; Management; Business For how long has the engagement run? Commenced 2003 Subject area: Engineering, Construction, Retail Property Services and other disciplines Participants Number of Students: 300+ Staff Involved: All staff within Styles&Wood. MBS: Dr Neil Towers, Lecturer in Fashion Supply Chain & Merchandising Andrew Mitchell, Associate Director of Executive Education, Senior Lecturer Level/Year: CPD (core technical skills) and Post-graduate (P/G) (senior management leadership skills) The Author(s) Please provide brief details of the Author(s) prior experience in this field: Dr Neil Towers Lecturer in Fashion Supply Chain & Merchandising Has extensive experience of delivering and supporting retail manufacturing and service businesses in the areas of marketing and operations management within supply chain management, with particular expertise with small and medium sized enterprises. He has wide international business and academic experience at the forefront of a globally changing business environment from working in Europe, USA and South Korea, as well as in the UK. Andrew Mitchell Associate Director, Executive Education, Manchester Business School Six year s experience of meeting prospective clients to design and deliver courses aimed at addressing the training and educational needs of senior executives in a variety of business undertakings. Prior to that, five year s experience of lecturing in marketing and retail management. Neil Davies Chief Executive, Styles & Wood Has been responsible for designing the S&W Academy programme in line with his role as Chief Executive, to support the business values and objectives. Anne-Marie Wedd Supply chain Manager and PeopleFist Is responsible for taking the Academy from design through to a deliverable product the academy modules. Learning Methods & Resources Objectives/Learning Outcomes: The Academy is aimed at supporting the future business ambitions of Styles&Wood and to develop a wider skill set for middle managers and staff from a variety of technical and managerial specialisms The Academy 2006 programme links directly with the purpose, values and aims of the business described in fulfilling the objectives of the Pathway Three TM program that encourages individual personal and teamwork development. Module 1 Great Account Management To understand the current trends in the retail marketplace To recognise the importance of brand management by Styles&Wood for their retail clients To be able to exploit Great Account Management by Styles&Wood.
Module 2 Perfect Delivery To understand the contribution of Supply Chain Management to the service offering. To understand the meaning of Perfect Delivery for all Styles&Wood colleagues. To demonstrate leadership within Styles&Wood Outputs: Styles&Wood is a company that does actually understand the importance of the customer and that understanding is evident at a high level. MBS wanted to get that understanding all the way through the business. Everyone must be aware of the importance of the customer; it must be part of company culture. The Academy is therefore designed to enhance the core technical skills of its project managers, architects, architectural technicians, quantity surveyors and construction managers with transferable client-facing skills. In addition, the Academy has evolved to develop the leadership skills of senior management to facilitate delivering the annual business plan. Teaching Method(s): A brief description of what you actually did. What activities & interaction occurred? The Academy provides access to a broad & comprehensive set of management and business skills through a set of 2 Learning Modules graded according to skills and knowledge need. The programme has now evolved to consist of 2 one day modules aimed at improving technical skills relating value and customer delivery performance for all staff at Styles&Wood. Each module was a 1-day course delivered at Manchester Business School. These included lecture sessions, team based activities, group presentations and completing a business simulation activity to reinforce the learning outcomes Assessment Procedures: The course is assessed through formal delegate questionnaires. A rigorous internal review process is undertaken to ensure that the course content is consistently evolving to realign with the evolving business of Styles&Wood. The ambition is to align the course for each individual with the needs identified in their Personal Development Plan. Support requirements: For you and/or the students. Funding/costs. Did you or the participants require technical support? Drivers for the Engagement a. Collaboration between education, industry &/or professional bodies. b. What explicit business needs/ strategic business objectives have been identified and set down? c. What is the process by which these shared objectives were identified and set down in a formal partnership agreement/alliance agreement? All staff are actively encouraged to attend, as well as key suppliers and business partners. A Corporate University initiative between Manchester Business School and Styles&Wood to form The Styles&Wood Academy. The content and relevance of the Academy is under constant review by both the Styles&Wood management team and Manchester Business School. The initial business need was that of the Chief Executive of Styles&Wood who wanted to change and formulise the way CPD was delivered within the business. As the business was growing very rapidly an approach was required that would enable staff to be trained in a manner that enabled them to keep up with the progression of the business. The organisation wanted to move from a process of learning through doing towards a more formulised business school model and holistic learning and understanding of the business and its marketplace. Styles&Wood are excellent at understanding what is happening within their business. The process by which the business needs were identified from the beginning is very much the same process as currently occurs. The business plan for Styles&Wood is developed on an annual basis for the forthcoming three years. The business plan is provided to MBS for them to develop and deliver course material that supports Styles&Wood achieving the aims and objectives set out in the business plan. The development of the course material is developed and refined through a series of meetings between Styles&Wood and MBS to translate the bigger picture set out in the business plan to the final agreed material to be delivered for the forthcoming year.
d. What evidence exists to demonstrate the engagement is meeting the explicit shared/strategic business objectives? e. What process exists to ensure the engagement is continuously reviewed and updated to align with the business needs/strategic business objectives of all partners/alliances? Styles&Wood has recently been awarded a number of prestigious awards including The Sunday Times Top 100 to work for 2006, ranked first in the 2005 NW Corporate Responsibility Index and short listed in the 2006 National CIPS Awards The process that is in place involves the course material being continuously reviewed and evolving to align with the business plan that is developed by Styles&Wood on an annual basis. Measurement Process (applicable where business strategy is the driver for engagement) a. What measurement process is in place? The measurement process involves each delegate completing a course evaluation form at the end of each session. Within the evaluation form the learning objective that have been identified for each session are set down. Delegates are asked to provide feedback on the key learning/benefits and enhancements to the session along with presentation style, session relevance and duration. This is then fed back to Styles&Wood who review the feedback within their People First Team to determine how well the sessions have met their objectives and propose improvement for future Academy programmes. b. What are the targets, success criteria, measurement, etc? c. How was the process formulated, tested and validated and the targets/success criteria/measurement identified? d. How do the results of the measurement process feed into forward strategic planning? e. How do you ensure the measurement process is continuously reviewed and updated? Due to the process that is in place, the targets change year on year as they are affected by the business plan for the forth coming year. Targets are developed that enable the business to achieve its objectives set out in the business plan. Likewise, the measurements then change to become aligned with a new set of criteria that are identified and formulated annually. The measurement process is a formal internal MBS QA procedure for engagement with external clients. The targets are identified to align with the needs/objectives set out in the business plan that Styles&Wood provide MBS on an annual basis and the course material facilitating those business needs being realised. The results from the session evaluation feedback into the process for planning and developing the course for the forthcoming year by reviewing the feedback and addressing any issues raised from the previous delivery in evolving the course material to align with the business plan for Styles&Wood. The measurement process is part of MBS internal QA procedures with engaging with external clients. Attributed Improvements From an Industry perspective, what improvement would you attribute the engagement provides in terms of: Average recruitment costs as a percentage of starting salary? Turnover of staff as a percentage of all staff? Percentage of staff with first degree, professional qualification, postqualification specialism? From an Academic perspective, what improvement would you attribute the engagement provides in terms of: Average UCAS tariff points? None of the improvements from an academic perspective can be attributed to the engagement as MBS deliver the courses through the Styles&Wood Academy to members of staff. Percentage of course places filled? N/A Student completion rates (number of students going straight through to graduation)? N/A Percentage of faculty at professorial N/A
level and with professional qualification(s)? Percentage of graduates employed within three months? What other improvements would you attribute to the engagement? N/A Styles&Wood staff now understand their marketplace that includes the high street of Banking, Garments, Food, Retail Multiples and Departmental Stores, and Public Service Bodies that are driven by a commitment from service providers based on consistently reliable Great Account Management. Building on the Customers for Life program a greater knowledge has been gained of how colleagues contribute to delivering Perfect Delivery of design and build through Right First Time, Zero Defects and Smarter Handover. The level at which the courses are being delivered is improved, e.g. from delivering fairly simple HNC level material to now MBS using their own internal researchers along with up to date research material. In turn, Styles&Wood are getting improved value for their money. Good Practice Tips Further advice and pointers incl. enablers/barriers/proposals for improvement. How can other staff/partners adopt this technique/method? Keep the client continuously involved throughout the whole programme. Delivering something that the client/industry requires. Approach MBS to discuss delivering Executive education. Note that Executive education is a client driven process. Check out the market place to identify what is available to deliver staff education. Additional Information Any other factors/information you feel are important? Styles&Wood has been committed to investing in its people for many years. It first introduced its award-winning Continuous Improvement Programme for all staff back in 1993, achieved Investor in People accreditation in 1996, became a leading contributor to the Inside UK Enterprise (IUKE) mentoring initiative from 2000 onwards and received the Queens Award for Innovation in 2000 for introducing service standards never before seen in this sector of the industry. Manchester Business School is one of the leading business schools in Europe and was rated among the top six UK business schools for the provision of customised programmes in the Financial Times Executive Education 2006 ranking.