1. Organisational Challenge

CP Foods is an international farming, food production and global distributor and retailer of food products. The company is one of Thailand’s largest companies with a UK arm which is jointly owned by the main company and the British board. Facing the succession of the founder and CEO of the UK company, the organisation needed to develop the strategic skills of the board and senior management team. They also realised that their management team would need development to increase the speed of desired change and avoid the inefficiencies often associated with change.

The company employs around 250 people in the UK across two main sites in Kidderminster and Newmarket.

2. Choosing Impellus

Initially CP Foods had thought that bespoke management training would be the best route. They lined up a ‘beauty parade’ of suppliers to discuss their requirements.

“Impellus took time to understand our journey and recommended their ILM approved programmes, not something that was in our initial brief,” said Louise Fisher, HR Manager at CP Foods. “However Impellus realised that bespoke courses would feel insular and be difficult to repeat for new managers coming through, and that the ILM Award process would instead give us a clear path of actions coming back into the business after the training”

“Impellus made sure the training delivered fitted in with the company culture, that the units delivered met our business’ specific requirements, that we could measure results and that training could be ‘future-proofed’ for new managers and moves and changes in the organisation.”

Most of the training was initially delivered in-house with some managers attending open courses where timings or personal requirements required this. Ongoing training was all handled using open courses.

3. Working with Impellus

“We particularly liked and would recommend Impellus’ style of delivery. Their trainers are employed directly so we had consistency of delivery and we all got to know them well as we went through our training and went through our Awards. They were very professional and challenged our managers’ thinking in all areas. Most importantly, the trainers were as credible in front of my senior managers as the new junior managers who were doing management training for the first time”.

“Dealing with Impellus was also incredibly easy. They were proactive with feedback and support and the staff in the office are always responsive and able to make good recommendations when required”.

“They have continued to fully support managers through their ILM Awards months and years after we paid for the initial training and that’s been impressive”

4. Results Achieved

The company was well prepared for the leadership succession and used Impellus’ board-level coaching to help finalise ideas that came from the training such as re-structuring the management team and giving clearer remits to junior managers and key staff.

“The Impellus management training courses and programme provided a strong foundation for us to restructure and consider how our organisation sets out and achieves its goals. The board have developed the organisational vision, mission and values, and the line managers now look to these to ensure that they are aligned in what the organisation wants to achieve. The efficiency of our workforce has improved and our people have greater understanding of how their roles effect the overall results of the company”

Louise Fisher, HR Director