News & Views

Having supported previous conferences for Astra Zeneca, Redsky were invited back to deliver the Medical and Regulatory Affairs 2011 Conference. This two day event entitled 'Innovate to Win' focused on creativity and innovation during challenging economic times. The focus of the conference was 'doing things differently and challenging the norm' in order to maintain a leadership position within the pharmaceutical industry. The key objectives were:

• To gain the skills and techniques to be creative, innovative and entrepreneurial in the workplace
• To generate creative solutions for doing more with less

These are some of the quotes from delegates:

"How great was it to reach the end of a conference and feel soooooooo alive. Thank you all for putting together possibly one of the best conferences I have been to. RESULT!"

"The whole Redsky thing was just fab, energising and inspirational. Biggest learn for me was to let my 'right' brain have more of a say. Some great tools shared to help this happen."

"Redsky were excellent and the tools they showed and taught were really useful and relevant. The session was fun, different and stimulating."

"Fantastic session. Redsky pitched it at the right level. It was engaging, fun and I came away for the first time in a long time attending many conferences feeling that I had learnt and got something from a Conference."

KG is Europe's leading luxury shoe retailer, operating in over 100 locations. The business is growing and needed to develop its Managers in line with the business, to motivate and develop staff and maximise sales. Redsky launched the Retail Management Development Programme in January 2011 focusing initially on 'how managers actually manage'. The first workshop, 'Maximising Personal Effectiveness', enabled all store managers to understand:

• What a manager actually needs to do
• The type of manager they are and their effective and not so effective habits
• Where they can do things in store more efficiently in order to save time
• How to use this extra time to maximise sales

The essence of the workshop was to maximise sales through better organising yourself, your team and your store. The programme was not only designed for KG but each workshop was geared towards the specific population.

Managers fed back that they thought this level of knowledge was valuable and enabled them to take away even more relevant and specific techniques and solutions for their business. These are some of their comments:

• Fantastic, very positive and enjoyable, will help me do my job a lot better
• I now have more time to spend with my staff
• Redsky were very knowledgeable about our business and what constraints and opportunities we have
• Very interesting, motivational and positive, a real eye opener and an introduction to a better way of approaching business

The Dune Group had undergone a significant amount of change which had impacted on the shape of the retail business and therefore the role of the Area Manager population. This role needed to adapt to the new trading environment, maximise the skills and knowledge within the team and their impact on the commercial success of the business.

Redsky delivered a programme of four high impact, participative and commercially focused workshops which were designed to:

• increase the skills, knowledge and effectiveness of the Area Manager team
• encourage the sharing of best practice
• work together as a team to solve an organisational wide retail problem which had a financial benefit to the business

The programme has impacted on the performance of the Area Managers both individually and as a team.

These are some of the quotes from participating Area Managers:

"I would totally recommend this programme. I found it very enlightening and has made me much more aware of my management style. I've completely changed my behaviour dependent on the people I'm dealing with."

"I learnt how to be open and honest with myself and others and how to grasp who I am and how my behaviour impacts on others (how to get the best from all individuals – no matter what level)."

"The programme fully met my goals which were to broaden my knowledge, improve my communication skills, be able to train and develop my team and deliver high results."

With almost 80 years' experience, M&G is one of the UK's largest active investors with over £190 billion under management. Redsky have secured the contract to design and deliver an innovative 1st Line Manager Programme; Performing Through People. the pilot programme launches in Spring 2011 and interest in the programme is very high.

As part of the drive to ensure the Crabtree & Evelyn delivers its strategic objectives, Redsky have just launched 4 Talent Management Programmes to develop the key middle management population. The programme will include a series of high impact, participative and commercially focused workshops and action learning sets designed to increase the skills, knowledge, effectiveness and accountability of Managers. They will encourage the sharing of learning and best practice, and enable managers to engage their teams more effectively and develop confident and capable teams with a 'can do' mentality.

Redsky have recently delivered a Team Profiling event for the Marketing Department focusing on the effectiveness of the team, the dynamics of the team, the demands of the organisation and how to build on strengths to meet these needs.

Commencing in 2010, Redsky are currently delivering 3 Leadership Programmes across the retail population resulting in a significant Return on Investment. The Leading the Way Programme was designed to develop the leadership talent of the retail field teams, encourage cross regional working and sharing of best practice and commercial opportunities. Evaluation to date demonstrates a measurable change in behaviour and ROI.

Further to the rapid expansion of their business and the key focus on sales growth, in January 2011 Kurt Geiger launched a development programme for 150 store managers to enhance management skills, ensure consistency across the business and maximise commercial opportunities. The Programme will provide managers with a full understanding of their management style, their role and responsibilities and will maximise their impact in the workplace.

In 2010, Redsky launched The Leading the Way Programme for Senior Management designed to develop and maximise the leadership talent of this senior population across the business and to encourage cross functional thinking and working.

Simultaneously, a Leadership Programme was designed and is currently being delivered for the Junior Management population to further develop their management skills and key leadership competencies in order to help them maximise their personal, team and commercial goals.

redsky have just completed a change programme to redesign and launch a Retail Staff Appraisal process across all eight Arcadia brands, incorporating 28,000 staff. The challenge was to develop a process that worked in a busy store environment, needing to be simple, focused and motivational to staff who work between 4 and 37 hours a week and which also would deliver benefits to the business! A further challenge was to deliver an outcome which al eight brands, who work very independently, would buy into. All of these objectives were achieved working to a limited time schedule.