Concurrent B8

People Performance Profits: how Australian mangers transformed their company

A practical case study of a series of internally generated management initiatives that transformed a publicly listed Australian manufacturing and marketing company resulting in an increase in operating profit by nearly 250% and return on shareholders funds by 16 per cent over a period of two years.

Presentation will provide overview of the company then cover identification of early warning symptoms - staff and managerial turnover up, extended delivery times, manufacturing cycle times running out, increase in rejects and scrap, compensation claims and lost time injuries increasing, absenteeism up, number of lost-time industrial disputes increasing, indicators that productivity, motivation and morale falling, etc.

A review of the managerial team indicted that very few managers had received any training in management. Most were operational and professional people who had been promoted on the basis of their work performance. The transition to manager had not been well done resulting in sub-optimum people leadership and management.

By identifying the various issues and problems and consolidating the evidence it became clear that unless action was taken to improve the effectiveness of managerial leadership the company was destined for disaster.

The action taken to resolve the challenges and develop effective managerial leadership that transformed both the management team and corporate performance will be outlined during the presentation.

Presenter: Les Pickett

Les Pickett is Chief Executive of Pacific Rim Consulting Group, Director of Human Resource Practice for Talent 2 Consult and a member of the executive team of Talent Partners BoardSearch conducting independent reviews to optimise board effectiveness.

Les is a past international president of the Institute of Business Administration and former chairman of the National Advisory Panel on Human Resources Productivity Council of Australia. He is a member of the international board of advisors to the International Public Management Association for Human Resources and represents Adelaide Graduate School of Business on Standards Australia International’s Knowledge Management Committee.

Over the years Les has held senior general management, information technology, marketing management and human resources/people management positions in leading companies including Coles Myer, Olex Cables, Australian Retail Financial Network and the GN Raymond Group of Companies. He also spent some years with Shell Australia and Colonial in a number of different capacities and was a member of the board of directors of Vision Australia Foundation.

Senior Advisor to the United Nations Staff College for nearly five years, he participated as a member of a small international review team established by the UN Secretary General to conduct an independent global review and evaluation of learning and management development needs and future directions for United Nations staff.

His professional career has taken him to some twenty countries and he has conducted numerous assignments in the fields of managerial and professional competencies, organisational effectiveness, performance improvement, leadership development, human resource management and human capital capability.