The business challenge

A pharmaceutical company in Japan wanted to identify and develop the full potential of their future leaders. They aimed to do this by creating and sustaining a positive corporate environment in which staff would feel motivated to achieve a significant increase in company sales.

The company turned to IWNC because key decision-makers had already seen first-hand the positive impact that IWNC solutions could have on an organization.

How IWNC helped

Leadership diagnosis

IWNC’s first step was to create and conduct a leadership survey to identify the strengths and weaknesses of individual managers and their awareness of their own capabilities.

The results from this survey were then used in the design of a customized training solution. The survey process itself engendered a sense of ownership of the resulting learning program -- not only among the participants, but also among their supervisors, subordinates, and colleagues.

Three-day off-site program

IWNC’s second step was to conduct a three-day training program at a mountain retreat to the west of Tokyo. The learning program was designed to boost participants’ self confidence and learning through the successful completion of a series of carefully designed and sequenced series of physical and mental challenges. IWNC-facilitated discussions about these experiences also deepened their understanding of what is required to reach and sustain high performance in team situations.

Drawing on these newly acquired insights, the participants then shifted their focus to address real-life challenges in their workplaces. Before going back to their respective offices, they developed action plans and commitments to achieve defined objectives.

"MO9"— For sustained behavioral change

Once the participants were back in their offices, they began to use IWNC’s online tracking and follow-up system -- “MO9” (Monday morning 9am) --, to assist with the robust implementation of their action plans. Through this IWNC-developed software, both supervisors and colleagues could help support the execution of their action plans, which resulted in improvements to both individual and departmental performance.

The impact continued beyond completion of the MO-9 follow-up period with the now well-established cycle of "planning" → "execution” → "reflection" → "next planning." Using this formula, the organization now manages performance more systematically. Another key long-term benefit has been more active and improved communication between participants and their supervisors.

The result

As a direct result of this IWNC-designed learning program, the average sales performance of the participants has improved by 30%. In post-training surveys of participants and their supervisors, one participant commented, ”I have become more pro-active than before and now feel confident in my relations with others." Another acknowledged that “I have developed a ‘can-do’ spirit, and this positive attitude is helping me to achieve challenging targets." Supervisors agreed that participants have made substantial improvements in their performance, following the IWNC program.

One supervisor claimed that all IWNC-trained participants “have become more pro-active, both in terms of visiting their clients more frequently as well as in the training and coaching of junior staff.”