Case study: Why business managers (unlike leopards) can change their spots

The Need A global pharmaceutical company identified certain areas in which they could gain competitive advantage - but only if Regional Business Managers (RBMs) could deal with the challenges posed by geography, wide spans of control, encroachment of generics and very little protection of on-patent drugs. Without significant change, improvement and development of the field force, senior managers saw encroachment by local suppliers, erosion of sales and margins and eventual decline.

The Solution
Working closely with the senior management team Vybrant developed and delivered a 5-day Sales Excellence training programme for the RBMs focussing on managing the field force more effectively, targeting more accurately, coaching for development and leadership. The design was highly interactive and included computer based sales simulations as well as practical exercises and skill building techniques.

Outcomes
Feedback was uniformly excellent, with the leadership component of the programme touching a particular chord. Participants left the course with detailed individual action plans for development of themselves and their teams and a high proportion declared themselves inspired to take a different approach to management going forward.

Financial results in the region are running ahead of target. The head of region reports that " the managers have a new (attitude of) mind," they are utilising much of what they learned and the results are showing through.

Vybrant has a planned sequence of development programmes involving workshops, internal coaching programmes, action learning and train-the-trainer delivery to give the region all the tools it needs to become a world leader in development as well as in sales.