THE CHALLENGE: reduce Air Canada's IT costs by $19 million in 1999.
SOLUTION: five custom-designed workshops for senior IT managers together with their senior consultants from IBM. Participants in each management training course were first taught the MindRange™ creative thinking tools and then focused on creating new approaches to pre-selected problem areas.
RESULTS: re-designed and innovative processes saving millions of dollars; and much improved Air Canada-IBM client-consultant working relationship. The management training course gave Air Canada’s senior management and their IBM associates new tools to deal creatively with problem solving challenges.

ABBOTT LABORATORIES, Chicago Head Office

THE CHALLENGE: Help employees of an Abbott Division improve their work while dealing with an FDA audit throughout the department.
SOLUTION: a customized leadership development program of 2-day workshops, which trained employees in quicker, more effective, and more innovative, thinking.
RESULTS: personnel were better able to cope with the added audit burden, while both improving morale and employing new skills to do their regular work more effectively. The program has now been extended to other Abbott Divisions.

EFFEM INC., CANADA

THE CHALLENGE: develop innovative processes for all managers at both their highly automated and efficient Canadian plants.
SOLUTION: custom-designed off-site 2-day leadership development program titled "Making Quantum Leaps", attended by all 65 plant based managers from both the confectionary and pet food divisions. They learned innovative thinking systems and were also motivated to stretch their objectives.
RESULTS: in daily early-morning 15-minute meetings during the three months following the management training course, managers developed new processes for sourcing, operations and scrap disposal, with significant bottom-line results.

LIPTON.

THE CHALLENGE: solve a conflict between the sales group and the credit department. After several major payment defaults, the credit department held all big sales shipments to allow time for up-to-date credit checks. This led to a slowdown in order shipments, customer dissatisfaction, and less sales.
SOLUTION. A management training course in creative problem-solving with senior members of both groups to jointly design a solution that would satisfy collection needs while not delaying orders.
RESULTS: the credit group devised a "traffic light" color-coding system for the sales group. Green for good credit - "sell all you can & no delay"; orange for "sell, we'll check credit, then ship": red for sell only on prepay / c.o.d. terms. Most clients proved to be "green" and the sales and delivery processes were seamless for them. The leadership development program gave them new insight into how they can best streamline their daily work.

PFIZER CANADA .

THE CHALLENGE: Pfizer Canada identifies innovation as a basic competency for managers and professionals, who lead and work in high-performance, inter-disciplinary teams.
SOLUTION: A leadership development program featuring training in MindRange™ creative thinking systems for marketing, medical/ research and other professional staff.
RESULTS: Enhanced leadership, innovative thinking, and team performance to better tackle the challenges in a quickly evolving business.