Case Study: Thomas Sanderson

Situation

Thomas Sanderson, a dynamic sales-orientated business that manufactures, sells and installs high quality conservatory blinds, was founded and built in the early 1990s and taken over by parent company Hunter Douglas in 2003. Recognizing that people rather than products make a business, Interaction were sought out to create a new spirit of ownership across the company and transform day-to-day behaviours and attitudes.

Challenge

With the pursuit of profit growing in precedence, at the expense of values, vision, integration and sustainability, the challenge was to reinvigorate Thomas Sanderson through its core values. The aim for the business was for it to become quantifiably more sustainable in the long-term.

Solution

  • Involving leadership from the beginning, to develop a tailored programme for the whole company starting with the senior management team
  • To design and deliver a 2-day Leading The Way training for everyone in a leadership position
  • To design and deliver a 2-day Living Our Values training for all staff in cohorts of 20 people, mixing senior managers in with all groups
  • Creating a new structure for staff meetings in response to the renewed vision and values
  • Training specific staff to deliver short ‘buzz’ sessions on each of the Thomas Sanderson values to help embed the skills and maintain them internally
  • Implementing further strategic work with the Board to revisit and reinvigorate the Thomas Sanderson values following some significant business challenges. This involved:
    –   Individual Board Member coaching
    –   Facilitated partnership sessions (e.g. sales and marketing)
  • To design and deliver a 2-day Board training to transform the way Board Members interact with each other, agree business strategies moving forward, commit to new leadership behaviours (from coaching sessions) and recommit to the vision and values
  • Continue updating the Leading The Way course

Results

  • Hundreds of senior leaders, managers and employees in Thomas Sanderson have attended our Living Our Values course, including all new employees.
  • A dynamic culture exists, where core value such as Commitment, Integrity, Inspiration, Fun, Recognition and Empowerment are day-to-day behaviours.
  • Seven years on, the Leading The Way group that emerged from the programme still meets regularly.
  • Seven years on, we’re still sought out to work on different projects for Thomas Sanderson.

‘‘I’d recommend Interaction to any business. It’s funny, they never sold me a thing, they came in on a recommendation and were so good I had to have them back. The investment was high, but totally justified. Interaction were the catalyst for turning Thomas Sanderson into a well run, efficient, friendly, loyal business – with an infrastructure that enables us to keep growing. If you want your business to live beyond you, Interaction can help preserve the soul of your business forever.’’
— Managing Director, Thomas Sanderson Ltd