Leadership development case study - family business success story

About the client

Vision for business requiring change in leadership and management culture.

: The Toly Group is a global supplier of high-quality packaging components sold around the world by leaders in the cosmetic, skincare & fragrance industries. What started as a small family business has evolved into a global manufacturer of diverse and bespoke product offerings. Toly is headquartered in Malta, and has manufacturing and sales offices in many countries around the world.

The challenge: Business growth and siloed working practices
The work: Leadership development and cross-company collaboration
Outcomes: Increased awareness, understanding, and engagement with strategy across the senior leadership group

Where it began

The challenge

In 2013/4 the CEO of Toly engaged RISE when he felt that the way the business had operated to date had got them to where they were, but that it wasn’t going to get them to where they wanted to be. With an ambitious growth plan and exciting market opportunity, there was a need to address the entrenched siloed working practices and CEO centric decision making nature of the business in order to make their vision a reality.

What we did together

The work

Our work together started with the executive team, a small group of loyal, long-standing employees along with the CEO, the family owner. We provided 1:1 coaching and group coaching to executive members to support their individual and collective leadership development, helping them to pay attention to the underlying dynamics of the group and addressing some of the stuck patterns that existed. Over time, our work supported the group in expanding, inviting in external professional expertise and experience to support the capability of the executive team of a growing and more complex business.

During this period we also worked to initiate a virtual leadership development and collaboration programme for the next level of the business. This was the first time any longer-term people development programme had been implemented in the organisation and there was a need to support the senior management, who were globally dispersed, in individual leadership capability as well as creating a way for them to connect more meaningfully with each other on a more regular basis. By facilitating small groups of people that represented both the manufacturing and sales side of the business we were able to address some of the tensions that existed in the current culture and work to create deeper levels of understanding and perspective on how everyone was a part of the whole.

Additionally, our work included facilitating senior leadership workshops twice a year, bringing together a globally dispersed team and engaging a larger group in the strategic challenges and opportunities of the business. RISE also helped to establish the connection between business success and the quality of people and culture and supported the recruitment and development of a more prominent HR / People team in the organisation.

Outcomes and Ongoing work

Impact

The RISE initiated ‘Blue space groups;’ reflective spaces for connection and sharing across the business, are now fully internally facilitated and have been going for nearly 5 years. This mechanism for connection has helped the continued focus on cross-organisation collaboration and enables greater transparency and understanding between people.

The Toly executive team has expanded and developed to better suit the needs of the business today. Decisions are now shared and challenges are explored within the group; making the business less CEO centric, and more agile and adaptable.

The business has grown exponentially over the period of our work together, due to the evolution of strategy and innovation in new product areas. This has been enabled by the more collaborative culture we worked together to create.

How Toly transformed the way they worked to support growth

Vision for business requiring change in leadership and management culture.

The challenge

“RISE really understand who we are, our people and our business. This trust has meant we’ve been able to not just work on collaboration and development but really get into strategic issues together.”

The work

“The programme has helped me to feel connected to the Toly family, although I am on the other side of the world, and sometimes feel alone. There has been some invaluable guidance that has helped me through quite a challenging period.”

Impact

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