For some years now, Schouten Training has gained worldwide experience in organising and facilitating training courses for large international organisations. See some of our client cases below for examples of our fields of expertise.
Smurfit Kappa Group The Smurfit Kappa Group, a leading international producer of packaging materials across Europe and Latin America, has worked with S&N International to craft a management development programme (MD) for its young managers who exhibit high potential for leadership. Called the International Graduate Trainee Programme, the two-year module aims to:
Akzo Nobel Deco
Stork Materials Technology (SMT) Over the last decade, Stork Materials Technology (SMT) has been an active player on the American market for testing materials, failure analysis and calibration. To foster more synergy among SMT’s various departments, S&N International worked with the company to develop two courses for SMT managers: a Practical Leadership Course and a Middle Management & Leadership Course. These courses also have been translated and adapted by S&N international especially for SMT’s U.S. operations[?OK] and feature an American trainer. These courses aim to:
Train team leaders in increasing awareness and understanding of the various aspects of managing the team Develop four strategic competencies: vision & innovation, leadership & coaching, entrepreneurship and operational strength For most SMT-USA managers, this was a first introduction to these concepts. A key aspect of completing these training courses, therefore, was translating the concepts into observable behaviour.
ING Insurance and Banking ING Insurance and Banking, which includes operations worldwide, asked S&N International to organise a training program for its Eastern European offices on leadership skills as they pertain to performance management. The request included a two-day program for senior management facilitated by a senior trainer with lots of management experience. One day was focused on performance management and the second day on classification of employees in different groups of performance. The request was that the training needed to have an essential “learning by doing” approach. The objectives for the training included:
Aligning objectives with business objectives:
Cordis Europe When Cordis Europe was designing a new product using a multinational project team of 25 engineers from The Netherlands, the US and Mexico, it called on S&N International for help. The issues included miscommunication among team members and perceived differences in cooperation and leadership, which led to growing distrust. All of this affected work quality and hampered the team’s ability to meet deadlines. S&N International designed a training module to hone the engineers’ leadership and communication skills and enable cross-cultural understanding and effective intercultural teamwork. Focused on improving the engineers’ perceptions of one another’s cultures, the training presented a variety of research on each culture and a simulation game that highlighted people’s reactions to cultural differences. Participants cited many benefits of this training, including:
CEVA Logistics CEVA Logistics, or former TNT Logistics, worked with S&N International in 2005 to improve communications skills in its team of 25 LEAN experts from a wide range of countries. LEAN experts are experts on efficiency and process management charged with measuring and maintaining CEVA’s high level of effectiveness in its global operations. The team’s work includes continuously monitoring and measuring effectiveness levels at all TNT warehouse sites worldwide, and then giving feedback to the local site management. As a final step they team up with the local management to ensure implementation of improvements. S&N’s training programme has enabled the team to maintain the high level of multicultural communication skills required to carry out its work.
European Commission Since 2003, S&N International has designed and conducted 2,500 training days of tailor-made programmes for the European Commission in Brussels, Luxembourg and across the 27 countries of the European Union. Topics range from strategic planning, project management, meeting skills, problem solving and quality management to facilitation of diverse events and professional meetings and team-building sessions. LogicaCMGLogicaCMG, an organisation specialising in delivering ICT solutions, has worked with S&N International since 2004 to design and conduct several training courses. Aimed at project managers who deal with outsourcing IT-work to India, the courses focus on intercultural awareness (especially regarding communications), teamwork and leadership. As a result of the training, the company has noted that project managers display greatly increased intercultural competence.