Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America - In Partnership with TKG

Takeda’s ACTOS® drug launched in January of 1999 and in three years became the most prescribed insulin resistance reducer for Type 2 diabetes with gross sales of $1 billion dollars. Early in 2005, as the company prepared for its second major drug launch in North America, Takeda’s Executive Team convened an internal crossfunctional task group to “re-connect” the company to the corporate culture – a culture that the leadership felt was a competitive advantage in the marketplace (similar to the way in which a company may view its supply chain or proprietary intellectual capital). Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) was engaged by one of its partners, TKG, to work directly with Takeda’s task group to design and deliver a training program that would enable employees to embrace desired behaviors of being values-based and performance-driven. BTC meet weekly with the task group to refine criteria, determine learning objectives and construct a teaching model to represent Takeda’s culture. In the end, the design lead to a 4-hour dialogue-based workshop that allowed small groups of employees to share practical experiences and engage in storytelling (two influentially tactics for teaching cultural norms) as a guided-learning approach to cultural awareness. The dialogue-based design was supported by an interactive participant manual that enabled eventual transfer to internal Takeda associates of varying abilities for facilitation. The delivery stage involved three beta tests during which time the learning design was refined and language was carefully crafted to best teach desired behaviors to meet performance expectations. Finally, BTC delivered a comprehensive train-the-trainer program that featured peer facilitation feedback to help best prepare people for workshop delivery. Over 800 associates participated in the home office launch of the workshop with significant satisfaction levels measured through a structured evaluation process.More than 1,700 associates are set to participate in the workshop during its national field launch this month.

InSight Health Corp./JW Childs Associates - In Partnership with Liquid Productions Inc.

JW Childs is a leading private equity firm based in Boston specializing in leveraged buyouts and recapitalization of middle-market growth companies. When the firm acquired InSight Health Corp., the nation’s leading diagnostic imaging company, they faced a company that had been cobbled together through a series of acquisitions with no standardized brand identity or operational practice. In partnership with Liquid Productions (LPI), Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) began an engagement based on a clear business goal – lead the implementation of training services that would result in consistent operational practices across the country in an effort to drive sustainable revenue growth and stabilize the company for the hiring of new executive leadership. The first stage involved competency definition work for operational managers to promote the hiring of appropriate talent capable of leading the fixed centers and mobile units of the company. Within 6 months, the company hired over 40 new managers who began a comprehensive 3-week training program to teach consistent operational practices and promote analytical and strategic planning for future market growth. To accomplish, LPI/BTC started with a framework for training already in practice, observed each presentation and training component, redesigned each component to integrate principles for adult learning (print and media formats), and provided updated train-the-trainer sessions to a new InSight faculty for on-going program delivery. Updated 1-day modules, including a new People Management workshop and a Strategic Thinking session, were designed and integrated into the curriculum to complete the initial phase of the project. Upon completion, attention turned to the development of training services for the company’s diverse sales force. Unlike the “operations” side of the business, the sales force did not possess any previous training programs or consistent practices for in-market conditions. LPI/BTC undertook a strategy that started with the identification of subject-matter experts within the field who would be interviewed to construct a custom selling model for the company. The result was a new program, Targeted Relationship Selling (TRS), that provided instructional elements for all components of the overall sales process – pre-call, call, and post-call activities and tactics. Additionally, TRS integrated a proprietary data process designed by Excel Marketing Partners that helped associates better identify sales prospects and best manage customer relationships. TRS was launched at a national sales conference in September 2005 with an agenda that also included the welcoming of a new CEO and Executive Team.

ServiceMaster - In Partnership with TKG

The ServiceMaster Company provides service to residential and commercial customers in the United States, serving 10.5 million homes and businesses each year. Their core service capabilities include lawn care and landscape maintenance, termite and pest control, plumbing, heating and air conditioning maintenance and repair, appliance maintenance and repair, cleaning and furniture maintenance and home warranties. These services are provided through a network of over 5,400 companyowned and franchised service centers and business units, operating under leading brands which include TruGreen ChemLawn, TruGreen LandCare Terminix, American Home Shield, American Residential Services, Rescue Rooter, American Mechanical Services, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, AmeriSpec and Furniture Medic. Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) has been engaged to assist in the design and delivery of a 3-year corporate values program to the entire ServiceMaster organization, totaling over 50,000 employees. The project is focused on helping every employee use the core company values as the context for basic, regular decisions in every corner of the enterprise. Specifically, BTC has led the design and facilitation of a values awareness workshop to over 1,000 employees. That group has included the CEO and his direct reports as well as the leaders of every business unit.

First Industrial Realty Trust

First Industrial was created from the Midwestern operations of the Shidler Group, established in 1972 and is regarded by many as the premier value-added acquirer of real estate in the nation. First Industrial went public in 1994 and today nearly 3,000 companies across the country operate their businesses from properties owned and managed by First Industrial. After arranging $2 billion in real estate purchase financing in 2005 through a joint venture with California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Executive Team pledged internal resources to the creation of a best-in-class training and development program. Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) was engaged in late 2005 to work with the Company to formulate the Enterprise Talent Management initiative and map a 3-year plan for updating hiring practices, launching corporate university programs, enhancing performance management systems, and ensuring appropriate success planning. This month, BTC’s team initiated the first stage of the overall initiative with the design and launch of a comprehensive competency study for First Industrial’s Transaction Officers. The study will produce the criteria to be applied within training instructional design. From there, the national network of First Industrial professionals will benefit from a learning program that teaches (in multimedia instructional formats) direct real estate investment and development skills and offers a leadership tract for future talent development.

Shure Incorporated

Shure, Incorporated is the premier maker of professional and consumer audio equipment in the United States and has an emerging presence in Europe and Asia. When Shure was looking for consultants external to the company to uncover the true strengths and weaknesses of their company, Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) was engaged to deliver the Denison Organization Culture Survey (DOCS) as an initial insight
assessment tool. Denison’s survey allowed BTC to uncover unique business performance characteristics by: measuring Associate awareness of a new strategic company vision; checking understanding and commitment to Shure core values; gauging involvement and work ownership of Associates; and, evaluating the company’s connection to it’s customers and knowledge of the environment in which it competes. BTC used different parts of the model to identify financial stability, sales growth patterns, innovation abilities, and signal a cultural readiness to change for strategic market growth. For this international company, the survey was translated into several foreign languages (Spanish, German and Chinese) and was delivered to a majority of Associates electronically. BTC designed communication to cascade survey insights down through the organization. Departmental presentations fostered constructive dialogue amongst Associates where strengths and weaknesses were acknowledged and action plans were created at a grassroots level. The key insights, identified through the survey, showed implementation issues with current go-tomarket strategies and signaled that Shure’s quality brand image was in jeopardy due to, among other things, multiple interpretations of its core values. While Shure created and launched an aggressive new strategic communication process, BTC applied its unique instructional design approach to create a multi-tiered values-based learning program. Following extensive input at all levels of the company, BTC identified the key learning targets, program outcomes, and conducted a creative design session to devise the formats and tactics for delivering the training. The resulting design has targeted three key audiences within Shure: Executives (who must teach and mentor the values for others); Managers (who must engender value-based behaviors in their teams); and, Associates (who must both practice living the values and confront others who are acting outside their guiding principles). Additionally, international considerations were incorporated into the learning design. While value definitions will remain the same across Shure, the behavioral actions being taught will be customized for Mexican, European and Asian Associates.

TAP Pharmaceuticals

TAP Pharmaceuticals began in 1977 as a joint venture between two global pharmaceutical leaders, Abbott Labs, based in the United States, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited based in Japan. Fourteen years ago, TAP had 200 employees. Today, the company has grown to more than 3,300 employees. Throughout TAP's history, its efforts have been focused on developing and bringing innovative treatments to the people who need them. LUPRON® INJECTION (leuprolide acetate), TAP's first product, was the first new hormonal therapy for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer in 40 years. Prevacid® (lansoprazole), a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), quickly became one of the most widely prescribed therapies for acidrelated disease in North America. Since 2001, Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) has designed and delivered over 75 workshops to well over 1,000 TAP employees in virtually every functional area of the organization. Each workshop has been customdesigned to meet the specific learning objectives of the group and fit the particular culture of the company. Workshop topics have included Conflict Management, Team Building for Managers, Facilitating Meetings, Creative Problem Solving, Strategic Thinking, Making Great Contributions and Values-Based Leadership. In addition, BTC has designed and delivered week-long strategic leadership retreats for field sales managers and coordinated an extensive research project exploring the culture and values of the company.

Kraft Foods - In Focus Events LLC Learning Team

Kraft Foods’ merger with Nabisco Brands ended a significant period of brand acquisitions that was viewed as a necessary strategy to build and leverage global scale for food manufacturers. While scale was realized, the changing landscape of food retailing channels (from grocery to natural, value, club and drug channels) forced Kraft to overhaul its go-to-market strategy with specific attention to developing adaptive supply chains and brand promotions through strengthened customer relationships. In reality, Kraft’s traditional sales approach (push volume to shelves) needed to evolve to a “collaborative customer development” approach that required new transactional skills at all levels. To communicate these new strategic approaches to its North American sales force, Kraft hired In Focus Events LLC to produce a 5-day engagement that would instill this necessary evolution in skills and merge brand cultures for forward movement. Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) was hired as In Focus’ “learning team” to provide the creative direction, design strategic learning modules, and provide on-site facilitation support for the sales engagement. BTC learning design initiated with in-depth interviews with Kraft’s senior leadership to understand the strategic changes that required communication to the broader sales force. Beyond formal communication, BTC needed to determine a methodology for teaching the roles and competencies that would be required for execution of new business initiatives. The design lead to the creation of diverse break out sessions each of which included outcome presentations and experiential learning segments to practice and reinforce learning. Sessions were lead by Kraft teams who received design support and on-site coaching from BTC. Integrated within the experience, BTC introduced the use of internal Study Teams, as a tactic to share key learning and drive a commitment to functional action, and web-enabled kiosks to record participant questions and supply feedback in real time. Ultimately, the success of Kraft’s National Sales Meeting resulted from the ability to translate complex market strategies into meaningful and practical approaches at all levels of the sales force.

Abbott Labs AVD Division

When the U.S. Marketing team for Abbott’s AVD Division needed to work on process improvement for upcoming product launches, its Director turned to Bliss Training & Consulting (BTC) to design a multi-day retreat that would focus on the skills necessary to develop an effective marketing planning process. To help associates prepare for the experience, pre-work was designed to complete a situational analysis and translate corporate financial objectives to concise marketing goals. The retreat took place in the pristine locale of Lake Tahoe and featured a cooperative living environment as a technique for team development. Upon arrival, associates began their work by engaging in an experiential workshop centered on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment tool. The resulting dialogue guided development of both operating principles and communication strategies to be applied to their marketing process work. With team development as a foundation, associates began the construct of a marketing planning process “framework” that included strategy overviews, situational analysis tools, product definition and marketing action plans for sales implementation. The team was then provided with a sample product to practice the framework and refine criteria to formalize the process. This last step proved critical as the team was able to uncover a need to clearly define broader operational expectations (areas outside of their formal responsibilities) within the planning process and,further, to better define the methodology and templates that would be utilized in a formal marketing training process. In the end, Abbott’s AVD U.S. Marketing team left Lake Tahoe with an adopted planning process that could enable better internal communication and promote accountability at multiple levels of involvement.