Beamscope is one of Canada's leading consumer electronics and technology sales, marketing and distribution companies. Established in 1982, the Company sells, markets and distributes more than 6,500 different consumer electronic products to approximately 7,000 retail outlets across Canada. It focuses on consumer software and hardware, video entertainment and digital technology products. With its investment in Ironside Technologies, the Company is involved in the emerging market for business-to-business Internet commerce solutions. Gross sales for 1999 were over $600 million. Beamscope is a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Beamscope undertook a major enterprise-wide replacement of all its fragmented operating systems with the J.D. Edwards World software system. The 'ramp up' period to conversion, called "Project Catalyst", involved numerous technical and human resource challenges. Simultaneously, Beamscope was revamping its business processes, affecting virtually everyone in the organization. To facilitate the integration, the VP HR contracted with an outsourced training vendor to design and deliver a process for sixty management representatives and over 300 associates. Following this vendor's abrupt unanticipated pullout (less than a week before the first session!), the LSM
Consulting team accepted the challenge and immediately developed a project (change management) strategy comprising four full days of coaching for the entire management team, conducted one day a month over a four month period.
Over 330 associates participated in the change management process via two half-day sessions one month apart held nation-wide in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Approximately 25 employees participated in each session.
The training outcomes mandate for managers required they learn:
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The skills and tools to act as change agents and effectively lead their teams through major change.
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Their role in managing through organizational transition and, through the use of a Change Management Model, comprehend the various stages of change and how people move through the stages of change.
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How to move effectively through the change stages to productive acceptance of change for themselves and their associates.
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Effective coaching and
communication techniques to manage change.
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To develop a support network, allowing the exchange of successful change management practices.
The training outcomes mandates for the associate workforce required that the Associates learn:
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The impact of changes within Beamscope and their responses to change.
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How to use effective coping techniques and to participate effectively in coaching sessions with their manager.
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Effective stress management techniques to cope with change.
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How to communicate ideas and concerns constructively during the change process.
How to work effectively in teams during the transition period into the new culture.
The LSM Consulting training design and development team successfully developed the entire project customized to Beamscope's needs, in consultation with the V.P. of Human Resources, within the time constraints. The program required co-ordinating the training materials and scheduling of the managers' training sessions with the associates' training sessions to enable the managers to implement what they learned in the change management sessions with their associates. The program included a wide array of active participant training processes; namely, a psychological inventory on change management, coaching role-play scenarios, video-taped motivational segments with the company's president, and interactive discovery learning games.
The program successfully achieved all its stated objectives and was completed on time and within budget.
