The Manager’s Journey

Background

ABG is one of the leading providers in the car rental market. Delivering across Europe through direct, licensee and franchised operations, it provides corporate customers and private individuals with a prestige service 24/7. ABG has over 1000 Line Managers and Supervisors with direct responsibil-ity for running every aspect of frontline services as well as Shared Services (Budapest) and Call Cen-tre (Barcelona) maximising profit and delivering excellent service to customers. 

Challenge 

ABG operates in a highly competitive market and has had to adapt to retain and grow market share. Increased online and internet bookings and strong competition really does make ABG “try harder” to maintain its top position. In the last 18 months the car rental mar-ket has seen significant cost increases – fuel, overheads and insurance – whilst at the same time experiencing a tough market, reclining passenger numbers, new challenges and declining prices in the second hand car markets. Profits have traditionally come both from providing the service as well as the revenue from car sales when the fleet is moved on. The effectiveness of their operations is directly influenced by the actions of Managers and Supervisors. 

Solution 

Masterclass was asked to work with a multi-national and multi-cultural team to build a programme that would provide Managers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to be truly effective. ABG needed a development partner who could work as an extension of their HR, L & D and OD teams and support them in building a practical solution that could be rolled out across Europe through a combination of workshops, facilitated sessions, online and virtual offerings and “skill pills” delivered by external trainers and internal ABG trainers. Part of the solution was to provide a complete “train the trainer” approach so that where the skill and capacity was available, ABG could deliver their own sessions. Where there was limited resource they wanted a consistent programme that could be delivered in local language or in English (the main business language). 

The final solution consisted of three parts: 

Developing our People
(2 day workshop)
The Effective Manager
(4 x ½ days)
Being an ABG Leader using the 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership
(2 day workshop)

During the design stages in Rome (where Masterclass facilitated the groups using World Café™ techniques) the KGI (Key Group Initiative) team created their own “theme” of the manager’s journey to include “passports” for all delegates, “travel bags” for supporting online content and a full set of materials that have been translated into several languages. 

To support the senior leadership team, there are a series of European wide “Masterclasses” giving the Boards and Country Management teams a short form, highly motivational version of the programme to ensure support from the very top. 

Results

In what has been some of the toughest trading periods for car rental, profit targets have been met. Managers are actively coaching their people, staff turnover is reduced and customer satisfaction ratings and net promoter scores continue to rise. Shared Services and Call Centre staff are taking on more responsibility in supporting the business and people are really living the programme’s “values”. 

Through the programme the business has been able to implement a solid “succession planning” and talent mapping process. In the words of one delegate: “The role of the line man-ager is a key factor because it makes everything work or not work” 

The Manager’s Journey continues to deliver results.