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10 Nov 2008 New white paper - 'Time and Territory Management'
Business Performance
Expert blended learning can accelerate your business performance.
Why Imparta
When founder Richard Barkey started Imparta in 1997, the goal was to provide an antidote to an industry that was – and remains – focused on delivering events rather than results.
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Imparta CEO, Richard Barkey, raises questions all business leaders should ask.
Business Impact
What clients say about our impact on their business.
KPMG Strategic & Commercial Intelligence UK
The Client
Strategic and Commercial Intelligence (SCI), a division of KPMG Transaction Services, wanted to provide a comprehensive training programme for its consultants to strengthen their understanding of strategy and to develop their practical strategy skills. KPMG is a leading provider of assurance, tax and legal, consulting and financial advisory services with more than 100,000 staff.
Strategic analysis is core to SCI's business activities as it provides focused commercial insight for corporate and financial clients undertaking mergers and acquisitions and is particularly active in commercial due diligence. On behalf of clients, SCI consultants evaluate the strategy, market,position and sources of competitive advantage of prospective targets for merger/acquisition, deepening their clients' pre-deal understanding of target businesses and enabling them to create and extract greater value from transactions.
The Challenge
SCI needed a scalable approach that would allow new joiners to be integrated easily into the training programme as it expanded rapidly in the UK and worldwide. SCI also wanted the programme to act as an enabler for the development of a common approach to both strategic analysis and consultant development across SCI outside the UK as well.
A particular goal was to enable consultants to use selected frameworks and templates to generate strategic insights for clients, and thereby give SCI an effective means of delivering consistently high quality client work to tight deadlines. Due to its intense workload, SCI also wanted a training approach that would not take consultants out of the office for long periods.
The Solution
Imparta worked closely with senior line managers at SCI to design and deliver a tailored approach. This involved a blended solution combining: intensive, instructor-led workshops using traditional teaching methods and innovative Strategy CoPilot® simulation software; periods of self-study using the simulation; online group discussion; and individual online coaching around selected application templates. Imparta also provided individual self-study support via telephone and email to ensure participants could complete self-study tasks efficiently as they balanced them with client commitments.
Having engaged a critical number of consultants at SCI in this blended training approach, Imparta was able to provide senior SCI managers with the information they needed to evaluate the progress being made: whether consultants were gaining a solid understanding of the key learning points, and where any knowledge and likely skill gaps remained.
To make the roll out of the solution scalable, Imparta also provided a 'train the trainer' programme to help build the capability of SCI managers to deliver key elements of the training initiative.
The Results
Commenting on the partnership with Imparta, Michael Cauter, Associate Director with Strategic and Commercial Intelligence, said: "The Co-Pilot® product and approach was exactly the right combination of first class content and frameworks within a flexible and effective delivery mechanism - that was the only solution we saw that could match our environment. Both the product and the individuals exceeded our expectations."
Mark Hulley, Associate Director Strategic and Commercial Intelligence, comments: "It was a real pleasure to be associated with KPMG's introduction to Imparta. This is the best professional development product I have ever seen. I am sure that as SCI continues to grow, so will its alliance with Imparta.
The software is innovative, entertaining and technically sound and the client support and facilitator coaching we received from Imparta's Strategy Practice have been first class. The tutorial animations are so succinct, self-contained and enjoyable that it is possible to study effortlessly almost anywhere, guided by the mentor through a simulation containing every imaginable 'real life' pitfall. Of course, it's cost effective for strategy training but the real attraction for me is that it's easy to accommodate in a busy schedule.
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