our clients

Developing Global Talent

We are proud to have worked with the businesses shown in the section of our website and honoured that they chose to trust and work with us, from amongst the thousands of development companies in the global market place. This section does not represent all the businesses we have worked with but is intended to give you an insight to our ‘development credentials’.

Leadership competence: Big and Small

We work across all industry sectors in businesses ranging from small owner managed companies and SME’s to national and international ‘blue-chips’ anywhere in the world.

If you would like to know more about the work we have undertaken on our clients behalf, or are interested in how we may be able to work with you, please contact us.

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do
Henry Ford

…It’s a judgement about what you have, or haven’t done!
Kevin Lawrence

Odyssey UK Clients

Academy of Chief Executives
Association of Business Leaders
AXA UK
AXA PPP Healthcare
Beckers
Blue Arrow
Christian Salvesen
ColArt
Corporate Services Group
Denplan
DSTL
Essex County Council
Eversheds
Forensic Science Services
General Dynamics (UK) Ltd
Greene King
Handpicked Hotels
Healthcare At Home
Hyder Consulting UK
Lorica
Manchester Airport
Medacs
Morgan Stanley
National Clinical Assessment Service
(NCAS)
Netcare (UK) Ltd
Ordnance Survey
OSNI
QinetQ
Rolls Royce
Saga
SSAFA
Travel Insurance Facilities
V Ships
Wardell Armstrong
Weald of Kent Grammar School

Odyssey Global Clients

Ahold Central Europe
AXA Risk College
AXA Equitable
AXA Insurance
AXA University
Delta Electronics
Deutsche Bank
Hyder Consulting
GKN
GKN Sinter Metals
Lafarge University
Mars NAEM
New York Life International
Prudential Corporation Asia
Schiedel
Umniah

Case Studies

Please feel free to access any of the case studies shown here. They are representative of some of the work we have undertaken with our clients and provide further information about the type of work we have been involved in and the challenges we have faced. New case studies will be added on a regular basis so please visit again soon.

If you would like to know more about the work we have undertaken on our clients behalf or are interested in how we may be able to work with you, please contact us.

Testimonials

Please click a company logo to view their testimonial.

Testimonials

Below is a selection of some of the comments we have received for our programmes. Feedback is an integral part of the Odyssey Experience to ensure participants get the most from the event and identify areas for future improvement.

“This module was great! It’s not my personal opinion but also the feedback I had from other participants – they were very excited!”

“One of the best courses I have attended in recent years. It has helped to refocus my direction.”

“This programme let me review my management skills, tools and styles systematically, whilst offering many new tools, new ways and new concepts.”

“A highly motivated facilitator, passionate about the course and brought lots of experience and knowledge.”

“This programme will help me to better understand and lead my team in the future.”

“After 2 years as a manager, I now finally get what is my vision for my team and how I can improve team performance. Thank you again for the insight that I have developed during this session.”

“I’m convinced you can’t buy a place on a course like this, and feel very privileged to have attended reasonably early on in my leadership career.”

“Knowing you has been one of my more powerful experiences of the last couple of years”

“I know the learning will stay with me for life”

“Your programme was a course like no other I’ve experienced! At times, I was way out of my comfort zone but throughout all the modules found the material interesting, stimulating and motivational.”

“When asked what have been my life changing experiences I’ll look back, point to your programme and say ‘that was!”

“Thank you for the fantastic sessions, you presented this material in such a dynamic way that the days went very quickly! Thank you for challenging us to puck a little harder when we thought we had the answer. The exercises where you told us to keep digging, really helped me have a clearer picture of actionable vs, passive”

Ahold

“Kevin and his colleagues at The Odyssey Group bring a fresh perspective to organisational development and talent development. Through very intense and innovative action learning programmes, they have contributed immensely in our business in Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

Kevin and his colleagues all have extensive experience in ‘real life’ businesses and bring a wealth of insights and learning to their clients. Their inspiring interpersonal skills and research based teaching enable them towork and collaborate with people across various cultures and disciplines and really make a lasting impact.

I would recommend any senior executive towork with Odyssey in upgrading their talent in a unique way and making the learning embed in the day-today-workplace.”

AXA Equitable

It is my pleasure to able to share with you our experience and recommendation of the Odyssey Group.

AXA Equitable has contracted with the Odyssey Group to facilitate a values and behavior based management program called Local AXA Manager.  To date, we have partnered with Odyssey to facilitate four offerings of this program for over 90 managers. One of our most successful offerings of the program followed our acquisition of The MONY Group, during which time the Local AXA Manager program contributed to the integration of new managers into AXA Equitable.

The Local AXA Manager programs were co-facilitated with a Senior Leaders / Executive from AXA Equitable and Mark effectively prepared and engaged these senior leaders to ensure their success and that of the program. It is important to note that Mark was also heavily involved in the redesign of this program with AXA in preparation for its rollout and offering by local entities.

The feedback from participants has been universally positive.

AXA

“Following an extensive tender process, AXA selected Odyssey to develop ‘AXA Leaders’, a program targeting experienced new hires, as well as current employees transitioning to larger management roles. In spite of tight timelines and the need to customise all content to AXA’s business culture, Odyssey more than delivered on its commitment to design a challenging, high quality program, on time and on budget. We have since decided to extend our partnership with Odyssey for the design of a new management / leadership program to be rolled out to all people managers at AXA.”

Christian Salvesen

Odyssey were engaged to both design and deliver a suite of stand-alone courses that would compliment and support our ongoing management development programmes.

The key aspect of their service at both of these stages has been flexibility. By initially spending time in the business, they gained a proper understanding of how we operate and this was reflected in the courses they produced.

In terms of delivery they have always been practical and supportive even when we've had to make changes at the last minute.'

Medacs Healthcare Group

We have worked closely with the Odyssey Group over the last five years, particularly in the areas of leadership, team development and sales. Their understanding of our business, along with their commercial focus and expertise in organisational development, enables them to provide practical and business focused interventions which have had a big impact on our business.

A recent example of this is a Team Development day for our newly created senior management team. The objectives of the day were to help the Managers understand each other’s styles of working; to look at how we work together as a team and our roles in reinforcing our values and culture throughout our business. The feedback from the event was excellent, both from a personal and team perspective. As a result, the Managing Directors are now organising a similar day for their own business areas.

Claire Evans, HR Director for Medacs Healthcare Group says “all the facilitators we work with from the Odyssey Group are very professional and knowledgeable, their delivery and skills are of an extremely high standard and I strongly recommend them”.

Ordnance Survey

The Odyssey Group, have been known to Ordnance Survey for the last 3 years. During this period our experience has been good. We have been pleased to develop a valued relationship, which has seen both repeat and new programmes commissioned. The standards set and delivered have always been highly professional.

Talking Chalk (Deutsche Bank)

“My company conducted a talent review for the IT function in the investment banking division at Deutsche Bank. The review included a detailed evaluation of 20 Managing Directors and 120 Directors. The output of the review was to design a bespoke leadership programme for the aforementioned MD’s and D’s and I asked The Odyssey Group to help design the programme and join me in presenting the design to the client. The quality of their work was exceptional and, on winning the mandate to deliver the programme, I had no hesitation in inviting them to co-facilitate the modules with my company. We worked together and I now regard the support which I receive from them as a crucial component in my relationship with Deutsche Bank. I have no hesitation in recommending them as a world-class training organisation.”

AXA

AXA Group is a world leader in financial protection. Fifty million individuals and businesses have placed their trust in AXA to:

  • Insure their property
  • Protect their family or employees
  • Manage their personal or business assets

AXA has operations in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia Pacific.

112,000 employees and exclusive sales associates around the world are dedicated to deliver AXA clients with the solutions and services they need and expect.

Background

With a 20 year history of success, primarily based on acquisitive growth, the AXA Group realised that its next challenge was to demonstrate equal capacity for organic growth to enable them to meet their ‘Ambition 2012’ targets. One of the keys to them building a high performance organisation is their ability to attract, retain, develop and engage the best talent in the industry. The integration and engagement of experienced new managers continues to be critical as they are expected to achieve ‘full performance’ in a short period of time. External studies had shown that this population were particularly vulnerable to integration failure and attrition, but that targeted on-boarding could increase speed to performance and improve retention.

The Challenge

AXA University asked The Odyssey Group to create a global programme for new and recent recruits to the top 1000 of the AXA Global Management population. The key objectives to be met were:

  • To accelerate participants’ time to full performance and lay the foundation for their longer term career success
  • To build alignment to AXA’s Ambition 2012 strategy and objectives and its translation into strategic priorities
  • To increase engagement and sense of belonging to AXA

The Solution

The Odyssey Group designed, developed and implemented an innovative, high impact and rigorously integrated on-boarding programme for AXA which also included the development and delivery of sessions for AXA senior manager, co-facilitators.

The learning experience for newly recruited senior leaders covered:

  • Business knowledge
  • Understanding of Group vision and strategy
  • Strategic focus
  • Creativity, innovation and change
  • Management and leadership
  • Global mindset and networking
  • Continuous learning and self-management

The programme uses a combination of learning approaches encompassing the very best of traditional development experiences with cutting edge theory and practice. Feedback and anecdotal results from AXA University have participants reporting high levels of engagement with, and understanding of, the Ambition 2012 strategy and a reduction in the time it took them to be fully operational.

Sample Participant Feedback:

“An excellent week. Good chance to learn more about Ambition 2012 and how I can start to lead this in my part of the world.”

“Valuable programme with a wonderful opportunity to meet with colleagues and to learn and exchange ideas. Very practical information that we can apply back in our businesses.”

“Very interesting for new managers and leaders in the Group. It is also a powerful motivation for us.”

“Overall learned a lot. Believe that the objectives are well and truly met.”

Hyder Consulting

Hyder Consulting has been providing engineering excellence for 150 years. With a long standing reputation for delivering landmark and high profile projects, it has operations in more than 20 countries. Recent examples include the Melbourne City Link, the Emirates Twin Towers in Dubai and the Cairo Wastewater Project.

Background

Hyder Consulting’s vision is to be the ‘consultant of choice worldwide’. To support this drive, a new behavioural framework was launched followed by a full behavioural audit of the top 200 leaders in the business using a 360 degree survey. This was supported by a series of data gathering interviews to ensure focus was placed on the appropriate development areas.

The Challenge

The Odyssey Group was asked to create and deliver an intense and high impact global development program focused primarily on 2 core themes:

  • Recognising and developing talent, coaching and developing others
  • Building and managing internal and external relationships

The Solution

The Odyssey Group designed, developed and implemented, an innovative, high impact five-day, two module program that was deployed in the global regions. To ensure an intense yet supportive learning environment, participation was limited to groups of sixteen, with two facilitators working with each group.

The learning experience incorporated the use of rigorously integrated cutting edge theory and practice including; conceptual models, case studies, role plays, personal data to provide anchor points, high impact exercises and a blend of large and small group and individual work.

Between modules, which were 8-10 weeks apart, regionally-based facilitators worked on a 1:1 and 1:group basis with the participants, coaching and supporting them in transferring and integrating new skills and knowledge to their roles. Additionally, we provided further e-based prompts through articles, abstracts and in-house thought pieces. The modules and coaching focused on developing the leader-managers’ skills and knowledge in the areas of:

  • How to recruit and empower high caliber individuals who understand and deliver real business value
  • Taking positive steps to retain high performers and develop/encourage them to excel
  • Driving and embedding ‘positive behaviour’ throughout the business
  • Empowering, reviewing and encouraging others to build ‘the business’
  • Building awareness of the impact that their own behavior has on others and style flexibility
  • Building, supporting and developing positive long-term internal and external relationships
  • Promoting collaborative working and addressing territorial behaviour and conflict
  • Driving ‘global unity’ and interdependency

The program has been delivered to leader-managers in the UK, Middle East, Far East and Australia.

Sample Participant Feedback

“ The best development program I have ever attended”

“ The program has given me the tools, insights and understanding as to how I can make a positive impact on the competencies and achieving our vision”

“ The last few days have been a revelation and I can now see a clear route for my team and I to pursue to achieve our vision”

Lafarge

The world leader in building materials, Lafarge has a workforce of 80,000 people and a presence in 76 countries. It holds top-ranking positions in each of its three businesses: Cement; Aggregates, Concrete & Asphalt; Gypsum. Sales for 2005 were €16billion. The company offers the construction industry, and the general public, innovative solutions to bring greater safety, comfort and quality to their everyday surroundings.

Background

Major change occurred to the Lafarge group in the period up to 2004 due to large scale acquisitions that included Blue Circle Industries and Redland. This resulted in a significant increase in employees and operational sites, and the need to: manage the integrations successfully; quickly leverage the potential of the new businesses; and drive performance to meet the company vision of becoming the ‘undisputed world leader in the building materials industry’.

The Challenge

  • To ensure managers shared and understood the vision of the Group
  • To increase networking and synergies across functions and divisions
  • To raise awareness and understanding of the link between behaviour and individual, team, and Group results, with particular focus on the following areas:
  • Creating a greater “Sense of Urgency’
  • Creating ‘Greater Accountability’
  • Enabling and encouraging people to ‘Lead by Example’
  • Creating an operational ‘Stretch Mindset’ (to do more with less)
  • Encouraging a culture of ‘Positive Conflict’
  • Creating a ‘Multi-Local’ mindset – combining local and global priorities
  • To motivate managers to implement learning and insights ‘day to day’.

The Solution

The Odyssey Group was invited to partner with Lafarge University. Our task was to provide a series of learning experiences for senior leaders across the company which would be the catalyst for major behavioural changes. Our interventions were built around the six behavioural challenges detailed previously.

Using leadership and behavioural development concepts, real-time facilitation, peer coaching, and a major simulation, we designed and delivered a fast paced, intense, and demanding learning experience. A two and a half day workshop was delivered to over 1,800 Lafarge leaders across Europe, Asia and the Americas over a three year period. We successfully challenged mindsets and provoked open and honest dialogue between participants to create the necessary levels of trust and openness that allowed deep-seated, sustainable behavioural change to take place.

The successful facilitation of these programmes led to us delivering further workshops for new leaders joining the organisation, allowing them to share experiences, become acquainted with the company ‘Principles of Action’, and developing the behaviours that had successfully impacted the business to date.

The Results

An individual perspective:

“The main learning for me was the link between my behaviour and the performance of the team in the plant. Following the programme, we are now driving the operations in the plant with SMART targets and clear priorities. In line with my commitments I have set up a system of daily, weekly and monthly meetings in the plant between people of different departments to analyse performance in safety, quality, the environment and production, looking at the gap with our targets, any problems and how to solve them. At the end of the meetings there are clear actions and responsibilities. I also started regular meetings with other departments to improve the communication between us after which I saw real improvement in plant working practices: people worked together and knew what the priorities and targets were. I now pay a lot of attention to communication which has had a direct link to the improvement of the business results in the plant.”

An organisational perspective:

  • Latest organisational results show sales up 21%, current Operating income up 41%, and earning per share up 48%
  • Internal feedback shows an average evaluation rating by participants of 84% based on an assessment of programme objectives being met

Qualitative feedback has been of a very high standard, with internal sponsors reporting significant positive shifts in behaviour.

Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey (OS) has been providing accurate, reliable and detailed geographic information for more than 200 years. Today, it is a dynamic and “modern” organisation employing over 1400 people. Whilst justifiably proud of its rich heritage, it is committed to leading the way in technological innovation.

As the recognised market leader in its field, OS is synonymous with mapping expertise, offering a wide range of internationally renowned products for both business and leisure, from complex digital information to traditional walking maps.

Background

The operating context for OS has changed beyond recognition over the last 20 years. In the past OS effectively had a monopoly in its markets. As the ability of other companies to obtain the information it sold increased, so too did commercial competition. OS realised that to move forward successfully, a new operating paradigm was required. The culture, vision and employee behaviours would need to change and become much more commercial.

The Challenge

The Odyssey Group was asked to work with the OS sales teams to produce a high impact strategic/commercial selling skills programme for key personnel. The head of the Partner Alliance Programme recognised that team members were operating as managers of ‘customer accounts’ rather than as sales people, reacting to requests for data rather than proactively building relationships and seeking out new clients. Individuals needed to be up-skilled to allow them to work effectively within the new commercial operating environment.

The Solution

A comprehensive research project was undertaken to ascertain skill levels and identify development needs. Findings were presented to the client leading to the development of a strategy for the programme. As a consequence we were asked to create a ten-day high impact commercial sales training programme delivered over six months to include coaching and e-based support between modules.

Results

A dramatic upturn in revenue. As OS cannot compete on licensing or pricing variables the upturn is being driven by how people are behaving and communicating when interacting with clients.

Everyone in the team has “raised the bar” in terms of behaviour and business & financial acumen. This has resulted in a team of high performers committed to realising commercial benefit for the organisation.

We were asked to roll out the programme to a further 52 account managers after news of the success of the team spread throughout the organisation. We continue to help the organisation transform its ability to operate in the new business environment.