Brother the Naseby Experience

Brother UK, the subsidiary of the major Japanese conglomerate who are looking for ways to operate with better alignment from top to bottom and to break out of a silo mentality; breaking through “the wall” to the next level of sales success and overcoming threatening competition at the same time.

As part of the process Brother UK’s Sales Force teams were taught how to analyse their own capabilities and vulnerabilities and to operate in such a way as to maximise the former and minimise the latter. But we didn’t stop there!

The same approach was then turned on Brother’s customers, competitors and suppliers to ensure that the business campaign truly delivers. Brother now plan to build on this work to build real competitive advantage.

Decisive and Empowered

In a morning session, run in a local hotel, members of the Corporate Battlefields team, in a series of interactive workshops, delivered a process which enabled Brother to quickly analyse any business scenario and determine the right way to go.

We taught Brother how to align the organisation from top to bottom; establishing absolute clarity of intent at all levels thereby removing wasted effort and being totally clear on what constituted success. A further session on constraints and assumptions highlighted a lot of “excess” which Brother is now working to remove.

Why the battlefield of Naseby?

In the afternoon, in a strictly unique experience, Corporate Battlefields and Brother walked the battlefield of Naseby, using what happened there to illustrate the business lessons required and example the desired outcomes in a truly memorable way.

Not all show and tell…

Also involved in the proceedings were a Parliamentary general, a musketeer and a pikeman from 1645. These re-enactors were able to bring the battlefield to life and there‟s nothing like a musket being fired in close proximity to remove any post-lunch sleepiness.

The culmination of the afternoon was a fun session where Brother was formed into a pike block and drilled 1645 style. Fun it was but it also taught the vital business lessons of operating together for success and how team work can protect all.

Leadership skills

Brother Team Leaders were taken through an interactive session during which they looked at a number of different leadership models and were asked to examine their own leadership styles.

Finally, in a talk before dinner, Corporate Battlefield‟s Chairman, in a speech which brought all the delegates to their feet in a standing ovation, talked about the human aspects of leadership. In a speech which ranged from Hawaiian beach shirted CIA agents in Sarajevo to Special Forces missions with a difference, the focus in particular was on trust and humility.

Brother came away from the event with a clear set of actions and commitments to take the business forward and with a range of new skills to help them meet some challenging sales targets over the coming year. So impressed was Sales and Marketing Director, Phil Jones, that he instructed his entire 50 strong team to keep the material provided by Corporate Battlefields with them at all times!

“Being in the fields of Naseby and visualising how a key battle in the English Civil war can influence how you drive your team in the modern day, was a really interesting and stimulating day for the whole team. They’ve come away inspired and with a new sense of clarity about what the mission of the business is and how they contribute to it we’ve won hearts and minds along the way. Philip Trousdell was brilliant and kept the whole team on the edge of their seats, an inspiring character.”

Phil Jones – Managing Director, Brother UK