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The challenge
In September 2009 Ashorne Hill won a high-profile contract from Jaguar Land Rover to develop a company-wide performance management program targeting the full management population of 1,500 - from first line through to board level. This initiative was to underpin the launch of their new behavior framework and performance management process designed to increase the pace of organizational change to meet competitive market demands.
Historically, Jaguar Land Rover has developed from a number of different brands (Rover, Jaguar, Land Rover) and different owners (Ford, BMW): leading to significant challenges in aligning the new organization with one common vision and set of core values. Their more recent acquisition by Tata in 2008, followed by the subsequent downturn in the economic climate, had necessitated a complete restructuring of the organization - including the brand new set of targeted management behaviors contained in their newly-created performance management process.
The learning outcomes for the program were significant. It was not sufficient that the new performance management program simply educated the management population on the new behavior framework and the functional details of the performance management evaluation process itself. The program also had to develop the participants' practical management skills that would be needed to apply the new performance measures successfully - and to engage in the sometimes difficult performance conversations this would entail.
Alongside these objectives it was also important that the program generated a new alignment in business thinking and instilled an impetus for driving transformational change across the organization. This performance management program is therefore inextricably linked to the new business vision, and its success will be critical to the future success of Jaguar Land Rover.
The solution
Program design was a joint process, consisting of draft content preparation by Ashorne Hill followed by briefings and reviews with Jaguar Land Rover. The customer design team included senior representatives from HR, Learning and Development, and Organizational Development, all of whom had a significant input to detailed program content during the few weeks available prior to the deadline for the start of program delivery. Two lead consultants were involved in program design activity, to ensure that design quality and program consistency were of the highest standard. Total flexibility was required on the part of the design team,...