AIM & CPM: Pushing the boundaries for maximum gain.

CPM Asia Pacific Group Insights Director, Graham Brown, is keen to talk about the benefits of the training program.

“The Graduate Diploma program is a lead component of CPM’s recently launched Job Master Methodology, the single biggest training initiative in our company’s history,” said Graham. “Along with AIM we are committed to developing talent in our business and we see this training as vitally important to our delivery of management and leadership excellence for our clients.”

As part of global marketing communications group, Omnicom, CPM is the world’s largest field marketing company, with offices in 18 countries. CPM Asia Pacific’s range of services includes merchandising, direct sales, sampling and demonstration, local area marketing and events. Its blue chip client base spans sectors as diverse as energy, telecommunications, retail, financial services and government.

Senior AIM Consultant and program lead facilitator, De Backman-Hoyle is equally excited about the opportunities surrounding the training and the participants. “With CPM, they never think of ‘challenges’, they are always opportunities. In all my years of experience, I have never seen a group of such highly engaged, synergistic and passionate co-workers.”

“There is a very healthy spirit of what I describe as ‘co-opetition’, where each person is constantly striving to get the best out of everyone in the group.”

“The positive culture really distinguishes CPM from other organisations where people can turn up to the training less than enthusiastic and visibly fatigued by their workplace. There is no ‘lacklustre factor’ among the CPM group,” commented De.

The group of 22 participants comprises all senior to middle managers, including area managers and business managers. According to De, “It is a relatively large group and an interesting mix of geographic and business managers – a hybrid of people who all lead others.”

From January to November 2007, the group undertook three AIM modules – Managing, Leading and Developing People; Managing, Developing and Implementing Strategy, and Managing with Information – towards achieving a Graduate Certificate in Management. The qualification will be awarded upon completion of final assessment pieces and one more module, Managing Financial Resources.

De Backman-Hoyle, who guided the participants through Managing, Leading and Developing People and Managing, Developing and Implementing Strategy, focused on ensuring that everything they learned was directly applicable to their workplace. “Any investment of their time into learning had to be practical and able to be implemented in their roles.”

“They also challenged past beliefs and asked ‘why have we always done it this way?’ As a group, they got into healthy debates and had many in-depth discussions.” “It was very intellectually stimulating and that sort of engagement and excitement is contagious. I would wake up in the morning and think ‘Great, I’ve got CPM today!’”

“It is exactly the sort of partnership AIM is looking for,” said De. “If we were to describe the recipe for the best training outcomes it would be along the lines of; ‘Give us the willing participants, let them run freely with contemporary concepts and applications and do a gap analysis against their current business model’.”

“CPM is definitely drawing the maximum value from the training.” Graham Brown agrees that the professional partnership with AIM has given his organisation a means of focusing the training towards real business benefits. “I am delighted to discuss and demonstrate the benefits of working in tandem with a professional organisation such as AIM,” he said.

“The projects completed as part of the Grad Cert program exemplify what can be done with focused team effort, the right guidance, a pooling of management talent and a genuine commitment to training by the organisation.” The participants worked in syndicate groups of three to six, to deliver new induction training ideas, stronger retention strategies and improved communication processes and procedures with CPM people working in the field.

De Backman-Hoyle commented that the learning went beyond the curriculum and the assessment tasks, “Some people came into this with scar tissue from other tertiary study – memories of disengagement in a purely academic environment. To achieve true transference of learning we needed – and got – a real commitment.”

“The participants had to learn to work in smaller groups and to remove all notions of hierarchy in those groups. They had to blend the ‘hardwired skills’ of the strategy module with the ‘softwired skills’ of people management, as these two areas are always entwined.”

“Everything we did in the AIM program had to be tested, modelled, researched and resourced as part of their daily workplace. The AIM approach is to make sure it is real and that it works for real managers.” “Every member of the group stretched themselves and pushed their comfort zones. Everyone should be very proud of their achievements.”