Case Studies Content
19th May 2015 | By pmacuilic |
Training in Good Governance
Our client is the main funder of a number of not-for-profit, mission driven organisations. Acutely aware that many of the board members of these organisations are volunteers attracted by the mission but lacking any formal corporate governance experience, they decided to offer some short sessions in governance training for both volunteer board directors and paid CEOs. We designed the training based on the framework of the Governance Code which is the code of governance for community and voluntary organisations in Ireland. Delegates got a workbook containing information and exercises. There were lively interactive sessions which all reported as relevant, informative and helpful in raising their awareness of governance issues. Most importantly delegates said that they would be able to bring improvements to the governance of their organisations having completed the training.
“Best 3 hours spent on governance as very clear and concise and would highly recommend to others in my organisation”
“Excellent three hours. I would have been happy to do a day”
“Very useful and will help me be a more confident board member”
Helping our client produce a sustainability report to satisfy the demands of major customers
A company approached us about helping them produce a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)/Sustainability report. The client company is a component manufacturer selling to major Global brands. One of their large customers was demanding that they produce a sustainability report detailing their responsible business practice. Large international companies are under pressure to demonstrate responsible management of their supply chain and increasingly they are putting pressure on their smaller suppliers to provide CSR/Sustainability reports as evidence of good management practices. Our client lacked the knowledge and resources to complete the task. We facilitated the production of the report by:
- Reviewing the existing processes and metrics in the business
- Working with senior management to define what was material to include in their CSR report
- Producing a list of required measurements that was circulated to key staff in the various locations
- Collecting and collating the answers received, identifying gaps and inconsistencies
- Collecting stories of projects and initiatives undertaken by the business that could be used in the report
- Facilitating the development of the report structure and advising on the content
- Helping with proofing and fact checking on the final report
Although our client’s customer was the driver in undertaking the production of the report, the client stated that they found the process to be useful in helping them clarify many of the good practices they were already engaged in and also in identifying areas for improvement.
CPD Ethics Training for the Financial Services Sector
The client, a membership organisation in the financial services sector, wanted to provide an ethics session which would meet the continuing professional development requirement for people working in financial services during a conference they were hosting for employees of their members. The requirement was to enhance awareness of ethical issues amongst people attending. We worked with the client to develop some key themes that were likely to be of interest and relevance to delegates. On the day, we explained the purpose of the session and ensured that people understood that they were in a safe environment in which the situations discussed would not be shared outside the room. Using the key themes as jumping off points we asked attendees to describe what was important to them and their clients, what kinds of difficult situations they had encountered and what had helped them to resolve these situations. This resulted in some recommendations for behaviour that would lead to good outcomes and pointers for managers in ensuring they supported staff in ethical decisions and behaviour. Key points from this highly interactive session were charted and later typed up and circulated amongst attendees.
“Not the usual boring ethics session, this held my interest”
“Relevant to my day to day work”
“It was interesting and reassuring to hear that other people are facing similar situations”