Commercial Solutions has developed several company-specific, custom training programs addressing a wide range of competencies for clients from a variety of industries. An assortment of these programs is described below.
An international commodity chemical manufacturer wanted to develop leadership skills, perspectives and networks among its high potential managers. Five key leadership topics were designated by the client; vision, employee development, motivation, stewardship of change and persuasion. A sixth competency, strategic business decision making, was added to the list in the form of a computer based simulation/competition. Commercial Solutions divided these six development topics across three sessions, each lasting three and one half days. We crafted training experiences for each session that connected these leadership topics to company and industry-specific discussions, exercises, case study analyses and skills practice. Pre-work and intersession assignments introduced new topics and prompted continuous development and application of topics from previous sessions. Graduates of Leadership 2000 have risen to executive levels of the company and will continue to assume top level responsibilities in years to come.
An international chemical manufacturer with sales in excess of $5 billion and a workforce in excess of 10,000 employees wanted to revamp its performance evaluation system, turning away from numerical ratings and turning toward goal based performance planning and evaluation. Commercial Solutions was brought in early in the planning stages and, as well as being involved in the actual evaluation form design, also developed the training programs that were used to teach the new Planning for Performance process to every company executive, manager and supervisor. Commercial Solutions developed training materials for every company HR professional and taught them how to teach PfP to managers and supervisors in their respective divisions. We also conducted executive briefings for the divisional vice presidents and staff at each regional location. After PfP had been in place for a year, Commercial Solutions developed and trained HR professionals in the dissemination of an Employee Edition of PfP training. And for years afterward, Commercial Solutions has developed a variety of PfP-centered development tools for this client's internal use.
A major oil and gas producer recognized significant productivity losses as a result of low yield meetings. Based on a sampling of meetings, internal training professionals concluded that their meeting productivity problem was the result of insufficient preparation and weak follow through rather than inadequate meeting leadership skills. Commercial Solutions was called in to develop training that complimented their in-place meeting leadership program by focusing on preparation and follow through competencies.
The title of the program is drawn from the function of automobile bumpers; something applied to the front and back that protect what is in the middle. Because of the extensive work Commercial Solutions had done with this client in the past, we were able to integrate company practices and norms into the full range of meeting prep and follow through skills to create a one day intervention that has yielded untold savings in the form of greater meeting productivity and reduced participant frustration.
During a consulting relationship of several years duration, Commercial Solutions collaborated with the vice president of safety and his senior staff to develop a wide range of custom interventions. By combining the company's employee evaluation process (see Planning for Performance above) and a taxonomy of safety professional competencies, Commercial Solutions was able to create and, with the input of site managers and safety professionals, refine a development tool that pinpointed skills that were highly relevant to individual site safety programs and for which the safety manager had additional development capacity. Working in conjunction with senior safety managers, the company's safety steering committee and line management, Commercial Solutions developed leadership training interventions that focused on the behavioral aspects of emerging site safety cultures and how to lead those cultures to interdependency. Traditional training methods for senior managers were combined with physical team building experiences to address both cognitive and affective aspects of leadership.
The manager of an internal expatriate support group for a multinational energy producer sought Commercial Solutions' help in advancing his team's performance to the 'delight' level. After initial interviews, it became apparent that the performance of individual advisors within this organization would be best served by an intervention that combined conventional customer service skills training with team building facilitation. Commercial Solutions developed a pre-session package that solicited attitudes, experiences and recommendations from everyone in the group. After supplementing this information with several one-on-one interviews, an intervention was designed and conducted. In addition to learning key customer service skills, participants "invented" self-evaluation definitions, problem-solved service delivery process obstacles and built a level of rapport that will serve as the foundation for continuous improvement. Commercial Solutions has provided follow through support to assure that these strides constitute a sure-footed beginning.
A major retailer with over 900 locations throughout the country and a beauty salon in each one commissioned Commercial Solutions to design and deliver a stress management television broadcast specially designed for it's salon managers. After visiting several salons and interviewing each manager, we developed a program that blended stress management information with the day-to-day challenges of salon managers. Specific stressful situations were highlighted and targeted management techniques were presented and demonstrated.

The following year, this retailer commissioned Commercial Solutions to prepare a custom training session for its highest performing salon managers. A select group of salon managers video taped stress trigger "testimonials", which were used throughout the session to bring home the relevance of the management techniques being taught and to illustrate their application.