Case Study: Business Improvement

Hardware Megastore

Case Studies - Clients Adding To Their Bottom Line

Stephen Nelson

Chief Executive Officer,
Mitre10 Mega Petone & Upper Hutt

"Terry and Cardinal Solutions have surpassed themselves and delivered an outstanding programme to our management team. Their Business Improvement Programme* has enabled our Managers to develop, produce and present a variety of projects that will have very tangible benefits for our business. So not only have we been able to further develop the leadership skills of our managers, but we will also see tens of thousands of dollars added to the bottom line - what more could you want from a training programme and provider. Thanks!"

Stephen Nelson CEO "NZ Hardware Retailer of the Year 2010
Mitre 10 Mega Petone, NZ Hardware Store of the Year 2011

Sonya Hassleman

Owner Operator,
Napier City Pak n Save

We asked Sonya Hasselman, the Owner/Operator of the Store, to comment on her experience of working alongside Cardinal Solutions and in particular how the Business Improvement Programme was progressing. Sonya said:

“Our 5 year partnership working along with Cardinal Solutions has been a fantastic journey of learning, discovery and fun! We have been fortunate to have Terry Williams as our trainer and our managers have all built up a wonderful rapport with him as he has the ability to put everyone at ease and bring the best out of all the managers. It has been exciting to see our Managers grow and flourish in the Company and become influencial leaders, mentors and role models within their teams. Our Managers now have the exciting task of devloping a business plan to identify how they could improve their department. They have taken ownership of this process and are busy using the tools provided by Cardinal to see where they can grow their department. Robie and myself are looking forward to hearing their business improvement presentations to see what exciting changes we can make to grow our business!”

A Success Story

"Hi Terry. Just thought you might like to know that your seminar at Ellerslie a few weeks ago has helped transform our company in terms of building and keeping an effective team.

As a direct result of that presentation we’ve got our recruitment brand together by hiring recruitment agencies, introducing a new pay scale with more room for advancement, and we’re shortly going to complete a renovation of the office so that we look the part.

Based on your example of the Hawkes Bay telco setting up an international exchange programme to help motivate and keep their Gen Y employees, I’m off to London in a couple of days to set up an office there. As well as being a great incentive to work at Keedup, it will solve multiple problems we’ve had in Auckland staffing our night shift. The power of this idea has already been demonstrated, with one excellent employee deciding to stay with us rather than accept another job offer at higher pay because she found the idea of working in London so exciting.

There are numerous other measures being taken with regards to office culture, giving regular feedback and making the company more inclusive in day to day operations.

I am a chronic sceptic of business seminars and the slightly evangelical feel that many of them have. Your presentation was focused on practical ideas from the real world, and all the better for it. Thanks for the effort you put in to make it that way, and thanks also to Andy Martin at the BNZ for making sure I got there.

Kindest regards
Kevin Townsend
CEO, KeedUp.com

PS, please feel free to use this by way of an endorsement"

* Business Improvement Programme - 3 Stages:

1. Quality Tools - Identify Problems / Opportunities
2. Write a Persuasive Business Case
3. Presentation Skills - Convince senior management to implement your idea!