Wales Management Council

Open international markets and rising skill and technology levels across the globe present huge competitive challenges to Welsh businesses. Location in the "Western World" no longer provides protection, and every company must now fight its own corner, moving itself decisively up the value chain, if it is to stay among the high earning elite.

How this is achieved will differ from company to company and industry to industry. Some, such as the life science-based sectors, are natural residents of the new knowledge economy. Others, such as electronic equipment manufacturers, may find future strategy harder to define.

However there is one approach to management and leadership that has proved highly effective in helping businesses from many different sectors to stay in the hunt, irrespective of how simple or sophisticated their products. This is the philosophy of High Performance Working (HPW).

This isn’t some specific management development system, offering success in ten easy steps. It’s a set of principles and practices that promote high levels of adaptability and involvement, enabling people at all levels to participate in the development of processes, products and services.

In effect the game is getting so much tougher that firms have no choice but to unlock the full potential of their people in order to rise to the challenge.

HPW is not new in itself. In fact it is integral to at least two key Assembly Government strategies. However, what we have lacked previously is a real glimpse of HPW at work in Wales.

That’s why Wales Management Council has just published and circulated widely a report on how eight Welsh businesses, covering sectors as diverse as construction, food, education, housing, science equipment, furniture, automotive and public service, have already adopted HPW practices and are thriving as a result.

These different sectors have all have come up with different solutions but all, in their own way, provide valuable lessons to similar enterprises in how HPW approaches can succeed. In short they have given their people the means to become as good as they have the potential to be.

For the benefit of those daunted by the prospect of introducing something apparently complex, let me quote automotive firm Meritor HVBS, one of our eight case studies, They summed up the HPW experience in three imperatives – “keep it simple, keep it ours and make it happen.”

Essentially they kept the focus on their practical business needs and changed how they managed people in order to let them tackle those needs.

The diverse experiences of these businesses will, we believe, guide many others in unlocking the management and other human resources that will keep them at the forefront of international competition.