Case Study

Tradeware Group (Tradeware) is a national wholesale and product development business that delivers quality products to the Australian and New Zealand hardware markets. With decentralised warehouses and sales teams, backed by centralised marketing, product development and corporate support functions, they deliver exceptional service to their customers.

With a desire to drive growth and develop their internal succession plans, Tradeware engaged Checkside in March 2019.  Kicking off with our initial business analysis, we then ran strategy and structuring workshops with the management team in Adelaide resulting in a strategy on a page (SOAP) being developed with clear priorities and objectives outlined for the FY20 year.

In line with the initial strategy development, we reviewed the structure from both a functional and succession planning perspective, culminating in the decision to recruit a new National Sales Manager to free up the Managing Director to focus on important strategic initiatives (including acquisitions)  moves that have subsequently delivered strong returns for the business.  Changes have since also been made within the product development and marketing functions, which has allowed one of the working directors to implement their own succession plan.

This alignment of organisation structure with strategy was further complemented by the decision to commence our Leadership Turbocharge program across the business.  Commencing with a program for the senior management team, relevant modules of the program were then cascaded to a number of other leadership groups within the business, including regional sales managers, regional warehouse supervisors and future leaders.

Client Outcomes

Cascading the development program across all levels of leadership at Tradeware enabled a consistent language around leadership and a common approach to coaching and developing people. Tradeware has also widely adopted the use of PRINT®, a motivational model and assessment tool incorporated into our Leadership Turbocharge program, rolling it out through a number of their teams to assist them in strengthening relationships and adapting to new ways of working through COVID-19.

Alongside their investment in people, Tradeware have embraced the disciplines of a high-performance operating system to regularly review and clarify their strategy, priorities and objectives – and continue to ‘raise the bar higher’. The system in place has been built to incorporate and influence the business’ individual performance feedback process, ensuring that strategic objectives and KPIs are cascaded effectively through the business.

The results for Tradeware have been excellent. The business enjoyed record growth in FY20 and again in FY21 despite the challenges of COVID-19, and they have kicked off FY22 with further growth as they go from strength to strength.

Managing Director Commentary

According to their Managing Director, Gavin Carey, “It was an important decision to find the right partner to advise and help develop our team and organisational structure. Time has shown this to be a super decision. Checkside took the time to understand our people and our business using a clear and pragmatic approach. It has become a strong relationship where they continue to provide insight and structure to help optimise and drive our business priorities.

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