Boudry, Switzerland

Management Training for the Executive Committee

Cicorel has made tremendous progress over recent years to return to a benchmark level of operational performance. Our Excellence initiative launched in 2020 brought about significant transformation and made the company much more efficient, to the point where one of the barriers to further progress was the organization itself. The structure caused siloed operations, slowing the efficiency of the internal value chain and coordination.

As of July 1st, 2024, we implemented a new organization of the executive committee (CODIR) that targets an agile and quick decision making, while reinforcing management responsibilities and synergies between departments.

The new organization provided immediate positive effects in communication and coordination within the CODIR. However, such decisions and changes are not trivial. They are sudden and can sometimes leave marks if not supported adequately.

A transitional phase was anticipated and a management training program for the new CODIR team was put in place starting September 2024, in order to:

• Develop team spirit and team building within the CODIR
• Get to know each other, understand each other’s ways of working
• Legitimize each CODIR member in their role
• Understand the company’s objectives and strategy, and collectively appropriate them as the CODIR that makes and implements decisions
• Define the operating modes of the new organization
• Management training (conflict management, managerial posture, management and communication tools, etc.)

Following a selection process, it was decided to carry out this support program with the Dornier Consulting firm from Besançon (France), who clearly identified the situation and needs. They proposed a 5-step program according to the content below.

1. Myself, Member of the Executive Committee
2. Executive Committee, Cicorel
3. Management Training
4. 360 Feedback
5. Individual Appropriation

Step 1:
Upstream of the work undertaken with the executive committee, implement an individual assessment approach enabling each member of the executive committee to better decipher and understand their:

• Personality traits,
• Thinking and action mechanisms,
• Drivers and motivations
• Strengths

Step 2:
The objective of this second step is to unite the executive committee (CODIR) around a shared goal and vision for the performance of CICOR company.

As per the picture , a company (the sailboat) is facing multiple adversity like competition (sharks), economical changes (head- or sidewinds), internal problems (boat anchors), etc., and in order to make sure we can reach the target (The Strategy 2028 - treasure) the sailboat crew must be aligned on how we want to do it and aligned on the responsibilities sharing.

This collective time was an opportunity to revisit the fundamentals, notably:

• The corporate culture.
• The resulting managerial culture.
• The governance’s role and duty to lead by example.
• The full alignment of the CODIR’s members with the Strategy 2028

Step 3:
The objective of this step training session is to provide an operational framework for managers (extended to middle management) to better experience and understand their Challenges, Role, Duties and obligations.

The aim was to support managers in the following areas:

• Self-awareness
• Management and posture: Administrator, Manager, and Leader
• Situational management
• Communication
• Anticipating and managing conflict
• Motivation and cohesion
• Leading a team
• Supporting and driving change
• Manager: first HR! (Integration, skills development, identifying talent, etc.).

As a conclusion, nothing better than participants’ feedback:

"Joining the CODIR as its most recent member, this training was a great opportunity for me to get to know my colleagues better, to better understand their ways of working, and to quickly feel integrated within the team. It was also a valuable experience to strengthen our collective spirit and align together on our common goals."

Adrien Jordan

Head of Sales

"I really enjoyed completing the SOSIE questionnaire, which gave me fresh insights into myself. I also found it very interesting to discover my colleagues' results and see how we are both different and complementary. The training brought open discussions in the executive committee and helped us build a stronger shared vision."

Carlos Tardon

Head of Operations

"The management training transformed our approach to teamwork. By aligning with Cicorel’s mission, values, and vision, we created a connected and proactive team, ready to capitalize on our strengths and unlock our full improvement potential."

Christophe Sipp

Head of Industrial Excellence

"This training program fostered a climate of trust that is essential for open and effective communication. It strengthened cohesion within the executive committee and management teams by developing greater mutual understanding and a strong team spirit, which are essential for supporting teams and meeting upcoming company's strategic challenges."

Michel Tellier

Head of Engineering

"A truly eye-opening experience: I discovered more about myself, built stronger trust and cohesion within the Executive Committee through open conversations, and came away with concrete tools to communicate better and support my team’s growth".

Kathia Debély

Head of Finance

"The training provided insights in very important aspects of the behavior of colleagues and should in the long run enable the participants to understand why people act in different ways. This will improve collaboration and, if needed, will help adapting interaction with all employees."

Karl-Heinz Fritz

Cicor VP Technology

"A true adventure, a journey within oneself and within our organization and our ways of functioning. I was looking forward to the process for developing team spirit, and I was impressed by the authenticity with which everyone engaged in the exercise, as well as by the closeness and the improvement of cohesion within the Executive Committee (CODIR)."

Benoit Fueg
Managing Director

PCI Padel

In 2023, Cicorel launched its padel tennis team led by Sandro Cimino, logistics coordinator at Cicorel since summer 2022. The team currently has nine players and is participating in the Padel Swiss Business League tournament in the canton of Neuchâtel for the second year in a row.

Padel was invented by Mexican Enrique Corcuera in 1969. Living in Acapulco, he did not have enough space around his house for a tennis court, so he built a 20m by 10m court surrounded by walls of 3 and 4 metres high. Instead of a tennis racket, the game is played with a flat wooden bat. In 1974, when his friend Prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe came to visit him from Spain, he enjoyed it so much that he took the idea back with him to Marbella in Spain.

This sport is mainly played 2 against 2, the ball can bounce off the side and rear windows before being played, and points are scored as in tennis.

All the team members were unfamiliar with this sport, so they had to quickly learn the basics in order to begin to understand the rules and develop automatic responses when playing as a team. You can follow our progress in the Padel Swiss Business League championship by visiting the following page: www.psbl.ch.

This tournament brings together several major companies in the canton of Neuchâtel (Philip Morris, the Neuchâtel Police, Ello, Swisscom, Metalor, Certina, etc.) and aims to develop and promote the practice of padel tennis among companies, with an annual charitable donation to an association.

Over the past two years, the money donated by companies has gone to the “Planètes Enfants Malades” association, which for 25 years has been providing daily support and various activities, such as music, storytelling, adapted physical activities, workshops for teenagers and therapeutic medical hypnosis, to accompany children and their families throughout their stay in hospital.

Through their programmes or one-off events, they help to put a sparkle back in the eyes of young patients.

Sandro Cimino
Supply Chain Coordinator