The Challenge
Atradius is a global trade credit insurance and debt collection company whose remit is to enable successful trade. Atradius seeks to ensure its continued operation as an enduring business with sustainable revenue growth and a secure, stable increase in profits in a changing landscape.
The organisation acknowledged the fact they were in an ever changing environment and as a result, required its employees to embrace and be comfortable with change and improve their capacity for innovation.
In August 2018, Australian Managing Director, Mark Hoppe participated in a change leadership program run by Vlerick Business School. The program was well received and left Mark convinced of the importance of preparing his team to embrace change.
While Mark acknowledged that there was a very strong and positive culture across Atradius in Australia, with a long average tenure of staff, he concluded there was room for the organisation and its people to develop their willingness to understand, embrace and leverage change.
Mr Hoppe approached QUTeX to develop a robust and appropriate change leadership program to equip Atradius’ leaders and employees with the knowledge, skills, tools and mindset to be able to embrace change.
The Client
Atradius logo
Atradius is a global specialist in trade credit insurance and affiliated credit management services, such as debt recoveries and collections, with a presence on every continent. Within the Australian market, Atradius employs 70 people, including people leaders, underwriters, account managers, collections specialists and support staff.
The company’s strategic goals include creating sustainable revenue growth and a secure, stable increase in profits by ensuring their customers and stakeholders receive the best possible service and support from them.
The company’s commitment to innovation is a key part of its operational strategy — it aims to explore new opportunities in emerging markets, and invest in and design new products and services that target the specific needs of the three key market segments: global/multinational companies, large companies and SMEs.
The Impact
QUTeX’s corporate educators developed and delivered a bespoke program responding to the brief which took the form of a two-day workshop (‘Anticipating Change’) for 29 organisational leaders held at QUT’s Executive Education Centre (EEC), followed by a one-day workshop (‘Leveraging Change’) for all 70 of the organisation’s staff held on the Central Coast of NSW.
Participants in the program took part in profiling exercises that helped to build self-awareness, emotional intelligence and social fluency. These exercises are designed to highlight the differing styles and preferences of individuals and teams, and help teams to minimise conflict and communicate more effectively with each other particularly as they work through a period of change.
Participants noted that the workshop provided opportunities to interact and learn from colleagues, and that they saw the potential to improve their workplace practice as a result of the learnings in the workshop. Anecdotal feedback from the participants included that they found the sessions productive, and that the profiling exercises were very useful for understanding themselves and their colleagues better.
You hear the word 'leadership' many times, but to [learn to] be an effective leader is quite an important thing. Some of the tools that we've been given over the last two-and-a-half days are things that I'll really take into my work, managing the team that I have.
- Manager Farook Mohammed
How can QUTeX help you?
What’s the leadership culture of your organisation like? Does it foster coaching and mentoring? Changing the leadership culture of your organisation requires expertise in business, leadership and psychology. QUTeX leverages the whole of the university’s resources to develop educational programs for organisations just like yours. Using learning that is interactive our programs maximise the learning potential of your team so they can apply what they learn as they go.