Rapid growth over recent years has brought about the realisation that the company needed management and leadership structures in place as well as development programmes to underpin the organisation providing firm foundations for future growth. As is often the case with SME firms, and especially family firms, people grow and develop with the business often starting in junior roles and rising to the top as the organisation grows.
Phil Darbyshire says, “Like me, our managers and directors had started with Starbank at much lower levels and because the company grew had taken on more senior roles. I recognised we needed to have skills other than what we were originally good at. We needed skills as managers and leaders.
“We’d worked previously with a couple of training firms but they didn’t get the company’s ethos or the way things were done. Festo, as an engineering company, understands the manufacturing business. Therefore they didn’t just tell us what skills we needed they showed us how to let go of the operational side, how to be better managers and leaders and how to put structures in place so we can continue to expand.”