Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products for consumer and professional markets.

Over recent years, the electronics industry has seen huge change and fierce competition from new players in the market, such as the rise of smartphones and tablets. They have also had to deal with the outcomes of the global financial crisis, where discretionary spending was greatly reduced and margins eroded.

The Sony Electronics companies across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) recognise that volatility and uncertainty are now the norm for their industry. They know that strong and effective leadership is vital in order to navigate teams towards success. The challenge for the Mantle team was to design and develop a leadership initiative that engaged the whole senior leadership group across both companies in the vision, taking in to account fluctuating strategies. It also needed to give them time to stop, reflect and collaborate on the best way forward for the business, while continuing to build their leadership capability.

This was not a traditional leadership programme, but rather a facilitated series of leadership forums. These focused on the current business environment and what leaders needed to do to achieve success.

The team from Mantle worked in partnership with the HR group across ANZ to design and deliver a series of leadership forums throughout 2013. The following factors were seen as critical in their subsequent success:

• Critical leadership competencies were identified up front and used as the foundation for a 360 degree process which identified some common needs
• The content of the forums was dynamic to reflect the nature of the business and the need to be nimble in response to the market conditions. The overall context was set as leading in a volatile and ambiguous world
• Capability development was also a focus on the changing environment and the need for leaders to step up and lead their teams in difficult conditions. This made it authentic, relevant and of immediate use outside of the forums
• The series of two day forums gave senior leaders the opportunity to step back from the operation and reflect on their own and their team’s ‘state of play’. This allowed them to regularly re-focus on what they could control in order to keep themselves and their teams motivated and focused
• Collaboration is seen as key as the two ANZ companies work together to achieve the overall vision and strategy of Sony. Leaders found it useful to get to know each other at a more personal level and to meet their colleagues who can help them to get things done with less organisational ‘noise’
• Mantle designed and facilitated the forums, but were very open to moving the agenda around to suit the current situation and needs of the group to add the most value