Kent Messenger Group
Creating new attitudes for business growth
The Kent Messenger Group (KMG) is one of the UK’s oldest newspaper groups. It was started in 1859 by the Boorman family who are still involved today. While the company is steeped in tradition and firmly entrenched in the Kent community, the company has recognised the need to accelerate its development into a multi-media business in order to remain competitive, thrive and meet the expectations of shareholders.
Managing Director Chris Bisco explains: “The Kent Messenger Group has always been a successful business run on a very traditional model common to many family-run media groups in the UK. The business had a structured hierarchy with a strong leader at the helm and separate departments working almost independently of each other.
“A multi media business is complex in nature and requires senior mangers to have strong commercial and leadership skills in order to contribute effectively.”
“We are now part of a fast-paced modern creative industry and in order to move the business on to the next level and perform in a highly competitive multi-media environment, we recognised the need to change some of those traditions if we were to meet shareholder expectations. This involved creating a more dynamic management team working closely together to embrace new business challenges with gusto. A multi media business is complex in nature and requires senior managers to have strong commercial and leadership skills in order to contribute effectively. More importantly, they need the right mind-set and attitude to drive the business forward.”
Chris Bisco had already steered a previous media group towards new challenges and enlisted the help of Acorn Coaching and Development.
“I had already worked with Acorn while at a media group with a similar business model, so I knew the difference Acorn’s expertise could make. It made sense to bring them on board to help with the business development of the Kent Messenger Group.”
Acorn was appointed to work with KMG’s Executive Management Team (EMT). The goal was to increase their skills and confidence to manage new business responsibilities through effective leadership and performance management. The work with the managers focused on achieving an alignment between their skills, style and methods and the strategic needs of the business, and to help them embrace the cultural changes required to succeed.
“The necessary changes were very different to the business culture that had become entrenched over 150 years.”
Says Chris: “We have a lot of managers who have worked for the company for a long time and change is not easy, particularly when over the years many have been used to running their own departments completely independently with little interaction with each other. The change we needed to make in order to take the company forward involved challenging previous actions and to move away from the traditional family view of the business. This was very different to the business culture that had become entrenched over 150 years.“
Colin Dulson of Acorn commented: “We already had experience with this type of business through a long term working relationship with Carlisle’s CN Group, also a very traditional newspaper and media organisation going through significant change. We recognised that the likely changes required to the structure, procedures and skills within the business would place managers under increased pressure for which they would require support and guidance to perform well. As part of the change process, there needed to be regular open debate around challenges to the culture of the business and strong communication flow about success, progress and change.”
To kick off the programme, Acorn organised a management conference in which all executive managers were able to engage with the process of change. Following on from the conference, Acorn worked closely with the EMT and other business groups to build a collaborative environment to encourage people to innovate and implement new methods and approaches.
The programme yielded results almost straight away. Chris Bisco explains: “My ‘Holy Grail’ for this programme is to get to the point where the EMT has a momentum of its own that does not need interventions from above. The driving force of the organisation is to be the EMT with a Managing Director at the helm simply steering the right course. The team should self motivated and focused on the objectives of the business.
“The message is getting through and we now have much more robust debate about everything.”
“I’m pleased to say that after about three months we started to feel real results from Acorn’s intervention. The EMT is now really working as a team, even when I’m not around they now feel empowered to move things forward. Feedback from the team has been excellent with many commenting that they’ve learned more in the past few months than they have in years. The message is getting through and we now have much more robust debate about everything. I find that they are now challenging and arguing points in the context of the entire business, not just in terms of their own departments.
“The Acorn people are real business coaches that know how to get the best out of individual leaders and teams and really improve business performance.”
“When we started this process everyone thought I was bringing a training company in. But it’s not just training. The Acorn people are real business coaches that know how to get the best out of individual leaders and teams and really improve business performance. This project was a tall order but Acorn’s work has really made a significant contribution to getting the message through and we can feel a real culture shift towards a new dynamic business and a more creative workforce.
“This is a business with lots of scope for development and a bright new future and the challenge has been getting our key people in the right frame of mind to move forward. We’re now leaving behind old ways of working and have found a way to reinvent ourselves for the future. There’s still work to be done, but we’re confident that our partnership with Acorn will help us reach our business goals.”
Acorn has a strong track record in the worldwide media sector working for organisations like, News International, Aegis Group PLC and the CN Group.
