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Case Cornerstone

“Cornerstone” is one of the leading recruitment agencies in Moscow, specializing in the field of high profile personnel recruitment (executive search and headhunting), mid-level employees recruitment (management selection) and HR consulting.

Olga Voroshilova,

Partner, Director of the departments “Pharmaceuticals”, “Real Estate & Construction”, “Consumer Goods” and “Agro-Industrial complex”.

Case REHAU. CBI method implementation

REHAU is the premium brand for polymer-based innovations. Ever since its foundation in 1948 REHAU has been developing creative solutions with polymer-based materials that outperform other traditional materials.

REHAU offers polymer-based solutions in three key business segments: construction, automotive and industry.

Case Sochi 2014. Success story

Sochi 2014 project turned out to be immense for our company as well as for whole country. We started our cooperation in 2011 and held assessment of all the employees across all 53 functional departments of Sochi 2014 Organizing committe. Our experts formulated the values which later became the basis for development of competencies for different levels of employees.

Assessment of functional teams effectivees bacame an extremely important project stage, during which the departments operating activities and interactions were analyzed and optimized.

All top-managers undertook Detech assessment centers and received the feedback on further development. Our coaches supported the members all along the project.

X5 Retail Group

X5 Retail Group N.V.was founded in 2006 as a result of the merger of two Russian retail chains: Pyaterochka and Perekrestok. X5 Retail Group N.V. is Russia’s largest retailer in terms of sales volumes.

As at 30 June 2009, the Company managed 1,164 stores located in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and another 40 cities in the European part of Russia, in the Urals and Ukraine. The multi-format retailer includes 900 Pyaterochka soft discounter stores, 211 Perekrestok supermarkets and 53 Karusel hypermarkets.

Case SIBUR

SIBUR is Russia’s largest petrochemicals company. The holding company includes more than 30 enterprises in different parts of the country – Nizhnevartovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tver, Nizhny Novgorod and another dozen cities. SIBUR’s business involves the processing of associated gas in a wide range of valued added products– liquefied gases, polymers, plastics, synthetic rubbers, tires, mineral fertilizers. SIBUR actively upgrades existing enterprises and is building new production capacities based on state-of-the-art technological solutions.

Case Gasprombank

OJSC Gazprombank is one of Russia’s largest universal financial institutions, which provides a wide range of banking, financial, investment products and services to corporate and individual clients, financial institutions, institutional and private investors. The bank is one of the top three Russian banks and ranks fourth in the list of Central and Eastern European banks.

Case BASF

BASF, global leader in the chemicals industry, performed «360°-assessment» of managers in 2008.

Natalia Duvanova, BASF HR Director, explained how the largest concern in the industry assessed managers.

BASF set the following overriding goal: to compare the self-assessment of the participant’s competencies with the assessment of the individual by other people and, based on the results of the assessment, to draft a development plan for each employee.

Case Sanofi-Aventis

Sanofi-Aventis is one of the world’s leading pharmaceuticals corporations represented in more than 100 countries and employing almost 100,000 employees. At present Sanofi-Aventis has one of the best portfolios of substances in the entire pharmaceuticals industry and offers Russian doctors state-of-the-art pharmaceuticals drugs to treat cardiovascular diseases, thrombosis, different types of cancer, internal diseases of the central nervous system, metabolic disorders and diabetes. The medicinal products that are best known to the public are Essentiale, Noshpa, Bronchicum and many others.

Case Mosenergo

OJSC Mosenergo is the largest heat generating companies in Russia and an integral part of Russia’s energy system. The company is one of the largest heat producers in the world. OJSC Mosenergo consists of 15 power stations, which generate approximately 70% of the electricity consumed in Moscow region and account for 66% of Moscow heat requirements.

In spring 2009 Detech conducted a project to assess more than 50 managers working at different levels at the power stations of OJSC Mosenergo. The project had the following key objectives: to identify the development areas of current and future managers and prepare a management staff training program for the purpose of improving their performance.

Case Reckitt Benckiser

Reckitt Benckiser is a leading global producer of home detergents, and also a leading producer of health and personal hygiene products. Today Reckitt Benckiser ranks first globally in the production of household products (other than washing powders). Reckitt Benckiser’s trademarks are well known to consumers, such as: Dosia, Vanish, Calgon, Calgonit, Tiret, Harpic, Cillit, Veet, Clearasil, Strepsils, Nurofen, Air Wick. The company has offices in more than 60 countries. The company has been operating in Russia since 1996 with a central office in Moscow. It opened a household products (cleaning products and detergents) production plant in Klin.

Influence of the Macro-economic Situation on the Leader’s Success

Svetlana Simonenko,
PhD in Psychology

When speaking about management as one of the most common types of leadership, it should be pointed out that it is influenced not only by the organizational culture of a company and its business goals, but also by the social situation at a macro-level, in other words developments in society as a whole.

From September 2005 until December 2006 inclusive we performed research in order to determine the key competencies that define a leader’s success in Russia. A total of 45 leading Russian and Western companies operating on the Russian market participated in the research. Within the framework of the research we conducted 157 interviews with TOP management and successful middle management in Russia.

Contribution of Intellectual Abilities to a Manager’s Success: Correlation Between the Results of Ability Tests and Assessment Centers

Svetlana Simonenko,
PhD in Psychology

Over the past forty years academic literature has repeatedly debated the attributes that are most significant for a manager’s success. Countless research performed by independent authors and also major international consulting companies have proposed various lists of key personality traits or competencies (Stogdill, 1974; Handy, 1985; Den Hartog et al, 1999; etc.).Even though these lists differ materially, most of them contain such traits as the mind, intellect or analytical skills of the manager. It goes without saying that if we strictly apply the tenets of psychological science, we can see principled differences in these names. However, this group of attributes, irrespective of the specific name accorded to them, is related in some way or other to the intellectual abilities of a manager. Following the publication of works on transformational leadership and emotional intellect, research into the role played by a manager’s intellect in his effectiveness was put on the back burner. Moreover, in some cases authors even called into question whether intellectual abilities have any influence on effectiveness (Bass, Avolio, 1994; Blanchard, Hodges, 2003; Goleman, 1995; Goleman, Boyatzis, McKee, 2002). However, after studying these works, we are forced to admit that until now we have not been able to leverage strong arguments attesting to the leading role of the intellect in a manager’s success or the exact opposite owing to a shortfall in experimental findings. In order to clarify whether intellect is key to a manager’s success, we performed the research described below.

SCA. Assessment centers

SCA is the major European manufacturer of wood and paper products. The company manufactures and sells personal-care products, paper products and packaging solutions. The key trademarks are TENA, Libero, Libresse, Zewa, and Tork.

In 2007, we were asked to conduct a DC for six customer contact managers. The main objective of the DC was to identify each employee’s competencies requiring development. There was also a possibility that based on the assessment results, decisions would be made to promote these individuals. The DC preparation included several key tasks: drawing up the assessment matrix, creating SCA Competency Scoring Sheets and designing the timetable for the centre. While drawing up the Assessment Matrix (see Table 29.1), we followed two key principles: each competency should be assessed in at least two exercises; and the DC should consist of as few techniques as possible.