Productivity Through Innovation - Dacrylate Paints Ltd
Based in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Dacrylate Paints Ltd is an SME manufacturing high-quality, bespoke and stock industrial coatings, and offering one of the widest ranges of high-performance coatings in the industry. They formulate original products and rigorously test their coatings in their R&D laboratory.
Dacrylate’s Senior Management Team (SMT) identified that there is a need to map, assess and identify business opportunities and define a clear, effective 5 to 10-year strategic plan. Brexit and the global Covid 19 pandemic, impacted on their SMT’s capacity and restricted their time to focus on the business’s strategy as they were being drawn into daily operations.
Through the support available via Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU) Productivity through Innovation project, Dacrylate Paints are receiving strategic consultancy from Nottingham Business School’s (NBS) academics Deborah Allcock (Head of Department - Management) and Sarah Ward (Course Leader). Both are experienced business consultants with a wealth of industry knowledge and practical business experience.
Deborah and Sarah had an initial “Getting to Know Your Business” workshop with Sharon Harte (Managing Director) and Mark Townsend (General Manager). This session promoted discussions on business’s strategy status; and gave the company’s leaders valuable time to reflect on the direction, objectives and challenges within their business.
These workshops provide a great opportunity for company leaders to step out of their day-to-day role and take time to steer their business. It’s amazing what can be achieved in a short space of time by asking the business the right questions and having an agile approach.
Armed with this information, the two NBS experts identify the pathway of consultancy support required, and facilitated two further company workshops. These workshops create a collaborative environment for the whole SMT (6 in total) to come together to share and challenge ideas; own objectives; and provoking meaningful discussions about business aims.
"These workshops provide a great opportunity for company leaders to step out of their day-to-day role and take time to steer their business…. It’s amazing what can be achieved in a short space of time by asking the business the right questions and having an agile approach". - Sarah Ward.
‘’The sessions with the NTU experts forced us to confront the status quo away from the challenges of the ‘day job’ and the exceptional tests created by Brexit, Covid and the Worldwide disruptions to supply chains created by the former.
Mark Townsend - Director, Dacrylate Paints Ltd
Sharon Harte, Managing Director said: "The sessions with the NTU experts forced us to confront the status quo away from the challenges of the ‘day job’ and the exceptional tests created by Brexit, Covid and the Worldwide disruptions to supply chains created by the former. The sessions to date and resulting positive fallout have set a new dialogue internally and allowed us to ‘dream’ of new scenarios against an enhanced understanding of our current market and organisational position.
"It has given us the permission to celebrate our successes and determine a ‘shared vision’ of an enriched pathway to future growth and expansion with enduring strategies that are clear and disciplined."
Fellow Director Mark Townsend added: “These sessions were invaluable to us as an SMT to refocus on future goals and visions for the business. NTU helped us with restarting or developing strategies for the business that were medium to long-term and to reinforce that this is important even in the current worldwide business climate where battling and reporting on short-term challenges are almost perceived as the new normal.
"We were challenged to separate the short-term and consider, debate, and deliver on what goals we wanted for the business long term and how we were going to achieve this. Then discussing communicating the vision and implementing it clearly to bring the whole company together with the same business aims and direction and understanding the role every person has to play in this.”
The outcome for Dacrylate is that it has given their business a much-needed opportunity for their SMT to re-visit and create a shared strategic plan, with a clear vision of what the future looks like. With the continued support from the NBS experts, their SMT can effectively implement and communicate these aims and objectives across the whole company, which will drive Dacrylate’s productivity and growth; and steer the business in the right direction.
The Productivity through Innovation project is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).