After a period of significant growth and expansion, Whitbread required a training strategy focused on improving the intercultural skills of its teams. The business had expanded to new markets as diverse as Asia and Eastern Europe and to make this expansion a success they had to upskill their employees. Whitbread needed to train their employees about the specific cultures of these new markets and develop cross-cultural communication skills so that they could develop effective relationships with suppliers and customers in these new regions.

Training Objectives

The training programmes were designed to:

• Raise awareness of how culture impacts international business
• Understand the key drivers of intercultural miscommunication
• Gain an insight into cultural frameworks and their application in a business environment
• Highlight the differences in international communication styles across Costa regions
• Develop global business communication styles and competencies for working internationally

Challenges

The key challenges were:

• Creating high-level programs relevant for middle manager to senior directors with varying degrees of international experience
• Creating a suite of solutions to match individual needs and objectives
• Providing the appropriate balance between general intercultural skills and knowledge of specific target cultures
• Developing relevant practical scenarios and exercises to enable senior leaders to adapt their global mindset and bring about change from the top down