Bringing fresh insight
Two new recruits with a wealth of leadership experience look forward to taking the City & Guilds Group forward
Professional resilience: Penny de Valk
Following the departure of Kim Parish, Penny de Valk has taken over as the new Chief Executive for the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM). A Strategy Director at Ceridian for 10 years, where she ranked as 40th in HR Magazine’s most influential, de Valk was formerly the Chief Executive of New Zealand’s Institute of Management in Auckland for four years, where she oversaw rapid growth and market impact.
‘My decision to join ILM was driven by a desire to work for an organisation that made a significant contribution to the quality of organisational life and organisational success, and to lead a group of people committed to making a difference to that end,’ says de Valk. ‘Having worked for 20 years helping organisations make the most of their people, I remain convinced that the quality of management and leadership is the most powerful catalyst to drive value in any organisation.’
Looking at the challenges ahead for ILM, de Valk believes that expectations have magnified from every direction for leaders and managers in the UK. ‘While organisations need to get more from less to remain globally competitive, we are also managing a diverse and changing workforce with different expectations for the quality of their working lives,’ says de Valk. ‘The biggest challenge for managers and leaders is to master the personal and professional resilience to thrive in this new environment, bringing out the best in ourselves and our people. We also need to be able to do this over many years, as retirement ages are pushed out and we have to manage our careers as a marathon not a sprint.’
Having spent 10 years in the UK, de Valk admires the variety, breadth and depth of what is on offer – from the arts and ideas to people and places. She admits, however, to still finding the weather a little dreary. ‘Especially the month of February; it can be grey and bleak and seems a long way away from spring, while my friends on the other side of the world are sitting outside on balmy evenings, post- barbeque.’
Fresh perspective: Richard Winterton
In the brand new post of Managing Director of City & Guilds, Richard (Dick) Winterton believes it is time for change. Leaving the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1996 with the rank of Wing Commander, Winterton has held senior management positions in two national training organisations (NTOs), working as the Development Manager for the Steel Industry NTO and subsequently as Director of Development for Lantra, looking after the land-based sector. In 2001 Winterton set up the Police Skills and Standards Organisation, recognised as the NTO for the policing sector.
Now overseeing the largest awarding body in the UK, Winterton relishes the challenges that lie ahead of him. ‘I bring a fresh perspective to City & Guilds in that I have a strong focus on employers – I was an employer at the RAF and I know that what employers want is the best, but when it comes to developing skills they’re not sure how to get that. What we have to do is to start listening to the employers.’
Awarding bodies and in particular City & Guilds are on the cusp at the moment, according to Winterton. ‘It is evident to me that awarding bodies won’t be able to carry on as they always have, they have to be doing new things and that’s the challenge. The good news is we’re set up to do it – we have all the skills we need. I have been stunned by the calibre of staff at City & Guilds and their enthusiasm. This combined with the brand name and the opportunities in the market makes this a very exciting time.’
Winterton believes that employers want much smaller units of skills that are delivered in a more flexible way to employees. ‘NVQs are an excellent way of demonstrating competence but the qualifications are currently too large,’ he says. ‘We’ve got to be more sophisticated in understanding our customers to ensure the products fit. What right have we got to say that qualifications should be exactly the same in every construction yard in the UK, for instance?’
Winterton is keen to better tailor City & Guilds’ international sales to a diverse customer base. ‘There are two models for international sales, one is the imperial model: “We’re British and we know what we’re doing”. The other is the HSBC model that looks at what each customer wants, rather than just taking the same product and selling it abroad. The UK is a world leader, City & Guilds is a worldwide brand and we’ve got excellent efforts going on, so I feel this is definitely something we can grow.’ N
‘We have got to become more sophisticated in understanding our customers’