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Case Study
ADAMA Global
Tailored learning for a global marketing and sales community

Changing a global organisation’s culture is one of the most demanding leadership challenges as it invariably involves a puzzle of so many interlocking parts. The end goal for ADAMA was to improve performance by changing behaviour and capabilities throughout the company.

In order to do this it was important to select a partner with a proven track record of addressing these challenges, and introducing employee engagement content to ensure greater leadership consistency and coherence. We were delighted to help with what became a vital part of ADAMA’s transformation programme.

What we didn’t know then, was how big and transformative it was going to be!

First steps

An international event was created to announce ADAMA’s vision for cultural change. Purdue University, a pre-eminent US University with strengths in Agriculture, Management and Engineering, was chosen to host a global training residential course for 200 sales and marketing leaders from 50 different countries.

The challenge

ADAMA needed to inspire and equip their entire sales and marketing teams, about 2,000 people in all, to transform their marketing and sales function from selling a large range of off-patent crop protection products to customer-centric high value solutions. Key to this was understanding the principles of value propositions, differentiating themselves from the competition and anticipating the requirements of varied customer types by using the latest commercial, marketing and culture change frameworks. 

The programme had to keep the marketing and sales leaders focussed and highly motivated if we were to drive through change and significantly increase performance with an integrated learning solution.

“To meet our performance goals, close the gap and eventually move ahead of the competition, we need to transform the way we sell and market our range of crop protection products. We need to acknowledge what we need to change and empower our country management teams to translate our learning and development programme to develop more effective and tangible plans."

A focused approach

We worked closely with a small global team, Purdue and the technology partner responsible for the new SAP Success Factors learning management system (LMS) platform, to create a powerful launch for the programme. Our first step was to develop a brand identity around the theme of Symphony, which promoted the essence of the transformative agenda and provided a strong platform for all promotional collateral and potential new activities – to help sustain the programme for its first few years. 

Our previous experience with a number of global corporate organisations ensures we are able to deliver projects of this scale and importance, on time and on budget, while working with multiple stakeholders to sustain employee engagement. 

ADAMA’s programme evolved into a global multi-lingual e-learning experience, and following its success, we subsequently designed a sales leadership programme called Tempo, along with a field sales e-learning programme. 

Throughout the different developmental phases of the programme we held weekly Zoom calls with teams across the globe, and organised planning workshops and content review sessions. Being ‘open, collaborative, brave and honest’ are values we all share, and Symphony & Tempo allowed us to bring everyone together in this way.

Design and launch

Post launch

E-learning development

Project outcomes

By creating Symphony we maximised the potential opportunity to inspire togetherness and engage ADAMA’s country managers on an emotional level. This encouraged collaboration and endorsed a new way of working. The Symphony theme resonated with the aspiration for change, had ADAMA DNA at its core and encapsulated our collective objective – to create great opportunities together. 

The success of Symphony, and the momentum the programme generated, demonstrated that the marketing and sales leadership group understood the efficiency and effectiveness of delivering content in this way. Subsequently, we helped the client extend the programme; translating it for use across multiple regions and languages.

“TAP has helped us better understand the value of e-learning and the application of different methods of learning such as film, quizzes and working templates using Storyline to increase employee engagement across the globe compared to traditional training activities.”
Moti Mordehai, Head of Commercial Excellence – Marketing, ADAMA