How Zavida Scaled up From a Family Business by Grooming Strong Managers

Family-owned for over 40 years, gourmet coffee producer Zavida was at a crossroads in its history when it became part of an important investor group. To further grow its business, the organization needed to optimize its processes to secure performance and maintain employee engagement while undergoing cultural, process, and leadership changes.

Reinforcing structure while fostering leadership

As a small (yet very successful) company, Zavida's performance monitoring processes and structures were mostly informal. The investor group recommended that Zavida seek Proaction International's assistance in assessing and streamlining its efficiency to implement a more systematized approach to operational effectiveness. The group had experienced several successes with Proaction International in other companies in their portfolio and entrusted it as a performance consultant.

With the help of the expert team, Zavida adopted more key performance indicators (KPI) to track its results and installed an OEE monitoring software for its industrial equipment. They also developed new management skills and practices at all levels of the organization to support managers and ensure the sustainability of the company's gains.

Karen Maynard was thrilled to work with the expert team to develop a coaching culture to implement this new performance monitoring. But what really sparked her enthusiasm as a human resources manager was the prospect of training Zavida's managers, especially team leaders and supervisors, on how to implement and maintain best practices in performance management.

Productivity is an important measure for success, but it is equally important to strengthen the supervisory skills of front-line managers, to make them feel responsible for their departments, and to provide them with soft skills training.

Karen MaynardHR Manager, Zavida

By equipping its managers with a communication structure and coaching that supports them in their role, Zavida gave them the confidence and the accountability to be strong leaders.

I really noticed a huge difference specifically with our production supervisor. He's grown leaps and bounds from having this structure put in place through production.

Karen MaynardHR Manager, Zavida