Forum

André Alphonso

Managing Director

Forum India

Recent Projects: “Forum’s global reach means we are working on global projects and supporting multinationals that have operations in the Indian sub continent. We are working with some of the biggest brand-name organisations in the world here in India. However, our primary focus is to extend Forum’s presence into local Indian companies. Since entering the Indian market in 2009, momentum for Forum’s high-quality offerings has increased and the company has inked several deals with regional businesses.”

Key challenge: “In general there is an amazing optimism and confidence in India and that’s one of the reasons why I am here. Indian business leaders tell me that the next 10 years is India’s ‘time in the sun’ and all indicators reinforce this perception. However, the economic growth that India has experienced over the last few years has also meant that Indian companies have not seriously invested in building some of the professional skills of their people in areas such as leadership and management, sales and service.

Investing in the development of their people was previously not seen as central to success as people were easily replaceable. This has resulted in India slipping behind the rest of the world in this area. The good news is that this is changing and changing fast. In the last few years the more forward looking business leaders are now demanding that managers in their organisations stop using an autocratic ‘tell’ focused management approach and start engaging the hearts and minds of their people. I think over the next few years we will witness the emergence of a more professional style of Indian business management.”

Responsibilities: “A significant highlight has been building my team in India. The people I have hired surprise me every day with their initiative, their commitment, and their positive energy. As a leader I truly believe this if you can get this part of the equation right everything else will follow.”

The Forum Experience: “About 15 years ago, one of my mentors told me ‘Andre, if you know how to sell, you will never go hungry’. At the time, I was Head of HR for a technology company, and his advice was a catalyst for moving me into a consulting role where I had to learn how to sell my professional expertise. I joined Forum as a Consultant in Sydney 15 years ago, and have never looked back.

We won our first competitive deal against some seasoned competitors who had operated in the Indian market for some time. The project which is a large scale implementation and has a strategic focus proved to me that Forum India had something valuable to offer in the Indian market.”

Back to top

David Carder

Executive Consultant

Boston, MA

Recent project: “We’re helping equip the senior executives and key talent of a global healthcare company to maximize the impact of a comprehensive, strategic reorganization—from accelerating the execution of their new market-focused strategy, to helping the hundreds of leaders who are in new roles to successfully navigate their leadership transitions.”

Key challenge: “Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies with a significant presence in the U.S. are looking for ways to build more agility, market-acumen, and unity in their leaders at all levels. They want to respond to the growing levels of complexity in their industry, as well as prepare their leaders to respond faster than their competitors to potential healthcare reform legislation.”

Responsibilities: “As an EC, I’m fortunate to have the chance to contribute to our clients in a range of ways, including laying out the strategy for our engagements, leading assessment efforts, and clarifying strategy execution drivers. I also facilitate executive sessions; help design breakthrough development experiences for leaders at all levels, and guide the implementation of communication and measurement plans.”

The Forum experience: “I enjoy Forum’s ability to efficiently create unique solutions for our clients—solutions that reflect everything that’s distinct about a company’s competitive pressures, business strategy, critical initiatives, company culture, related projects, and leadership values. At Forum, we have the collaborative culture, industry experience, and global knowledge sharing to equip our engagement teams to do world-class work, in a uniquely positive, energetic way.”

Back to top

Holly Gage

Marketing Director

Asia-Pac and EMEA

Recent project: “I am currently planning a number of events and activities ahead of the publication of our Strategic Speed book in June. The exciting thing is that each of these events will differ slightly depending on the location – they will take place across the world from London to Melbourne, Singapore to Sydney. We are partnering with the book publishers Harvard Business Press and distributors, McGraw-Hill on many of the activities which is very exciting.”

Key challenge: “Timezones! I have regular meetings with my colleagues in Boston, Chicago, London and Sydney. Sometimes getting more than three of us on the phone together can be challenge, and it means a few late nights. But, I would still prefer to have one late phone meeting instead of 20 email messages – phone meetings are usually so much more productive.”

Responsibilities: “My role is to promote Forum outside of North America, specifically in Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia. I work closely with the sales teams in each region. We incorporate local client stories and examples wherever possible and tailor our messaging so that we address the needs of the different regions.”

The Forum experience: “I really love the global nature of the work at Forum. We have very strong local teams in each region but we also know our colleagues who work on the other side of the world and are able to call on them for support or advice whenever necessary.”

Back to top

Rosie Mucklo

VP Capability Development

Chicago, IL

Recent project: “I am currently working on a project that will help us distribute our content in a more flexible way across different modalities. It’s exciting and ground-breaking work that will benefit all our clients.”

Key challenge: “We are constantly pushing ourselves to be on the leading edge of learning. My biggest challenge is to keep that a continued focus for all the diverse work our team does from research, to product development to sales.”

Responsibilities: “I oversee a team of subject matter experts who help craft customer solutions to drive business results. We partner with our global sales force and distributors to maximize impact of business development initiatives. This includes creating content for events, webinars, and conferences. I’m also responsible for the entire range of product development which starts with research, development, updates and content management.”

The Forum experience: “I’ve been with Forum for nearly 14 years and no two days are alike. I love the diversity of the work and our customers. It is challenging in a good way, exciting and creative, but in the end it is the people who keep me here.”

Back to top

Andrew Shapiro

Executive Consultant

London, UK

Recent project: “We are working with the UK’s largest charity to redefine the customer experience at their visitor attractions. Their goal is to make sure every property has at least 75% of all its customers rating their experience as ‘very enjoyable’ with a view to drive even greater levels of customer loyalty and revenue. The work has had a real impact on the organisation’s performance so it’s been really enjoyable.”

Key challenge: “On the leadership side, we have a mix of clients who are addressing everything from increasing leadership bench strength and plugging their senior leader succession gaps, through to those looking to create more entrepreneurial climates and more strategic approaches.

We are also working with several financial organisations who are moving their salesforces towards developing much more insightful and compelling propositions for their clients.

Finally, we are also developing some interesting work to help a client redefine one of their divisions to enhance value-based partnering with their suppliers.”

Clientele: “Many of our clients are global and so it’s always changing, but at this moment it includes mainland Europe, in particular Germany, the Middle East as well as the UK.”

The Forum experience: “Definitely the variety of clients and the complexity of the work has been interesting. Currently, there are many business-critical projects that call for our ability to take a strategic priority and help our clients execute it. We are good at taking a strategic objective and enabling a client to align the organisation around the change, equip them with the skills and understanding to make the change happen, and then sustain that change over time to drive the value out.”

Back to top