FRONT Leadership has had an eventful 2022 and made progress we could only dream of a few years ago. We have put several milestones behind us over the past year, which we are both proud of and excited about, while also giving us momentum going into next year. With the goal of always being at the forefront, we can look at what we have achieved with different perspectives, delivery quality, service development and measurable impact are important keywords in the era of FRONT Leadership.
By Mats Kristensen
The ambition to be at the forefront on all fronts
We have high ambitions and want to set the pace in the development of fantastic leaders. For the first time, FRONT Leadership organized TAKE LEAD, Norway's largest conference for management and leadership development, with great success. TAKE LEAD brought together corporate management, those responsible for leadership development in the companies, professionals and other key people in Norwegian society, and the feedback was excellent.
Henrik Lervold, Managing Director at Dentsu Consulting, described his participation this way,"A conference like this is important because it highlights how companies and Norway can move into the future - profitably and sustainably. At a time of increasing complexity, change and uncertainty, leadership is more important than ever."
That's why we're repeating our success and organizing TAKE LEAD again in 2023. The conference will take place on March 16 and aims to help Norwegian companies ensure that good leadership is one of their most important strategic competitive advantages. At the conference, this year's market survey will be launched, and we have already confirmed a number of competent and engaging people on stage.
Les mer og meld deg på TAKE LEAD 2023 her!
Leadership development in our hearts
As part of our corporate social responsibility, we now welcome aid organizations to join our leadership development network LUN free of charge. The Norwegian Refugee Council, the Red Cross and Save the Children have already become members, and we look forward to helping aid organizations help others by sharing knowledge and expertise on leadership development through the network. We must all take responsibility for making the world a better place and our way is to contribute what we know best.
But an invitation to the network is not enough, we thought. Maybe there is something more we can do. The idea of "A Leadership Journey", a free leadership development program for humanitarian organizations, was born. This is a collaboration between our customers and FRONT Leadership - for every class a customer buys, we donate a place to this program. On October 20, 2022, 12 leaders started the leadership development program "A Leadership Journey" here with us in Barcode.
These participants are now stepping up to the plate on behalf of a wide range of leaders from humanitarian organizations who will be able to take this leadership program in the future. Our goal for 2023 is to offer 120 places, and together we are helping to make the world a better place.
First with technology that improves leadership development
Of course, we will continue to maintain one of our key characteristics: constantly introducing new technology to streamline learning outcomes and continue to develop our collaboration with digital learning experts. Therefore, we are also curious about how gamification and virtual reality (VR) will be able to enhance development processes in the future. Something that will be exciting for 2023 is how we use tomorrow's technology in leadership development in areas such as dilemma training or conflict management. Not for the sake of technology, but for the sake of improvement and learning outcomes.
More employees and new offices in Barcode
Being at the forefront means thinking about innovation in all parts of our business - including internally. We are also growing rapidly in size, with several new star players joining the team in 2022, where we have increased from 7 to 12 permanent employees - in addition to a number of highly skilled hired consultants.
It is essential that we take our own medicine and understand how our customers feel. All our new employees therefore go through the "New role" leadership development program to ensure that they are best equipped to meet their new role. In addition, we have developed a quality manual internally that sets best practice and regulates how we deliver leadership development. This benefits all our customers, so that the experience we gain from one can be applied to all.
More players means we need more space on the pitch and more positions to play in. We're a close-knit group who enjoy working together, so one of the highlights of 2022 was when we finally got to move out of our home office to our new offices in Barcode when the pandemic finally ended.
The journey took us here as it's a natural focal point in Oslo - it's bustling with life and is in close proximity to public transportation, making it easier to make sustainable choices. We also believe that when we aim to be at the forefront, we need to be where others at the forefront are. Our offices are now better equipped to meet our customers' needs, as we can hold meetings and even organize leadership development courses and conferences in our own premises.
Both old and new customers have benefited from leadership development in 2022
New this year is that we have won our first public tenders from NAV, among others, while we have 130 private companies on our customer list. We're really looking forward to getting started with this!
In recent years, we have delivered leadership development to many sectors, which has helped us gain very useful experience. The fact that both public bodies and large international corporations choose leadership development from FRONT Leadership is a signal that we are doing something right.
The benefits of our approach to leadership training are proving valuable in all sectors. These include banking and insurance, construction, consulting and advisory, health and pharmaceuticals, oil and energy, industry and manufacturing, IT and communications, fishing and aquaculture and, not least, transportation and logistics. The companies have really experienced the benefits of our practical and realistic method.
And for those with employees spread across the world, like Altera, Yinson and Odfjell Drilling, digital leadership training is the only effective option. A new customer Volue, among others, experienced this this year. With managers spread across ten different countries and even more different offices, Volue wanted to establish a common standard for leadership in the company. The fact that all managers are now undergoing leadership development under the auspices of FRONT Leadership has produced visible results, both for the individual manager and for the company as a whole.
Fastest growing in the industry
Something we are very proud of, both in terms of what we build and what we achieve for others, is that this year, as last year, we have been named a Gazelle company. It's great to be able to say that FRONT Leadership has doubled its turnover again this year. This makes FRONT Leadership the fastest growing company in the industry.
We have gained a large number of new and exciting customers, while retaining those we already had. The fact that 70% of our customers return and many customers are in rounds two, three or four of the leadership development program gives us extra motivation to continue to deliver and innovate.
We believe that everyone deserves a great leader and that's why we work towards this every day. With 1,380 leaders in the process right now, that means the ripple effect will be greater and even more people will be able to boast of having a great leader in the year to come.
Many customers have been with us for a number of years, and we find it exciting, for example, to see how we can deliver even better when Storebrand starts leadership development under the auspices of FRONT Leadership for the sixth year. Our success is due to continuous improvement and further development of the service, that customers are satisfied, come back and recommend us to others - it's that simple and that difficult.
We work hard for this every day, and we are convinced that we must also challenge ourselves continuously to improve and innovate. What was good enough this year is not good enough next year. Those who are at the forefront must be brave and show the way for others.
We thank all our new and old customers, partners and FRONT friends for an inspiring year of leadership development! We are already looking forward to embarking on 2023.