Welch's builds middle management to meet today's competitive challenges

The Welch Grape Juice Co's strategy for enhancing its competitiveness involves the pursuit of total quality leadership. One area that Welch's is seeking to strengthen is the development of its supervisors and managers because the company recognizes that continuous development of managerial skills can be an important source of competitive advantage. Welch's introduced a supervisory training program in 1986 after evaluating its supervisors and managers and finding them deficient in interpersonal, leadership and communication skills. The training program covers such areas as time management, effective union relations, effective disciplinary and corrective action discussions, communications, and other leadership skills. Managerial skills development is all part of Welch's cultural revolution, referred to as Operation Excellence.
In this age of corporate restructuring, downsizing, 'rightsizing,' mergers, acquisitions, flattening of the organization, global competition, and intense domestic competition, who has time to think about development? Most of us [...]