Success Stories

Empowering Frontline Leaders: Building a High-Performance Culture at a Global Manufacturing Giant

Authored by:

Rabab Haider | KNOLSKAPE Editorial Team

A Global Manufacturing Company

Industry
Manufacturing

Headquarters
St. Petersburg, Florida, USA

No. of Employees
140,000+

The client is a global manufacturing company with more than 140,000 employees across 100 locations in 25+ countries. With its headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, they cater to about 300 of the biggest brands in the world in every market from healthcare, packaging, smartphones and cloud equipment to automotive and home appliances.

Setting Out to Equip Managers with Leadership Skills

To equip frontline managers at the organization with the leadership skills and mindset required to lead teams effectively, drive business performance, and foster a high-performance culture that is aligned with the client’s strategic vision.

A Journey Designed to Enable FTMs Through a Successful Transition

KNOLSKAPE designed and delivered a comprehensive leadership development journey for the organization’s first-time and early-stage managers (FTMs), aimed at building strong people leadership capabilities and enabling a successful transition from individual contributors to impactful team leaders. The solution focused on strengthening four key areas: communication, coaching, collaboration, and decision-making—essential skills for any front-line manager. Through a combination of diagnostic assessments, immersive simulations, peer learning, and leader-led experiences, participants gained the mindset, skills, and confidence required to lead teams effectively. The journey was closely aligned with the client’s leadership expectations and future-readiness goals, preparing managers to take on larger responsibilities and contribute meaningfully to the organization’s long-term success.

KNOLSKAPE’s Simulation Adding Value to the Program

| Comm Sim: Effective Leadership Communication

Comm Sim addresses the critical challenges discussed above by enhancing verbal and written communication in realistic workplace scenarios, preparing professionals to communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact.

With a structured learning path, Comm Sim helped the participants progress from foundational to advanced communication skills, ensuring career growth and organizational impact.

| Grand Prix: Critical Thinking for Better Decision Making 

The Grand Prix simulation was designed to enhance participants’ critical thinking and decision-making capabilities. By placing participants in a dynamic and high-pressure virtual environment, this simulation replicated real-world scenarios where they had to: 

Analyze and interpret complex data sets to identify actionable insights.

Navigate competing and sometimes conflicting priorities to achieve predefined objectives.

Balance short-term wins with long-term strategic goals, requiring a clear understanding of trade-offs and their consequences.

The simulation encouraged participants to think on their feet, fostering a deeper understanding of how critical thinking principles could be applied to solve business problems effectively. By tackling these challenges, participants learned to make informed, data-driven decisions under uncertainty.

| TrustSim: A Simulation for you to Build Trust with External Stakeholders   

Trust Simulation is an innovative experiential learning tool designed to help participants develop trust-building strategies with external stakeholders. This enables them to reflect, adapt, and build practical skills for real-world trust-building. The simulation: 

 Challenged participants to manage stakeholder expectations while balancing team capabilities.

Encouraged them to achieve a defined trust level to win the next contract.

Offered insights into the impact of decisions on trust levels for reflection and improvement.

In this simulation, participants take on the role of an account manager tasked with achieving a specific trust level between their client and their virtual team to secure the next contract. By navigating realistic scenarios, participants gain a deeper understanding of trust dynamics and learn how factors such as communication, reliability, empathy, and integrity influence stakeholder relationships. 

| iLead: A Simulation for you to Lead your Team Effectively 

This simulation was designed to help participants build leadership capabilities by putting them in the role of a team manager. To succeed, participants used a variety of leadership styles in response to their team member’s needs, as well as tough situations, that emerged within the simulation.  

Impact

An overall improvement of 22% between the pre-assessment and post-assessment of the participants.

The feedback score of the program was 4.5/5, citing that the participants enjoyed the simulation, facilitation and frameworks during the session.

Client Testimonial

“The ‘Building Leadership Excellence’ program integrated perfectly with our leadership development framework and strategic objectives. It empowered us to cultivate agile, inclusive, and high-performing leaders capable of driving transformation with empathy and clarity—especially in uncertain times. The learning journey was thoughtfully designed, immersive, and deeply relevant. The combination of simulations and facilitator-led sessions made the experience both engaging and immediately applicable. Collaborating with the KNOLSKAPE team was seamless—they were highly responsive, receptive to feedback, and fully committed to understanding and addressing our needs.”

– Talent Partner

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About KNOLSKAPE

KNOLSKAPE is a global leader in experiential learning with a mission to help organizations and employees become future ready. Using a large award-winning portfolio of simulations aligned with 100+ competencies and cutting-edge talent intelligence, KNOLSKAPE produces stellar outcomes for more than 375+ organizations across 75 countries. Driven by research and thought leadership, KNOLSKAPE offers its products and solutions in a flexible subscription model powered by omni-channel delivery.