The da Vinci Code: A FADA-Transforma Initiative

Preface

Over the past 8 years, Transforma has been working with the auto sector - a multitude of auto manufacturers as well as dealerships, with a singular focus on improving business performance in a substantial and sustainable manner.

During this time, the efforts of Transforma has covered, from all parts of India, hundreds of dealerships and thousands of those involved in the auto sector: from National heads of sales and service to those in manufacturing from amongst auto manufacturers, and from the dealerships: dealer owners down to front-line employees in both Sales as well as Service.

The oft-heard refrain from dealerships has been the need for developing the kind of perspective that genuinely helps in improving their business performance: revenues, as well as profits.

In response, Transforma, in collaboration with FADA, has outlined 7 modular programs, so that an individual can attend any of the programs without mandatorily having had to be part of any earlier one: the learning from any one program does not overlap with that from any other. Each of the 7 programs which will be offered only once every year, with participation in any particular program being limited to only 15 members.

The key aspects of this set of 7 are:

1.	Build capability in priority areas of concern for dealerships by designing and delivering programs that are not currently offered by any organization: institutes or auto principals.
2.	Programs tailor-made for dealerships, addressing situations unique to this vertical: not broad-based generic programs for participants from different industry segments.
3.	Content created out of the 8 years of experience of Transforma in the auto sector with –   a. Auto principals: their employees from National Heads to frontline executives.   b. Dealerships: from Dealer owners, CEOs and GMs to frontline executives.
4.	Enable development of productive habits through assisted application at the work-place.
5.	Unique structure, addressing both functional as well as behavioural competencies.

 
The da Vinci Code

The 7 programs take the title of ‘The da Vinci Code' to honour a person who excelled as an: anatomist, architect, botanist, city planner, costume designer, chef, humorist, engineer, equestrian, inventor, geographer, geologist, mathematician, military scientist, musician, painter, philosopher, physicist and raconteur!

In every field that da Vinci applied himself to, he drove advances that were centuries ahead of his time. Scholars of da Vinci have looked long and hard for the way his mind worked, and have distilled out what they call the 7 Principles of da Vinci. These are:

1.	Curiosita: An insatiably curious approach to life; - a quest for continuous learning
2.	Dimonstrazione: Testing knowledge through experience. A will to learn from mistakes
3.	Sensazione: Enhance understanding of experiences through better use of the senses
4.	Sfumato: A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty
5.	Arte/Scienza: Balance between logic and imagination or 'whole-brain' thinking
6.	Corporalita: The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness and poise
7.	Connessione: Appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena

 
The 7 programs from Transforma under this initiative with FADA take their inspiration from the principles outlined above of this extraordinary human being.

A set of 3 out of the seven modular programs aim at enhancing personal effectiveness; - another set of 3 seek to build business effectiveness. In each, for the first time, there is focus on addressing both the functional as well as the behavioural competencies involved.

After each of the modular programs, Transforma has made an offer to assist a limited number of the 15 participants at a program: probably 20 - 30% of them, with coaching support to transfer the classroom learnings into implementation.

Program # 1 - An Overview

The first of the 7 programs under this initiative of FADA is being hosted in Pune from December 2nd to 4th. This is part of the set of 3 aimed at enhancing business effectiveness, from both the functional as well as the behavioural standpoints.

The end-state that this set of 3 programs under business effectiveness targets is to enable participants define and pursue a profile of action plans that reduce their:

▪	Vulnerability: loss of revenue and consequent profits
▪	Volatility: unanticipated sharp drops in an individual employee's productivity.

 
In this specific outing, Transforma would be therefore be guiding participants figure out the set of dashboard metrics that are genuinely worthwhile to focus on for setting a powerful agenda, as also monitoring changes in which helps assess the quality of implementation of plans.

The first day will be invested in understanding the Te2E framework of Transforma. The second day will address the manner in which the universe of metrics needs to be expanded, as also the business rationale for the same.

On the third and final day, participants will go through: the T-10 construct of Transform, the behavioural underpinning of business orientation, and the path to earning a return on the investment made by them in attending this program.

Current Scenario

The response to this initiative has been over-whelming: from those holding responsibilities at the senior-most levels with auto manufacturers to the dealer community in every part of the country. Even before the formal announcement of the program, requests for participation had started coming in from numerous dealer owners starting from the North-East to each corner of India.

Within 10 days of formal announcement of the program, all 15 seats on offer had been taken up; - in fact, such has been the demand that though the plan was to limit the number of participants to only 15, FADA has had to accommodate 19 participants who have confirmed their presence by remitting the course fees more than 3 weeks before the start date of the program.

FADA sincerely looks forward to the success of this initiative: a first of its kind and one that seeks to help the community of dealer owners in a manner never attempted before, and wishes those at the first outing, many happy hours of learning that stand them in good stead for years.