I have worked with Tom Jaap and the team from Centell over a period of time approaching two decades, initially as Director of Human Resources for Woolworths (NZ) Ltd and, more latterly, as General Manager Group - Human Resources for SKYCITY Entertainment Group Ltd. Both are major companies in New Zealand/Australia employing many thousands of people.

Tom and Centell have been instrumental in assisting both organisations to determine the culture and values appropriate to enable them to move forward effectively in to the future, and in acting as change agents to facilitate the embedding of the new culture. The knowledge, skills, commitment, and determination which the Centell team brought to the process were critical to the success of the process and I have no doubt that the outstanding results achieved would not have been possible without the vision and implementation skills brought by Centell. This has also included the introduction of tools such as team opinion surveys, 360 feedback etc. In Woolworths the results over a period of some years led to an overall trebling in staff satisfaction with the organisation and a halving in the staff turnover rate. As a former CEO of the company said, there was no doubt that without the significant cultural shift away from a command and control management style to an enabling and engaging leadership model, Woolworths would not have been able to achieve the significant improvements in productivity and bottom line profit which occurred in the years following that change. Much of the credit for enabling that process must go to Centell.

Tom and his colleague, Sheila Hampshire, have also been instrumental in assisting with senior leadership development. This has focussed on personal branding, self-awareness, and the development of enabling leadership capacity at a senior level. Centell have assisted this process by facilitating Learning and Development Centres, leading specific group learning processes, and by one-on-one coaching. The challenge which has been presented to attendees has inevitably caused them to re-evaluate their leadership style and raise expectations of themselves and their teams.

Centell has made a very significant impact on both the total organisation and on individuals. In my view the members of the Centell team combine leading edge knowledge and skill with genuine commitment to the organisations they work with.