CarnaudMetalbox

“This course is very effective for young managers, as it takes them rapidly across all the company management functions.” Graduate recruitment and development manager, CarnaudMetalBox.
Three sets took the IMCA action learning MBA. As the managers were younger than is usual, with more limited managerial experience, these associates undertook a part-time foundation year before commencing the course. In all sets, associates came from the many different factory areas within the group. During this time, Metal Box, the old name for the British part of the company, merged with its French equivalent to become CarnaudMetalBox. Two different cultures emerged and resulted in initial inefficiencies. An example being the different ways in which meetings were conducted and reported. Some members of the third set spent a week in the Paris head office, undertaking an operations management project which they wrote up individually, having reported back to their French clients. Before their viva voce examinations, this same group made a presentation to their British directors and clients about the benefits of the MBA action learning projects, giving financial details - actual and notional. Examples of the projects at CarnaudMetalBox include:

• A Strategy for developing income - generating units of operation.
  
• Strategic product development at can-making systems.
  
• Improving manufacturing effectiveness in a metal-packaging organization.
  
• The single European market: an opportunity for CMB Engineering.
  
• A European marketing strategy for CMB Engineering’s tooling business.
  
• An evaluation of Czechoslovakia and Hungary as potential can-making equipment markets for CMB Engineering.
  
• Introducing working capital management into a decentralized organization.
  
• The working capital cycle - a study of how the operations function can contribute to the reduction of working capital.
  
• The implementation of transformational change within CMB Aerosols (UK) plc.
  
• The development and implementation of management information systems within CMB Packaging Technology plc.
  
• Managing operational change to meet business needs.
  
• Implementing an improvement programme within the capital goods industry.
  
• Towards a working methodology for measuring inventory carrying costs.
  
• Managing R & D for strategic advantage; implementing change at CMB Packaging Technology plc.
  
• The development of customer interfaces.
  
• The effects of activity-based costing on pricing.
  
• A strategic study and recommendations for CMB Performance Plastics plc.