Thomas has enjoyed a career of over 17 years in Sales, Marketing, Category Management and people development with Kimberly-Clark, Purina, Nestle, Coca-Cola Amatil, Blackmores, Canon and Novartis along with a number of Non-Governmental organisations in the UK , Hong Kong and Australia.
Thomas is an ICF Accredited Associate Certified Coach and sit on the divisional council of the Australian Institute of Training & Development.
Faced with the challenge of navigating the ever-evolving landscape of learning solutions, Sprouta brought clarity and insight tailored to our specific needs. Unlike traditional approaches, Sprouta offers more than just a solution to a problem; they act as a strategic ally, helping us explore and innovate.
Thomas: I met Sprouta when I started working at Blackmores. My predecessor already had a relationship with Sprouta so I inherited it. So it's really interesting to start working with them and see how that worked out. I
Thomas: There were a number of challenges, challenges where I maybe don't have full understanding of the market and all of the cutting edge solutions and techniques which are available. What Sprouta I have managed to do for me is really bring that into my understanding really condense what I need based on my brief and my needs.
Thomas: Instead of thinking about Sprouta for one particular job, what I really value about Sprouta is not that they can give me one solution to one problem, but that I can give them an issue or a challenge that I'm facing, and we can work it out together in a partnership. So Sprouta acting as a soundboard, for me is the real value that I get.
Thomas: The highest profile success with Sprouta so that I've seen has been where I had a problem around revenue management for our sales team. Partnering with Sprouta allowed me to look at it differently and find a really innovative solution.
We partnered again, then with Yano, having worked with Sprouta, and that's been phenomenal. So it's really been an innovative, different approach to how we deal with our specific sales needs.
Thomas: Working with Leonie, specifically, I have a real, trusted relationship with her, and that's invaluable to have someone who I really trust, have a partnership approach with is invaluable for finding the right solution. For me, that's that's the real innovation.
Thomas: Pretty much everyone, if not the majority of people who work in the corporate world has been on training at some stage. If they had a wonderful experience on that training, they think that that is the tool for every people development problem in the business.
For me, the massive challenge around flipping a status quo is saying, actually training is one tool in your toolbox, but there are so many other tools in the toolbox.
For me, the big flip that I think we need to work on is moving away from everything is training based. Everything is taught. Everything is delivered face to face, or virtually face to face to actually, these people know what they're doing. They just need a guide, or they just need some resources. Or, actually, these people need an experience, because you don't understand why this is important for them.
So, the flip for me is how do we move beyond training.
Thomas: What I’ve learnt from Sprouta is the ability to really collaborate externally and be on the same journey and actually help drive that impact which I'm so desperately seeking.
I think that's what I've learned, and the value internally to me and to my function, massive, if that's done correctly, really, big, really, massive potential to actually add value.
Thomas: It's an expert that sits externally from your business that is integral to your success, as an integral to your impact in development, even if you don't end up using Sprouta for a solution, you get so much value from exploring it at a deeper level.
Sprouta is a way of addressing your people development needs, without everyone internally having to know everything that's available and all of the solutions. It's a conduit to the whole market that allows you to find the right solution to the challenges that you're specifically facing.
As a community of like-minded clients and solution partners, we're driven to improve the workforce so every organisation and their employees can thrive.
