Cases · Leadership development · Visma e-conomic
Leadership development and an in-house academy at Visma e-conomic
Over several years, Cronquist Consult worked with e-conomic as a development partner. It began with leadership development at the company's own academy and grew into a broad collaboration covering new managers, culture and onboarding, internal teaching capability, coaching and team development.
The challenge
e-conomic, a company on a strong growth path, kept expanding, which meant a steady stream of new middle managers who needed to be developed. They were highly skilled professionals, but had not previously been responsible for people — and the pace of growth left no room to learn it along the way.
The task was therefore to build a programme that gave the new leaders a shared leadership language and practical tools, without taking them out of daily operations for long periods.
At the time of the programme, the company was called e-conomic (e-conomic international A/S). Today it is part of the Visma group under the name Visma e-conomic A/S. We use the historically correct name when describing the work.
An in-house academy and leadership development
At the heart of the partnership was leadership development at e-conomic's own academy. The programmes were practical and business-oriented: motivation, practical, down-to-earth leadership, leadership and management, customer focus and personal impact — always applied in participants' own management roles, with business cases, buddy sparring and 1:1 coaching.
Cronquist Consult also developed leadership-training tools and trained the company's team leaders and middle managers in both Danish and English.
Approach and method
The programme was tailored over the autumn and winter, drawing on elements of Cronquist Consult's LeaderShop model.
We began with a kick-off and observation of current leadership behaviour — what the leaders actually did, not what they believed they did. The programme was then designed as hands-on action learning in four modules, combining different learning arenas: outdoor facilities, the office, a hotel and a small theatre.
The four modules
1) Leadership in practice as a residential. 2) Process management with a simulator. 3) Customer Deep Dive in customer orientation. 4) Personal power.
The modules can be extended to include effective finance training for non-financial managers and the particularly demanding 3½-day expedition we call “execution”, delivered together with representatives of the emergency services and the special operations forces.
Implementation between modules
Learning was kept alive between the modules: participants worked in a buddy system, had assignments to complete, took part in coaching and met some of the company's key customers.
Along the way they gathered feedback on their new behaviour from both their employees and the company's own management. That is the mechanism that moves a course from experience to changed behaviour.
From specialist to manager
A recurring task was supporting people in the transition from specialist to middle manager. Formal training was therefore connected with individual support for putting it into practice: leadership development, practical management training, 1:1 coaching and management sparring — including walk-and-talk sessions.
The Way We Work
The Way We Work was a separate programme stream within the partnership — distinct from the process-leadership training. The format supported onboarding, culture and company values: groups of around 10 people worked on translating values and culture into concrete behaviour through outdoor Action Learning and practical collaboration.
8 cohorts were delivered, in both Danish and English.
Train-the-Trainer
To strengthen the company's own teaching and presentation capability, Cronquist Consult delivered Train-the-Trainer in teaching and instruction techniques — as part of the broader capability-building partnership with e-conomic.
8 cohorts were delivered, in both Danish and English.
1:1 coaching and management sparring
1:1 coaching was a substantial, recurring part of the partnership. It included both new managers moving from specialist roles into management and ongoing management sparring. The engagements varied and were tailored to the individual; the focus was on implementation, the leadership transition, reflection and application to real management situations.
A partnership with broad scope
The partnership grew beyond the academy: The Way We Work, Train-the-Trainer and 1:1 coaching were complemented by team development and team building.
The collaboration also included tailored team and company activities – from Company Day and outdoor team development to a special surprise session marking a manager's anniversary.
One example of the team development was the outdoor team day “Robinson ekspeditionen” for one of e-conomic's teams.
In the client's own words
The figures and assessments in the statement are the client's own.
“e-conomic international A/S For more than 3 years, Mads Cronquist has been associated with e-conomic. He has delivered a significant part of the training at our own academy, including courses in: • The Way We Work – an outdoor action learning day for groups of 10 people. • Process leadership training (8 days) covering motivation, practical and down-to-earth management, leadership, customer focus and personal power. • Team-building activities • Teaching and presentation techniques. • 1:1 coaching During that time he has: - Developed leadership-training tools, followed by training of our team leaders and middle managers in both Danish and English. - Planned, organised and delivered more than 50 course days with an exceptionally high return for employees and therefore also for the company. - Provided sparring and coaching for new managers in their transformation from specialists to middle managers. In the best possible way: one-to-one and walk and talk. More than 3 years of work is proof of our satisfaction with the service and delivery provided. Mads has managed to understand the way we want to lead and develop our culture. He lives our values. Professional, empathetic and generous are the key words. With Mads' help, among other things, we have preserved our culture despite our almost explosive growth. To others: use him.”
What we take with us
New middle managers do not need more theory. They need to try leadership in a situation where it is difficult, and then receive structured feedback from the people they lead.
The programme draws inspiration from the Pathfinder programme and builds on Mads Cronquist's 35 years of leadership experience — including under the most extreme conditions.
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