Amajoya produces candies and toffees of exceptional quality. Founded in 2010 by neurosurgeon Dr Jonathan Lamprecht, Amajoya uses only the finest ingredients to create confectionery with a precision that matches Dr Lamprecht’s exacting nature. While attention to detail and adherence to the highest standards play an important role in the production of Amajoya products, the brand itself revolves around warmth, joy, comfort and care. It is their commitment to quality, flavour and convenience that makes them a leader in the confectionary industry.
“Our experience of 2Collaborate has been fantastic. Tjaart’s facilitation and the support from the team has been extremely professional.
The collective wisdom and expertise they bring to the table is hugely value-adding.”
Billy Oosthuizen, CEO
The Challenge
The sudden passing of Dr Lamprecht in 2021 disrupted the business. The Amajoya team
needed to come together to ‘reset’ as a business and build a critical mass of understanding
and commitment among its people. They needed an intervention that would facilitate
collaborative thinking and encourage everyone to be a part of the conversation.
Our Contribution
2Collaborate’s YOUnite programme was the perfect package for Amajoya’s needs. It’s a high-impact engagement and change readiness programme that helps employees make the mental and behavioural shifts required for high performance. It does this by creating an understanding of business and labour’s “intertwined destiny”. The programme also equips employees with the skills and tools to sustain the momentum.
The whole company attended the two-day programme, and it allowed the team to align their visions and workshop solutions for the future, while delivering a much-needed culture intervention.
It did this in three key steps:
Plan Of Action
The first day of the programme was dedicated to helping employees understand the relationship between business and labour by examining the organisation’s vision for the future versus its current reality. It expanded on this by looking at how the economy works, the current business landscape and the socio-economic situation. The focus was then narrowed to an individual level and employees were encouraged to look inward and to consider their dreams, goals, and the obstacles in their way. They were guided to the understanding that to achieve their goals and build prosperity, they need to become the
masters of their lives and exert control over their sphere of influence, as well as take accountability for their actions and embrace a growth mindset.
Building on day one, the second day focused on unpacking what the business needs to succeed. This involved an overview of how the economy and the business work. To embed this knowledge, employees played a business game. This formed a valuable foundation to map out the stakeholder landscape, creating an understanding of who they are and the
important roles they all play in working together to achieve common goals.
From here, the focus shifted to “what does our company need to thrive?” CEO Billy Oosthuizen started the conversation by sharing Amajoya’s strategy and key objectives, which culminated in a values co-creating session, where employees were able to give input into shaping the Amajoya values. With a clear understanding of the business goals and
what success looks like, employees were asked to unpack the values, i.e. the behaviours required to get there. This standard of behaviour, on an employee and leadership level, was mutually agreed upon.
The programme concluded with a commitment exercise, where employees were asked to share the unique contribution they’re going to make to the organisation moving forward. To sustain the energy and inspire buy-in to the vision and values, branded T-shirts were given to employees as special gift.
“It’s a powerful “uniting” experience that puts everyone on
the same page in two days. It sets clear direction and upskills
managers for their role in the process. Touching everyone in the
business at the same time creates energy and momentum to act
upon commitments and apply the knowledge and skills gained.
There’s also value in achieving the team spirit that this kind of
event creates as a whole business. It makes it much easier to keep
the momentum alive and create pride in the brand.”
Geraldine Leibbrandt, Head of Product Development at 2Collaborate
The Results
Employees left the workshop with an improved attitude and growth mindset, as well as an enhanced understanding of change and their role in it. The programme gave them a better
understanding of the business and created alignment on the common goals that the business and employees share. An experience that was greatly appreciated by the Amajoya team, as attested to by Senior Process Supervisor, Elic Oosthuizen:
“I’m really glad that this process has taken place to get everyone on board. Having the whole business in the room was exceptionally good, it extinguished a lot of fires among the
staff. Now that people understand how business actually works, [it] puts everyone in a position of taking ownership. YOUnite has helped us in our journey to create an authentic Joya culture and it is going to unlock people’s potential to put the Joya family on the global map – spreading and inspiring joy everywhere, every day.”
There was an increased trust in and commitment to the company, as the programme demonstrated leadership’s commitment to engaging their people and being transparent about what input is needed in order to get the business to where it’s going. Once employees understood the “bigger picture” of the business, where they fit in and what’s in it for them, their engagement and commitment began to increase significantly. To build the momentum further, Joya is implementing several Culture and Performance improvement processes. This includes Strategy Map alignment, Values workshops to bring the values to life and a Supervisory Development Programme to upskill their leaders in engagement.
“It’s difficult to find words at the end of an experience like this. It’s been awesome for everyone and it’s such a different experience to go through. What’s really
been special to see is the transformation in terms of where we started and finished. With the constructive input we had into co-creating the values and aligning to the “Amajoya Way”, we can only [make] an already good company a great one.”
- CEO Billy Oosthuizen
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