Founded
When? 1997
Why? Because of a coincidence: the University Business School decided to cease its Management Training activities at the same time as Chris Croft realised that it is possible to provide an effective service as a free agent. In fact there are a number of advantages which come from not being part of an organisation:
- Lower overheads mean competitive pricing
- Freedom to redesign, adapt, make decisions which are best for the client
- Guarantee of quality for the client they always get “the man himself”
History
Existing clients from the Business School have continued to use the services of Chris Croft Training, and have steadily grown in volume
New clients added by referrals, and by customers moving to new organisations and continuing to use Chris Croft Training
No advertising has ever been required
1997
‘Time Management‘ published by Thompson International, and has been reprinted twice since
1998
started making tapes for participants to have as revision aids
first outdoor team weekend in the New Forest
1999
wrote First Book of Management
2000
all tapes made into CDs as well. Nearly all courses get a revision tape or CD included from now on
commissioned to do training work in the USA (Boston) and Germany
designed a Best Value communication pack and presented at a national conference organised by the I.D.E.A. on Best Value
designed and ran a series of Development Centres for London Borough of Harrow in order to assess the commercial skills of their senior managers, with custom-built exercises to test the competencies that they have identified as important
Mike and Taro Bevis made me this
2001
wrote Customer Care mini-book as a commission from Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust
asked back for the third time to present a session to the Grant Thornton annual IT Support conference
started presenting sessions for Vistage International (or TEC as it was known back then) – Vistage is a CEO development organisation, very high quality, only using the best speakers in the world. so this was quite an honour – and still is!
2002
UK-based multinational client asked for a 4-day Train-the-Trainer course in Cairo for 18 of their Training Managers – one from each of the African countries where they have offices. Can you spot which one is me on our day off?……
Following a successful Sales course for the London office of an Australian software company they asked Chris to run the same course at their head office in Melbourne.
Began free tip of the month e-mail service. By the end of the year there were already 1500 subscribers.
2003
Began running Certificate in Management (CMS) and Diploma in Management Studies (DMS) courses validated by Edexcel.
Wrote and published pocket books on Sales, Project Management, and Time Management.
2004
Ran the first Diploma programme for ISS, the worlds best outsourcing company – 500,000 employees, 50,000 in the UK.
2006
Formed The Croft Management Centre with Jeremy Hamilton with the objective of running accredited training with a group of trusted high quality trainers and an excellent admin team. Early clients included Ealing Council, HSA/Simply Health, Bexley Council, and The Avenues
2009
Accredited by CMI and ILM as well as BTEC, for levels 3 5 and 7.
email tip of the month subscribers reached 9,000 people
2010
Produced an on-line time management e-learning course
Also an on line Project Management guide
Recorded the Project Management rap and uploaded it to youtube
2011
Opened an office in Poole
Launched Passport Programme – accredited open courses for the Hampshire and Dorset area
Delighted to be awarded the “Exceptional Value” Award by Vistage – for ten years of consistently-valued training of groups of managing directors and chief executives in Project Management, Time Management, and Negotiation Skills
2012
Began working with NHS South West London and also Business Solent to give them their own Passport programmes.
Began recording 1 minute videos for use on smartphones.
2013
Made five apps for android/apple including, Daily happiness tips, and Management Cards
Published eleven instant guides on amazon kindle.
2014
Filmed by www.lynda.com in Los Angeles, now Linkedin Learning
First course goes live on lynda.com – on Project Management
Made the eight ’10 day’ course-on-your-phone apps on a variety of subjects.
Started the nineteenth diploma programme for ISS, the 4th largest company in the world – they must like it if they’ve done nineteen!
2015
Invited back by www.lynda.com in Los Angeles to make Assertiveness, Team Player, Project Management Problems and Gantt Charts
Made the Daily Happiness Tips app
2016
Invited back again by www.lynda.com in Los Angeles to make two Time Management courses (Big Picture and Systems) and also Happiness – 52 videos which are released one per week from summer 2016 to summer 2017 and then available as a complete course.
Wrote the big book of happiness – kindle and on paper
Revamped the Management Cards app:
Continued running courses pretty much every day – did about 180 days of training. I’d like to take Fridays off but I haven’t really managed that yet!
2017
Back to the USA four times to film more courses for lynda.com, now part of Linkedin. Total views reached five million!
Tip of the month updated to Infusionsoft smart new format.
Jobs to Do app developed, which can sync with the web for viewing on PC / Desktop / Laptop as well as phone.
Wrote the oddest management book ever:
Developed the six animals approaches to life:
and made a survey to find out which one you are…
2018
Filmed a series of 52 videos on Success Habits, for Linkedin Learning. They go out once a week from April.
Awarded the Long Term Achievement Award by Vistage, against very impressive competition (they have some of the best speakers in the world) – you have to do 20 days a year for ten years, never going below 85% scores.
2019
Won the Outperformer Award at Vistage – you have to average 95% (9.5/10) over at least 15 sessions with groups of CEOs.
Cutting back to 3 days a week of presenting, but still very much enjoying those.
Filming all the courses I have always wanted to make, with Udemy and Linkedin Learning. Now up to 30 in total, including
- Cost Reduction
- How to delight your customers
- Anxiety and Stress
- Agile vs Waterfall (with Doug Rose)
- Presentation Skills
- Inspirational Leadership
- Inteview Skills – get teh job you want
- Games Players and what to do about them
- The top 10 project management mistakes
- A project management worked example – see me plan a real project
- Bad Boss – what can you do?
Launched TM100 – five years of coaching via online emails and videos
Started Skype training and coaching – by the hour, from my office to anywhere in the world
2020
Zoom training became large during the lockdown.
Developed on-line questionnaires for
- Happiness (the Happiness L.E.M.O.N.),
- careers, and
- the six animals, with accompanying e-books.
Worked on the World Happiness Project YouTube channel.
Created the Life Skills Collection, a coherent bundle of all of my online training courses with a group forum and limited coaching from me.
Set up Successful Trainers, where I am coaching a small group of people from all over the world to become successfully self employed as management trainers.
2021
Spoke at conferences in Zagreb, Rimini, Bahrain, Birmingham, Miami and Paris
Reached 40 courses on Linkedin Learning
Recognised by online video learners on 6 occasions including in Venice, Mallorca, and Miami:
Awarded 20 years tenure award by Vistage. I have stood the test of time.
So that’s four Vistage awards now
Continued the monthly on-line Global Happy Cafe in conjunction with Gerry Clarke.
2022
Wrote The Project Management Quickstart Guide, having been approached by Clydebank Media
Also recorded the audio version and uploaded it to Audible.
Created Terry Dacktill
Started recording videos on Fractal Working with Andrew Holm and Julian Wilson.
Reached a total of 20 guest appearances on other people’s podcasts
Visited by Dean Karrel and Dave Crenshaw
Attended Linkedin Learning meet-up in New York
2023
Launched an on-line version of my Successful Trainers programme – much cheaper, and you can access all the information at times that suit you. Does not include 1:1 coaching time with me though.
Reached 150,000 followers on Linkedin
Set up CRFT Productions with Miles Croft, with the objective of filming other people presenting their great quality courses for Linkedin Learning. 15 courses already on Linkedin Learning with another 35 in the pipeline.
No longer available for training sessions more than an hour away from where I live in Poole, but doing quite a bit of Zoom training. Recommend dividing a subject into 3 or 4 one hour zoom sessions, done one a week for 3 or 4 weeks. Minimal disruption to work, maximum time to digest and put into practice.
Working on MrGantt project management software that is easy to get started, very user friendly, has embedded training videos to help you with both project management and the software, and which gives unique management information on which projects are ahead/behind and over/under budget, and a forecast of expected finish date and cost.
Contact Chris for more details
The future
- Continue to run courses and speak at conferences occasionally
- Produce more video courses
- Build client base selectively, working only for clients who really care about developing their people and who believe in positive management methods