“Optify has been an incredibly flexible and supportive partner. Their ability to adapt to our operational needs—scheduling coaching sessions around night shifts, delivering workshops in three languages across four countries—made this program truly ours. The results reflect what happens when development is designed around the people it serves.”
— Sheyla Galvez, Senior Manager of Learning & Development, Ferrara Candy Company
| INDUSTRY Consumer Packaged Goods / Manufacturing | SCALE 502 Leaders · 9 Sites · 3 Countries · 3 Languages | PROGRAM Manufacturing Leadership Development (MLD) · Year 2 (2025) | RECOGNITION 3× Brandon Hall HCM Excellence Award Nominee (2026) |
| 502 | 92% | 83.8% | +50% | 100% | 76% | 82% | 9.36/10 |
| Leaders Developed | YoY Growth | Completion Rate | Courage Gain (LCP Self-Assessment) | Coaching Goal Progress | Increased Retention Intent | Improved Engagement | Line Lead Satisfaction |
Challenge
At Ferrara Candy Company, leadership is not confined to the boardroom; it lives on the manufacturing floor. Across a growing global network of facilities in the U.S., Mexico, and Thailand, frontline leaders are responsible for driving operational performance, maintaining safety and quality standards, and fostering engaged, high-performing teams.
As Ferrara expanded, variability in leadership capability across sites became increasingly visible. Differences in communication, accountability, and decision-making began to impact team effectiveness and operational consistency. While previous leadership development efforts introduced valuable concepts, they were often episodic and classroom-based, making it difficult for leaders to translate learning into sustained behavior change in fast-paced production environments.
Ferrara needed more than a training program. They needed a scalable, embedded leadership development system that could:
- Reinforce leadership behaviors in real time
- Support leaders in operational environments without disruption
- Create consistency across global sites
- Demonstrate measurable impact over time
In 2024, Ferrara partnered with Optify to design and implement a new approach: a multi-year Manufacturing Leadership Development (MLD) Program built to integrate learning directly into the flow of work and scale alongside the organization’s growth.
Solution
Together, Ferrara and Optify designed a blended leadership development architecture; not a one-time program, but a continuous system that integrates learning, application, coaching, and measurement.
Rather than separating development from daily work, the program embeds leadership growth into the operational rhythm of the business through a closed-loop model. Five interlocking components form a deliberate developmental sequence, each preparing the leader for the next:
- Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) Assessments. Before workshops begin, each participant completes a role-matched LCP assessment: the LCPME self-assessment for supervisors and line leads, the full LCP 360 for managers and executives. In year two: 243 self-assessments, 77 full LCP 360s, 728 multi-rater evaluators. Reports are held confidentially in the Optify platform and shape every coaching conversation that follows.
- Instructor-Led Workshops. Role-tiered workshops deliver 12 structured learning hours per participant, scheduled within existing shifts, delivered in three languages, across nine global sites. Six curriculum tracks serve every level from line leads through executives. In year two: 643 total workshop hours. 87% rated Very or Extremely Effective. All content is anchored in four pillars: Leading Self, Leading Teams, Leading in Systems, and Leading Change.
- Leader Walks. Coaches work side-by-side with leaders on the active production floor, reinforcing workshop frameworks in real operational context, not simulated environments. Year 2: 2,382 Leader Walks across nine global sites.
- 1:1 Virtual Coaching. Following workshops and leader walks, every participant engages in dedicated 1:1 confidential coaching sessions. Coaches debrief LCP results, set behavioral goals, and assign personalized asynchronous resources from the Optify library. Sessions are scheduled to accommodate night shifts, weekend rotations, and international time zones. In year two: 1,481 coaching sessions completed. 100% of participants reported meaningful progress toward their goals.
- The Optify Platform. The platform operates as the connective infrastructure throughout, holding LCP reports confidentially, hosting coach-assigned resources, tracking behavioral goals, and surfacing population-level analytics that allow Ferrara to understand organization-wide leadership patterns, not just individual scores.
This integrated system ensures that leaders are not just learning concepts. They are applying, reflecting, and refining their leadership approach continuously.
The program also matured into a tiered leadership development model, including MLD Intro, MLD 101, Reinforcement programs, and leadership academies, creating a sustainable pipeline of development across leadership levels.
This approach transformed leadership development from a series of events into an embedded leadership system aligned to Ferrara’s operational realities.
Impact
The impact of Ferrara’s partnership with Optify is both measurable and sustained across two years of implementation, demonstrating that leadership development can drive meaningful behavioral and organizational change at scale.
Results were measured through pre/post LCP assessments, coaching progress surveys, and participant self-report data. This is not a program people attended; it is a program that changed how 502 leaders lead.
Scale, Engagement, and Reach
The program expanded significantly while maintaining strong engagement across Ferrara’s global manufacturing network.
- Participation grew from 262 leaders (2024) to 502 leaders (2025)
- 83.8% overall completion rate across workshops, coaching, and Leader Walks (up from 82%)
- In 2025 alone:
- 643 hours of instructor-led learning
- 1,481 coaching sessions
- 2,382 Leader Walk engagements
These metrics reflect not only growth, but sustained engagement across a complex, shift-based manufacturing environment.
Leadership Effectiveness and Behavior Change
Leaders demonstrated clear and sustained improvements in how they show up day-to-day on the manufacturing floor.
- 85% of participants reported becoming more effective leaders
- Notable improvements in:
- Communication clarity
- Delegation and accountability
- Feedback conversations
- Decision-making under pressure
- Leadership Circle Profile results reinforced these shifts:
- +5.8% increase in overall leadership effectiveness
- +11.4% increase in creative competency
- +7% increase in leadership potential utilization
- The most significant gains were in high-impact behaviors:
- Courage: +50%
- Vision: +23%
- Mentoring: +24.6%
- Strategy: +21.6%
The +50% Courage gain—growing from +27.5% in year one to +50% in year two— is the most operationally consequential result. In manufacturing, Courage means holding direct performance conversations on the live floor, challenging unsafe practices, and making decisions without waiting for permission. That is not a soft-skill gain; it is a measurable operational asset that compounds year over year.
Together, these outcomes reflect a shift toward more intentional, confident, and proactive leadership across sites.
Organizational Impact
The program’s impact was driven by the integration of multiple learning experiences working together. High satisfaction levels were matched by meaningful improvements in team and organizational outcomes.
Participants consistently cited coaching, experiential learning, and reflection as reinforcing mechanisms that helped translate concepts into real-world behaviors.
| Impact Measure | Result |
| Participants reporting improved personal engagement | 82% |
| Participants reporting stronger internal relationships | 77.5% |
| Participants reporting increased effectiveness as a leader/manager | 77% |
| Participants reporting increased team engagement | 75% |
| Participants reporting increased likelihood of staying | 76% |
| Participants reporting meaningful progress toward coaching goals | 100% |
| Overall participant satisfaction score | 8.76 / 10 |
The retention signal carries the most direct business consequence: 76% of participants reported an increased likelihood of staying, in an industry where frontline supervisor turnover can exceed 30% annually and replacement costs often exceed 50% of annual salary. A program that shifts retention intent across 502 geographically dispersed, shift-based leaders is a workforce stability investment.
These results validate that the blended architecture—not any single component—was key to driving sustained leadership growth.
Recognition and What’s Next
Beyond individual outcomes, the partnership has created a foundation for long-term leadership development at scale. What began as a leadership initiative has become a core part of how Ferrara develops leaders, embedding consistent, high-impact leadership practices across its global manufacturing network.
The MLD Program’s second year established a system that compounds. Year three priorities include expansion to additional international sites (including Brazil), enhanced manager-level dashboard analytics to connect LCP trends to site-level performance data, and integration of operational KPIs, linking competency gains directly to productivity, safety, and retention outcomes at the site level.
Ferrara, with Optify as delivery partner, is also a Brandon Hall HCM Excellence Awards 2026 Nominee for:
- Best Leadership Development Program
- Best Use of a Blended Learning Program
- Best Development Program for Frontline Leaders
The Ferrara and Optify MLD Program has evolved into a global, multi-level system with multilingual delivery and a tiered learning structure. With centralized data and ongoing measurement, Ferrara can continuously refine and expand the program as the organization grows.
