Evolution-U

Neil Orvay has been involved in presenting and public speaking since the age of 16; first as a Royal Air Force scholar, and then in the corporate world as an investment banker post which he founded multiple businesses spanning wellness, software and education. Teaching business professionals always intrigued him, and throughout his career Neil has given lectures and presentations at conferences and investment roadshows on a wide range of topics including asset collateralized debt obligations, voice-data convergence, entrepreneurship, spa and wellness, and many areas of corporate psychology.

It is with corporate psychology that he found his passion and where demand for Neil’s knowledge resulted in him founding Evolution-U, a soft skills specialist training company offering content focused around providing leadership and team development solutions for the needs of corporate clients. Evolution-U’s content has been described as the ‘most comprehensive range of soft skills training content in Asia’ by its clients, offering over 30 courses spanning eight core business suites of communication, persuasion, sales, negotiation, leadership, coaching, personal empowerment and diversity and inclusion.

The process of selecting and developing content has been driven by client demand. As Neil explains, “I start with what I find both interesting and useful personally, and then discuss with my stakeholders who are either HR/L&D professionals, or senior management with a specific problem. We then pilot the content, tweak as required, and roll it out.” This process has resulted in Evolution-U boasting a unique approach to soft skills training which focuses on bridging the gap from theory to application, and giving a workable answer to the question “How do I know if the training worked?!”

We offer customized service, including a case study and role-play development for any job role or industry

Evolution-U’s clients include major banking and insurance groups, multi-nationals and SMEs. “We offer a customized service where we take agnostic theory and develop bespoke case studies and role-play for any job role or industry. We provide classroom training, workshops, keynotes, webinar and a selection of online courses allowing a blended approach when scale is required,” says Neil. The company’s trainers have trained clients in subjects ranging from communication to negotiation, influencing to profiling, diversity and inclusion and many others.

For strategic leadership and team development engagements, Evolution-U uses ProfileXT, a leading psychometric profiling tool which allows a detailed understanding of an individual’s behavioural strengths for advancement and competency gaps for development. This forms a strategic template for professional development, whether via one-on-one coaching or group training. In addition, Neil is also a certified Genos Emotional Intelligence Practitioner and uses this tool for EI leadership assessments. The results from both these tools give all the information required to develop leadership and team professional development strategies based around soft skills content.

Having fun during Neil’s sessions is a key objective; “People remember more and remain engaged for longer when they’re enjoying themselves,” says Neil, which is why the classes he conducts are full of humour, personal stories, and occasionally shock. “Nothing strangles engagement like predictability. It seems to have the desired effect; returning clients, new content requests from existing clients, and LinkedIn testimonials are the best gauge of whether or not you are doing a good job.”

For the next 12-18 months, Evolution U is set to expand its online and webinar content to allow larger populations to take the training at a much lower price per head. The company also plans to offer blended solutions so that once core theory is covered virtually, application workshops can be used to drive adoption. “I believe this is the direction for corporate training with large organizations that have a huge staff to put through in-class training sessions,” states Neil.