HIGH ANXIETY was the title of an amusing movie by Mel Brooks, and it also describes the feelings of senior executives at most major corporates, according to Mike Peckham at leadership and development company PSA.

The Chepstow-based outfit works with a diverse range of clients such as Ford, Virgin, Allied Distillers, Scottish Enterprise and DeBeers.

"All businesses have been going through a tough time. They've been impacted by the oil price and by exchange rates, and if our clients are affected, then obviously so are we.

"At the top end, the services they're looking for are strategy and scenario planning, and for junior and middle managers they just want to see them managing the fundamentals better."

It's an ill-wind that blows no good, and this emphasis on "sticking to the knitting" has at least cooled demand for the latest fashion statement in management training.

"We've had FISH, ZAP, you name it. Lots of people have been jumping on the bandwagon to write or peddle these philosophies.

"Some are good, some are ridiculous, but it becomes a bit like changing your socks. Everyone wants to be different. We don't: we just want to be better. The fundamentals underpinning leadership and good management don't change, and that's what we focus on."

Economic insecurities have made operations and human resources directors more determined than ever to quantify the benefits of training and development.

"They're not prepared to invest without tangible benefits."

PSA has developed a tool for measuring performance online.

"We've developed it over the last eight years and it takes input from the manager we work with, from his boss and from his colleagues. It's now in use around the world from Europe to South Africa to Asia."

PSA has a team of eight, comprising five client-facing consultants and three support staff. It was founded 16 years ago by Mr Peckham and colleague Steve Shepstone.

After steady growth it now has a turnover of around half a million pounds per annum.

"We're not a huge company but we've consistently punched above our weight."

Anyone glancing at the client list would probably agree. Mr Peckham said it has all been done by referrals.

"We maintain our links with our clients and when they move to new companies they often retain our services.

"Our approach is to start at board- room level to establish exactly where the company is going and what kind of skill development it needs to facilitate it."

This was the approach taken some years ago with South African diamond producer DeBeers.

"The company was going through big changes as a result of de-regulation within the industry.

"Consequently, the chief executive knew his managers had to become far more entrepreneurial and financially focused.

"We began by conducting a skills audit of 250 managers to use as a baseline. After studying the results we were able to produce a development plan and re-audit the staff every 18 months or so to measure progress."

A conversation with DeBeers' chief executive at dinner one night revealed a training requirement for the graduate intake.

"In the old days young men would be sent out across Africa with a million dollars in a briefcase and told to buy diamonds.

"It was the school of hard knocks, which is highly valued among older figures in the industry. But for many reasons this kind of strategy is no longer possible or even desirable.

"But the need to accelerate the maturity of young people doesn't go away, and we suggested a scheme for an intake of 14 graduates who were destined for the top.

"They had to identify a project, raise money, benefit the community, challenge themselves and be given the opportunity to lead."

The group chose to work with a Merthyr-based charity called Zisize (a Zulu word meaning helping others to help themselves) to build a school on the South Africa/Mozambique border. The group members raised £35,000 and then travelled to site to build it.

"This place was so remote the children had never seen white faces before. It had no electricity and no running water.

"Each member of the team took leadership of an aspect of the project, which was challenging and had many frustrations.

"They worked in safety but with consequences.

"The school is now being used by 600 children a month, so the project has brought a significant community benefit. But the greatest output was the transformation of these young people into leaders."

At Ford's premier brands group, PSA faced a very different challenge. "Jaguar was about to launch its X-type diesel, which was very political within the company because a lot of people thought the words diesel and Jaguar just didn't belong together.

"The company had run previous diesel research programmes, but all of them had ended in failure.

"We devised an event to promote knowledge-sharing between all the older, retired engineers and the new team.

"We booked a test track for a day and told every engineer to bring one example of a diesel vehicle with them for testing.

"I don't need to tell you how much they enjoyed that, or the quality of the knowledge sharing it led to."

PSA is one of many Gwent companies tackling projects on a scale out of all proportion to its size.

Mr Peckham believes the impact of the Internet and the democratisation of information it has brought has made it easier for firms like his to challenge traditional city outfits.

"Geography is becoming irrelevant."

His own entry to the sector came via an interesting route which included a spell in the Royal Engineers before training to teach special-needs students.

He took an MSc in management learning and development at Lancaster, and entered the training industry via Ford at Dagenham, and then a Bristol-based consultancy.

He has something in common with David Cooper, one of PSA's development consultants, who spent half a career in the Royal Engineers before joining PSA five years ago.

Both men are enthusiastic about the concept of the chartered manager (like a chartered engineer, for example) and PSA has become the first Gwent trainer to become accredited to run courses for the Chartered Management Institute.

After working all over the world they're hungry to win some local business. "Can you believe it?" said Mr Peckham, "we've been running 16 years, have clients on most continents, but have never worked for anybody in Wales."