Special Supplement _ Volume 04 _ Issue 03 2010

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www.efmd.org Special supplement | Volume 04 | Issue 03 2010

EFMD

A GLOBAL FOCUS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

Excellence in PracticeOutstanding and impactful partnerships between businesses and educational organisations



Special supplement | Global Focus Vol 04 | Issue 03 2010

The Excellence in Practice AwardIntroduction

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www.efmd.org/globalfocus

At a time when budgets are extremely tight and companieshave to cope with a complex and increasingly unpredictableenvironment the effectiveness of investment in managementand organisational development – as with all other budgets

– is under the highest scrutiny. The effectiveness of programmes and initiatives from corporate universities,academies and other corporate learning organisationshave been under the microscope.

Today the challenge is to achieve more with less. Questions such asthe effective transfer of learning into the workplace and the alignmentof programmes with corporate strategy have received high attention.

These observations by EFMD within its membership have beencorroborated by a recent comprehensive survey carried out by the SwissCentre for Innovation in learning (SCIL) in co-operation with EFMD.

Hence the Excellence in Practice Award 2010 hit a strong chord whenputting the main emphasis on impactful programmes developed anddeployed in co-operation between corporate learning organisationsand external partners.

With membership in both the management education community and thecorporate world, the focus on excellence in collaborative programmescomes naturally to EFMD. Over the last two decades learning anddevelopment (L&D) partnerships have grown not only in number butalso in effectiveness and quality in areas such as executive, professional,organisational or talent development.

As a consequence EFMD decided some four years ago to launch theExcellence in Practice (EiP) Award as the European flagship award inthis field. Since 2007 the EiP Award has grown in prestige and recognition.

Despite the significant workload associated with the submission, closeto 40 case studies were entered for the 2010 competition – a record number.The quality of the cases was very high in general, which made the taskfor the international jury satisfying and challenging at the same time.The cases clearly showed state-of-the-art operational and managementexcellence.

The L&D initiatives also demonstrated how they were aligned withcorporate strategy and evaluated the various facets of impact on

the business. In addition the diversity of this year’s winners clearly

40Close to 40 case studies

were entered for the

2010 competition –

a record number



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EFMD Global Focus | Volume 04 | Issue 03 2010

Free access to Strategic Direction for 3 months

Featuring reviews of the 2010 EFMD Excellence inPractice Award Winning Papers, Volume 26, Issue11 of Strategic Direction will be available for threemonths from the 22nd October 2010.

Strategic Direction is an essential managementinformation resource for today’s strategicthinkers. As a unique service, we scan through

the best 400 management journals in the worldand distil the most topical management issuesand relevant implications for senior managersout of the cutting-edge research. We regularlypresent case study reviews of the Fortune 500 companies.

To access your free trial, go to: www.emeraldinsight.com/sd.htm andenter the following details in the top left hand corner of the page:

Username: EFMD2010

Password: Emerald2

For more information about the journal, please contact the Publisher,

Juliet Norton at [email protected]

demonstrated how the continuous mutual learning of both partners isimportant for enhancing skills, developing and motivating people, andfor providing a creative learning environment.

I would like to thank all those who submitted a case as well as the jurypanel for their excellent work. I would also like to encourage those who

were not selected this year to participate in the future. It is the nature ofsuch competitions that winning slots may be missed by a short margin.

Congratulations again to the winning teams – and enjoyable reading tothose who are interested in learning more.

Richard Straub

Director

EFMD

JURY MEMBERS IN 2010

Jessica Davis (Emerald Group Publishing Ltd)

Patrick De Greve (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School)

Axel Dornis (MLP Finanzdienstleistungen AG)

Sarah Gilbert (Emerald Group Publishing Ltd)

Jan Ginneberge (EFMD )

Bart Groenewoud (CapGemini University)

Jérôme Gueugnier (EDF Group)

Nadim Habib (Faculdade de Economia da UniversidadeNova de Lisboa)

Per Erik Johannessen (BI Norwegian School of Management)Lene Augusta Jørgensen (Aarhus School of Business)

Stefan Kayser (ThyssenKrupp Academy GmbH)

Antoine Kissenpfennig (Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd.)

Françoise Lassalle-Cottin (Euromed Management)

Rebecca Marsh (Emerald Group Publishing Ltd)

Werner Müller (ERGO Versicherungsgruppe AG)

Rudi Plettinx (CCL - Center for Creative Leadership)

Martine Plompen (EFMD )

Almudena Rodriguez Tarodo (Grupo Santander)

Bob Stilliard (Ashridge)

Joachim von Berg (EFMD )

Hans-Jörg Wagener (Volkswagen Coaching GmbH)

John Wills (London Business School)

Ulrich Winkler (European Business School) Achim Wolter (Siemens AG)





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Both organisations have charitable

status and are committed to facilitating sustainable changes thatenhance and improve the lives ofindividuals and their communities




Sustaining partnership

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The National Trust recognised that anorganisational development programme wasneeded for its Functional Advisors. From the veryfirst tender meeting, the Ashridge Consultingteam entered into dialogue in a spirit ofexploration and inquiry, to co-create andco-design a programme that would deliverthe required impact.

So even at this stage, the approach adopted wasentirely congruent not only with the way in whichthe Developing Internal Consulting Capabilityprogramme would be designed and deliveredbut with Ashridge’s ethos of what constitutesbest-practice consulting skills.

Ashridge Consulting adopted an appreciativeco-inquiry process with potential participants,clients, sponsors and members of the National

Trust senior management team. The purposewas to ascertain current consulting capabilityand what was required to deliver integratedadvice to clients whose budget and authorityto make decisions gave them power.

This was not dissimilar to the Ashridge-NationalTrust relationship, so learning was also availableby reflecting on our dynamic partneringrelationship. Our appreciative approach identifiedwhat occurred in these relationships when theywere working well. This approach is different

from more traditionally employed ways ofdiagnosis.

We then co-designed the Developing InternalConsulting Capability programme to supportFunctional Advisors in playing their part inthe delivery of the Going Local strategy.

Functional Advisors experienced a mixture ofanxiety, fear and hope as their roles werechanging, so it was important that an appropriateand safe learning environment was created.

Together we chose the learning environment at

Ashridge, where the tranquillity and beauty ofthe building and grounds, amid acres of National

Trust woodland, made the participants feel thatthis was “home from home” and assured themthat we had an understanding of their values.

Participants came together for three days withAshridge consultants. It was grounded in

Functional Advisors’ experience and the realityof their current context. Working with “what is”rather than “what might be” is a way offacilitating change from within. From the outset,the development programme design placedparticular attention on fostering trustingrelationships to support different ways ofrelating and working,

The process that ensued developed theFunctional Advisors’ consulting capability andwas consolidated around key areas of structure,styles and skills.

The depth of change required a cultural shiftaway from traditionally transactional servicesto new ways of working in collaborativepartnerships so Action Learning was integratedinto the design over a period of ten months toencourage participants to practise, reflect andembed the learning with appropriate supportand space.

This process started to facilitate the transfer ofconsulting capability with the Functional Advisorsbecoming more connected with each other,taking responsibility for supporting theirdevelopment and becoming less dependenton Ashridge, who then withdrew.

Determining the impact of this type ofintervention involves sharing risk andresponsibility. We engaged in a rigorousco-designed Evaluative Inquiry process whosepurpose was to understand, through quantitativeand qualitative evidence, the impact of theDeveloping Internal Consulting Capabilityintervention on participant advisors and their

clients (for example, General Managers) andon the wider organisation.



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Congruent with the Ashridge relational consulting approach, theevaluation process sought to collate “stories” on what was working,how it was working and what was the impact so that the ways ofworking and organisational aspects that supported this change couldbe amplified. The outcomes have given both of us in the partnershipthe confidence to continue and develop other supporting creative

interventions that are now underway in regions across England, Walesand Northern Ireland.

A healthy partnership is one where independency and interdependency– not dependency – are co-created. We have developed our partnershipby working as one collaborative design/delivery team with each of usbringing different roles, expertise and responsibilities.

In our experience a worthwhile partnership emerges from attending tothe ongoing co-created relational experiences when working on taskstogether. This manifested in the co-design team taking time to checkin with each other every time they met, where individuals shared whatwas going on for them, how they were feeling and what a successful

outcome from our time together would look like.Such a process was not without its joy and pain. It was often byworking through the pain, disagreements and ruptures that occurredin the relationship that greater trust, connectedness and commitmentemerged. The quality of our core team relationship supported andlegitimised such relational consulting behaviour between FunctionalAdvisors and between them and their clients in the National Trust.

Sustaining partnerships requires a freedom and responsibility ofintent to support the development of the other with independence,not dependency, as the goal. This ensures greater choice and ethicalpractice in any future interventions.

Sustaining partnerships requires a mutuality of care, respect of the otherand of the ecological context. Partnerships, after all, are relationshipsmade between persons with aspirations, hopes and objectives to fulfil.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Billy Desmond is Client Director Ashridge Consulting

Paul Boniface Director of People and Governance, National Trust



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To be able to add greater value tothe businesses that they support,create greater consistencythroughout IT and improvecommunications with businessstakeholders


Transforming IT managersHSBC and LFGSM

Scott Farley and Howard Prager decribe how global banking group HSBC and Lake Forest Graduate Schoolof Management have created a programme, AdvancedConsulting Skills, that has led to improved client

satisfaction with IT and enhanced IT capabilities

HSBC Group, headquartered in London, is one of the world’s largestbanking and financial services organisations with assets of $2.4 billion (asof 31 December 2009) and serving customers worldwide from around 8,000offices in 88 countries and territories.

HSBC – North America consists of the company’s US and Canadianoperations and is one of the ten largest bank holding companies inAmerica. The bank’s strategy is based on its differentiating combinationof global scale and local presence.

Effective management of its information technology (IT) infrastructure

is critical to its ability to successfully deliver on its brand promise,achieve global scale and adapt the network and systems to meetconstantly changing customer, market and regulatory demands.

The IT and shared services function, titled HSBC Technology Services(HTS), comprises approximately one-third of HSBC’s global workforceand is tasked with meeting the needs of business stakeholders asthey seek to respond nimbly and progressively to the marketplace.

In 2001 the HTS organisation adopted its current shared services modelwhereby IT services are sold to the business and the HTS organisationis fiscally accountable for cost coverage and budget adherence.

This approach to the management of the IT function placed a premium on

client satisfaction and on the ability of IT leaders and project managers tosuccessfully discover and address the needs of the business. By 2007 clientsatisfaction scores were closely monitored across the organisation as ameasure of successful partnership with business stakeholders. From this,a need was identified to further strengthen the organisation’s consultingcompetency.

Partnership

In March 2007 Lake Forest Graduate School of Management (LFGSM)was approached by HTS leadership and members of HSBC’s NorthAmerica Learning organisation to collaborate on an approach aimedat taking their IT professionals to the next level.

LFGSM specialises in understanding the needs of shared service



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professionals through white paper research, includinginterviews with many senior leaders. IT was the first sharedservice LFGSM focused on and it continues to be a keyfunction for the school to keep up-to-date.

It was HSBC’s intention at that time to send 80% of their

senior manager-director IT level employees through anAdvanced Consulting Skills programme. Why? To be ableto add greater value to the businesses that they support,create greater consistency throughout IT and improvecommunications with business stakeholders.

At the onset of the collaboration between HSBC and LFGSMit was recognised that this learning effort must yield apositive business impact that could be measured againstexisting goals and success metrics.

Additionally, there was a strategic eye toward a majorglobal initiative titled “One HSBC”, which was to consolidateand standardise business operating models and supportsystem infrastructures across the organisation worldwide.Implementation of One HSBC systems was to be a keydriver of transformational change and would requirethat the HTS organisation be able to consult effectively inorder to balance local business needs with globally alignedstrategic imperatives.

Determining Content and Objectives

An advisory group was formed with six senior IT professionalsto better understand the current level of consulting capability,the perception of HTS by its internal business partners andessential programme goals. This group identified the desired

business impacts of the Advanced Consulting Skills course,which were to take HTS to the next level by:

adding value to the business

building stronger, more consistent relationships with

clients/business units

improving communication and responsiveness to the business

viewing IT partners as consultants to the business who can make

work less complex and transactions cheaper

understanding business requirements and project change requests

better in order to explain impact in terms of time, resources and costs

The initial needs assessment completed by the HSBCadvisory group and LFGSM resulted in a clear view as tothe programme’s deliverables and measures of success.To ensure that HSBC’s selected IT professionals advancetheir business interface skills, LFGSM recommended aprogramme that included the following key competencies:

Understanding Business Strategy, Negotiation Skills andInternal Consulting. Each one-day module was designedto meet specific purposes as follows:

—

The Strategy module seeks to bring a more practicalunderstanding of how the work participants do integratesinto HSBC strategy. The module also includes strategictools and frameworks and aims to foster an appreciation forthe challenges of communicating a strategic vision acrossthe organisation. Throughout, practice opportunities areoffered to solidify understanding and communication ofstrategic imperatives.

—

The Negotiations module explores the fundamentalsof negotiations, including key variables of negotiation,overcoming obstacles and understanding (and avoiding)positional bargaining. Notably, the module also emphasisesways to retain the relationship while negotiating. The ultimateaim is to integrate successful negotiations into an over-arching consultative approach that results in win-win results.

—

The Business Consulting module integrates the conceptsof strategy and negotiation into a cohesive, five-step model for

internal consultation, focusing on essential communicationand relationship management skills. The emphasis is ona clear, collaborative definition of needs, discussion andpractice using the critical business consulting skills thatare interdependent with technical consulting skills.



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Transforming IT Managers

Results

From a learning perspective, therewas a need to measure participantsatisfaction and ensure that the classdelivery was effective. Taken together,these indicators illustrate the great

extent to which the collaborationbetween HSBC and LFGSM metHSBC’s business and learning goals.

Initial feedback

In its first year, feedback fromparticipants was highly positive, asindicated by the following results:

4.41/5.0the session was well designed

4.57/5.0this programme was valuable and I would recommend it to others at HSBC

4.70/5.0the faculty used effective presentationand facilitation skills

Participant comments

Participant comments were generallyquite positive, and expressed anenthusiasm for the relevance of thecourse content to daily responsibilities:

The practical workshops gave us an

opportunity to apply the teaching. I am

coming away with some new tools in

my ‘tool kit’ that will help me to manage

and accomplish my stated objectives.

Nice step up from other consulting

courses offered. Subject matter

relevant—especially with our focus

on relationship management.

Follow-up evaluations

Subsequent and recent follow-upevaluations have found that:

70%of participants are utilising consultingand negotiations skills and knowledgefrom the course

1/3+over a third of participants are applyingstrategy understanding and knowledgefrom the course

50%nearly 50% of participants are actively usingconsulting skills at least two months after the programme

1/3+over a third are actively using negotiationsand strategy skills at least two months afterthe programme

It is important to note that this levelof success has continued throughoutsubsequent programmes.



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The increase in the HTS organisation’sconsulting expertise was identified as anadded value to business partner relationshipsand allowed the full institutionalisation ofthe shared services model to be completed.Additionally, the organisation developed needed

skill-sets that have become essential to theongoing implementation of several high-profilestrategic imperatives, including One HSBC andimplementation of global system platforms forHR and Project Management.

Senior leaders within the HTS organisation haveexpressed their satisfaction with the course andit continues to be an integral part of theleadership curriculum for IT professionals.As HSBC moves forward in partnership withLFGSM, strong positive feedback continuesto lead to new opportunities that will bringthis course to additional audiences acrossNorth America and around the globe.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Scott Farley is Vice President and Learning Specialist,

HSBC – North American Learning

[email protected]

Howard Prager is Director, Corporate Education,

Lake Forest Graduate School of Management

[email protected]

Taken together, these indicators illustratethe great extent to which the collaborationbetween HSBC and LFGSM met HSBC’sbusiness and learning goals



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Leveraging the University ClassroomPrism, KickApps and Bentley University

Gordon Hardy and Pierre Berthon relate how acorporate immersion programme at Bentley Universityin America proved to be a unique partnership between

business and education

In August 2009, three friends sat drinking cold beers and gazing out atBoston’s Charles River, mulling over different though seemingly relatedproblems.

Woody Benson is a partner at Prism Venture Capital. “The problem withVC is you have to wear two very different hats,” he recalls thinking. “Thefirst is the nurturing, enthusiast hat; the other, the cold financial hat. Ifyou get too close, too emotionally involved in a start-up, you can lose yourshirt. But keep your distance and the firm dies.”

Alex Blum is CEO of KickApps, a social-media start-up funded by Prism.His concern that day: how to get fast, actionable market research while

lacking both budget and expertise. This information was critical for thestrategic direction of his three-year-old company.

Perry Lowe, senior lecturer in marketing at Bentley University, nearBoston, was focused on an educational challenge. “I run a corporateimmersion course for MBA students. I need participating firms that canteach business and engage students with real-world problems to solve.”

As they talked, the friends hit on a mutually beneficial opportunityclose at hand: an upcoming course in the Bentley MBA programme.The plan started to take shape.

Lowe and Benson (a Bentley alumnus) would co-teach a course focusedon social-media marketing, using Blum’s market research dilemma.Benson would offer students insight into the workings of venture capital– especially the funding of start-ups in the newly hot social media space.KickApps would provide students with the specific business challenge,access to top management and confidential company information.

In return, MBA students would perform the market research that Blumdesperately needed for his strategic plan.

Finally, Benson’s Prism VC would gain the independent, engaged perspectiveof young MBAs eager to wrestle with a genuine business problem.

It was a straightforward but imaginative solution to each man’s challengethat day. But the real challenge lay in the execution; they needed expert

help, so they enlisted Professor Pierre Berthon, Clifford F Youse Chairof Research at Bentley. As they mapped out the course syllabus and

Benson’s Prism VC would gain the independent, engaged perspective of young MBAseager to wrestle with a genuinebusiness problem.



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framework, Berthon, Lowe and Bensonidentified two key questions and answers.

Q1: How to get the best work – really valuable

market intelligence – from unpaid students?

Solution: Offer them a chance to engage deeply

with accomplished professionals. Benson andBlum were experienced business leaderscommitted to working with the studentsthroughout the project (Benson even keptweekly office hours). Students’ contributionswould not be theoretical: KickApps and Prismneeded their best work.

As Lowe puts it: “The students worked theirhearts out because they knew what they weredoing was important to the company.”

Q2: How to keep busy professionals consistently

engaged in the project over a four-month semester?Solution: Structure, planning, discipline. Lowepoured hours into developing a syllabus andclass routine that made the best use of Benson’sand Blum’s time. Expectations of students werehigh from the start: signed NDAs at the firstclass meeting and no absenteeism, free ridingor excuses. A small-group structure and gradingrubric demanded accountability. As a result,company representatives were assured thattheir ongoing participation would lead to betteroutcomes and more actionable marketing plans

for KickApps.The trio cemented their commitments with foursteps:

Step One:

Bentley and Prism conducted a needs analysisfor KickApps to determine the project scopeand ensure sufficient Bentley resources.

Step Two:

At least one member of KickApps and Prismmanagement planned to attend class meetingsevery week to ensure that work stayed on targetand reflected any corporate changes during the

engagement.



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Leveraging the University Classroom

MBA students were chargedwith researching and segmentingthe social media market andrecommending alternative ones

The time, insight andintelligence invested by

Prism and KickAppsboosted the quality andvalue of student output

Step Three:

An interpersonal analysis evaluated the interaction potential betweenKickApps and Prism representatives and the students. The analysissuggested ways to build trust and commitment among the parties.

Step Four:

The stakeholders looked beyond the immediate project to assess potentialfor a mutually beneficial relationship over the long term. Points ofdiscussion were student internship and job opportunities, future projectsand the fit between the company missions and that of Bentley University.

Posing the challenge

The KickApps product is a social media environment that enablesorganisations to create highly engaging websites and online communities.Tools include a social network, branded and customised online videoplayers, photo- and video-sharing capabilities, blogs, podcasts,message boards and widgets. Combined with programming, marketingand promotion the websites become destinations where companies canengage directly with customers and partners.

Now, KickApps CEO Blum faced a classic strategic challenge: how to growthe firm beyond its early-stage customers of entertainment, media andsports companies.

That challenge drove work in the corporate immersion course. MBAstudents were charged with researching and segmenting the social mediamarket and recommending alternative ones. Options included enteringthe small-to-medium business (SMB) market, the large enterprise marketor both – and in which order, given the company’s current management,working capital and profitability as well as three-year time horizon.

Thinking on their feet, eating the dog food

After meetings and orientation, the students got to work. The 35-member

class broke into seven multidisciplinary teams, to spark diverseapproaches and a lively spirit of competition. The semester’s specificassignments:

understand the KickApps business and the market

research and analyse the SMB market

research and analyse the enterprise market

(re)vision the company to launch the new initiatives

Weekly meetings engaged all participants. KickApps executives andPrism’s Benson guided understanding of their respective company needs;students researched the markets independently and reported back.

The success of the project turned on two innovations. First, individual



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students or student teams presented theirfindings in intense ten-minute pitches. Duringthese sessions, executives interrupted to askquestions, forcing students to think on theirfeet and defend ideas extemporaneously.Students gained a true appreciation for

conveying ideas and information to the bossin succinct and compelling terms – a sortof “murder board” of critical thinkers whohelped students sharpen their ideas andpresentations.

One student wrote of the experience: “Thiscourse is different from anything I’ve donebefore. I was caught off-guard by the Apprentice-style firing squad, but it was invaluable to havethat experience within the safety net of school.Woody [Benson] was honest and direct, withoutbeing curt.”

The second innovation in the course wasexperiential. Students built and operated theirown KickApps sites (“eating the dog food” in theparlance of the field). This approach created asense of community among the teams and withtheir instructors, gave students deep and directexperience with the product and provideddynamic feedback on the learning processto project leaders.

Effective learning, actionable intelligence

The course takeaways were an unqualified

success. The corporate immersion strategyof offering a real-world problem (KickAppsmarketing research), investor insight (fromventure capitalist Benson), and a novelclassroom experience for students (the nakedlight bulb of a ten-minute pitch before seasonedentrepreneurs) fostered true synergy anda win-win-win outcome.

The time, insight and intelligence invested byPrism and KickApps boosted the quality andvalue of student output. The weekly interplayamong the parties reflected the operational

ambiguity of actual business: assignmentstweaked, new evidence leading to new questions

and using both deductive and inductive methodsto draw conclusions about the market.

For KickApps, the course delivered the goods:a visionary strategic direction, beginning inthe SMB market. The new strategy included

management changes, a redesigned productportfolio, adjustments in pricing and competitivepositioning and the launch of new distributionchannels. That strategy was unleashed in July2010 and is already bearing fruit.

In a review, KickApps executives praisedthe quality of students’ market research,recommendations and strategic vision. Awardinghigh marks in all three areas, managers notedhaving gained a deeper understanding of thebroad market and its different segments, thecompetitive landscape and options for securing

a competitive advantage.Prism management was impressed with thequality and diversity of perspectives on KickAppsand its market, strategic options and futurepotential. Indeed, a handful of innovativeideas were immediately forthcoming. Bensonand fellow leaders also learned of differentinvestment options and strategies availablefor Prism. An unexpected bonus for theventure capital firm: out-of-the-boardroominsight into the strengths and challenges ofKickApps management.

The course’s most valuable results may be yetto come. Corporate immersion has gained a newand distinctive roadmap at Bentley University.The approach moves beyond providing areal-world case study opportunity for studentsto providing real-world benefits for businessesand investors. Plans for the future include anexpanded “capstone” course in the Bentley MBAprogramme that will engage companies andstudents to tackle challenges across businessfields: marketing, finance, law and management.

Not a bad result from a meeting of three oldfriends over beers in Boston.



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Search for leaders starts at homePon and ORMIT

The partnership of Dutch firm Pon and managementdevelopment company ORMIT holds the key todeveloping leaders in-house. Any well-run organisation

would accept that nurturing its own talent has to be

a better, long-term prospect than buying in expertise

The origins of the strategic partnership involving Pon, one of theNetherlands’ largest family businesses, and ORMIT, a successfulmanagement development (MD) company, lie in that simple truth.

The collaboration between the two organisations began in 2005. Pon,an international trading and service company, was determined toraise its profile and to become an even more successful companyby development of more managers from within its own pool of talent.

ORMIT was brought on board to help Pon with its MD objectives and

to translate them into a Learning and Development (L&D) framework.Once Pon’s executive board had identified the need to fill managementvacancies from outside the company as a serious weakness, appropriatetargets were set. These included filling three-quarters of managementvacancies with internal candidates by 2010.

At the same time, the company recognised that it wanted to create adifferent culture, one in which everyone understood the needs of thebusiness, worked together towards achieving that goal and had abetter understanding of how various departments worked and reliedon one another.

It was further hoped that this would create an environment in whichemployees could have greater flexibility, with the chance to switchbetween different divisions ultimately helping their careers.

ORMIT established its framework for MD, with agreed shared areas fordevelopment, such as people management and personal leadership,and specific shared competences, such as independence and the abilityto think and act autonomously, which could be worked on to develop the“best managers”.

Different strokes

Good managers need different skill sets at different times in their careerdevelopment; a managerial skill relevant in one phase might be lessimportant in another. A “leadership pipeline” was created to identify theway that each transition has new skill requirements. Self-management

skills are still being acquired when a young executive is taking on the roleof managing others. In a nutshell, the pipeline defines what the company



expects its people to do, at whatever pointthey are within the organisation.

ORMIT’s L&D frameworks comprised threeconsecutive programmes for professionalsand managers in three different phases of

their careers.The first were young professionals, aged upto 30 with between one and three years’ workexperience. The objective here is to increasepersonal leadership at work.

The second category was young managers, aged30 to 35 with a minimum of four years’ workexperience. The objectives here are to increasetheir own leadership skills and stimulate thesame development among colleagues.

The third target group are advanced managers,

typically aged 35 to 40 with a minimum of sevenyears’ work experience. Here the objectivesinvolve broadening personal leadership skillsand both finding and exploiting leadershipopportunities within the organisation.

Looking at the finer details of the programme itbecomes apparent that there is a considerableemphasis on increasing self-knowledge andpersonal awareness. The young professionalsare encouraged, for example, to understand theeffects of their own behaviour in interaction withother people; the advanced managers must gain

insight into their own preferred managementstyles and acquire the ability to adapt behaviouralstyle.

These programmes run for between 12 to 18months and are usually held once or twice a year.Since 2005, there have been 18 programmes, halfof them for young professionals.

All-round vision

Learning interventions common to all threeprogrammes include a 360-degree form. Thisstarts with participants gathering information,

through a form, about the way they behaveat work. Colleagues, line managers and

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Significantly for Pon, former participants are happy to promote the programme to theircolleagues, indicating the highvalue they place on the processthey have been through

18Since 2005, there

have been 18

programmes, half

of them for young

professionals



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subordinates will all complete this form, aswell as the subjects themselves. This processis tackled again at the end of the programmeto provide insights into the journey that thelearner has made.

Three-way discussions, between the participant,direct line manager and ORMIT also take placeat both ends of the programme, serving a similarpurpose.

The programme requires close co-operationfrom all stakeholders. At the same time,everyone’s roles and responsibilities are clearlydefined. These include the need for ORMIT toengage the right coaches, integrate businessvalues into the programmes and alert the clientcompany at the appropriate moment to anyissues in the organisational context that might

affect participants’ development, eitherpositively or negatively, in the programme.

The upper echelons of Pon’s management needto buy entirely into the programmes by givingthem priority and being prepared to transferthe lessons learned into working practices.Participants, it goes without saying, must bereceptive to new ideas and be willing themselvesto put new learned theory into practice.

The MD framework’s impact was outlinedthrough a Return on Investment “methodology

model” with Return on Development measuredthroughout the various levels of the process.

Positive reactions to the programme havebeen recorded from all three different groupof participants when asked directly for theiropinions. “We became a very close-knit groupthat learned a lot together as well as fromeach other,” was a common reaction.

At higher levels, questions such as how whathas been learned can be seen visibly at workare less easy to pin down although feedbackmeetings along the way play their part in making

results explicit.


Search for leaders starts at home



Significantly for Pon, former participants arehappy to promote the programme to theircolleagues, indicating the high value theyplace on the process they have been through.One finding was that 95% of participantsbelieved themselves to have become more

self-confident, a quality that reveals itself ina greater willingness to “drive things more,and bring more to their role though theirown strength and qualities”.

The sums add up

A target impact table details the extent towhich business needs have been fulfilled.Some lend themselves to direct answers:the desire to fill 75% of managementvacancies with internal candidates withinfive years, for example, has been achieved.

The 2005 figure had been closer to 50% andthe change translates to concrete financialresults through the savings on recruitmentand selection costs. A corollary of offeringgreater career opportunities in-house is thatinvestment in development and knowledgeremains with the firm.

Elsewhere, even where things cannot bemeasured precisely there are clear indicationsof a culture change: in, for example, thegreater uniformity in deployment of anoverarching Performance Management.

The role of programmes in encouragingnetworking has been a positive factor inincreasing mutual understanding andcollaboration between departments.

Other positive outcomes include greater

employment satisfaction: Pon was a 2009and 2010 “Top Employer” according to theCRF Institute (www.crf.com). It is a vindicationof Pon’s set of strategic objectives, whichthe company refers to as its COSTA businessvalues: Commitment, Originality, Simplicity,Teamwork, Ambition. ORMIT has helped totranslate these values into new criteria foreffective management behaviour.

The report’s authors describe the Pon/ORMITcollaboration as 1 + 1 = 3. That might bring tomind the old joke about an accountant being

asked what 2 + 2 makes and replying: “Whatdo you want it to be?”

However, it is a simple acknowledgment ofthe fact that, as professional partners in MD,the two sides achieve more than they canalone, especially though an ability to respectand build on each other’s way of thinking,through using ORMIT’s theoretical know-howand Pon’s practical expertise.

18


Good managers need differentskill sets at different times in theircareer development; a managerialskill relevant in one phase might

be less important in another

95%... of programme

participants believedthemselves to have

become more

self-confident

75%...of managerial

vacancies were

filled with internalcandidates within

five years

50%in 2005 this figure

was nearer 50%





20


partnership team again working in closecollaboration.

But as global economic woes mounted in 2008and MAN subsequently engaged in majororganisational restructuring, new challenges

presented themselves. The financial crisis putgreater emphasis on value-based managementand the effective use of working capital.Organisational restructuring in turn broughtinto greater prominence the need for tighterstrategic alignment and integration. All thesechallenges needed to be – and were – addressedas the programme evolved.

Outside-In, Inside-Out

The GMP is an established part of MAN’sdevelopment portfolio, preparing participantsto become future leaders within the Group.

When the MAN-Oxford–WHU partnershiptook responsibility for the programme, it wasgiven a new focus, with the experience of theprogramme conceived as an individual journeyof transformational learning, progressing fromexternal challenges out to a personal actionagenda for the future (see Figure 1).

Outside-in

The currentsituation anddesired future

Inside-out

Impact:achievingthe Vision

Business& Society

TechnologyTrends

EconomicCrisis

MarketTrends

The programme is delivered in two modules, thefirst at Saïd Business School in Oxford drawingon an array of thought leaders to explore the “bigpicture”, internationally and strategically, thesecond at WHU in Vallendar, focusing morespecifically on issues of execution, enterprise

and value creation within MAN.

Individually centred learning has been key,right from the pre-programme stage throughcoaching during the modules, the contextualsessions intended to broaden the individualparticipant mindset, and then through inter-module team workplace projects - the resultsof which are formally presented to MAN’sManagement Board at the conclusion of thesecond module, with the best presentationsreceiving a prize.

Participants are also required to makecommitments to camera, outlining their futuregoals and the action plans needed to fulfilthese. The programme is therefore bothcompany-tailored and participant-centred.

An Upward Continuum

From the outset the MAN-Oxford-WHUprogrammes were designed to connect differentmanagement levels, with intensive commitmentand involvement of senior management and theBoard seen as fundamental.

In 2009 the partnership, on the basis of itssuccess with the GMP, was also awarded thecontract to deliver the company’s ExecutiveManagement Programme (EMP), which targetsexecutives immediately below Board level. Theprogramme provides, therefore, an avenue totake the GMP transformational initiative to theheart of the strategic conversation inside thecompany.

Again a two-module programme was devised.The first, delivered in Munich in 2009 to coincidewith the Group’s annual meeting, was entitled

“Managing the Present from the Future” andencouraged participants to strengthen their

Figure 1:

External Context

Globalisation

MeLeadership

Skills

MAN SE(Organisational context)

Objectives

Structure

Culture

Performance

Products& Services



21



Engineering the future

ability to respond adaptively to emergingchallenges.

Board members framed the debates, facultysupplied models and insights, and delegatesthen pursued key issues in team workshops –the programme concluding with workshopfindings and the agreement of action plans.The second, held in Oxford in 2010, explored

the leadership dimension of these issues andthe contribution MAN’s top executives make.

Bottom-Line Impact

The programmes have had a majortransformational impact (see Table 1). Surveys ofparticipants since the first programme in 2008have identified striking improvements in learningand behaviour. Across the range of initiallyidentified target attributes major improvementswere recorded on average in over 85% of cases.

In addition, a range of successful corporate

initiatives are being pursued, all of whichwere to a large degree catalysed by the

programme, especially the team workplaceprojects it set in motion. These developmentsinclude MAN’s CSR programme, its “GlobalFootprint” and several workplace projectssuch as its initiative to optimise the use ofworking capital.

By now 200 executives from 13 differentcountries and all business areas have

participated. Overall, the Oxford-WHUprogrammes have helped turn MAN aroundat perhaps the most difficult time in thecompany’s 250-year history, not only bindingthe organisation together more effectively ina time of turbulent change and developingnew agility in the face of economic challengebut also opening up new horizons globallyand creating leadership capabilities for thefuture.

“The Oxford-WHU programmes have given

my managers a wholly different set ofperspectives on the globalised world in which

Table 1:

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Understanding and ability tohandle issues of globalisationand international diversity

Personal leadership

Integration (cross-functionand cross-company)

Communication

Interpersonaland teammanagemnet skills

Value creationand return oninvestment

Entrepreneurship and innovation

Commitment to MAN’score corporate values

Change management

Knowledge of and alignment with overall corporate strategy



22


MAN operates,” says Joerg Schwittalla, Chief HR Officer and Boardmember.

Thomas Haneder of MAN’s corporate HQ’s strategy division, who attendedthe programmes, endorses this: “When I came to the company threeyears ago it was a completely different organisation. The programmes

and the people taking part are pushing it further. We are changing theculture of MAN.”

Launching Peer-to-Peer Coaching in MAN

One of the hardest transitions for executives to make is to go from beinga manager in a specialist area to a leader with wider responsibilities.This challenge is further exacerbated by companies that over-valueprofessional knowledge at the expense of behavioural leadershipskills. The consequence is a developmental approach biased towardsspecialism which can result in a significant gap in capability oncemanagers find themselves promoted to a leadership role.

To address this challenge the Oxford-WHU programme givesparticipants an experiential insight into coaching as a powerfulleadership style they can add to their personal tool-kit and transfermore broadly throughout the organisation.

Central to the approach is the idea of posing a set of challengingquestions in line with a straightforward framework. Their objectiveis to gain greater understanding about a given situation, to achievegreater clarity about goals and then identify and agree the actionsneeded to achieve those goals.

While this sounds easy, it is particularly challenging for specialistswho have been expected simply to give straightforward answers orfurnish informed opinions. Given the complex global market challengesfaced by MAN, it is critical that its leaders release the full capability of

their staff through harnessing their combined knowledge and creatingshared objectives. By equipping participants with this kind of a coachingapproach, the programme ensures that MAN’s leaders have the toolsto create a highly involving and strongly motivated working environment.

Throughout, intensivecommitment and involvementof senior management and the

Board was seen as a fundamentalsuccess factor



1 0 5 0Br u s s el s ,B el gi u

m

Em ail:inf o @ efm d . or g


Excellence in Practice Award 2011Partnerships in Learning & Development

23


The EFMD Excellence in Practice Award attracts case studies describing aneffective and impactful Leadership and Development (L&D) intervention.

These programmes can be deployed by an organisation either together

with their in-house L&D unit or with an external L&D provider.

Case-studies must demonstrate Operational Excellence (e.g. sustainable

partnership & effective learning environment etc.); Excellent Programme

Management (e.g. design, delivery, evaluation, selection methodology of

participants etc.); and above all Strong Business Impact (e.g. alignment with

corporate strategy, impact for company, incorporation in corporate HR

processes etc.).

The specific field of the Learning and Development intervention might be

Leadership, Professional, Talent or Organisation Development.The competition is run annually. The jury-panel is composed of representatives

from EFMD member Companies, Business Schools and Executive Development

Centers, as well as representatives from Emerald Group Publishing. The winning

cases authors are invited to present their case-study at one o f EFMD events

and the cases are profiled extensively across the EFMD network and published

by Emerald.

How to participate in this Award?

Please visit www.efmd.org/eip and find out more about the Assignment Brief,

Submission Guidelines, Selection Criteria and Frequently Asked Questions.

Deadline for submission

1 May 2011

Submission is free if at least one of the applicants is an EFMD member organisation.

Contact and further information

Florence Grégoire

[email protected]

Tel: +32.2.629.08.37

Webinars

The 5 winning cases from the 2010 Excellence in

Practice Award will be presenting their case-studies via webinars on the following dates:

25 October:Engineering the Future: A Transformational

Learning JourneyMAN SE & WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management& Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, ExecutiveEducation Centre

28 October:

Partnership in the Design, Development andDelivery of the Advanced Consulting Skills ProgramHSBC North America Learning and Development& Lake Forest Graduate School of Management

29 October:

An innovative Case of Synergistic Learning andDevelopment between Venture Capital, Start-up

and University Prism Venture Capital & KickApps Startup & BentleyUniversity

3 November:Developing Internal Consulting Capability

within the National TrustThe National Trust & Ashridge Consulting Ltd.

8 November:

Developing a sustainable supply of leadersPon Holdings B.V. & ORMIT B.V.

Feel free to join these webinars by registering onlinei f d / i

Documents

Special Supplement _ Volume 04 _ Issue 03 2010