Introduction
A multi-billion-dollar enterprise involved in defense, aerospace, and other industries faced difficult market changes, which required the organization to reduce cycle times and become more flexible and collaborative.
Goal of the Relationship
The Wharton School has become a key partner for the company in implementing organizational learning and change. Under the Global Leadership Forum (GLF) Wharton is helping the enterprise to develop the next generation of high-performance leaders. Along with a global reputation for working closely on strategic leadership initiatives, Wharton also has experience managing sensitive and proprietary knowledge.
Business Issue/Challenge
The company is transforming itself into a fully globalized, networked organization in the midst of cyclical market swings and swift technological development. To do so, the organization’s leadership must devise thorough global market strategies, drive operational excellence, and transmit the corporate culture and critical areas of knowledge throughout the organization. They must also instill the right skills and competencies in the next generation of leaders to support effective succession.
The Wharton Solution
Some of Wharton’s most renowned faculty, including Harbir Singh, PhD, professor of management and acting chairperson of Wharton’s management department, and Joe Ryan, adjunct professor of management, teamed with Wharton Executive Education's client services team and a CEO-sponsored company steering committee to design an intense, two-week program for the company’s top leaders. The program includes core sessions on strategic thinking and execution, leadership development, and organizational and interpersonal dynamics.
The group focuses on one or two key challenges or "mini apps," Ryan explains. Rather than outsourcing thinking to outside consultants, the company can “insource thinking to its talented executives" by teaming up with Wharton. The CEO has required the top team to be deeply engaged in providing critiques and making recommendations. "This is not simply believing the firm's PR. It is problem solving and path-finding, and sometimes learning you are on the wrong path," Ryan notes. Participants receive immediate feedback from top leadership, creating a tight loop between ideas and action, Ryan says. "The team dialogue goes beyond 'smart talk' and requires specific follow-up."
Impact on the Company
Program discussions have led company leaders to examine opportunities for leveraging the diversity and scale of the company’s businesses as a strategic advantage, says Gwen Callas-Miller, executive director of Global Leadership Development. Recommendations become championed by leaders back in the office. Each person leaves with a 100-day leadership agenda,” Ryan notes. “The message is that you’ve just spent two weeks doing ‘mini apps,’ so if you don’t go back and present your own leadership priorities, you are shooting yourself in the foot."
The Continuing Relationship
The GLF has been part of the company’s culture since 1999, with more than 200 participants. Being chosen to attend the GLF is now viewed as an honor and a right of passage for emerging leaders. Honors have come from the outside, too. Ram Charan’s recent book, Leaders at All Levels, cites the company as an example of executive development done right. In 2007, Wharton also teamed up with the company to create a related finance program aimed at helping to develop finance officers into strong partners of the CEO, and already has included some 100 participants.
What Academic Directors Report
"It has been a very effective partnership throughout the years as we continue to move and make changes and evolve strategies," says Callas-Miller. "Wharton has been very responsive, and there is a lot of relationship building between Wharton and key executives in the company."
Participant Comments
“Best faculty that I have ever had for executive training. I have participated in executive training at Boston, Harvard, and Sloan. This was far superior.”
