Formicio

Client: German Financial Services Group.

Service delivered: A Learning Journey for 35 top executives.

Objective: To develop the capabilities of the top 35 executives so that they could exercise more effective leadership during the implementation of the company’s new strategy.

Rationale: The visionary CEO recognised that as the pace of change in his industry increased, he needed an extended leadership team that had the capability to lead transformational change; design and implement new business operating models; develop innovation capability; deliver superior customer service and collaborate across functional boundaries. He also recognised that a different approach was required to developing these capabilities, other than traditional training and leadership development programmes.

Approach: Formicio consultants designed and delivered a Learning Journey that included:

• Briefings on the most up-to-date and authoritative insights by acknowledged experts in their field.
• Action learning assignments where new insights and experience were applied to their specific situation.
• A study tour to North America with visits to organisations with relevant experience of the learning themes – including Royal Bank of Canada, Siemens, Goldman Sachs, University of Virginia, Google and The Future of Work (San Francisco think-tank).
• Experiential visits aimed at gaining customer experience insight – including the Apple stores in New York and San Francisco, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and visits to Limited Brand stores and a McDonald’s fast food restaurant.
• Debrief sessions to reinforce insights and learning, and to find opportunities to apply the principles they had experienced to their company context.
• A briefing by participants to the CEO and Group Board on lessons learned and how they could be applied.

Outcomes: As a result of participating in the Learning Journey the group had the capabilities needed to implement their strategy with confidence. Specifically:

• They had the insights needed to lead significant change across the company.
• The ‘bench-strength’ of the leadership team had significantly increased.
• The programme had built internal capability and reduced the Group’s dependence on external consultants.
• The CEO had a trusted, reliable and capable extended leadership team, which he regularly deployed to lead change.

Benefits: The collective experience has created a ‘community’ that continues to this day. The participants see themselves as alumni of a high value-added programme of which they are proud to have been a part. They have created a forum that meets several times a year to review strategy and constructively challenge one another in a safe environment – a body of collective leadership with shared language, common frameworks and mental models.