AGSM 2009 - Securing a steady stream of leaders for the future

Over the last few years many of Australia’s top organisations, both local and global, have forged a partnership with AGSM to provide executive programs within their organisation to ensure the development of a steady stream of executives at different stages of their career.

“What we’re providing at AGSM is a leadership pipeline,” says John Urbano, Director of AGSM’s Executive Programs, who maintains business leaders typically undergo six or seven key developmental turning points as they progress through their career. These turning points require different mindsets as well as different capabilities.

“What we’re providing at AGSM is a leadership pipeline.”

Illustration: Gregory Baldwin

“Companies are coming to us with a very clear vision of what they want to achieve and they’re seeking active and ongoing executive programs to meet their goals,” says Urbano. “They want to see a real impact on their business. We’re helping them to understand their business operations and potential by bringing together teams of executives, quite often from different parts of the organisation, and working with them on real strategies to create new intellectual capital.”“The combination of world leading management research and academic thinking from AGSM with hands-on practical application enables executives to transform themselves and make real changes within their businesses.”

A clear benefit of new action projects – which currently rollout over a 3-12 month period – is in allowing organisations to see a return on their executive programs investment. Another positive comes from the formation of cross-silo relationships as people from large organisations meet up to work together on projects and discover commonalities. “Companies are seeing phenomenal potential in having all their leaders on the same page,” insists Urbano.

There’s an element of consultancy in customised action projects, but that’s an essential ingredient. Formerly executive training was almost always defined by topic – for example, general management, negotiation skills and finance – and was based around theoretical frameworks and models. A disconnect could occur in translating the theory into practice and in recognising the scenarios once the educated executive returned to work.

Companies want to see real impacts on their business.

Illustration: Gregory Baldwin

Business Schools as Business Partners

“Executives need to be able to use the skills and knowledge acquired through executive education to immediately effect change,” says Pamela Young, a strategy and change consultant who is working with AGSM’s Executive Programs. The practical application begins at the outset with nailing down the current needs and future goals of the organisation and determining the business issues to be addressed during a custom program, then working with the executives as the program progresses.

“It takes some effort to translate a business model into practical business application,” observes Young. “We’re looking at shorter learning over longer delivery times, allowing managers to practice what they’ve learned in each session to test what works and what doesn’t work, so it clicks and they get the aha!”, she says.

“Ideally, organisations factor the development of executives into long-term business strategy,” says Young, “by looking at a three year growth plans and identifying the capabilities and knowledge required to reach their stated destination. In a partnership arrangement, we can match the business journey to the learning journey, and deliver executive development support at appropriate intervals.”

“Executives need to be able to use the skills and knowledge acquired through executive education to immediately effect change.”

Photo: Daryl Charles (John Urbano)

Consortium

A successful variation on the customised programs has been the AGSM Consortium program which combines teams of six executives from several non-competing organisations in a week-long residential program to hear international experts from Harvard Business School, INSEAD and London Business School, along with AGSM faculty, address the theme, ‘Driving Corporate Growth’. During this program teams also work on their own strategic projects, and gain insights from fellow participants into how other organisations operate.

Apart from eliminating the need for Australian executives to look offshore for the global learning experience, participants insist the resounding impact of these programs, now in their sixth year, is in the way they stimulate thinking across boundaries.

Large complex organisations such as Telstra, NAB, IAG, OneSteel and CSR regularly use these consortia to develop senior managers within their businesses and in some cases have directly attributed the promotion of executives to their transformation as a result of participating in the program.

Changing the behaviour of leaders is a constant priority in today’s business world. “People learn differently, and providing a truly transforming experience can only be done by delivering the learning in the right way and in a passionate manner,” Urbano says.

Content and conceptual thinking must be pitched at the right level. “If an executive is moving into a vice-president’s role then he or she will need material which outlines the issues that keep vice-presidents up at night so they can see how to make that shift in mindset.” There’s a need for application through simulation, using case studies or a hands-on approach, along with some cross-boundary learning through metaphorical experiences provided at AGSM by bringing in leading theatre groups or television/radio interviewers.

“A truly transforming experience can only be achieved by delivering the learning in the right way and in a passionate manner.”

“We can measure the change in a leader by interviewing their staff before and after a program, and the change can be profound. It can also be financially advantageous with staff members, who were previously contemplating moving on, choosing to stay in their existing roles after seeing the transformation in a manager.”

AGSM Executive Programs has seen a growth of 25% in the past year, directly attributable to both the strength of the business school’s brand and results of its ‘Partnership’ approach.

PHOTO: Daryl Charles (John Urbano)

A strong market continues to exist for subject-specific programs across a wide range of disciplines in the open learning environment, and the approach to these has also been refined through the tailoring of workshops to run in-house for larger organisations.

AGSM Executive Programs has seen a growth of 25% in the past year, directly attributable to both the strength of the business school’s brand and to the results of its ‘Partnership’ approach. New programs will shortly begin in Melbourne, Canberra, New Zealand and parts of Asia.