Recent Articles and Case Studies
Current articles and case studies are listed on this page. We also have comprehensive archives of articles and case studies.
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Warwick Business School has worled with international financial servcies firm UBS for some years and knows them well. Their program for high-potentials is centred around a pre-program questionnaire that identifies the participants own needs and concerns so that the content can be tailored to meet their requirements as well as that of the organisations as a larger client.
Author: Roderick Millar, Editor IEDP and Nick Barclay, Client Director, Executiv Education, Warwick Business School
First Published: February 2011
Prof Richard Arvey has researched the role of biological factors in determining leadership skills and here explains how his team has studied twins in determining how much impact genes have in leadership success. The nature vs nurture argument is beginning to be answered empirically.
Author: Prof Richard D Arvey, Head of the School of Management at NUS.
First Published: December 2010
Leadership During Turbulent Times: Survey Results and Best Practice
The author has conducted extensive research across organisations in crisis and observed that leaders frequently adopted practises that enabled them to survive the crisis but also built into them short-term results-oriented approaches that involved cutting back on the more interesting and challenging work of their employees.
Author: Dr William Collins, Rotterdam School of Management
First Published: December 2010
Leadership, Authorship and Power of Persuasion
If you can’t persuade, you can’t lead. So, just how persuasive are you? This article looks at some of the practices that will allow managers to become better through increasing their powers of persuasion using improved communication - particularly the idea of being "authors of thier own story".
Authors: Tim Coburn, Flourish Ltd
First Published: November 2010
Exceeding Expectations: the principles of outstanding leadership
The Work Foundation has conducted a rare empirical research study to identify what distinguishes great leaders from good leaders - and identifies the critical attributes that great leaders require. The study was achieved through 262 in-depth interviews with senior executives across six leadng UK organisations: BAE Systems, EDF Energy, Guardian Media Group, Serco, Tesco and Unilever.
Authors: Penny Tamkin, Gemma Pearson, Wendy Hirsh and Susannah Constable - The Work Foundation
First Published: January 2010
Further Reading: The Full Report
Seven Beacons of Light: Leadership in the Next Few Years.
Tim Coburn who has led Leadership Development activities at the BBC, Motorola and Rolls-Royce as well at Kenya Airlines recently has a profound practitioners understanding of the challenges experienced in leading real organisations as well as many years of analysing the theoretical approaches from around the world. In this thought paper he examines what attributes will be required to lead in the coming years and identifies the key elements as his Seven Beacons of Light.
Author: Tim Coburn, Director, Flourish
First Published: June 2010
RESEARCH REPORT: Corporate Learning Priorities
Henley Business School conducted some research in November 2009 across 119 large organisations senior executives and L&D managers to identify their priorities for learning in the coming year. This short report provides an analysis of the repsonses.
Authors: Linda Irwin, Executive Director Corporate Development, Henley Business School
First Published: April 2010
CASE STUDY: Engineering the Future: A Transformational Learning Journey
The winning entry for the 2010 EFMD Excellence in Executive Development Award, this case study follows the needs of giant German auto engineering firm MAN was to trigger a culture change that enabled it to successfully globalise its strategy, operations and structure to compete efficiently as a global organisation.
Authors: Steve Ludlow, Gerd Islei and Minna Helenius-Brown: Said Business School, University of Oxford
Lutz Kaufmann, Bernadette Conraths and Janine Kleidorfer: WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management
Jorg Schwittala, Tatjana Thiel, Yvonne Benkert and Diane Calcutt: MAN SE
First Published: May 2010
CASE STUDY: Developing Internal Consulting Capability within The National Trust
The 2010 winner of the EFMD Excellence in Organisational Development award. This case study follows the work done by Ashridge management school in the UK and the leading UK conservation charity in developing functional advisers for its frontline managers as internal consultants. Ashridge's particular strengths as both consultants and executive developers with a strong HR skillset enabled the client to benefit quickly from the engagement.
Authors: Billy Desmond, Ashridge Consulting and Paul Boniface, The National Trust
First Published: May 2010
CASE STUDY: Design, Development and Delivery of Advanced Consulting Skills Program
The 2010 winner of the EFMD Excellence in Professional Development Award. This case study explains the challenge faced by HSBC North America's Technology Services unit in developing consultancy skills in its senior IT executives and how, in collaboration with Lake Forest Graduate School of Management a program was successfully designed, developed and delivered to address this issue.
Authors: Howard Prager, Director, Corporate Education, Lake Forest GSM and Scott Farley, VP Learning Specialist, HSBC North America
First Published: May 2010
CASE STUDY: Developing A Sustainable Supply of Leaders
The 2010 winner of the EFMD Excellence in Talent Development Award. The Dutch auto industry supplier Pon Holdings was looking for a solid leadership pipeline to take the company, its 10,000 employees across 12 countries into the next decade. Ormit Management Services consultancy created a program to develop this talent pipeline.
Authors: Marcella Slechtenhorst, Pon Holdings BV and Cindy Bucher, ORMIT B.V.
First Published: May 2010
CASE STUDY: Synergistic Learning and Development between Venture Capital, Startup and University
The 2010 winner of the EFMD Special Cases Award. How a cash-challenged start-up combined with its venture capital backers and a leading business school to solve its market research gaps. An intelligent solution to an enduring problem creates a win-win-win result.
Authors: Woody Benson, Prism Venture Capital, Alex Blum, KickApps and Pierre Berthon, Bentley University
First Published: May 2010
CASE STUDY: Abu Dhabi’s leading civil servants join Said Business School’s development programme for transformational change.
The Executive Education team of Said Business School at the University of Oxford is working with the government of Abu Dhabi to deliver a development programme for more than 200 of its leading civil servants. The programme has been created to support the government’s Policy Agenda, a major transformation project initiated by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, setting out the Emirate’s vision of the future.
Authors: Steve Ludlow: Said Business School, University of Oxford.
First Published: January 2010
CASE STUDY: Engaging with the Future, 21st Century Challenges
Alan Clark, the European MD of international brewing giant SABMiller, set out to create a revolutionary development programme for his top team. Not your usual practically-oriented business school programme but something visionary and inspiring – “a programme that reached out into the future”. Clark explains his reasoning: “For executives at this level a much broader view is needed of the way the world could unfold and the implications for our organisation. I wanted a long-term look into the future so it would not hit us as a surprise.”
Authors: Steve Ludlow: Said Business School, University of Oxford.
First Published: January 2010
CASE STUDY: Changing Culture at Standard Chartered Bank
How to capitalise on an institution’s heritage while evolving into an agile modern organisation? Today’s volatile and complex global environment demands new leadership capabilities – the ability to manage conflicting demands under conditions of extreme ambiguity, to weld together a coherent and focused international organisation whilst respecting regional diversity, and to motivate staff unmoved by older hierarchical approaches. Facing these challenges was Standard Chartered Bank, a large and long-established international bank specialising in developing markets with a strong multicultural tradition that employs over 30,000 people in 615 offices across 57 countries.
Authors: Steve Ludlow: Said Business School, University of Oxford.
First Published: January 2010
Sparks Will Fly
Julian Birkinshaw of London Business School and Peter Robbins former head of GlaxoSmithKline's Sparks Network present an article on how this project to foster greater innovation and growth in a major division of GSK's global business was born and flourished.
Authors: Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategic and International management at London Business School, and Peter Robbins, former head of GlaxoSmithKline's Spark Network.
First Published: April 2010 in London Business School's newsletter.
The Paradox of Developing Leaders
Steve Mostyn writes openly about the responsibilities and concerns he bore as Head of Executive Development at the crisis riven financial institution - Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Explaining the thinking behind RBS's development approach and drawing on the experiences and methodologies of leading academics and thought leaders this is an informative and honest insight on a complex role.
Author: Steve Mostyn
First Published: in The 2010 Pfeiffer Annual: Leadership Development Posted with permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. Jan 2010
Leadership Development - From an Organisational Perspective
Why are so many MDs and CEOs dissatisfied with the quality of leadership development within their organisations? The authors interviewed more than twenty senior HR professionals from both the public and private sectors, including FTSE 100, and FORTUNE 100 companies to examine their approach to leadership development. The results provided some illuminating insights...
Authors: Gordon Wattand Dr Chris Smewing, Associates, Adair Leadership Development
First Published: February 2010
2009 Articles and Case Studies
Leading executive development and research institute the Center for Creative Leadership concluded a two year survey in the summer of 2009 of over 2200 "leaders" from 15 organisations across the globe to gauge whether they believed their organization had sufficient leadership skills in the pipeline and for the future. The answer was essentially "no". Read the paper here.
Author: Jean B Leslie, Center for Creative Leadership
First Published: June 2009
Kellogg Focuses on Executive Programs "Befores and Afters"
There is a growing realisation that executive programs while often seen as events should really be seen as on-going processes, with the work starting some time before the participants arrive and continuing long after they return to their normal jobs.
Author: Prof Steven Burnett, Associate Dean of Executive Education at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
First Published: June 2009
Entrepreneurship and education are two such extraordinary opportunities that need to be leveraged and interconnected if we are to develop the human capital required for building the societies of the future. Entrepreneurship is the engine fuelling innovation, employment generation and economic growth. Only by creating an environment where entrepreneurship can prosper and where entrepreneurs can try new ideas and empower others can we ensure that many of the world’s issues will not go unaddressed. This report investigates how this can best be achieved.
Authors: Christine Volkmann, Bergische Universität Wuppertal; Karen E. Wilson, GV Partners; Steve Mariotti & Daniel Rabuzzi, NFTE; Shailendra Vyakarnam, University of Cambridge; Ana Sepulveda, World Economic Forum
First Published: April 2009
The Novations 2009 Talent Development Issues study was designed to measure the current state of the Training & Development industry. The report features valuable insights, into employee contribution and the availability of “talent”; how macro-factors such as the economy and generational issues are affecting T&D; T&D priorities by both focus area (leadership development, executive coaching, etc.) and delivery method (instructor-led, e-learning, etc.) .
Author: Novations
First Published: April 2009
Executive Education in a Turbulent Economy
With nearly all sectors of the global economy now experiencing cutbacks and restricted cashflow training and development has often been the easy choice for department heads to cut back on. Stephen Burnett, Assistant Dean of Executive Education at Kellogg School of Management here gives his reasoned response at to why it may be the easy choice but it is not the right one.
Author: A Conversation with Prof Stephen Burnett, Associate Dean of Executive Education at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
First Published: March 2009
Management Education has evolved hugely since it first became a recognised discipline in the late nineteenth century. In the last three decades that development has become all the more dramatic - and its importance as a discipline much more wide-reaching. Here Alan Middleton, Director of the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC), at York University, Toronto examines the evolution and suggests some changes that may be coming.
Author: Alan Middleton, Executive Director, Schulich Executive Education Centre, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada.
First Published: April 2008
IEDP.info has joined the Global Marketing Network an initiative that has been created to promote the development of marketers' careers through, amongst other things, a structured and accredited CPD framework. Here GMN's Chief Executive, Darrell Kofkin, explains why marketers are in need of such a process for the benefit of the marketing industry, its perception from the outside and for the individual marketers themselves.
Author: Darrell Kofkin, CEO, Global Marketing Network
First Published: March 2008
To help managers and academics better understand the drivers of organic growth, the Batten Institute at the Darden Graduate School of Business has undertaken the Leading Organic Growth initiative, a multiphase, in-depth qualitative field study that began over two years ago and continues to expand. Examining the intersection between leadership, entrepreneurship, and strategic thinking, this initiative aims to not only establish new theory as to what drives successful organic growth leadership but also share the practical implications for this new knowledge rapidly with managers at the front lines of companies.
Authors: Sean Carr, Director of Corporate Innovation Programs, and Corinne Pierce,The Batten Institute, Darden School of Business, University of Virgini.
First Published: March 2008
This report summarises the initial findings of CIPD research into coaching provision in UK organisations undertaken in collaboration with the Ashridge Centre for Coaching. The research was launched in April 2007 and will conclude in spring 2008 with the publication of the final ‘research into practice’ report.
Authors: Ann Knights and Alex Poppleton of Ashridge Centre for Coaching
First Published: November 2007
A question and answer session with the Director of CCL Europe, Rudi Plettinx on the increasing disconnect between senior executives and their very specialised employees. This piece provides a useful follow-on from Jacques Pezier's article below.
Author: Rudi Plettinx, Director of CCL Europe and Roderick Millar, Editor of IEDP.info
First Published: February 2008
The subprime crisis and subsequent "credit crunch" has caused havoc to financial markets across the western world. The finger of blame has been pointed at the leadership of the big banks - and at the quantitative analysts who have designed the models upon which the loans were originally made. Who are these "quants" and where do they come from? Prof Jaques Pezier of ICMA, the financial business school at the University of Reading provides some context.
Author: Dr Jacques Pézier is a Visiting Professor at the ICMA Centre, University of Reading
First Published: December 2007
Management Education in China
China's economic growth has steadied the helm of the world economy for several years. Its spectacular growth has placed increasing demands on the management of Chinese companies. HEC Paris runs an EMBA in China open to executives at SASAC the Chinese State holding company. Josh Kobb, International Programs Director at HEC Paris Executive Education takes a look at the whole Chinese exec-ed market.
Author: Josh Kobb, International Program Director, HEC Paris Executive Education
First Published: November 2007
Harvard Builds Its Global Enterprise in India
India has a growing number of home-grown business schools, the best of which are beginning to attract participants from across south Asia - however very few can compete with the academic resources and experience of the leading US schools. Now some of those schools are setting-up shop in India as well. Roderick Millar takes a look at the latest developments.
Author: Roderick Millar, Editor, IEDP.info
First Published: November 2007
Reflections on Executive Education
The executive education sector continues to develop a pace, both in terms of what executives (and their organisations) are demanding and also what providers are able to offer. This article from the prestigious IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, acknowledges the rise of non-business school participants in the sector and examines where the different types of provider might find their strengths lie in the coming years.
Authors: Prof Bettina Büchel and former IMD Research Fellow, Don Antunes
First Published: October 2007
Geneva-based biotech powerhouse Serono (now Merck Serono) has a signature dynamism and an industry reputation as a pathfinder. But leaders quickly become followers in today’s hypercompetitive market unless they continually strive to innovate and to reach higher levels of excellence.
Authors: MIT Sloan
First Published: 2007
A legend in the oil field services sector, Schlumberger has built that renown on industry-leading technology and a deep expertise that allows the company to deliver maximum value to its customers.
Authors: MIT Sloan
First Published: 2007
The reach and influence of media titan News Corporation are unprecedented and growing. With business units as diverse as 20th Century Fox, The Times, MyNetworkTV, HarperCollins Publishers, Classic FM, National Geographic Channel, Inside Out magazine, Fox Interactive Media, and MySpace, the company communicates with 70% of the world’s population on a daily basis. And while the size and variety of New Corporations’ activities create tremendous opportunities, its far-flung and wide-ranging businesses also present enormous coordination and leadership development challenges.
Authors: MIT Sloan
First Published: 2007
Think. The iconic slogan of IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr. has defined the company for nearly a century. IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, and the company holds more patents than any other technology firm. This culture of innovation inspires IBM engineers and consultants in more than 170 countries. That includes Mexico, where company leaders have collaborated with MIT Sloan on yet another information advance—an executive program not for its own employees but for its customers.
Authors: MIT Sloan
First Published: 2007
In Brazil, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) is larger than life. Launched in 1942 as a nationalized, government-controlled company, CVRD grew steadily over the last half of the 20th century to become the largest diversified mining company in the Americas with international operations and clients in more than 30 countries. During that evolution, the company made the transition from public to private ownership and diversified widely, branching out into the electric power and aluminium industries.
Authors: MIT Sloan
First Published: 2007
For the BP executives who lead major oil and gas projects all over the globe, challenges and opportunities exist on a dizzying scale. This global energy giant spends annually $15+ billion on capital projects in 19 countries. That’s more than the cost of "the Chunnel" from England to France or the 25-year price tag of Boston’s Big Dig.
Authors: MIT Sloan
First Published: 2007
CMS Legal Services, the alliance of nine European law firms, has created an inhouse academy run in collaboration with the leading international business school, IMD,in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Authors: Roderick Millar, Editor, IEDP.info
First Published: September 2007
Diverse Backgrounds and Personalities can Strengthen Groups
A summary article on the recent research by two US professors into the make-up of teams from the Stanford Knowledge resource.
Authors: Margaret Neale, John G. McCoy-Banc One Corp. Professor of Organization and Dispute Resolution, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Elizabeth Mannix, Professor of Management Johnson School, Cornell University; article by Marguerite Rigoglioso.
First Published: August 2007
Developing Yourself as a Leader - A Case Study
Rudi Plettinx continues his occasional contributions to IEDP with this piece drawn from his intimate experience of the executive education world, how it works, who it benefits andwhy it does so.
Author: Rudi Plettinx, Managing Director, Centre for Creative Leadership Europe
First Published: August 2007
