New Mindset for Growth

A $35B Technology Leader
Silicon Valley, California

Challenges

The CEO and COO of a global technology leader were concerned about the “limits to growth” of the existing, very successful corporate business model. In order for the company to maintain its market position, they felt it was essential to break through the attitude of arrogance and complacency common to market leaders, and to grow the capacity of the next generation of talent to successfully lead the company into the future.

Solutions

We recommended a series of action learning executive development conferences focused on growing the business. Four hundred of the most senior executives confronted their fundamental assumptions about the future, and realized the limitations of their own thinking and actions on the company’s growth potential. Each conference session was launched with a CEO challenge and concluded with a dialogue between the CEO and participants regarding their strategic recommendations for change. A team of 15 cross-session participants was selected by their peers to consolidate recommendations and bring them to the executive staff.

Results

A high percentage of recommendations were approved and incorporated into the Corporate Strategic Plan, including:

• Revision of the company’s vision, mission, and core strategies
• Innovation within the core business
• Creation of a new division dedicated to the incubation and growth of new businesses
• Startup of an internal merger and acquisition team, and significant investment in an internal venture capital group
• New opportunities for developing executive and General Manager talent

The initiative launched a powerful executive development process for the company— using conferences for real-time talent assessment, development of strategic skills, and breaking down silos with crossorganizational collaboration. The results from these ground breaking “grow the business” conferences earned the design team the most prestigious corporate achievement award for business impact, and were showcased in Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes articles. Several program graduates who moved on to executive positions in other leading tech firms retained the consultants for similar executive development and strategic initiatives.