In FY08 we launched the Cisco Center for Collaborative Leadership, the company’s process for transforming leaders who will transform Cisco. The Center for Collaborative Leadership focuses on three principles of executive talent management: talent strategy and planning, executive assessment and development, and organizational transformation. During FY08, Cisco engaged more than 100 senior executives in customized executive assessment and robust development planning.
Executive Action Learning Forum
The Executive Action Learning Forum is an effective development process that strengthens the abilities of our most senior executives to create strategic and accelerated competitive advantage for Cisco. The 14-week process aligns vice presidents with Cisco’s strategic priorities, concentrating on breakthrough business strategies and transformative leadership traits. Executives collaborate intensely in action teams focused on anticipating and shaping market transitions and disruptions, creating conditions for the successful execution of our strategies, and modeling the values and behaviors necessary to lead the next wave of innovation.
Action Learning Forum
This year more than 250 executives attended the Action Learning Forum (ALF), Cisco’s signature executive development program for high-potential directors. ALF combines executive learning with real-time business problem solving. Working in teams, executives come together for 16 weeks to develop strategies for new products, markets, and technologies, some of which result in new Cisco business units. The program emphasizes an action-learning approach in which participants develop financial models and go-to-market strategies for various business ideas in support of our emerging technologies group, with the aim of creating Cisco’ next $1 billion business unit.
ALFs are designed to develop the leadership skills needed to operate in a highly matrixed, collaborative, and ever-changing global environment. ALF participants go on to lead significant business initiatives, boards and councils, and key functions for Cisco. ALF was recognized in April 2008 by the International Quality and Productivity Center, earning its Talent Management Best in Class (TAMBIC) award for “Most Innovative Talent Management Initiative.”
ALF: Developing Leaders, Incubating Ideas
Cisco Action Learning Forums offer a combination of learning and brainstorming activities that sharpen leadership skills and also spawn new business initiatives. Teams of high-potential Cisco employees from a variety of regions and functional areas compete to come up with the best ideas. Rather than expending energy on artificial case studies, ALF teams work on real-life scenarios and business plans that the company can use to bring innovations to market. The teams spend part of the time on site and part of it collaborating virtually from their local office locations.
Dirk Schlesinger, global lead for manufacturing and managing director of the Asia-Pacific region in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions group, has attended ALFs as a participant and, most recently, as a subject matter expert. He helped develop the business case for a Cisco Smart Grid initiative that would use network technology to make electrical transmission systems more efficient, reliable, and responsive to environmental concerns.
“Part of our Smart Grid business case came from my experience as Cisco Global Manufacturing Lead and from a previous job at Boston Consulting Group,” Schlesinger says. “We also built on suggestions derived from Cisco’s I-Prize innovation competition. The case examined a number of issues. Why should Cisco do this? What is the benefit to customers? What is the financial model? How do we go to market, on our own or with strategic partners? Who are our potential competitors and how do we differentiate our solution? ALF is a training forum that creates real business value for Cisco because the work goes directly to an executive board to be considered for implementation.”
The Smart Grid idea incubated this year at ALF was well-received by the board. It has been named one of the 24 companywide initiatives that Cisco will pursue in FY09.
