i have recently gone through the process of sourcing a potential provider of a development programme for our current and potential senior execs, however the CEO likes the proposed programme but has reservations about the potential provider as most of their work has been carried out in the public sector.
I have been asked to benchmark their proposal against some other possible providers with more credible private sector experience.
The programme has three strands: An assessment centre to identify areas for development; Action Learning sets to consolidate the development and deliver an internal improvement initiative; and one-to-one coaching for each of the candidates. The providers must be able to deliver all 3 strands.
The participants will be 8-10 existing board members or high potential senior managers and the providers must have a track record of delivering to this level.
Can anyone recommend providers they have worked with who may be able to deliver this sort of programme?
(FYI I've looked at the [to my mind] obvious biggies like Ashridge, IoD, and CIPD)
TIA
Nigel Parry-Price
7 Responses
Suggestions …
Hi Nigel, perhaps it’s time to step up a league and look at the likes of INSEAD, IMD, Cranfield and the London Business School …?
Cherry pick
I struggle with recommending a business school without knowing the topics you want to cover. Schools are only as good as their specific faculty and no school is stong in everything.
I would start by defining your area of interest and try to cherry pick the specific faculty (or indpependent experts) that are best on that subject.
Remember also that with a business school you are choosing academics over practitioners and you are also paying for a big busines school overhead.
Chosing practitioner experts can take more time – you need to screen them yourself (nowadays you can find the best ones on the web easily) but can be much more up to date, practical and cost effective than business school academics.
Recommendation
I would recommend you contact an organization called Caret who are a leadership development consultancy .
They have experience in the public private and non for profit sectors in this type of senior managers development. Their website is http://www.caret.co.uk or e:mail them at [email protected]
Provider suggestion
Hi Nigel
Personally I’d be slightly wary of working with an academic institution – they do have their place, however in your situation, I do have a personal recommendation. About a year ago I worked for a soft drinks company who chose a leadership development provider called ‘Waverley Learning’. I was very impressed with them – I think they were also mentioned in a People Management article recently. (I have no personal affiliation to them whatsoever, this is purely a personal recommendation). They worked through tonnes of quite challenging material, were very inspirational without being patronising, and followed up the development workshop with 1:1 coaching, which you mentioned as being a requirement.
I know what a nightmare sourcing appropriate providers can be, so I hope this tip helps!!
Martine Young
Snr Team
Nigel,
Have you tried your local TtG L&M Broker ? They will have details of mnay local and high quality private consultants who will creat somethign bespoke for you . Also there is currently a grant available from Government offering £1k toward this type of activity.
Have you tried Henley Management College?
Nigel,
In a previous role, I had a link to Henley Management College through their Learning Partnership which offered various top team, senior and middle management events to partnership members. Not the chepest course of action perhaps, but my senior managers always found the events they attended useful. They’ll also look at delivering some of these events solely for your organisation if there are enough attendees. If you’d like to find out more, I’m happy to discuss further so give me a ring (bus tel no. 01757 705349).
Good luck
Susan Emmerson
Learning Management Analyst
Providers
Roffey Park (James Tragar), The Oxford Group (Chris Street), European School of Management (London office) (Tore Hellabon)