Board Development

 

Over the last three or four years there has been a previously unprecedented upsurge in competition in almost every market. Driven by a combination of new world companies entering what were previously well understood markets and by new technology driving both new business models and access to previously unimaginable knowledge. The result for business today is dramatic.

 

The job of the board has never been more significant; the need to successfully lead an organisation through these complex times never more demanding. These leaders therefore need to be trained to a level never before imagined in order for an organisation to continue to grow profitably.

 

That is the challenge that ICDL addresses. Based on core academic principles similar to those found in a typical MBA, ICDL has crafted a Board Development Programme that delivers all of the key thinking required for success, but in a very pragmatic way. Supported, where required, by ICDL's Coaching and Consultancy offerings, this programme sets out the challenge facing leaders today and offers thinking and approaches that drive success. The programme is typically tailored to suit the organisations needs and hence the mix of the modules will vary. The following is an example of such programme.

 

This programmes comprises 6 key interventions typically spread over a 12 month period as follows:

 

The first module would run for one and a half days and is designed to set the scene for what 'good' looks like from your customer's perspective. It will offer the leadership team a chance to understand what is involved in delivering an offering to your customers in such a way that they can clearly see how working with you will enhance competitive advantage for them. This will also bring to the fore the approach and thinking that is expected when your leadership team are faced with positioning themselves to other executives within the customer.

 

The second module would be a one and a half day programme, designed to enable the leadership team to understand how to plot and track your current and potential business opportunity areas at both an account level and at a market level. The team will here be introduced to core marketing and customer strategy tools such a Ansoff and the Magic Matrix and will also be introduced to ICDL's own 'Early Warning' models which are designed to help the leadership team chart their course in such a way that your business thrives at all times. This session will also introduce to the team the elements internally that need to be constantly monitored to ensure you are continually at the forefront of business success.

 

The third module, would be a one day programme, and will take the team through ICDL's Customer Mapping Model which drives thinking about how your offerings need to be adapted to accommodate the different stages of customer decision thinking such as short, medium or long term, mapped against their objective horizon. The outcome will be a better understanding of how to track and plot the various decision stages and how the customer's decision stage affects the way your offering needs to be presented to ensure continued success.

 

The fourth module, again a one day programme, would take the leadership team through a structured process for mapping and identifying levels of informal (political) power and also determining levels of support for your own approach. This leads into a case study designed to pull all this thinking together. Following the case study there is a session looking at the tools of power (how powerful people exercise their power) and how these create decision triggers. Finally there is a section looking at the behavioural and attitudinal maps of powerful people.

 

The fifth module, again one day, would look at the mechanisms of the human brain, particularly those related to communicating and understanding. This is viewed particularly from the perspective of how and why communication fails and what can be done about it. It examines in detail the mechanisms of filtering and explains in workshop and video just how dramatic these mechanisms are in determining a successful outcome.

 

The final module would be one and a half days looking at employee engagement. This module will be very practical and engaging and will look to wrap up everything that has been completed so far into a framework that takes he impact beyond the personal into the organisation as a whole.