Tailored Client Programs

The modules above are examples of the standard modules we have used for previous client programs. We have also delivered client specific modules to their specification. 

We prefer to run the courses off site at the Greenlands venue in Henley-on-Thames, formerly the country mansion of W.H. Smith. Situated on the banks of the River Thames, this is one of the country's leading learning venues. This environment allows delegates to focus on the course and not be distracted by day to day operations. 

For some clients, this is not practical and we have run courses for clients internationally in over 30 locations, from the USA to Singapore, from the UK to Angola.

The course can be anything from 3 days to 10 days. All delegates become members of the IT Leaders private network. They have access to electronic versions of the course materials and also to the on-line course. 

Case Studies 

The following are a selection of case studies of programs we have run for clients to give an example of how we might address your IT management and leadership development requirement. 

Large Local Government

This project took place over a period of two years. There were basically ten 8-day IT leadership sessions covering a total of 16 management and leadership modules. The course was run every two to three months and each session had between 10 and 12 middle and senior managers from the IT organization. The department had recently been reorganized to provide more focus on delivering the highest level of IT service management to its user population.

We had several discussion calls with the client to identify the key objectives of the course delivery as well as the course content and timings. For two of days, we brought in an actor to deliver a more “experiential” program. We had worked with on many occasions before and was highly experienced in taking a quiet audience and helping them to develop communication skills, not just presentation skills but also how to handle difficult situations. All the sessions were extremely well received and scored highly. A number of the managers asked to continue their development with additional coaching programs.

Europe-wide telecommunications company

This client was looking to develop essential skills to enable a team of 20 IT middle and senior managers to perform their work to the highest standards, in particular to develop ‘best-in-class’ IT innovation and leadership skills. Our proposal used a combination of individual mentoring and coaching, with three group sessions - a kick-off session, mid-point check and final wrap-up session to provide coherence, consistency and value. The coaching program was delivered by a team of 4 coaches, 3 of whom were former CIOs.

Whilst the client here was looking to develop the key leadership skills of the team, to enhance the culture of the company and retain top talent. 

The program was structured with three day-long sessions with all 20 of the managers together. The first session addressed personal (IT) leadership and leadership opportunities. The second discussed technology and innovation, and in the 3^rd session was run as a coaching workshop.

The group sessions were invaluable in providing structure to the assignment and an opportunity for the managers to get together. They also provided a structure and urgency to the assignment. The three workshops they were spaced four weeks apart and all the coaching was completed a 10 week period.

Middle East University

This next case study was for a client in the Middle East - one of the leading universities technical universities in Saudi Arabia. Because of the cultural background, the client was finding it difficult to recruit and retain technical staff in the organization.

For that reason, they had taken the decision to outsource the majority of their IT systems to the cloud and have it managed by an outsource provider. The plan was to retain the existing staff to manage the outsource (but not recruit any more). Our assignment was to develop and train the skills of 40 of their technical staff in two 5-day periods. The first week was for the middle managers and the second was for the senior managers.

Working with an audience in the Middle East requires particular expertise to ensure that the delegates are engaged and contributing. We used a combination of the core IT leadership modules and also developed additional modules covering the management of the new outsource partner.

The new modules addressed the commercial management of an IT outsource (in this case cloud-based) partner. Topics included setting up effective governance, operational management and strong commercial negotiation skills. 

Magic Circle (top London law firms) Client

There are five law firms considered to be in the “Magic Circle” in London. As it happens, four of them have sent several delegates on our residential IT Management and IT Leadership courses. One in particular has sent over 20 of its middle and senior IT managers on various of our programs over the course of 4 years. This fitted in well with their organization where they did not want to run an off-site program for all managers at the same time because of the critical nature of the work. Similarly, it provided them with flexibility to send managers on the course to better match with them taking on new responsibilities. 

e-commerce platform

This client in Asia was growing very rapidly, more than doubling every year. The key problem was that highly qualified technical experts were being asked to take on more management roles and leadership roles for which they had had no experience or training. They were struggling to delegate and the company was experiencing serious bottlenecks in software development. There was also a major organizational barrier then the organization because one software development team was based in Europe and the other in Asia. These two teams were very different from a cultural perspective and the company was being hindered significantly by the lack of communication between the two groups.

Our assignment was to deliver a 4-day program including running smaller workshops with key managers to provide coaching on some of the key issues. Coaching focus was on delegation, how to step away from a technical role and take on more leadership responsibility, strengthening the communications between the groups and how they could develop (coach) their own teams. 

International Drinks Company

This client is is one of the world’s leading drinks companies we’ll stop the CIO have attended some of our leadership programs and asked to facilitate a CIO Conference in Istanbul that brought together the heads of IT from 30 countries across Europe. We delivered course modules on IT leadership opportunities, innovation, networking and building influence. We also ran workshops on how the difference countries could work together more effectively and share knowledge. The conference lasted for three days.