Employee Training and Development 6th Edition by Raymond Noe

Exercise 15

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a 2011 inductee into Training magazine's Top 10 Hall of Fame has been transforming its curriculum into a blended learning experience that includes formal education, informal learning, and technology-based programs. Accounting and consulting giant PwC tapped partner Tahir Ayub for a consulting gig unlike anything he had done before. His job: helping village leaders in the Namibian outback grapple with their community's growing AIDS crisis. Faced with language barriers, cultural differences, and scant access to electricity, Ayub, thirty-nine, and two colleagues had to scrap their Microsoft PowerPoint presentations in favor of a lower-tech approach: face-to-face discussion. The village chiefs learned that they needed to garner community support for programs to combat the disease, and Ayub learned an important lesson as well: Technology isn't always the answer. "You better put your beliefs and biases to one side and figure out new ways to look at things," he said.
Ayub may never encounter as extreme a cultural disconnect at PwC as he did in Namibia. But for the next generation of partners, overcoming barriers and forging a connection with clients the world over will be a crucial part of their jobs. It's those skills that PwC hopes to foster in partners who take part in the Ulysses Program, which sends top mid-career talent to the developing world for eight-week service projects. For a fairly modest investment-$15,000 per person, plus salaries-Ulysses both tests the talent and expands the worldview of the accounting firm's future leaders. While results are hard to quantify, PwC is convinced that the program works. All two dozen graduates are still working at the company. Half of them have been promoted, and most have new responsibilities. Just as important, all twenty-four people say they have a stronger commitment to PwC-in part because of the commitment the firm made to them and in part because of their new vision of the firm's values. Says global managing partner Willem Bröcker: "We get better partners from this exercise."
The Ulysses Program is PwC's answer to one of the biggest challenges confronting professional services companies: identifying and training upand-coming leaders who can find unconventional answers to intractable problems. By tradition and necessity, new PwC leaders are nurtured from within. But with thousands of partners, identifying those with the necessary business savvy and relationship-building skills isn't easy. Just as the program gives partners a new view of PwC, it also gives PwC a new view of them, particularly their ability to hold up under pressure.
For mid-career partners who were weaned on e-mail and the Blackberry, this was no walk in the park. They had become accustomed to a world of wireless phones, sleek offices, and Chinese takeout, so the rigors of the developing world came as quite a shock. One mergers and acquisitions expert from PwC's Boston office, who had never been to a developing country before his stint in Belize, where he encountered dirt-floored houses, sick children, and grinding poverty.
For more than 15 years, companies have used social-responsibility initiatives to develop leaders. But PwC takes the concept to a new level. Participants spend eight weeks in developing countries lending their business skills to local aid groups, from an ecotourism collective in Belize to small organic farmers in Zambia to AIDS groups in Namibia. Ulysses also presents participants with the challenge of collaborating across cultures with local clients, as well as with PwC colleagues from other global regions. Ayub, for example, was paired with partners from Mexico and the Netherlands. PwC also gets interns involved in poor nations to improve their leadership skills and motivate them to better serve their home communities. One intern in Belize working with the Ministry of Education helped students to understand how to budget, apply for university scholarships, and grasp the idea of college credit.
BEYOND ACCOUNTING
The PWC program gives participants a broad, international perspective that's crucial for a company that does business around the world. Ulysses helps prepare participants for challenges that go beyond the strict confines of accounting or consulting and instills values such as community involvement that are fundamental to its corporate culture.
Ulysses is also a chance for partners to learn what they can accomplish without their usual resources to lean on. The program forces them to take on projects well outside their expertise. For example, the mergers and acquisitions expert developed a business plan for an ecotourism group in Belize. The experience was an eye-opener.
PwC partners say that they've already adapted their experiences to the task of managing people and clients. A Malaysian partner says that her team noticed a shift in her managerial style after the Belize trip. She listened more and became more flexible. Ayub manages twenty partners. He says he favors face-to-face conversations over e-mail because the low-tech approach builds trust. "It made the difference in Namibia," he says.
If insights like those ripple out across the firm, Ulysses will be more than a voyage of personal discovery for a handful of partners. It could help build leaders capable of confronting the challenges of an increasingly global business. And that, says PwC, is the whole point.
Do you think the Ulysses Program contributes to PwC's business strategy and goals? Explain.