At UPS, the leadership and talent development function collaborates with the Enterprise Strategic Group to understand the company's long-term strategy and business objectives, and build development strategies aligned to the enterprise. The partnership allows for the proper design, creation, and implementation of formal development offerings to match the demands of an organization with dynamic and diverse training needs.
Enterprise strategy is only part of the story. "Our business is so diverse that we must first align to the corporate goals and strategy. As that strategy translates into each of the business units ... and then subsequently to their learning and development folks, they start looking at what that means to them in their business units to define training," says Anne M. Schwartz, vice president of global leadership and talent development.
These levels of strategy are cascaded using a business scorecard approach that considers a variety of factors from business unit need and delivery models, to technology platforms, and cultural differences and global economic changes. To address the complexity of the supply chains needed by modern business, UPS embraces a combined top-down and bottom-up approach to alignment with corporate goals.
The organization's Country Manager Summit initiative is an innovative example of this dual-driver approach to alignment. The president of the company's international business unit came to Schwartz and her team with a training need for country managers—a key position to implement UPS's international strategy and drive business growth. "We worked very, very closely with 40 global leaders to develop this four-day workshop for the country managers," says Schwartz.
The initiative comprised six pre-summit activities and case studies that were built around topics the international business-planning team thought paramount for country managers: strategic collaboration, market challenges, market segments, building business cases, and customer relationships. During the summit the international business-planning team facilitated the case studies. Schwartz describes the event as a "leaders as teachers" effort.
A five-round, 10-hour simulation also was created using actual UPS business data from Belgium, Canada, China, Mexico, and the Netherlands. The business-planning team was intimately involved in the design of the simulation to ensure that it behaved like the countries behaved. Using the data, summit participants completed 24 business challenges based on everyday situations faced by country managers.
The summit was "very impactful" according to Schwartz. "The whole summit itself and the simulation were developed to have the participants practice these new skills, all together, in a team environment."
The summit is indicative of UPS's broader commitment to integrated talent development. Learning and development weave continuously and seamlessly through the life cycle of UPS employees, creating a competent and high-performing workforce that drives business results.
"We have to satisfy our customers. We have to satisfy our investors," states Chief Operating Officer David Abney. "The way we do that is by investing in our people and they take care of the results."