ional Development
9 Employee-Resource Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Dive
Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Commitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate C
Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communicat
mmitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Glob
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 Divers
orporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational
nal Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational Development
9 Employee-Resource G
DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
9 Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Com
ional Development
9 Employee-Resource Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Dive
Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Commitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate C
Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communicat
mmitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Glob
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 Divers
orporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational
nal Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational Development
9 Employee-Resource G
DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
9 Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Com
ional Development
9 Employee-Resource Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Dive
Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Commitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate C
Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communicat
mmitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Glob
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 Divers
orporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational
nal Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational Development
9 Employee-Resource G
DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
9 Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Com
ional Development
9 Employee-Resource Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Dive
Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Commitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate C
Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communicat
mmitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Glob
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 Divers
orporate Communications
9 Supplier Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational
nal Communications
9 Work/Life Balance
9 DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
Diversity
9 Global Diversity
9 Organizational Development
9 Employee-Resource G
DiversityInc Top 50
9 Lessons Learned
9 Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Com
ional Development
9 Employee-Resource Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Dive
Best Practices
9 Metrics-Driven
9 CEO Commitment
9 Human Capital
9 Corporate C
Groups
9 Cross-Cultural Mentoring
9 Diversity Councils
9 Generational Communica
GLOVER Most critically at IBM is the focus on leadership development. We have a process that really identifies people with leadership potential from the very first
day they walk in through the door. It is built through a
managed and disciplined process of tracking them [and]
figuring out what they need for leadership development
that extends through a series of reviews that go all the
way up to the chairman of the company. Once a year, the
chairman and his direct reports sit down and look at all
the people that are running businesses and the people
that are thought to have potential to be successes at least
two levels down. The executive process will cover globally about 20,000 people. The CEO reviews somewhere
between 1,200 and 1,500 people that each of the business
units will come in and probably have some level of dialogue about. Of course, there’s a focus on the successors,
which is a much smaller number. There is a conversation
about the pipeline for leadership inside the company and
what it looks like from a diversity perspective.
Part of the way that you know your systems are
selecting the best people possible is by looking at the
diversity of the pool. If it’s not diverse, it’s a signal to
you that something is not going well in the organization
because you have to assume that the capability exists
across the entire human family and that no group has a
corner on that market. Last but not least, this is one of
the things that our board-of-directors committee pays
attention to.
LUKE VISCONTI I’ve had two conversations with
companies that rely on review boards to advance
people a significant step, and what happens often is
that because the succession planning or career talent
development isn’t paid as close attention to as possible,
you’ll end up with somebody and they’ll say, “Well,
you know her assignment in year 12–15 wasn’t as
competitive as it could have been.”
These are things that are not monitored well until
they’re in the selection board process. How does IBM
grapple with the idea that assignments are given out,
stretch assignments, the path to making those promo-
tions, getting those tickets punched to get those promo-
tions, how is it handled when people who are not white
men end up with the less-than-competitive assignments
and then it comes up before a selection board?
GLOVER IBM has one of the most disciplined systems
to think about leadership development. We have a
process we call Business
and Technical Leaders
Assessment Process; we
call it the BTL Process.
People who are not yet
executives all the way up
to every executive in the
company have to complete
an assessment process,
which is reviewed by their
managers; the catalogs
are built into a database,
which is accessible. All
executive appointments in
the company occur through
the use of that database, so
if I’m running a business in
North America and I have
an executive opening, we
have a process that we call
“the five-minute drill,” and
any executive appointment
in the organization will
TWO LESSON
The very
survival of the
enterprise
depends on our
ability to attract
better people who
are more innovative.
Ron Glover, IBM
Lessons Learned
