DESPITE stiff competition in the executivetraining industry, Singapore ManagementUniversity Executive Development’s(SMU-ExD) Steve Wyatt is undaunted.Achieving behaviour-change, he said, is thefocus of Executive Development: ‘Know – HowTo – Do’. Executive Development is an‘enabler’ of corporate success and SMU aimsto be the ‘best friend’ of business.

Explaining this point of view, he pointed tothe ‘war for talent’ that companies wage inorder to achieve their growth ambitions,developing managers at all levels with internaland external programmes. “Companiesachieve their business objectives, such asgrowth, empowering innovation, or achieving avalue-based transformation, by the executivesadopting new behaviours; thus therequirement is to stimulate and accelerateexecutive behaviour-change, not ‘education’,”said Mr Wyatt.

The Cambridge-educated formerconsultant has drawn on his extensiveexperience in Asia to define a winning formula.Programmes are described as ‘LearningJourneys’, often blending learning pathwaysand drawing on insight for ‘how executivesreally learn’. Company-specific programmesare explicitly tailored to the context, culture andchallenges that the client firm is facing;whereas ‘open enrolment’ programmes aretightly focused to be as time efficient andeffective as possible.

Apart from building competencies,Learning Journeys incorporate elements ofpersonal leadership coaching to promotegreater self-awareness, as well as support theapplication of competencies to real workplaceissues.

“When you think of the return on investmentfrom talent development, you naturally think ofthe benefits of improved performance into thefuture. While the Learning Journey addressesthe skill gaps of today, at SMU, we also equipexecutives for the challenges of tomorrow, tobe ‘Future Ready – Now’.”

Megatrends are reshaping theworkplace, particularly in AsiaSMU’s focus on Executive Developmentcomes at an exciting time for the managementeducation industry, globally and in Asia.Demand for management education is soaringdue to major undercurrents that are reshapingthe nature of work.

Firstly, the types of jobs and competenciesrequired today are evolving very quickly.According to SMU President Professor ArnoudDe Meyer, “50 per cent of jobs available today

didn’t exist as they are now 10 years ago, andmany of the jobs available in 10 years probablydo not exist now.” Organisations andexecutives need support in up-skilling andre-skilling as they cannot learn quickly enoughfrom predecessors and supervisors. Much ofthis revolution is technology driven ortechnology enabled: changing what we do, howwe do it and where we do it.

Secondly, shifting demographic patternshave forced organisations to re-look into thetraditional structure of the workforce, with thisbeing particularly true in Asia’s rapidlydeveloping economies. It is imperative thatexecutives learn how to work with and manageacross generations, how to engage andmotivate individuals with widely differentexperience, expectations and work attitudes.The complexity is often compounded in Asiawith individuals and teams working acrossborders and cultures.

Thirdly, individuals increasingly expect tohave multiple careers. People thus seek outexecutive education programmes that not justhelp prepare them for the demands of eachtransition but provide a platform where they cantap into a network of peers, alumni andauxiliary career services such as placementsupport.

Finally, one of the most frequently citedchallenges for executives in Asia is the ‘war fortalent’: finding, developing and retaining talentto achieve projected organisational growth.This has resulted in a dramatic growth in thenumber of organisations such as BNP Paribas,Sony, Samsung and Unilever establishing theirown in-house learning campuses in Singaporein the past 24 months.

“Developing internal talent ensures thatexecutives are trained in skill sets directlyrelevant to the needs of the organisation andincreasingly, the values of the firm are alsowoven into the programmes to reinforce thesense of purpose and belonging within thecadre of executives,” said Mr Wyatt.

The goal of Executive Development is todrive behaviour-changeThe tremendous growth in demand for talentdevelopment is accompanied by equallysignificant changes in the supply.

From the onset, SMU has set out to be adifferent kind of university, having established areputation for teaching excellence amongstother things. That ethos is now carried over toExecutive Development.

“The process of behavioural changerequires great content (‘Knowledge’) combinedwith experiential learning, particularly

addressing real-life and important businessissues (we call this ‘Application’), interwovenwith personal coaching, profiling assessmentand feedback (we call this ‘Empowerment’).Executives are highly time-constrained and soeach of these three components of a LearningJourney is usually designed to combine virtualas well as in-person interactions; in-personmodules are essential for interaction but areusually kept to bite-size of just a few days,”explained Mr Wyatt.

SMU-ExD was established as theuniversity’s centre of excellence to design anddeliver high-impact Learning Journeys andpartner with corporate academies. “Executivelearning is contextual, contingent oncompetitive, macro-economic/political andcultural factors, and it must also supportexecutives to address the business challengesthat they are actually facing. Many of ourprogrammes employ case studies andexperiential learning that is expressly createdfor the client. SMU produces 50 new casestudies on issues of business andmanagement in Asia each year,” said MrWyatt.

Forward-looking content is ‘King’The revolution in the nature of work is changingthe emphasis on the competencies thatexecutives require. “Our role is to equipmanagers for their role today and to be able toface the challenges of tomorrow, to be ‘FutureReady – Now’.” Mr Wyatt draws into theexecutive programmes unique insight fromseveral of SMU’s forward-looking areas ofexcellence: Managing Growth and Innovation,Cross-Border Management, Asian Mergers &Acquisitions and Post Merger Integration,Human Capital Management, Data-AnalyticsBusiness Empowerment, as well as expertisegleaned from SMU’s partnership with DHL inthe Green Transformation Lab and with TataConsultancy Services for research in intelligentcities.

“We are in a privileged position as I candraw on the nearly 400 faculty members fromacross the entire university. This provides tre-mendous breadth and depth of insight on the is-sues of business and management in Asia, anincredible fusion of East and West, researchinsight and practical experience,” enthusedMr Wyatt.

He also highlighted the need for executivesand their organisations to be orientated with astrong sense of purpose and to foster a ‘sociallicense to operate’, aspects that are essentialin a dynamic ‘VUCA’ (Volatile, Uncertain,

Complex, Ambiguous) business context.

Short, focused programmes for busyexecutives looking to up-skill or re-skillWhile Executive Development focusing onbehaviour-change is in high demand, MrWyatt said that Executive Education continuesto be highly relevant, and is being dramaticallytransformed. “Executives look for time-effi-cient solutions, this is fuelling the adoption ofon-line learning as well as the growth indemand for short, focused programmes,” hesaid.

SMU has increased its portfolio of shortprogrammes focused on particular issues,several of which are in collaboration withhighly respected partners, such as GlobalSupply Chain Management with CambridgeUniversity, Asian Infrastructure Excellencewith Singapore Economic DevelopmentBoard, Brand and Reputation Managementwith Tuck Business School, and ChangeManagement with Accenture. According to MrWyatt, these programmes provide executivesaccess to some of the outstanding contentproduced by SMU, “not diluted in generalistprogrammes but in concentrated short dosesthat busy executives can digest.”

Corporate Academies: Powered by SMUSMU has expanded the advisory andprogramme support to corporate academies,leveraging their insight in the design ofeffective Learning Journeys and theirunderstanding of the evolution of thecompetencies that executives require.

“Corporate academies are a fantasticenvironment, the future success of thecorporation depends on the talent that passesthrough those doors. For SMU, we find thatthese partnerships are really stimulating agreat exchange of perspectives and insight,leading to the creation of a series of high-impact programmes.”

It is an area that Mr Wyatt expects to growfurther as his team also now lends support tointernational programmes which are deliveredin Asia and even in Europe.

SMU’s Steve Wyatt explains why Executive Development is in high demand

Preparing executives for todayand tomorrow

This is a monthly thoughtleadership series brought toyou by the SingaporeManagement University. Nextmonth’s feature will discussbuilding up Singapore’sinvisible gold reserves: IP lawin the knowledge economy.

A Special Feature Brought to You By Singapore Management University

“When you think of thereturn on investmentfrom talentdevelopment, younaturally think of thebenefits of improvedperformance into thefuture. While theLearning Journeyaddresses the skillgaps of today, at SMU,we also equipexecutives for thechallenges oftomorrow, to be‘Future Ready – Now’.”

– Singapore ManagementUniversity Executive

Development’s (SMU-ExD)Executive Director Steve Wyatt

The Business Times, Wednesday, September 17, 2014 11