0 15 30 45 60 75 90 Total Quality Management (4%) and Six Sigma (13%) were not considered by The survey results surrounding creativity respondents to be of great relevance in and innovation are surprising and the executive development space. somewhat anomalous the centrality of these particular capabilities to building The Top 5 rankings from the Australian sustainable competitive advantage in most survey are quite similar to those of the modern organisations. This is particularly US/ International survey (see Figure 1.9) true on this topic, but for the stronger for service based organisations, whose Australian emphasis on human competitive advantage in today’s complex performance management, strategy and globalising business environment execution and general management derives ostensibly from the capability and skills. Another similarity between the innovation of their people. survey results is the fact that in both surveys “Creativity As PwC note in recent report on / Innovation” (Aus. - 35%: US/Int. - global human capital trends10: 36%), customer/market “Becoming focused” (35%: 25%), and of the key drivers of innovation “One / is the development of employee’s “Entrepreneurship skills and talents. The survey shows Intrapreneurship” (17%: 9%), did not rate highly with senior HR/OD practitioners. that relative levels of spending on training are The low level of interest of Australian higher in the US than in Europe where – respondents to innovation generally is they have in fact declined year-on-year. also consistent with their attitude to Though there is no established causal link knowledge sharing and innovation within between training spend and innovation the field there is a clear and consistent relationship of executive development: in “Advances between those companies that invest executive / leadership development in in learning and development and other companies” (11%) received little competitive business results”. interest as an influence on developments in practice (for further clarification on this 83 Managing Human Performance 58 point 78 80 Leadership see Section 1). 70 67 Leading & Managing Change 70 58 Strategy Execution 57 46 General Management Skills Managing Human Performance 83 39 Leadership 78 57 Business acumen Leading & Managing Change 70 0 18 36 54 72 90 70 Strategy Execution Australian data - 2007 US/Intern. data - 2004 57 General Management Skills in executive development Figure 1.8: Australian data Hot topics emphasised –
Total Quality Management (4%) and Six Sigma (13%) were not considered by respondents to be of great relevance in the executive development space. The Top 5 rankings from the Australian survey are quite similar to those of the US/ International survey (see Figure 1.9) on this topic, but for the stronger Australian emphasis on human performance management, strategy execution and general management skills. Another similarity between the survey results is the fact that in both surveys “Creativity / Innovation” (Aus. - 35%: US/Int. - 36%), “Becoming customer/market focused” (35%: 25%), and “Entrepreneurship / Intrapreneurship” (17%: 9%), did not rate highly with senior HR/OD practitioners. The low level of interest of Australian respondents to innovation generally is also consistent with their attitude to knowledge sharing and innovation within the field of executive development: “Advances in executive / leadership development in other companies” (11%) received little interest as an influence on developments in practice (for further clarification on this point see Section 1). Managing Human Performance 83 Leadership 78 Leading & Managing Change 70 Strategy Execution 70 General Management Skills 57 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 The survey results surrounding creativity and innovation are surprising and somewhat anomalous the centrality of these particular capabilities to building sustainable competitive advantage in most modern organisations. This is particularly true for service based organisations, whose competitive advantage in today’s complex and globalising business environment derives ostensibly from the capability and innovation of their people. As PwC note in recent report on global human capital trends10: “One of the key drivers of innovation is the development of employee’s skills and talents. The survey shows that relative levels of spending on training are higher in the US than in Europe – where they have in fact declined year-on-year. Though there is no established causal link between training spend and innovation there is a clear and consistent relationship between those companies that invest in learning and development and competitive business results”. 83 Managing Human Performance 58 78 Leadership 80 70 Leading & Managing Change 67 70 Strategy Execution 58 57 General Management Skills 46 39 Business acumen 57 0 18 36 54 72 90 Australian data - 2007 US/Intern. data - 2004 Figure 1.8: Australian data – Hot topics emphasised in executive development
AusExecTrendsReport_2007_Final.docx