Client Stories Archive

Baker Hughes: Rethinking Leadership
Baker Hughes needed employees who thought company-wide, not just about their region or division. To address this, the company launched a series of leadership development initiatives as part of its leadership development framework, starting with the top 150 leaders and cascading throughout the organization. For the top levels, it partnered with Duke Corporate Education.

Statoil: Creating a Team of Special Forces
Norwegian energy giant Statoil developed the leadership capability of its senior managers in a bid to reinvent the company and position itself as a global leader in the oil and gas sector. Dana Bernstein and Ian Turner discuss how they did it in this interview.

Novartis: Building the Female Talent Pipeline
A key component of Novartis’ strategy to develop female talent is the Executive Female Leadership Program (EFLP). It is designed to make a difference — at the individual, business and organizational level. The programme is also intended to provide an experience that impacts not just those who are part of the programme, but also their teams, their managers and the senior management of the organization. EFLP is designed to address specifically those issues that talented women may face when striving for the most senior levels of the organization. Read more in this article from Claudia Bidwell, global head of talent management, organizational development and staffing at Novartis.

Edrington: Bottling Motivational Spirit
How can a global Scotch whisky company make its guiding principle – of a great psychological work contract – operate just as well around the world as in the auld country? An international company has to find a way to motivate people of different nationalities with a wide range of drives. Edrington describes its commitment to develop employees across the world, ensuring that their work is meaningful and connects well with Edrington’s strategy.

Global Pharmaceutical: Leading in Multi-Speed Economies
To become truly “multi-speed”, a global pharmaceutical company partnered with Duke CE to create a customized learning experience for its senior global leaders. With a focus on maintaining global market leadership, leaders needed to learn how to simultaneously operate across economies of varying speeds.

BMW: Millennials Get a Foot in the Door in South Africa
The BMW Group South Africa Graduate Development Programme, which has been around since 2000, creates a pipeline of potential employees for the business over the years. To further enhance this, and to support the transition of graduates from the world of academics into the fast-paced world of work, the BMW Graduate Development Programme was restructured in 2013. This restructuring coincides with the positive reviews that the company has started to receive in graduate employment surveys such as SAGEA and Universum, flagging it as a leading graduate development programme in the automotive industry.

Sprint Leadership Summit: Painting a Road Map for the Future
Sprint brought almost 500 senior executives to Duke University this summer for its Leadership Summit. Hosted by its dynamic CEO Marcelo Claure and branded “Sprint Now by Claure,” the leadership summit was designed to align the team around Sprint’s strategy, paint a road map of where the company is headed, help them to be more effective leaders, share progress and celebrate success, said Doug Michelman, SVP of Corporate Communications in this article.

Formula for the Future – AstraZeneca’s Innovative Leadership Development Program
When AstraZeneca implemented major changes to its strategy and leadership, they recognized the need to develop directors who would be equipped to adapt and thrive in the changing healthcare environment. They partnered with Duke CE in an innovative program to prepare Research & Development leaders worldwide.

Etisalat Develops Future Leaders
To prepare selected employees from the Etisalat Group for future senior management roles, Duke CE developed a program that challenged high potentials in a mock courtroom simulation attended by its CEO, Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, and several other C-suite executives.

Accelerating Innovation: Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters wanted to equip its managers with practical tools and frameworks to stretch the way they thought about their own businesses and the company; a joint project with Duke CE developed the Accelerate program to innovate and to grow organically.

Nation Building, People Building in the UAE
The UAE has made it a priority to develop the capability and competency of leaders at all levels, while retaining the culture and national identity of the country. The government partnered with Duke CE to build the abilities and skills of Emirati nationals.

Boot Camp: Oppenheimer Funds
Oppenheimer Funds realized that it needed to differentiate itself. Leadership saw a strategic opportunity to develop and manage the firm’s talent pipeline and human capital and recruited Duke CE to design a program to help participants understand how to utilize their right brain to create an improved client experience.

Leadership 4 Growth: Enterprise Ireland
Government agency Enterprise Ireland has partnered with Duke CE to help the Irish construction industry take advantage of global opportunities.

Forward Looking Insight: IBM
When IBM brought together three global organizations – Marketing, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility – it turned to Duke CE to professionals focus on the more strategic topics required for leadership.

Preparing Leaders for the Future: Hess
Aimed at mid-level leaders responsible for the critical role of translating company strategy into the daily actions that move Hess and its people forward, the Business Essentials Program recognizes the importance of growing leaders’ capabilities so they can be more effective both now and in the future.

Can You Hear Me Now?: Verizon
With a mantra of “you touch it, you own it,” Verizon engages Duke CE to help create a leadership culture and personal accountability. The “Accelerating Growth” program is a game-changer.

You Cannot Buy Leadership Competence: Emirates Bank Group
The combination of classroom learning with action learning proved to be very powerful for this rapidly expanding Middle Eastern bank.

East to the Future: Global Professional Services Firm
Faced with both a price squeeze and a war for talent, an Indian company with global aspirations and an impressive pedigree entered a new line of business, turning to executive education to facilitate its transition.

Point of the Wedge: Professional Service Firm
If the words “high-risk, high-stress, and highly-regulated” resonate in your organization, hospitals may have something important to teach you.

Gaining Clarity Around Strategy at a Corporate University: Ingersoll Rand
“We don’t develop anything unless it has executive sponsors,” says the dean of this corporate university. The top brass helps design, assess, teach—and attend.

Think Globally, Act Globally: The Nature Conservancy
A US-based organization develops global leaders to meet a radical goal.

Work-Life Balance: Professional Services Firm 
Knowing that worthy activities such as beginning a family, caring for aging parents, and taking a leadership role in the community can derail a burgeoning career, one firm set out to give employees the tools for managing their own priorities. Turnover declined.

Compasses, Clues, and Camels: Metals & Mining Firm
When they were formed into small teams and told to find buried treasure, it didn’t occur to leaders in this global organization that sharing talent in pursuit of a complex goal might work better than competing with each other.

Developing Future Leaders: National Urban League
Duke CE partners with the National Urban League to develop affiliate CEOs and emerging leaders, as well as a leadership model and self-assessment tools.