IEM's and Procter \& Gamble's Different Approaches to Leadership Development Two companies that have reputations for developing their leaders are IBM and Procter 8 Gamble. IBM has been doing very innovative work in leadership development. The company uses its nonprofit work as a training ground for managers to gain leadership experience and develop their skills. For example, iem managers Work on projects in places such as Romania, Turkey, Vietnam, the Philippines, Ghana, and Tanzania. IBM sends employees to lead projects in these countries through its Corporate Service Corps. 7As a development tool, this is a four-for-one," said Allan R. Cohen, dean of the Olin Graduate School at Babson College, near Boston. "It's stretching to work in another culture, to work in a nonprofit where the measurement of accomplishment isn't clear, to take a sabbatical from your everyday routine and to leam to accomplish things when you can't just bark orders" At Procter \& Gamble, informal on-the-job training is used to develop employees, especially junior associates. People are involved in strategy discussions and recelve a great deal of practice in management by doing. This gives them more opportunities to receive feedback from senior people and to better develop their skills. In his book Playing to Win. A. G. Lafley explains how he benefited from this type of on-the-job leadership training while at Procter 8 Gamblen "My years at PEG afforded me ample opportunity to feam about business strategy and practice business leadership and manacement by doing. There, with clear accountability for strategy, operations, arid results, I learned from my mistakes, lived with my faltures, and appreciated on a daily basis my colleagues' contributions to whatever success we were able to achieve together."
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How does the IBM model help build leaders? Are there similarities to leadership development as discussed in the chapter? 2. IBM sends people "outside," whereas Procter 8 Gamble focuses its efforts "inside" the company. What are some pros and cons of eech approach? 3. Do you see either of these approaches as being better than the other when it comes to building transformational leadership behaviors? Why or why not? Hitrvard thusiness Press