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Executive Education: Corporate Open Programmes

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JtiLondon Business School

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JTI (Japan Tobacco International) is a leading international cigarette manufacturer and markets some of the most iconic brands in the tobacco business.

it was formed in 1999 when Japan tobacco inc. acquired the non-US operations of r. J. reynolds and nearly doubled in size in 2007 when it bought UK-based Gallaher. Jti employs over 27,000 people and has operations in more than 120 countries.

Since 2010, JTI has partnered with London Business School to develop the leadership skills of its global high potentials, through open programmes run at the School’s London campus.

Jti London Business SchoolJti – developing global leaders

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With a diverse employee base made up of more than 100 nationalities, the management of Jti from its international headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, is a challenging process, which requires talented and sophisticated leaders.

JTI follows the principle of hiring for attitude and training for skills. The management skills and leadership qualities of line managers at all levels is then a priority. JTI partners with London Business School (LBS) to develop its front line (managers of individual contributors) and business leaders (managers of managers).

Madan Pillutla, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and EoL Programme Director

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Jti London Business School

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the business challenge

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in selecting a training partner, Jti was keen to ensure that any development activity taking people out of the workplace would deliver real added value.

“Obviously London Business School has a name, a brand, so it was an easy choice in a way,” says Tatiana Matveeva, JTI’s Corporate Training Manager. “We identified Essentials of Leadership (EoL) and High Performance People Skills for Leaders (HPPS) as the two open programmes that were most suitable for us.”

But of course it is one thing to read the description of programmes on a piece of paper, and quite another to establish what the overall experience would be like.

“Is the School easy to reach? Will people enjoy being on the campus? What is the atmosphere like? These are the things I needed to consider and why I made sure that I visited the School. I found that it had a very nice flavour. It’s in London, it’s very vibrant and, while it is very British, the intake is very diverse and so it felt like a good match for JTI.”

Following selection, the School’s Executive Education Team delivered guidance on how JTI could identify the most suitable candidates and also ensure that the most appropriate colleagues contributed to a candidate’s 360 degree assessment.

One of Tatiana’s priorities was to satisfy herself that the programmes fitted in with JTI’s Talent Management strategy, which – simply put – is to have the right person in the right position at the right time: “Working with LBS fits with JTI’s mentality of continuous improvement and our desire to enable people to contribute their best, providing them with first-class options and various opportunities for their development.” Having chosen the most relevant courses and added them to JTI’s portfolio of learning programmes, it was up to the company’s regional HR heads to select those candidates who would stand to benefit most from undertaking them.

Andrew Pendrill is Head of HR for the Global Supply Chain. “We’re very concerned as a company to have a good process for identifying the up-and-coming talents,” he says. “And that means making sure any external training interventions fit in with their development cycle.

“It was clear to me that we had people coming through the organisation at mid-level who would definitely benefit from such programmes as EoL. For me the programme is about the core basics of leadership and it serves to give participants a jump start in mastering the fundamentals of a) managing their team, and b) becoming a good member of the management team. The latter is important because managers need to make sure their voice is heard. Basically, it’s about managing up, sideways and down.”

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Jti London Business SchoolPartnership with

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tatiana Matveeva, JTI’s Corporate Training Manager

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‘Working with LBS fits with Jti’s mentality of continuous improvement and our desire to enable people to contribute their best, providing them with first-class options and various opportunities for their development’

randall Peterson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and HPPS Programme Director

this programme explores the six demands of leadership and the skills required to lead effectively. an intensive five-day programme takes participants from the personal dimensions of their own leadership style and capability through to the organisational dimensions of leading change and shaping corporate culture.

Through 360-degree feedback, individuals explore their own ability to be an effective leader. And they learn about practical tools and strategies to help focus their energies, allowing them have to more influence in the real world.

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Essentials of Leadership Jti London Business School

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Nigel Nicholson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and HPPS Programme Director

this course is best described as a hands-on practical leadership development programme. it creates a supportive learning environment in which delegates can examine and discuss the challenges and successes they face in the day-to-day management of their staff.

The schedule ensures that individual learning needs and management challenges are recognised.

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Jti London Business SchoolHigh Performance

People Skills for Leaders

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‘the great importanceof the human side in the programme, together with the well-balanced values of the organisation and the culture, made a big difference.’

Catarina Maria MartinsPortfolio and Strategy Manager with JTI

Catarina Maria Martins, a Portfolio and Strategy Manager with Jti, undertook Essentials of Leadership in February 2011. at the time, she was Camel Brand Manager at the international level.

“I relished the chance to be immersed in a week-long experience of continuous learning and it exceeded all my expectations. The chance to put day-to-day business to one side and be taught by the best and exposed to fascinating challenges was an amazing opportunity.

I knew from the agenda that the programme ran to six o’clock in the evening and for the first time in my life I found myself wanting to stay there longer and keep absorbing and capturing all these ideas, all these experiences.

Besides the academic learning I picked up at the School, I appreciated all the evaluation. On top of the 360 degree programme, you are subject to personality tests and this enabled me to delve deeply into my strengths and weaknesses and understand what others thought of me and how important it is to take the time to stop, step back and think. Now I try to leverage all my key efforts and be myself with more skill.

I have around 50 direct contacts across the globe and my job is to ensure brand consistency across markets. This means that I need to make sure that the Product Managers in the Philippines are doing the same in terms of brand equity as their counterparts in Brazil or Japan. As a result, I deal with a wide variety of personalities and cultures and many different styles of management. LBS provided me with the best insights to deal with different types of personalities and cultures.

One of my areas for improvement was always linked to the fact that I tend to be very emotional in an organisational environment and with this programme I acknowledged this. I wasn’t expecting the importance of the human side to be taken so seriously but it was mentioned in all the models and I think I’m now reinventing myself. The great importance of the human side in the programme, together with the well-balanced values of the organisation and the culture, made a big difference.

Also in terms of convenience, being able to live at LBS, immersed in this learning-mode for 24 hours a day, surrounded by great mates from all over the world, from different industries, with very different experiences, was so stimulating. Every break, every dinner and even at football matches, we worked together. It was an opportunity to improve my leadership skills at all levels. I would really encourage people to do it here. There’s nothing negative I could tell you about it, honestly.”

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Jti London Business School

07Empowered leaders

Pavel Zharov, regional director of Jti’s it Global Service desk in St Petersburg, russia, went on the High Performance People Skills for Leaders course in 2010. His department of 45 people provides an it service for all Jti employees.

“I was familiar with London Business School and its reputation before I attended the programme, so I assumed it would be interesting and many of the things I learned did indeed turn out to be useful. But one thing in particular remains in my memory several years later. It was a lecture about giving constructive feedback to people, especially people who were not performing up to expectations.

At the time, my department was going through a restructure. We were splitting the department and putting 30 of the more experienced people into a separate entity called a Competency Centre. We had to explain to people why it was happening and address their concerns and anxieties. On the HPPS programme, when discussing change, a lot of stress was put on the need to be open and honest and keep people informed of what was happening. In times of anxiety, it’s critical to be open.

Even if you don’t know things, sometimes it’s good to say, ‘I don’t know’. It means there is less fear of the unknown and people don’t have the illusion that you are discussing things behind their backs. It makes everybody feel more secure and therefore supportive of the change.

The second thing that really helped me was the 360-degree feedback. Inside an organisation, much of the feedback you receive is from people with their own agendas. On the London Business School programme I had the opportunity to get feedback from people I’d met for the first time in my life and, for me, they sounded like more objective opinions.

Most of the things that were said were to the point and very helpful. On the one hand, people scrutinise you and identify particular issues. On the other hand, the coaches and the people around you support you in developing methods and approaches to deal with them. And so weaknesses are exposed and then you are given the tools to address them.

Since completing the programme, I feel better equipped and more able to provide value: in terms of ideas, in terms of expressing ideas and in terms of leading and managing change. When I returned to the office and went on to make further changes, I managed them completely differently. Overall, in terms of the programme, I would say my expectations were high and they were met.”

‘Since completing theprogramme, i feel bothbetter equipped and more able to provide value: interms of ideas, in terms of expressing ideas andin terms of leading and managing change. When i returned to the office and went on to make further changes, i managed them completely differently. Overall, in terms of the programme, i would say my expectations were highand they were met.’

Pavel ZharovRegional Director of JTI’s IT Global Service Desk in St Petersburg

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Empowered leaders

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‘it all feeds into the idea ofcontinuous developmentof our personnel andallows us to prepare goodsuccessors for key roles within the company.’

tatiana Matveeva, JTI’s Corporate Training Manager

the impact of London Business School’s leadership partnership with Jti is manifesting itself in the form of changed behaviours and all the anecdotal evidence points to a healthy contribution.

“It’s nothing to do with sophisticated charts or tables,” says Tatiana Matveeva. “For us, the main criterion for the programmes having an impact is when you can see people who have undertaken them changing certain behaviours. You hear them discussing what they have learned and how they are trying to apply it.

“Even if someone is identified as a high-potential manager, there can be a period when they are not aware of what their strengths are. If the experience at the School is accompanied by other elements – for example, coaching and advice from line managers – it helps people to mature and grow a little faster. The programmes also provide people with some academic insight, a bit of theory that tells the participant if he or she talks to people in a certain way the consequences are normally like this. So you have those ‘aha’ moments.”

Evidence of the programmes’ success can also be found in JTI’s system of annual performance appraisals, called Dialogue, which measures employees’ progress in terms of ‘development objectives’ and ‘observable improvement’.

Indeed, before any JTI executive takes part in a programme, they are expected to outline their development objectives in Dialogue and, once an individual has attended a course, they are expected to demonstrate observable changes/ improvements.

“Often, leadership development is offered with a challenging assignment in mind, where the theoretical knowledge can be immediately applied on the job,” says Tatiana. “And it all feeds into the idea of continuous development of our personnel and allows us to prepare good successors for key roles within the company.”

Andrew Pendrill adds: “We generally see positive impacts from the programmes. Looking at the records of people we sent on them, I can say they are all progressing well in their roles and a number of them have gone on to different roles in the organisation.”

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Jti London Business SchoolBusiness impact

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‘if i had to sum up ourrelationship with London Business School in afew words, i would say:professional, easy, flexible,tactful, smooth and, aboveall, collaborative and co-operative.’

tatiana Matveeva, JTI’s Corporate Training Manager

When it comes to Jti’s partnership with London Business School, tatiana Matveeva and her Hr colleagues are certainly voting with their feet.

They are taking up the maximum number of places any one company is permitted on the HPPS programme: four places on each of the four courses held last year.

When it comes to the EoL programme, JTI successfully lobbied to have an additional place on each of the five programmes held last year, with the result that 24 of its executives completed EoL courses.

As Tatiana says: “If I had to sum up our relationship with London Business School in a few words, I would say: professional, easy, flexible, tactful, smooth and, above all, collaborative and co-operative.”

dan Cable, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and EoL Programme Director

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Jti London Business Schoola strong and

committed partnership

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London Business School’s top-ranked Executive Education programmes offer challenging learning journeys that enable ambitious global companies and executives to have a profound impact on the way they do business.

Our learning solutions are developed in close partnership with our clients and are delivered seamlessly to a global audience, whether on our London campus or in locations around the globe.

We work with you to fully understand your business objectives and to design the solution that best delivers impact in your organisation – be it a completely customised programme, sending your people on our range of our open programmes, or a blend of both.

to learn more, please contact us by phone on +44 (0)20 7000 7390 or email us at [email protected]

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London Business SchoolRegent’s ParkLondon NW1 4SAUnited KingdomTel: +44 (0)20 7000 7000Fax: +44 (0)20 7000 7001www.london.eduA Graduate School of the University of London

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