Developing Global Leaders the Satyam Way

Senior vice President of the Satyam School of Leadership Ed Cohen
CUX Interview from February, 2007
Downloadable article produced by ASTD January 2007

“Satyam has set for itself as its primary objective the task of growing leaders faster than the competition.” – Ramalinga Raju, Founder and Chairman

With nearly 30,000 associates, India-based IT company Satyam has a firm commitment to retaining and developing entrepreneurial innovation. This focus goes well beyond the secondary interest in leadership initiatives found in many organizations, and is evident in Satyam’s investment in their School of Leadership.

Key points covered in the interview: Description of the 1 year immersion process for new leaders The mini-MBA program The strategy for leadership succession plans The successful leadership trait of adapting to an environment to manage personal and cultural differences rather than imposing their own "leadership style"

As a part of Satyam’s goal to strengthen the leadership pipeline and hone their focus on the achievement of their three-to-five-year mission, they created a proprietary full lifecycle leadership model. This model makes entrepreneurial leadership opportunities available to top performers in certain areas such as customer and alliance relationships, service offerings, projects and processes. The objective is to produce leaders who are highly responsive, consistent in decision-making, action oriented and successful in collaborative settings.

This program includes a 22 week program with a one-year immersion process incorporating mentoring, coaching and active monitoring of progress; and can lead to a certificate in Global Leadership. The School of Leadership is based on a delivering a succinct group of business-focused results for Satyam:

• Build management skills
• Expand global business knowledge
• Enhance strategic relationships
• Executive presence
• Innovative problem solving

Some internal measures of performance utilized by the school include:

Satyam also invests resources in measuring the awareness, adoption, penetration and impact levels of learning opportunities. One example of this process is the goal to measure the successful delivery of 80 percent of all learning through channels other than classroom environments. Some alternatives include action learning, job rotations, self-study and coaching.

When reading the full article and watching the interview consider the following questions:

1. How long is your immersion process for new leaders? What specific actions are taken to assure their success and continued growth? Is that adequate?
2. In your leadership pipeline, how many leaders have been identified for potential promotion to each position? (Satyum requires 3)
3. How adaptable are you as a leader in terms of your willingness to learn, and in terms of your approach to managing personal and cultural differences?

To learn more about the Satyam leadership development program, download the complete article.