KBC Consultants: Leadership ROI

For many organisations, finding the right balance between training investment and leadership development can be a difficult chore. But for KBC Consultants, a global advice and software solutions provider for the oil and gas industry, the two are one in the same. David Turner, Executive Vice President of Business Development in Asia, says the niche business demands a ready and able leadership pipeline.

He says the group – with 50 employees in Asia (and around 320 worldwide) – is essentially a “people” business. And one of its biggest advantages is its dedication to having staff who can offer leadership skills to both the company itself, and its clients. “We have a company-wide philosophy of people and leadership development,” Turner says.

The company therefore places a lot of stock in both its internal and external leadership programmes. Indeed, the training matrix touches all staff at some point in their careers. “We have a company-wide mentoring programme for junior staff, and we also have a leadership development programme for more senior staff and management,” he said. Importantly, there are no exemptions at the higher points of the ladder, with everyone up to the CEO asked to continually sharpen their leadership skills.

A coach’s advice

Turner says external coaching is another important aspect of the company’s training regime. “We have a corporate leadership programme supplemented by local additional executive coaching and development,” he said. The external aspects of this include a course through the Asia Pacific Corporate Coach Institute (ACCI), based in Singapore where KBC has its regional headquarters for Asia.

Turner says this course covers the “fundamental basics” of modern leadership, including the “plan-do-review” approach and more advanced skills in project management and business communication. Half of KBC’s management and senior staff have already taken the course, with the remainder set to complete it during the first quarter of this year.

In addition, the company takes individual and small group coaching sessions, which look at skills requirements from on an individual or team basis.

Costs… and benefits

Corporate coaching isn’t necessarily cheap, but Turner says it is certainly effective. KBC has only been undertaking the full coaching programme for four years, which makes it easy to spot the positive changes that are taking place. “We spend around US$10,000 per leader per year (on average),” he says.

From that, the company has enjoyed “accelerated” profit growth, particularly in the last 24 months. “Our operating profit in the first year after rolling out the programme to all leaders was about US$1.5 million higher than the previous year,” he said. “That’s after investing about US$80,000.” He adds that the group is likely to post a record Asia profit in 2009.

Turner says he cannot contribute all of the success to the group’s training and development strategies, but he says they certainly play a role. “It’s no coincidence,” he says. “The leadership training helps in the continual development of leaders, and also creates consistent practices across the organisation. We all start to speak the same language.”

Not even the economic downturn could sway KBC’s commitment to its training programmes. “We increased the number of managers attending ACCI in 2009,” Turner said. “We exceeded our plan in Asia and produced record profit during one of the toughest years in living memory.”