Accendo Helps Large Southeast Asian Telco to Build a Strategic Leadership Pipeline

The Challenge

Mired in the ever-evolving digital environment, the telco company had one clear objective in mind – to build a strategic leadership pipeline to drive the business further, digitise their core operations, and diversify new adjacent digital businesses.

What the telco needed were contextualised insights to better understand the types of essential leaders for different business needs in each operating company.

There were, however, several challenges that stood in the way. One of which was a rapid disruption that led to slow top-line growth. In the past, candidates were nominated and selected for the program based solely on their past and present performance without their future potential taken into consideration.

At the same time, there was also an urgency for more data-driven decisions to reduce implicit bias and justify high-stakes leadership investments.

The Solution

Accendo put together a holistic and unique approach, combining consulting and technology capabilities with rich data and assessments. Based on the telco’s succession planning framework, the candidates’ leadership capabilities were evaluated through a rigorous and robust process under multiple lenses.

The Assessments

The assessments carried out included a Face-to-Face Assessment Centre and a Virtual Assessment Centre (VAC) that used globally-benchmarked measurements and consisted of personality questionnaires, cognitive assessments, and business simulations.

The Output

The results consolidated into individual reports revealing strengths, areas for development, and other factors. The group trends for each operating company were contextualised based on the different business needs and challenges. The Talent Dashboard that was utilised during talent councils were used to compare and contrast the talents collected.

The Impact

Accendo ensured the selection process focused solely on objectivity, standardised and bias-free across all their operating companies with a data-driven and scientific decision-making approach.

The process was rolled out for three weeks at the cost of 1.2 million per person for a scalable and wider reach. The top 60% entered the program through a strong filter which saved costs by investing only in talents who deserved the spots.

Insights showed a better understanding of the talent pool which were placed into 3 tiers to show a visibility of hidden gems and shining stars. 8% of the 2018 talent pool succeeded in entering key leadership positions based on the data findings while targeted development plans were built on individual needs.

3 Weeks

Project rollout

1.2M

Per person

Top 60%

Were from a strong filter

8%

Became key leaders

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