Companies Are Still Investing in Promising Resources

Companies increasingly demand managerial education which is both versatile and tailored to their specific needs: the necessity is to homogenize skills, deepen innovation and valorize talents.
The common objective, via the personalization of content, is to give managers the right tools to deal with problematic situation, interpreting available data and information to support timely business decisions. One of the elements of tailored business education initiatives is the initial assessment conducted across the various corporate functions and continuous fine-tuning with the participants, aimed toward the facilitation of learning processes and the absorption of the models proposed. Usually, the first level of tailored business education is represented by non-specialist courses, which have the objective of creating an organizational culture oriented toward economic management. At the second level, there are educational tracks that are oriented to the various business professions and top managers. At this level, the stated objective of corporations is to develop long-term skills in managerial profiles. An indication of this development is the growing interest for Corporate Masters, the so-called Academies, i.e. long-term international programs having very ambitious objectives. These programs to develop corporate skills are usually two years in duration, and delve into interfunctional issues with tutored on-the-field projects. Corporate Masters are attraction and retention initiatives which show how, even during an economic crisis, companies are still willing to invest in their more promising human resources. An example is provided by Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA, a company which has decided to invest in customized executive education to cover the skills gap of its managers and make them more accountable with respect to economic performance. Thus, SDA Bocconi has strongly focused on the specificities of the pharma industry, by customizing issues and contents of the program accordingly.

The Chiesi experience is a case in point about the value of continuous education, which is successful when it is stimulating, diffuse, and calibrated to the needs of the people and the requirements of the industry.