Addressing Leadership in a Disrupted Industry

Client Profile & Challenge

ABS-CBN Corporation is the Philippines’ largest entertainment and media conglomerate in revenue, operating income, net income, assets, equity, market capitalization, and number of employees.

With a shift to digital communications, media industries worldwide faced disruption. For a broadcaster like ABS-CBN, this shift meant no longer competing just against other traditional domestic players, but with competitors around the globe and in different formats.

At the same time, ABS-CBN needed to develop a new generation of leaders who could backfill the large number of department heads who had been with the company for decades and would soon retire.

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The company’s learning and development unit, ABS-CBN Corporate University, emphasized the need for their leaders to be trained and developed to adapt to the changing times. “They must be more agile, responsive, and globally-minded to lead in this volatile space. Digital transformation is happening so fast — we cannot waste time,” said the university program head.

Solution & Results

In response to these challenges — and as part of its overall Succession and Talent Development plans — ABS-CBN adopted a framework made up of 6 key competencies and 5 objectives.

6 Program Competencies

• Leading mindfully and courageously,
• Championing people and teams,
• Demonstrating entrepreneurial judgment,
• Navigating through change,
• Driving powerful execution, and
• Showing commitment to service.

5 Program Objectives

• Shift mindset from a narrow functional focus to a big-picture, value-creating perspective;
• Strengthen the foundation of discipline, language, and core business management;
• Integrate the different components of business that will be the basis of critical thinking and sound decision making;
• Analyze major challenges of business and create long-term action plans; and
• Strengthen the ability to step back and be more reflective, discerning, and mindful as a leader.

ABS-CBN partnered with us and 2 other learning partners — the Asian Institute of Management and INSEAD — to launch the Executive Development Program (EDP) and the Management Development Program (MPD). EDP was designed for individuals in line to assume senior-level leadership roles, while MDP focused on grooming functional leaders. As of 2019, 42 ABS-CBN leaders had experienced the 2 programs.

Both programs are a year long, and kick off with training from us that includes 2 different 3-day modules focused on soft skills and leadership development. Participants experience interactive workshops, various self-assessment tools, and 1-on-1 coaching sessions. The leadership modules tee up the business modules led by the other 2 learning partners.

“We worked closely with ABS-CBN to have key leadership frameworks such as Direction – Alignment – Commitment (DAC)™, feedback, and coaching skills in both programs,” said Chris Dewar, our Director of Design, Delivery, and Coaching. “We balanced that with having enough differentiation so that the 2 programs met the specifics of each leader level. Both programs included post-program coaching sessions, which were designed to help participants apply what they learned, focusing primarily on coaching skills.”

“The CCL faculty are so effective in being learner-centered,” said the program officer with ABS-CBN University, who co-managed the program. “They are able to make the content very applicable to each participant.”

In less than 2 years, EDP and MDP are showing tangible results. ABS-CBN senior leaders use the programs as a resource for filling mission-critical roles, and 8 MDP and EDP participants have been promoted to vacant leadership positions.

The program head said employees now work more collaboratively across departments because of bonds established in the training experience. In another notable outcome, 80% of the innovative and strategic projects that were presented to ABS-CBN’s executive team were approved.

“The authentic relationships the cohort built at the outset fostered the type of collaboration necessary to create game-changing projects in the second phase of the program,” said the program head. “CCL created a safe haven for participants to open up and be vulnerable. It wasn’t just providing content, but creating an environment for participants to safely analyze themselves as leaders.”

Participants Say